Sermon Tone Analysis

Hey You!

Hey You!

We're talking 144 million greeting cards being exchanged industry-wide.

Both men and women prefer to receive chocolate over flowers, according to the National Confectioners Association.

The survey also found that chocolate sales represent 75% or more of Valentine's Day candy purchases.

And the most popular chocolate in the box is caramel filled.

It was expected that at least 19 billion would be spent on the day this year.

Yet even with its popularity, its might surprise you that 3 in 10 people choose not to bother with the hoopla.

Congratulations to those of you who are married.

It looks like you survived valentines and managed to stay out of the dog house!! Regardless of how you participate or don’t participate in the yearly celebration, it should always bring to mind that Valentines should be a highlight of what has been happening all year long.

That we go out of our way to show the ones we love how special they are to us!

That we hold them as high priority in our lives.

They are more than lip service, rhetoric, or flowers and chocolate once a year.

Sweet Words and unexpected acts of kindness and loving behaviors are essential to warm and lasting relationships.

When we love someone, we prioritize them everywhere in our lives.

Not only on one special day a year.

To prioritize them everywhere, means Our lives center around them.

Decisions about schedules, expenditures, travel, longterm and life goals, wardrobe, food, lifestyle, health, vehicle purchases, insurance policies, are all based on the effect to those who have highest priority in our lives.

When the kids are young and small, you choose vehicles with excellent options for car seats and space for all your gear.

The minivan and SUV comes to mind.

When planning the budget, we look not only at home maintenance, but also save room for quality family time to travel away together vacation to reconnect while disconnecting from busy schedules.

For others it may be looking for ways to care for aging parents or assisting with the care of nieces and nephews.

And to some it might be that a disenfranchised segment of the population is of highest priority and they receive a priority amount of financial aid, and/or time spent in support.

Our priorities say a lot about us.

What we do with out time, where we spend our money says a lot about our priorities.

The same holds true for the church.

Where do our priorities lie?

What comes second place to Jesus?

Today’s core commitment.

Six Core Commitments to Thrive and Grow Young (General): Leadership, Empathy, Discipleship/Evangelism, Community, Priorities, Neighbors

Core Commitment: Prioritize Young People (and Families) Everywhere

Remember there are six core commitment categories...

Powell, Kara.

Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church .

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Six Core Commitments to Thrive and Grow Young (General): Leadership, Empathy, Discipleship/Evangelism, Community, Priorities, Neighbors

Look!

Just like when we prioritize our lives around our families, and make sacrifices in life to provide, meet needs, spend time, build relationship, communicate love, as a church if we are truly committed to growing and growing young, we need to prioritize young people everywhere in our church lives.

In other words, as the church prioritizes young people everywhere, it means giving up preferences or shifting what in the past may have been considered nonnegotiable.

Football when single, before kids

The order of service, every element in its place with rare room for change.

To adjusting the flow to accommodate more or something different.

Even when it means relinquishing traditional authority and power in order to embrace the young.

Prioritizing teenagers and young adults has made the difference between ailing and thriving—not only for young people but also for the whole congregation.

Regardless of your context, the research has researchers convinced that the hinge point separating churches that grow old from those that grow young is priority.

When churches prioritize young people—and their families—everywhere, they take a step beyond both empathy and warmth.

They allocate resources, energy, and attention to teenagers and young adults both inside and outside their walls.

This is called a hinge point because while churches who have keychain leaders, empathize with young people, focus on Jesus, and nurture warmth can be lovely churches, they can eventually get comfortable, face inward, and ultimately grow old.

If they fail to prioritize young people everywhere and help them live as good neighbors in the world, over time the congregation will age out.

Sounds a little Laodicean to me.

We need everyone in your church to prioritize young people if you hope to make worthwhile and lasting progress.

Simply put, priority is the game changer for churches that want to grow young.

Chapter Highlights

Churches that grow young are willing to make young people a priority not just in rhetoric but also in daily reality.

These churches don’t assume it will happen automatically; they emphasize young people in their overall philosophy, worship experiences, leadership assignments, and budget.

Young people are joining and staying involved in churches that are intentional about making them and their interests a priority in the church.

Prioritizing young people everywhere means more than thinking about budget, strategy, worship planning, programming, and community life.

Churches growing young prioritize young people not just for the sake of making young people happy but because the whole church benefits.

Listen to these quotes from church leaders at churches that made the shift in their culture to be able to grow young...

“Everybody rises when you focus on children and teens.”

“Young people are like salt.

When they’re included, they make everything taste better.”

Powell, Kara.

Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church .

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

This is more than simply hiring a youth pastor and allocating one room on campus to remodel to become youth friendly, say with couches, amply space to hangout and study and pray, while being just far enough away to keep an eye on them but not be too disturbed by the volume of the joy of the Lord that emits from the room.

Prioritizing young people includes prioritizing families.

Powell, Kara.

Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church .

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Powell, Kara.

Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church .

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Because families are key to effective ministry with young people.

Powell, Kara.

Growing Young: Six Essential Strategies to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church .

Baker Publishing Group.

Kindle Edition.

Parents are the strongest spiritual influences in their kids’ lives, but they need the support and partnership of the church.

(Mark 5:21-43)

This may surprise you, and I am sure give you hope.

The latest finding from extensive studies of churches growing young,

Prioritizing young people means prioritizing families.

Parents are the strongest spiritual influences in their kids’ lives, but they need the support and partnership of the church.

Parents still carry the most important weight in their kids’ faith development.

This is true not only in childhood but also through adolescence.

Research continues to affirm that the best predictor of a young person’s faith is the faith of their parents.

That means that churches who care about kids also must include the care, equipping, and formation of parents and families.

Notice this quote...

“What I really like about our parish youth ministry is that they encourage the parents to come.

They include the parents in all the classes that their kids are taking.

There’s at least one meeting a week where the parents are invited to share in whatever is going on to deepen their faith as well as understand where their kids are coming from.

I totally wish I had that when I was growing up.” —Alice, age 19

In studying churches growing young, we found that parents’ participation in church worship and programming correlates with more mature faith in young people.

And with the times we live, parents today need all the support they can get.

We can continue doing this.