Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Small Groups and Evangelism


Reaching the lost and the unchurched is a vital component to practicing our faith. Jesus commanded us to practice the Great Commandment of loving our neighbor, however He also charged us to practice the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations. While we may be able to pursue evangelism on our own (within our individual sphere of influence), small groups can also be an effective vehicle to engage those that may not have yet heard the life transforming good news of Jesus Christ.

Staying in Touch With Unbelievers
It is generally understood that the longer that we are believers, the more out of touch we become with nonbelievers. This isn’t being critical, it’s just simply our nature. The more that Christ lives within us, the less likely we are to do worldly things that pull us away from our relationship with Christ. As a result, we spend more time with other believers and less time with nonbelievers who may still be pursuing less-than-holy everyday activities. And if we spend less time with nonbelievers, it’s likely that we encounter fewer opportunities to share the word of God with them. Indeed, some of the most effective evangelists are those who just recently gave their life to Christ. After all, they are oftentimes still in touch with their group of friends who may not be believers yet.

Rethinking the Idea of Evangelism
While we may be tempted to shy away from the idea of practicing evangelism, it helps us to remember that we too were tremendously blessed to receive the word of God through someone else’s evangelistic efforts. Instead of becoming anxious from the idea of practicing evangelism, let us rethink what it means to pursue evangelism today. While evangelism certainly can include going out to a public event and sharing the Gospel with a random individual, the concept of first engaging in relationship is much more effective in our modern world. Without relationship, there is no love, and without love, then our communication will merely be as useless as a noisy cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). We truly are returning to our 1st century roots on what it means to share the love of Christ, and we will be diving into this principle more throughout the year.

Intentional Effort to Reach Out and Love
For those who are married, we recall that it was effortless to focus on and dote over our girlfriend or boyfriend when dating them. Yet after 10+ years of marriage, we now find ourselves planning more and being more intentional about our efforts to continue developing the relationship that we have with our spouse. Similarly, as we mature in our faith, we must become more intentional about our efforts to pray over and interact with the lost and the unchurched, for our effortless tendency to speak with the lost may have faded away over the years. As we move forward through 2020, we’ll be unpacking this idea more of what it might look like to pursue evangelism as a small group. We’ll approach it biblically through Scripture, theologically through doctrine, and practically through examples. I am so excited for 2020; the Lord has incredible things in store for your small group! May the love of Christ shine bright through your ministry.


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Wednesday, January 22, 2020

"Youth Empowered" Has Arrived!


Youth Empowered is now available in softcover and eBook format, and may be purchased through one of the below vendors:

Amazon Link

Barnes & Noble Link

Christianbook Link

Youth Empowered is a book that guides parents and youth pastors to successfully mentor tomorrow’s church leaders by accomplishing two primary goals: To help church leadership minister alongside their students (rather than at their students), and to help their students learn how to utilize their spiritual gifts before they graduate (rather than hoping that they discover how to get involved after they graduate from high school).

By challenging traditional models of youth ministry, this book addresses varying strategies that cater to small, medium, and large youth ministries. As a result, Youth Empowered assists any church in navigating through the challenges associated with launching a student-led youth ministry, regardless of its current size.

Many youth ministry books today encourage their readers to involve students more within youth ministry, but do they provide a road map on how this can be accomplished? This resource can help guide you on this journey and be a blessing to you and your youth ministry - Order yours today!


Endorsements for Youth Empowered

“Drawing on Sean’s experience as a youth pastor, Youth Empowered offers necessary insights and helpful suggestions for developing a thriving, student-led youth ministry that resonates with the needs of future generations. This book is a valuable contribution from an emerging, thoughtful leader in youth ministry.”
Abdu Murray, Author and Speaker


“John Wesley noted that ministry is not the end of discipleship, but rather the means. Sean Buono has incorporated this dictum into a paradigm of teen ministry that is changing the landscape of youth work. Buono tailors his book on how to develop a student-led youth ministry of any size. If you are looking for a pathway to disciple your youth to become leaders in the church, this book is for you! 
Dr. Matthew A. Lewis
Director for Practical Theology and Ministry
Brethren in Christ Church
Great Lakes Conference


“Sean Buono provides wisdom and insight for the church, which finds itself at a critical juncture in 2020: ‘How do we reach the youth of today in order to develop our leaders for tomorrow?’ Youth Empowered provides a theological framework for the biblical call to reach youth, then it lays out a relational approach to fulfill this mandate. Buono calls for a dynamic change in how ministry must shift in order to prepare our youth, as well as the church, for ministry in the 21st century. As a former lead pastor of a large church with 200+ active high school students in its youth ministry, I highly recommend this book to all youth ministers, youth leaders and lead pastors.”
Reverend William M. Beachy, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Pastoral Leadership and Spiritual Formation for Ashland Theological Seminary


“Sean Buono has lived this book! He gives theological insights, principles and practical methods to get students involved in the work of ministry. This resource will help youth leaders successfully facilitate a ‘priesthood of all believers’ among their young parishioners.” 
Pastor Kellen Brooks
Senior Pastor, Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ - Inkster, MI


“When Jesus called His disciples, He clearly trained them to do the work of ministry. Yet, many times in youth ministry, we simply teach students without empowering them. Youth Empowered is a much needed and timely work that will help any youth pastor learn how to empower their students for ministry. Sean Buono explains why it is important to teach youth to utilize their gifts for ministry and gives a practical, step-by-step approach to creating an environment that allows students to lead. By implementing the strategies found in this book, students in your youth ministry will learn how to engage their peers and effectively win souls to Christ.”
Jesse Stirnemann
Youth Pastor, Victory Christian Church – Clinton Twp., MI



Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Give Your Students a Backstage Pass


At a concert, one of the most coveted items for superfans to obtain is a backstage pass. Not only does the concertgoer get the chance to enjoy an incredible concert, but a backstage pass usually gives them the chance to meet the members of the band. Depending on the venue, one may even have the opportunity to view the stage from a completely different angle. They see the same concert that everyone else sees, but there are elements of the production witnessed behind stage that can never be experienced from the viewpoint of the general audience. Yet even though an individual witnesses exclusive things backstage and is allowed to connect more with the members of the band, they don’t board the tour bus and see everything that occurs on the road, good or bad.

What would your youth ministry look like if you gave your students a backstage pass to your life? Instead of just telling them about God, what would it look like to give your students the opportunity to have a glimpse into your life and show them what it means to have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ? While this type of youth ministry does not mean that they will know absolutely everything that goes on in your life, it will change the manner in how you perceive the students you minister to. Giving them a backstage pass means that they aren’t just prayer projects or teens that we go to visit once a week. Instead, it becomes a ministry where you let them in to your life often enough for them to be able to observe you pursuing a life of faith. Certainly, this can involve activities like inviting your group of students over to your house, going on a retreat, playing games, going out to a movie, or having dinner with them and then grabbing some ice cream. But activities alone are not enough to create relationships that engage and transform the heart.

When working inside youth ministry, transparency is a powerful tool that can be used to build trust and connection. While discernment remains key to knowing what to say and how to say it, our youth need to know that you’re on their side. They need to know that you will fight alongside them on the battlefield of spiritual warfare, rather than shout advice from the top of a hill a mile away. They need to know you’ve got their back, and that they can have your back, too, if you’re willing to let them into your heart. If it is only the student that exhibits transparency within a conversation between them and their youth leader, that’s not relationship—that’s coaching. In this scenario, ministry is pointed to flow in only one direction, and it stops as soon as the student no longer has questions to ask or answers to seek. However, when a youth leader or a youth pastor leads first by being transparent about their own spiritual journey to the student, it is a movement away from coaching and towards the realm of relationship.

To establish this type of “backstage pass” relationship, the ball is NOT in the student’s court to make the first move. The ball is in your court. While a student will be pleasantly surprised and would most certainly welcome the experience of their youth leader taking the first step at being transparent, they aren’t holding their breath and waiting in anticipation for it to occur. Just as we were before we gave our lives to Christ, a life in pursuit of the Lord was not on our radar. But God had a plan and through His word, He has been magnificently transparent. He chased after you and I and He first made efforts to initiate a genuine relationship with us.

The concept of transparency with students may be a subtle shift to how you engage your youth, but it can be life transforming. Giving our students a backstage pass to our lives serves a few different purposes. First, it communicates to our students that we see them as peers and coheirs of the kingdom instead of kids that need to be told the do’s and don’ts of Christianity. Second, it helps them begin to understand what it looks like to be a good friend that cares for their neighbor within a world that incessantly promotes the desires of the self. And finally, giving your students a backstage pass brings them into contact with your spiritual life often enough to hold you accountable in pursuing your own relationship with the Lord, so that you may be a humble example for others (Philippians 3:17).




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This blog has a focus on small groups, men's ministry, and youth ministry. Join us for the journey by subscribing and sharing this post!



Tuesday, January 7, 2020

What to Fill Our Lives with for 2020



The start of the New Year is the perfect time to pause and pray over what the Lord has in store for the year ahead. Church staff members, lay ministers, and small group leaders can especially find value of this season, as the answers to our prayers oftentimes forge the direction of the entire church for the next 12 months. While we prepare our hearts for the year of 2020, let us fill our lives with three key components that allow us to more effectively lead our small groups!

Fill Your Life With Love
In his book Leading Small Groups with Purpose, Steve Gladen says that “the best thing you can do for your group members is to be in close relationship with Christ. If you have that…you will show your group members how to worship God rather than merely tell them how.” If you are seeking for ways to grow your relationship with Christ, then January is an excellent month to practice spiritual disciplines—activities that position us better to grow in a relationship with the Lord. If you are looking for a wonderful post-Christmas read, one of the best modern books on the topic of spiritual disciplines is widely agreed to be Richard Foster’s “Celebration of Discipline.” Prayer, simplicity, service, and more are all covered in this excellent book, and Foster appropriately challenges the reader to make changes in their lives to spend more time with God. When we spend time with Him, we experience His unconditional love. And when we begin to understand the fullness of His love, we find ourselves responding to the irresistible urge to share it with the others that are in our lives. By filling our lives with the love of Jesus, our group members will become encouraged to pursue spiritual disciplines as well and learn how to nurture an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.

Fill Your Life With the Truth
“31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…34 Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’” (John 8:31-36, NIV)
According to John 8:31-36, we can understand two key points: that when we obey the commandments of Jesus, we are really His disciples; and that when we are really His disciples, we are then set free by the truth. Fear, on the other hand, attempts to accomplish the opposite effect, for it is a weapon used by the evil one to hold us in place and imprison us. As noted in 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (NIV). By filling our lives with the truth of Scripture, we become empowered through Christ to repent from sins or less-than-holy habits that may be weighing on us. It is here when we are freed from the shackles of sin that we are able to focus more on our group members and utilize a higher share of our personal resources to bless them instead.

Fill Your Life With Faith
While we are encouraged to proceed with boldness and confidence in leading the small group that the Lord has called us to lead, the evil one will not surrender so easily. Predictably, he will attempt to utilize that age-old weapon of fear, trying to make us think that we aren’t good enough, that others won’t want to be in our group, or that the group will somehow lose focus and fade away. This is not the plan that the Lord has for you. He is a faithful God, and it is because of His faithfulness that we can have the faith that He will follow through on the plans that He informed you of (the same plans you used to make the decision to sign up and lead your group). By filling our lives with faith, the confidence that we have in the Lord will be infectious, and our group members will be blessed abundantly because they too will be eager to be a part of a healthy, thriving community.




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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Opening God's Incredible Gift


My wife and I enjoy settling in to a good TV show and taking our time to watch through a multi-season adventure that captures our hearts and our minds. One such gem we came across years ago was the well-received crime-solving TV show Monk. The successful comedy-drama detective show ran for an incredible 8 seasons. While the show may not be as binge-worthy as some others that are streaming today, it consistently delivers on laughs and lighthearted fun, right up until the end.

The show follows Adrian Monk, a Sherlock Holmes-type of detective that has an extreme case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Even with the challenges that he faces from his OCD, he still has an incredible ability to solve every case that comes his way, except one: the murder of his wife, Trudy. It isn’t until the final episode that he solves the case, and how it comes about is fascinating. Throughout the course of the show, a Christmas gift left behind by Trudy is occasionally mentioned and discussed. In a stoic way of honoring his wife, Adrian repeatedly refuses to open the gift. However, in the show’s final two episodes, events occur that threaten Adrian’s life. Begrudgingly, he finally agrees to open the gift, only to discover that his wife actually left behind clues for her husband to find the individual who ended up murdering her.

After 8 seasons, the answer to the one case that tormented Adrian was sitting on his shelf the whole entire time. While it may have been an excellent method for the writers to be able to easily wrap up the show whenever the network decided it was time, I can’t help but wonder how different the show would have been if Monk would have just opened up the gift a few episodes in. Something that tormented Monk for so long could have been turned around and put to rest so quickly. If we knew someone like Monk in real life, surely we would have voiced our opinion to them and told them to open the gift. We may have even criticized them for waiting to open the gift. But how often do we pull an Adrian Monk and refuse to open the gift that God has so freely given to us through His Son Jesus Christ? We may think we are stoic and capable of navigating through life on our own, but it only is a matter of time before we realize we are severely under-equipped.

Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We have a choice: either we set aside God’s gift of Jesus and continue to be tormented by the sins that shackle us in our lives, or we accept the indescribably incredible gift that God freely gives to us, granting us eternal life and salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. But many of us just open the lid of the gift and look inside before setting it back on the shelf. We are content that we accepted the gift and opened the lid, because at least our eternal life is secured.

What if we took the gift out of its box and actually applied it to our lives every day? What if we used it in everything we did or said, and what if we put it on display for others to see? Not only would our daily lives be dramatically altered, but the lives of those around us would also be impacted by the consistent outgrowth of our faith. Colossians 3:23-24 says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Serving isn’t a once-and-done deal. Ask the Lord in your prayers what He has in store for you for 2020, and take the first baby step in doing it. We oftentimes marvel at Christian athletes, business moguls, and successful leaders and call them lucky or favorably blessed, but the reality is that they were consistent with applying the Lord to their lives on a daily basis. In James 5:11, the Bible makes note of this in the area of suffering that perseverance allows us to see what the Lord has a desire to bring about in our lives. Let us keep this principle in mind as we forge ahead in the New Year and pursue the Lord with all of our hearts!



Follow on Twitter @SeanBuono





This blog has a focus on small groups, men's ministry, and youth ministry. Join us for the journey by subscribing and sharing this post!