Drew Boswell

a place for us to share ideas, talk about life, and learn together.

"One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind"


My role in this life doesn’t seem to be one of landing on the moon, inventing the newest technology, or winning a major battle. Instead, it seems that my destiny lies in my influencing those young men who will. And that’s ok.

Tonight the Wolf den of Pack 277 had an awesome time. We are working on our “science” belt loop so we discussed the “scientific method.” All the boys were able to walk through the process, and we experimented with balsa wood air planes (the kind that you wind a rubber band on the bottom). It is so much fun to see their smiles as they discover simple scientific concepts as though they were the first people ever to think of such things. They are so full of energy and anticipation about life — it was fun just to be there with them. Each boy adds so much to our evenings. I am so proud of each and every one of them.

Isaiah 7:10-16; 9:1-21 “A Sign From God”

Travel to any major city and you will find binoculars attached to major buildings overlooking the skyline. For a fee you can see the beauty of the landscape and take in the breathtaking scenery.  But you just about always have to adjust the focus in order to see anything clearly. The book of Isaiah shows us how to turn our lives so that it comes into focus with God’s plan.  He paid the price so that we can see it, but we have control over how in focus it is.   Join us as we discover the wonder of this prophetic book and how you can get your life back into focus.

A New Strategy For Students


A strategy is a plan of action with an end in mind (Reggie Joiner. Think Orange (Colorado Springs, Colorado; David C. Cook, 2009) 113). So if you set out toward a particular objective, you anticipate an end result. In youth ministry for many years the long term end in mind were youth who graduated from High School and entered independence with a solid Christian belief and a lifestyle that reflected those Christian beliefs. But over the past 10 years through various studies and analysis, we have discovered that this desired end result is not taking place.

Typically, churches would hire a staff person who would tirelessly strive to impact young people for Christ only to discover later that most of their effort and work did not achieve the desired end. (George Barna and others have given percentages as high as 70% of young people graduating student ministries leave the church and their Christian beliefs with it.)

I have had a facebook account for some time now. More times than not, I am grieved to see so many young people who I have worked with over the years proudly displaying pictures of activities that clearly go against Christian principles and obvious biblical mandates for behavior.

So what do we do about this? For Daybreak Community Church we are going to change the strategy. Instead of allowing parents to drop off their children to the care of a “hired professional” we are going to attempt to equip the parents for ministering to the youth. We will enter into a relationship where we partner with them, but never allowing them to give the church the responsibility of discipleship. We will keep pushing it back to them, where biblically it belongs (see Deuteronomy 6). The church is not to be the primary place of biblical instruction, it is the home.

This is a new way of thinking and even how we structure student ministry has to change – no more “drop and roll” but parents are encouraged to be apart of all the activities that we do as a ministry. The church’s goal is not just to partner with, and equip, but also to provide resources and ideas for this journey. In the life of a young person they may have several churches that they are apart of, but their parents will always be their parents.

We have three main events for students at Daybreak:
1) Family Group – this is where we have the entire family sit down and discuss various topics (crisis, beliefs, death, etc.) and the family goes through planned activities to get them talking about these specific topics.

2) Small Group – (i.e. Sunday School) this is where the students gather and decide for
themselves what they believe regarding the theme for the month, and they are able talk with their peers about the topic. Parents go to the worship service during this time.

3) Large Group – we invite other churches to join us for a time of worship, a
message (sermon), games, and snacks. The students are able to interact with other Christian young people and discuss the theme for the month. Parents are encouraged to stay and we have activities planned for them as well.

The Urgency of Christian Education and Children

If the church and home have the mandate from God to pass on scriptural concepts from generation to generation, which age group or generation should receive the most emphasis? Churches who feel that evangelism is important have to choose and target who they will reach through their evangelistic efforts, allocate budgetary funds, and have appropriate training. Considering these things, a church therefore, will develop a strategy. This strategy can be as informal as following up with guests, putting an ad in the paper, or as formal as hiring a consultant to develop a multi-point plan to reach their community for Christ. Whatever this strategy may be, it more than likely will be aimed at a specific group of people. Barna has shown that children are more likely than any other group to receive the gospel. When defining his research in his book Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions, George Barna said,

Why focus on this particular slice of the youth market? Because if you want to shape a person’s life—whether you are most concerned about his or her moral, spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, or economic—development it is during these crucial eight years that lifelong habits, values, beliefs and attitudes are formed.[1]

The eight years that he references are five to twelve years of age. Barna’s conclusion through his study of statistics shows that individuals are most influenced by the culture, various environmental settings, and the home during this early eight year span of life. Barna goes on to say, “Given the trends indicating that your spiritual condition by the age of 13 is a strong indicator of your spiritual profile as an adult, it seems clear that a deep and robust spiritual life demands intentional and strategic spiritual maturing during the early childhood and adolescent years.”[2] After the age of thirteen the malleability of a child’s heart greatly begins to wean, and influence becomes much more difficult. By the age of nine children have their “spiritual moorings” well in place and are making moral decisions based on this set of beliefs that are established in their lives.[3]

It is imperative then that the church do all that it can to influence children who are the most easily influenced with the book that has influenced more people than any other, the Bible. Doug Fields tells a story of when he was reunited with a former youth ministry student. After giving some background Fields says, “He had graduated not only from our youth ministry, but he also had graduated from his faith. None of our leaders would have ever guessed that Jake would wander from his faith; he had been a consistent participant for four years.”[4] What should the strategy of the local church be to avoid missing generation after generation of children who pass through this most influential span of time? I’ll follow up with the answer to this question in the next article.

[1] George Barna, Transforming Children Into Spiritual Champions (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2003), 18.

[2] Ibid., 41.

[3] Ibid., 47.

[4] Doug Fields, Purpose Driven Youth Ministry (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 156.

The Three Components of Learning (Part Three; Evaluation)

The Three Components of Learning

Part Three

Evaluation

Proverbs 27:23 says, “Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds” (NIV). The educational ministry of the church must have a master plan, which has clearly defined objectives. Those objectives can then be used to measure effectiveness. For the teacher each lesson should have clear objectives that are outlined for the student to learn. This is the first and most important way of evaluating teaching effectiveness. A simple way of establishing teaching effectiveness is simply to ask the students what they learned and how they plan to apply this knowledge to their lives. Another evaluation tool is to gather the leadership over a specific section of education and ask them the effectiveness of the teaching in their areas. Perhaps the greatest weakness of most Christian educational departments within the church is that they operate on a week-to-week basis with regard to the teaching. Many times the teacher will look at this comings Sunday’s lesson during the week but look no further. They lack written objectives or goals in which to evaluate if the students are learning. This becomes an even greater problem if teachers rotate as part of a teaching team. In this situation, one teacher may not even know what was taught the week before her lesson, or what the next week’s lesson will cover.

Now that the lesson has been taught, is the work of the teacher over? No. Gregory says in his “Law of review and application,” that the chief aim of the teacher at this point is “to perfect knowledge, to confirm knowledge, and to render this knowledge ready and useful.”[1] The material that has been taught, in order for it to have the most impact, must be reviewed. Review, however, is more than repetition; it is guiding the student back through the thought process that was taken earlier. Even in these times of review new thoughts may be discussed, or new questions may arise. This is especially true of a study of Scripture. Learning theory demonstrates that persons can only recall Bible facts, ideas, and concepts when they understand what is being taught and when the facts, ideas, and concepts are systematically reviewed.[2] It, therefore, is only as the teacher goes back and reviews previous lessons that Bible information is retained. When a lesson is reviewed it is like stacking information. However, in order for the teacher to know what to review, he has to know the big picture is. This explains the importance of master planning.

It has been said that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” But this can also apply to an unexamined ministry. A teacher could go years, if not his whole teaching ministry, making little impact for God’s kingdom. If he had only periodically evaluated how effective he had been, it could have been radically different. Hendricks says that “experience does not necessarily make you better; in fact it tends to make you worse, unless it’s evaluated experiences.”[3] The teacher has to evaluate periodically the methods he is using to determine if they are effective. Oftentimes one does not evaluate because one is afraid of what one might discover. The teacher may have to change what he has always done in the classroom. He may have to try new things that may be risky or make him feel uncomfortable.

The final step in the teaching process is for the student to teach others. Paul explains it this way, “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others” (2 Tim 2:2 NIV). Eldridge explains that having the student become the teacher accomplishes three things. First, the teaching is reinforced in the life of the original student. He says, “Expressing an idea in a way that others can understand increases the teacher’s comprehension.”[4] Second, when the original student teaches material to a third person, it helps to make concrete the original student’s beliefs. When the teacher has to defend his teaching and knows that he may be questioned as to how he knows what he is teaching is true, he is encouraged to dig deeper himself. Third, having a student become a teacher, the original teacher’s ministry is multiplied (2 Tim 4:12). Jesus did this when He sent the disciples off to share the gospel (Matt 6:7–13). Luke 6:40 says, “. . . everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher” (NIV). The teacher has to constantly be aware that his students (if he is effective) will be like him. In order for this model to be effective, the teacher must be like Christ. While no one is worthy to be a teacher of Scripture, one must make sure that he is doing all that he can to live up to this awesome responsibility and calling. Jesus sets the example, and is the watermark for the Christian educator to follow. Teachers should “press on” to become transformational teachers.

[1] Gregory, The Seven Laws of Teaching, 116.

[2] Dale, Changing Lives or Spinning Wheels, 29.

[3] Hendricks, Teaching to Change Lives, 33.

[4] Eldridge, The Teaching Ministry of the Church, 83.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith." Ephesians 2:8

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