Growing Together

In beginning to try and get the youth pastors of Florida's BBF churches together through the tool of a youth pastor's fellowship, one of the stated goals we had was to learn not only the importance doing things together, but the "how" as well. On Friday September 12 the Florida Youth Pastor's Fellowship sponsored our first event, Revolution Rally 2008. We had an amazing time, and God blessed with over 200 teenager's in attendance. God did allow one young lady to come to know Him as a result of this event, and many more heard the gospel, some for the first time.



God has also blessed in our monthly meetings. We have been able to share ideas and passions with each other that have really made a difference in our own personal lives and ministries. Solid relationships are being formed among the guys that are coming which I believe will really help down the road. We want to continue to strive for our meetings to keep getting more relevant, God and ministry centered, and to have more people be a part of what is going on! Make plans to be with us!



In other great news, Amie Carmichael has started a youth pastor's wives email list. Amie is the wife of Sheldon Carmichael who is the youth pastor at Park Street Baptist Church. The list is called, "The Better Halves" and has been a real encouragement to many already.



In an email that Amie posted on the new list she stated, "I desire for this group to be a safe haven for the wives who are going through things they just need to talk about, need advice on or even to share God's blessings through out this crazy adventure!"



I know it's not always possible for our wives to get to come to a fellowship meeting, or get face to face with other women who are going through the same things they are. This new list provides an excellent opportunity for them to interact on a daily basis with women that are going through the same things. If a youth pastor's wife would like to be a part of this group, Amie says, "They can either email me at p2bat@hotmail.com, or they can also find it by going to google groups and typing in 'the better halves' in the search bar."

Florida Baptist Bible Youth Pastors' Fellowship

Being a pastor's kid provided many interesting opportunities. Although many times sacrifices were made because of being a "PK", I got to experience many things that kids my age miss out on. One of those experiences was coming to, on occasion, the monthly fellowship meetings of the Florida Baptist Bible Fellowship. These days were really exciting for me-not because I was a weird kid who just loved sitting and listening to sermons- but because it meant that I got to hang out with Dad, and see other pastors kids that I knew from previous experiences. As I became a teenager I began to enjoy these meetings more because of what they were, although my primary motivation for going really stayed the same-seeing people I knew and spending time with Dad.

Now that I have come back to the state of Florida to work at Sonshine Baptist Church as a youth pastor, one of the things that I enjoy experiencing is attending our monthly fellowship meetings. My motivation for coming though has changed from my childhood days. I really do believe in what we are doing as a State. When I get to hear Church planters talk about their struggles and victories in their work, Biblical insight in the preaching of the Word, and fellowship with men of God who have been doing ministry for 2 years or 50, I am encouraged. What we do as a fellowship in uniting to cooperate on supporting starting churches, approving and sending missionaries, starting and sustaining training centers like BBC and Boston to equip future ministers, and providing Biblical fellowship is not only good, it really is critical! This is something that I know would be good for youth pastors to see, experience and believe in. It is something that must be sustained!

One of the ways that I think we can aid in the sustaining of what we do is to get more men in ministry involved. One of the ways I believe we can do this is through the starting of a Youth Pastors Fellowship to be a part of what our State Fellowship does. I have approached Pastor Williams and he has given me the green light to do what I can. In discussing this with many other youth pastors we have put some of these plans into motion. This organization would be a part of the State fellowship. We will meet during the state fellowship meetings that happen every month. Our "meeting within a meeting" would consist of:

• Devotion-to help us keep our focus
  
• Presentation of Ideas/Resources- to keep us sharp
  
• Business- to help us get used to working together, unifying to do more together than we could separately.
  
• Fellowship Time- to help us build relationships based on our calling and our passions.
  

I think starting a Youth Pastor's meeting could do several things:

• Help more youth ministers be involved and understand what we do as a state fellowship.
  
• Help youth pastors connect with and learn from their peers.
  
• Help youth pastors and their pastors spend more time with each other.
  
• Help youth pastors to learn how to cooperate on events that could help them and their young people.
  
• Help youth pastors learn how to lead and influence peers.
  
• Help to encourage our Pastors as to the future of the State Fellowship.
  
• Help youth pastors to learn form and be influenced by our Pastors
  

In the April Meeting at Sonshine Baptist we will have a time for youth pastors to meet. Mike Elkins from Palmetto Avenue Baptist in Sanford is going to be bring us a short devotion, and Lee Tomlin from Suncoast Baptist in North Port will be presenting some ideas and resources that we may be interested in. We're going to spend some time dealing with this opportunity as well as getting to know each other. Pastors, bring your youth pastors! It will be an exciting time.

Ben Jennings
Sonshine Baptist Church