teenagers

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It’s Time to END IT

Posted by Rev. Bro. Coach on February 5, 2019
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What if I told you that slavery never went away? What if I told you slavery existed in 161 countries today- including 60,000+ in the United States? What if I told you that each year 1.2 million children are enslaved through forced labor or exploited in the sex industry? What if I told you that the majority of these modern day slaves were between the ages of 18-24? What if I told you the average age of a sex trafficked girl was 13? What if I told you that the sex trafficking industry affected girls as young as 6 years old? What if I told you the average cost of a modern day slave was a mere $90. What if I told you that slavery never went away?

Human trafficking has become the 3rd most profitable crime industry in the world next to drugs and illegal arms trafficking, and some project it to be the number 1 crime industry in the next 5 years- that’s right, some have projected it to make more money than the illegal drug industry within 5 years. Total yearly profits of human trafficking are now over $150.2 billion annually, and the total estimated population of modern day slaves is believed to be more than 30 million.

There are many organizations fighting this disease of forced child labor camps, to indentured servitude, & sex trafficking. Many of these organizations are at the heart of this industry, pulling young women out of their prisons, rehabilitating and renewing their will to live, and putting them back in the world on track to make a new, meaningful life for themselves. These organizations such as: A21, The Exodus Road, the International Justice Mission (IJM), Polaris, and Bombay Teen Challenge are on the ground actively freeing slaves from their captives and working with local authorities to prevent further spread of the trade.

Now, what if I told you that there was something we could do about it? If organizations such as A21, The Exodus Road, or the IJM hope to succeed, then the word must get out that this problem is going on today. Here, in our little corner of East Tennessee, a major corridor runs Interstate 40 connecting the Washington DC/Atlanta pipeline. Awareness of this issue cannot and MUST NOT be understated. Every 2 minutes, a child is bought/sold for sex in this country and the vast majority of people do not realize it is happening.

But that is all changing. Through the help of awareness programs like the End it Movement, former Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, and with the aid of some big voices, congress, over the past 3 years, has allocated serious financial backing to end modern day slavery and human trafficking in this country. We cannot stop there. We cannot stop until every person knows freedom. We cannot stop until every child is safe from sex trafficking, we cannot stop until we decide as a world community that one slave, is one slave too many.

Thursday, February 7, 2019, is national Shine a Light on Slavery Day. People all over the country will be wearing red X’s on their clothes, hands, lapels to let everyone know that this problem still exists. It is fitting that the date is right after the Super Bowl since more people are trafficked at the Super Bowl than any other event. Please, let me encourage you to join me and the rest of the End it Movement community as we Shine a Light on Slavery to let the world know- to let traffickers know- that we are in it to END IT!  

 

In Christ Alone,

Rev. Bro. Coach

 

 

 

 

*Please visit these non-profits such as A21, Exodus Road, & IJM and help support them in their fight against Human Trafficking*

 

References:

http://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Modern_Day_Slavery_Statistics

http://www.enditmovement.com

https://www.tn.gov/tbi/crime-issues/crime-issues/human-trafficking.html

https://humantraffickingcenter.org/problem/

 

 

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Do Something

Posted by Rev. Bro. Coach on March 11, 2016
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30for30 LogoWho Cares?  This was the theme of the very first Disciple Now that I had at City View. Our theme verse was out of 1 John 3:17 which says, “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him,how does God’s love abide in him? I truly believe that it was at this event, that my students caught the bug. What I mean is they caught the need to do something about hunger. That year, we did a massive mission project with other churches in the Knoxville area to fill food boxes that would be shipped to hungry people all over the world. By the end of that D-Now, my kids had a drive, a passion to serve the hungry.  We wanted to do something.

It’s strange how God works from experience to experience in order to make His plan known and work for the good of all.  From that D-Now, we decided to do something again.  We decided to partake in World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine. This is an event where students go 30 hours without food to raise awareness and money to send to starving children overseas in need of food. We did 2 of these famines and we all noticed the same thing.  Each year we spent part of the 30 hours working on service projects. I make them work around food for the experience that many children are all to familiar with- knowing food is there, but they can’t get it.  During these mission projects, we all began to notice something else- Knox County, especially our area, was in desperate need. As we worked at 2nd Harvest and other food ministries, we got to witness first hand the need in our own neck of the woods.  People were hungry and they were starving in our own back yard. After our 2nd experience that God gave us, we decided to once again do something and #30for30 was born.

We created our own event, #30for30, where the premise is we want at least 30 people to go 30 hours without food in an effort to experience, even if for only a moment, what many people- especially children- go through each day in Knox County. So each March, we set up our own 30 hour fast. Last year we came up just shy of our goals of 30 people, but this year 33 adults, teenagers, and college students will partake in the fast. The neat thing about this event is the desire of our students to do something real in an effort to affect change. The words to Matthew West’s song Do Something ring true to this. We can complain and we can shake our fist at God and ask him why doesn’t He do something about all of this pain and poverty in the world. Then we are hit right between the eyes with the lyrics that respond “I created YOU!”  God created us to do something.  This year we have 5 teams competing in food events/service projects and each team represents a food ministry in Knoxville.  These teams will be competing for their charity and the winning team’s ministry get all of our donations.

The greatest thing about this event is realizing you are part of something bigger. Many students are a part of the 2nd Harvest Backpack Program that sends a bag of “kid friendly” groceries home each weekend for children who need it. I love this idea, but there are times that not even that program can help. We all love snow days as students & teachers.  Let me tell you, I live for them; but as a pastor in inner-city Knoxville, there are many children who don’t eat regularly or at all when school is called off. These students are fed through a program in the summer, but its not available for snow days.  I have had many students come through my ministry that were part of these assistance programs and I feed my students in some way, shape, or form each time we meet so that I know they have the opportunity to eat. I can also tell you through experience, there is nothing more heart warming than to watch one of those students give everything they have to this event because for them, what we are fighting is a reality. They want to do something!

So, what about you? Will you do something? Your passion may not be hunger. it may be something else. Will you do something the way God has commanded us? You can be a part of our weekend. We are currently collecting non-perishable food items, hygiene products, and clothes to donate to the winning charity.  You can follow us and our progress on social media through the hashtag #30for30. One of our challenges will be a food drive outside local grocery stores from 12-2 on the 19th. Create your own movement or feel free to support our cause, but by all means do something.  We wonder and we plead with God to do something about all the violence, all the poverty, all the need, and all the starvation in the world, but we really need to remember that the answer is found in us. Affect change whenever and wherever you can because I can promise you this- change won’t happen unless we DO SOMETHING!!

In Christ Alone,

Rev. Bro. Coach

Surviving Bi-vocational Student Ministry- part 3: For Better or Worse

Posted by Rev. Bro. Coach on January 9, 2015
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Photo Dec 30, 11 40 51 AM

I would not be the Student Pastor I am today without this Godly woman in my life to encourage, love, and occasionally smack me. Praise God, I am blessed better than I deserve.

I can’t tell you how excited I am for this segment of my series on surviving Bi-Vocational Student Ministry. For this very special segment, we look at and explore an often thankless and overlooked aspect of Student Ministry- the role of the Student Pastor’s wife. Let’s face it, these ladies are practically super human in all that they do. They are wife, mom, ministry partner, prayer partner, encourager, accountant, fundraising expert, hostess, counselor…the list goes on and on. I can tell you from my own experience, my ministry WOULD NOT survive, exist, or even run without my wife.  She is my hero and I can not begin to fathom all that she does and still manages to find the will, strength, and time to love me. That is why, tonight, I have asked my wonderful, beautiful, and loving bride to be a guest blogger on the Mindful Minute so that you can get a true picture of what it’s like to be married to a Bi-Vocational Student Pastor; and maybe uncover some helpful hints on how to survive both the ministry and the often overworked, overstretched student pastor/husband on your hands.  Ladies and Gentlemen- my wife…Jan Jones

 

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So my husband asked me to write an article about being the wife of a bi-vocational student minister.  I am not the eloquent writer that he is, so I apologize ahead of time.

First I need to explain that not only is my husband bi-vocational, he is up to his elbows in teenagers all the time.  Both jobs deal with teens, just in completely different ways.  It is interesting to see how he interacts with the different groups because they come from drastically different backgrounds. It is important that you understand how much teenagers play a role in our lives because it shapes the way we live, teach, and raise our own family.  Working in a church, no matter the role, affects every part of your life, not just that one part that happens in the church building. It curls and winds its way into every part of your being.  Sunday lunches are no longer just our family; we have teens that go with us because we are as much their family as they are ours. Calendar planning is centered around the student ministry as are vacations and conversations in the car. These are not complaints, we wouldn’t have it any other way, we love our teenagers and all that comes with it.  We chose this path knowing it was not going to be easy. That being said, the struggle comes with maintaining our identity as a family.

We joke that our boys spend more time in the car going to church or church events than they do at their own home.  However, that is not entirely a joke.  Being bi-vocational comes with sacrifices – mostly time.  We have worked really hard to maintain a schedule where our boys are involved in something for just them like cub scouts, baseball, or basketball without teenagers there to take our attention away from them.  We have purposefully made time so they can stay home at least one night a week and just play.  We also take the chance to let the boys spend the night at friends and families houses so Keith and I can have a date night or time to just ourselves. If you let your teens know that these are important to you, they will respect those times and you will be amazed at the lengths they will go to protect those times for you.  These are things that you HAVE to do or you will get so burned out and fail in your ministry because you feel you are failing as a parent or spouse.

As far as being a bi-vocational student minster’s wife, I don’t feel like there is any other way to live my life.  Church and student ministry in particular have always played a huge part in my life growing up, it seems only natural that I would find myself in this place.  Sure I am tired after work and then have to go to church, or I have spent an entire Sunday from 9:00 to 8:00 at church with teenagers plus my own kids, or I have to be encouraging to others when I am not feeling particularly encouraging, but that is okay because all the good things completely outweigh the bad days. You have to understand that being the wife of a Bi-Vocational Student Pastor isn’t about simply surviving, and it isn’t even about your husband- it’s about you as a family. The decision to accept this life is one that the FAMILY makes, the FAMILY accepts, and the FAMILY chooses to live.  I know I am leading the life I am supposed to be living and I feel I am raising my kids the way God wants me to.

As I said, this is not any easy life – but it is the life we have been called to live as a family and as long as we are in God’s will it will work out

-jan 🙂

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In Christ Alone,

Rev. Bro. Coach

Can I Take Your Bags?

Posted by Rev. Bro. Coach on September 3, 2014
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Baggage-claimTonight, I finished a series with my youth on living unashamed for Christ.  I finished this series with a lesson on what is likely the #1 reason that prevents us from living for Christ on a regular basis. Tonight I spoke about the baggage we carry.  Isn’t it the truth though? I am constantly blown away by the amount of baggage people bring with them on a day to day basis. I know the weight and the struggle to simply exist as the baggage weighs you down, impeding every step you  take, until it gets hard to move, hard to breathe- and you realize it is suffocating you.  We all have baggage. This baggage can come from a less than scrupulous past, a family burden or family issues, conflict with friends, or just plain old life itself (the world is a rough place to live).  We often try to mask our baggage. We try to look like we have it all together when were are struggling to stay afloat. I am reminded of the illustration of a duck. On top of the surface, the duck looks cool as a cucumber, as  calm as a glassy sea.  Underneath the water however, the duck’s legs are just churning away, constantly trying to keep the duck afloat. In the grand scheme of things, we all have our fair share of baggage claims and a great many of us have carried this load for many, many years. In the end, however, we realize that instead of moving forward, we are really just marking time.

As adults, we pick up baggage like it was our job. The “American Dream” is slowly, but surely killing us each day as we struggle to gain possession we really don’t need, but have convinced ourselves are necessary for happiness. We pick up baggage of not being able to adequately provide for our families, or not being able to provide at all. We pick up baggage of seeking promotion, plaudits, and praise from a job or a company that will only demand more of your time away from family. As adults we pick up baggage because we don’t own the right car, live in the right house or neighborhood, or we simply don’t fill the description that the world tells us is the only way to be. For some, our baggage has been handed down to us like it was a family heirloom. We constantly struggle to free ourselves from its bondage, but it controls us far more than we control it. So what do we do to relieve ourselves of the burden of our baggage? We usually pass it down to our children.

By the time a student hits high school these days, they are carrying so much baggage that they aren’t sure if they can take another step- simply existing is their goal.  Our teenagers today must survive 50+% divorce rates, fatherless homes, alcohol & drug addictions (and that is just from the parents). They also take on more subtle baggage like having to grow up much too soon, raising siblings, caring for grandparents who have been forced to raise them, and all of this while maintaining the highest level of academic excellence possible so that they can eventually go out and get a job that can feed and sustain them during life- all of this, before the child hits 18 years old. They try to dump their baggage. They try to dump it on each other, siblings, friends; they seek to mask the pain in alcohol, sex, drugs, video games, pornography- anything so they won’t hurt for just a few hours.

 

The truth of the matter is that we are not required to carry any of it. We can simply let it go. We can call upon the name of our Lord and Savior and ask him to take the load we bear. Matthew 11:30 reminds us, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  You see the victory comes, for us, when we finally acknowledge that we don’t hold God up, it is the other way around.

“…fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”  -Isaiah 41:10

458x22_help_with_baggage_3Once we have acknowledged that God is the support beam, that He is the one that holds us up, then we can finally understand and find the solace knowing that His mighty, righteous right hand can handle any load we may be trying to bear. God WANTS your baggage. He wants you to know that through Him we have life and life abundantly. He wants you to know that He is your refuge and strength in time of need. He wants you to understand His words in Matthew 11:28 that say, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  Let your Savior give you rest. Let Him take the yolk of oppression that you carry around with you day in and day out. Let Him take your bags- after all, that is exactly what He was sent here to do.

 

In Christ Alone,

Rev. Bro. Coach