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The Be-With Factor

Zondervan

Chapter One

If it matters, it's measured. In business, it's profit. In politics, it's votes. In sports, it's points. If you're reading this book, you're among those of us from all walks of life who care about the spiritual development of students. You might be a volunteer, a parent, a professional youth worker, or a pastor. How do you measure effectiveness in what you do with students? Is it attendance at weekly meetings? Is it the number of students in small groups? Is it how many kids go to camp? How many kids get baptized? How few students you lost over the course of the year compared to last year's attrition? Do you count letters of appreciation from students, their parents, or your senior pastor?

By those kinds of measures you might feel pretty good at the end of a ministry season. You might not. But what do you really know about your ministry if you only pay attention to easily measured externals? When you check in with your own heart at the end of the ministry season, how do you feel deep down inside about what you've accomplished - and what it took out of you to accomplish it? There may have been a huge cost to your family, or outside friendships may have suffered. Was it worth it?

the payoff

I (Bo) have been working with students in full-time ministry for over twenty years. I've taught other leaders about vision and building prevailing youth ministries, strategic planning, developing teams, organizing large events - and at one time led one of the largest student ministries in the country. Despite all the rewards that came from this, I return again and again in my mind to two questions: What really matters? Am I successful in God's sight?

Let me take you back to my early ministry years. When I first started out in youth ministry, I was twenty-seven, a new Christian, and knew very little about what I was doing. I'd been a football coach, but then God called me into full-time ministry. In my first few years of leading students, I learned so much. I learned one of the most important lessons about what really matters while sitting on a brick wall in a Burbank, California church parking lot.

Every Tuesday night we held a high school outreach event at our church. We worked hard to provide a quality program where Christian students could invite their non-Christian friends to hear the message of Christ. Several hundred high school students came for an evening of sports activities and a program that featured drama, a live band, and a message. We never knew what to expect or what God might do.

After the program was over, the leadership team - about twelve high school and college students - gathered in a certain spot in the parking lot. It wasn't a planned meeting, but we always seemed to spontaneously show up there - sitting on a low brick wall. At first there'd be a lot of people - students who came for the first time, or regulars who stopped by to say hi or to introduce a friend. At some point, all the students said good-night and I'd be standing there with just the guys I was mentoring: Coleman, Dave, Troy, Trevor, and Alex. The six of us were always the last to leave. And that's when the storytelling would begin.

There were all sorts of stories - both funny and touching. We laughed about what went wrong that night, how bad the music was, mistakes in the drama, something I said in the message that didn't make sense, or something that happened during the sports competition. Then the mood changed and the stories shifted from the activities of the evening to the people whose lives were being changed. One of my guys had been praying for months that a friend would come, and he shared how the friend finally showed up for the first time - and loved it. Some had conversations with friends about God, and right then and there God had begun to change their lives. Others had friends who showed signs of wanting to know more about God. And then there were those fantastic celebrations when we found out one of the students had prayed to receive Christ.

I remember looking at these guys, listening to their stories, and thinking, This is what I want to give my life to. This is what really matters to me. I had an incredible sense of fulfillment when I looked into the eyes of these students and saw their compassion, their commitment, and their love for God. Right there in that empty parking lot, sitting on that brick wall, God showed me what ministry was all about. That is why I worked so hard and what allowed me to get through all the other "stuff" that has to be done in youth ministry - those times were the payoff.

When we finally said good-bye and climbed into our cars to head home, I always left with an overwhelming sense of gratitude in my spirit. Although I was tired from the evening, I also had new energy and passion for ministry because I knew these guys and I believed in them. And, twenty-some years later, I still love "sitting on the brick wall," looking into the eyes of a few high school students I know and love well, seeing their passion, their desire, and their ambition to change the world.

was Jesus a success?

Imagine for a minute how we might measure the effectiveness of Jesus' ministry while he was here on earth. Granted, he drew some large crowds at the height of his popularity. But only 120 were gathered in the upper room a few weeks after his death - not the several hundreds who'd cheered his triumphal entry into Jerusalem or the thousands who'd flocked to hear him on the hillsides. Where did they all go? And what about the senior spiritual leaders of his day who almost universally opposed him, his message, and his methods? A snapshot taken just before Pentecost looks like a ministry in decline, if not dead in the water - not a movement that would shake up the world.

Despite all this apparent "failure," Jesus unblinkingly proclaimed that he'd completed what the Father sent him to do (John 17:4). So by Jesus' measure of success (whatever it was), he'd made it. He said he'd accomplished all his goals.

What explains this discrepancy? How can his ministry results seem so paltry by one set of criteria, yet he be so satisfied and at peace with his accomplishments? We believe we can find the answer by reflecting on Jesus' ministry using a different plumb line (Amos 7:7). We need to re-evaluate our definitions of success and instead take a close look at the depth of impact he made on a few key individuals.

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Jesus' impact was one of personal transformation deep within the souls of those he touched. These men and women he spent time with found their lives radically altered, even without their full understanding of how or to what extent. Yet as the months and years went by, they discovered just how deep and permanent the "Jesus impact" had been.

Let's return to the days just after Jesus' earthly ministry ended. We find Mary Magdalene, released from demonic bondage, who became the first messenger of Jesus' resurrection. And Peter, though waffling in a time of testing, came back and powerfully preached before thousands. Philip was part of a revival in Samaria soon after the resurrection and even led a visiting Ethiopian official to faith in Christ. John boldly proclaimed Jesus, suffering multiple arrests and enduring a flogging with joy. All the other original Twelve (with the exception of Judas) became fruitful servants of the new Jesus movement in the face of rejection and persecution - most paying with their lives.

Jesus was a success despite his dismal numbers, because the measurement that mattered wasn't just a short-term body count. We believe the standard by which Jesus measured his own success - and how we also ought to measure our success - was deep, lasting change in a few. As Dallas Willard has suggested, Christians must be weighed, not just counted. Jesus' public notoriety had very little to do with the more enduring effect he had on that rag-tag band of average Joes and Sallys - and the subsequent effect (through the power of the Holy Spirit) they, not the masses, had on the world. Jesus' life and teaching so altered them that they gave the rest of their natural lives to perpetuating his work. In an age like ours where it seems a large percent of churched high school students are no longer connected to any church within a few years after college, wouldn't results like those be a refreshing change?

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Be-With Factor by Bo Boshers Judson Poling Copyright © 2006 by Willow Creek Association. Excerpted by permission.
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