Pastor Ryan Gaffney

Today Is the Day I hit 50 Subscribers on YouTube.

If you want to make it 51, you can subscribe at www.ryangaffney.com/video

Ironically, the other channel I have, which I actually started developing in earnest first, has been growing less quickly and still hasn’t hit 50. It’s at www.ryangaffney.com/movies

There are a couple of reasons I can see for this. MOVIEPASStor is inherently limited in scope. You kinda have to like movies to want to sub to that. And you also have to like Jesus and being kinda thinky about Jesus. And what’s more, in order to watch any particular video, you really want to have seen the movie first. So it doesn’t get that many views even among fans. And on top of all that, it was all about me liking going to movie theaters, and those are all closed right now and have been for half the life of the channel. Soooo not a good mix

My own personal general YouTube channel (www.ryangaffney.com/video) makes it so you really only have to like Jesus, but you have to be willing to put up with some content (like sermon videos) you might not want to get to content you do (like Ask the Pastor) buuut, because of that, it has one other major advantage… more videos per week. And frankly I think that makes all the difference.

 
Enough Serious Stuff. Let’s talk about unicorns!

Of all the questions I get asked as a pastor, this one is maybe the most common, and perhaps it is so common because it is so important. Here is my final answer to “How do we get those young people to come to our churches”

Basically, stop making them “your” churches and asking young people to meet you where you are as you want or hope.

This is an article I wrote for the newsletter at the church I used to work at. It was published, in a modified form. Now that I have this audience I thought I’d share it with you. In case you can’t tell or didn’t know, I was the Youth Pastor of a small youth group on the grounds, and for a while we had youth coming and hanging out on the campus, this resulted in some graffiti,and the sprinklers having been left on one night. So older congregants began telling anyone young they saw to leave and quit causing trouble. This was my response.

I had the opportunity this past month to meet some of the young people who have been hanging out in our prayer garden. I have a report for you that should be very disturbing.

They said that young people don’t often come around anymore, they used to, but the bench has been removed and the hedge has been trimmed, and they don’t feel “safe” here any longer.

One young man expressed to me that he knew one of the vandals, didn’t think highly of him, and would have liked to step in if he could have, another expressed that nobody who came around was a criminal, so much as troublemaker. We’re dealing with hooligans, seeking independence from their parents through anti parental activities.

I told them we had a couch and an air conditioned youth room, they were rather interested in that. I talked to them about our mission, told them if there was any way to bless them I would be interested to hear it, because this was a place where we served Jesus the Christ and we were interested in sharing his love in non-judgmental ways.. and the news took a turn for the worse

“People here don’t trust us”, they said, “they don’t seem to want us around”. “When we’re approached people assume we are going to destroy something”. “One kind act could do a lot.”

I’m Livid!

I don’t know if it is coming across without tone of voice but I am very very angry at our church right now. Because I am here, attempting to reach the youth of La Mirada, and I’m not sure that’s something this church is actually willing to do!

Yes, I’m aware that there has been some vandalism, that it has cost our church time and money, I know there have been nefarious activities at this campus. If we are successful in reaching the well-meaning youth, we will probably attract troublemakers too, problems will almost certainly increase, and maybe one of those troublemakers will have his or her heart changed for Christ. That is the business I’m in. That we’re in…I hope.

So It’s time to make a choice. Do you want this to be a place that is open and welcoming to people who are different from you or not? Because you have to understand that if you do it is going to mean sacrifice, picking up the cross and following Jesus means moving out of our comfort zones and opening ourselves up to problems, but it also means the real possibility of affecting people’s lives.

And if not we will earn the opportunity to live and have church in the manner to which we have become accustomed for a while longer, but I warn you, if we do that this church will not be empowered through any gospel that is true, and it will wither, and it will die!

If we proceed down the second path, the rest of my interaction here will be entirely missional. Because if that’s how we do things then we need Jesus

As I finished taking with the unchurched youth, quite a crowd had gathered, and one mentioned it was hot. I left them with a couple bottles of soda, a pitcher of water and some paper cups.

What will you do?

Matthew 25:35