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Leadership Development

Qualities of a Shepherd

By First Priority Of America, Leadership Development, Podcast

Mark Robbins spoke at our 2023 Fall Conference in October. His talk followed the conference theme, shepherding. As you read the thoughtful things Mark spoke about, open your mind to ways that you can better shepherd your flock. John 10:14-15 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

When you are a shepherd, you need skills to be able to lead your flock. You have to make tough decisions. Go with your instinct, only you and God know what is best for your flock. Rely on the Holy Spirit to help make these decisions. Be willing to do the hard work, humbling yourself and being able to open your mind to learn new things. As a shepherd, it is important to put your ego aside and humble yourself for your community.

Endurance is a key quality of a shepherd. Some days it feels as if you cannot keep going, but rely on your shepherd, God, to lead you to water and rest to continue shepherding your flock. If God has called you, you can’t quit! You are meant to be shepherding and leading your flock. Don’t deny the things the Lord has brought you to do.

Start observing your clubs and getting to know them fully. Engage with them, keeping your eyes and ears open. Notice the condition your sheep are in. But most importantly, keep them safe! Make sure your flock all feel as if they have value, from volunteers, campus coaches, to students!

The best way to learn how to be a good shepherd is learning from God himself. In Psalm 23, the passage describes ways that the Lord is our perfect shepherd. He has given us the ability to be an example of Him, and we get to shepherd those around us and involved in our lives. Bring your flock peace, protection, and lead them to the table that God has set for us.

If you would like to hear more on what Mark Robbins said about being a shepherd, click the link here.

This blog was written by Kenley Kizer

Crediting God with what we Learn

By Local FP Communities, Leadership Development, Podcast

This week’s podcast revisited Chris Lane speaking at our Fall Conference. He touched on the fact that God is at work in First Priority of South Florida, and God is bringing Him along for the journey. He is God’s faithful vessel, and Chris calls others to be God’s vessel too. God has called you to bring the Gospel to the unreached community, students. Chris goes on to list the 10 things that God has taught him in his 25 years with First Priority.

Get to versus got to attitude: There is nothing too small, the kingdom of God is at hand, and we should be glad we get to do it. Our attitude matters!

Satan hates me and you, and he wants to ruin our lives: Satan is working non-stop every day to prevent us from doing ministry. He is a thief (John 10:10), and he hates you! But stand strong in the Lord who gives you life.

People are greater than accomplishments: We cannot sacrifice our family for accomplishments in ministry. Not only family, but even your team! Relationships are important, and we need to make sure we are intentional in maintaining them.

Having an eternal mindset: We have to be careful about this! What are the things in your life that you can bring with you to Heaven? The Word of God and souls, the things that matter most.

Stay focused and fight missional creep: Over the course of time, you may feel a bit off-mission. Our strategy-based mission helps us set us apart from others! Stay focused on your clubs’ journeys.

Be bold and share the God-sized vision he has given you: Expand your vision for Him. Pray and ask God to show what he has in store for you to bring his vision into reality.

Be teachable: It is important to ask questions, be coachable, and always be willing to learn. We have to start out by learning. We cannot do things if we previously haven’t learned how to do them yet. God has given us His Word as our textbook, use it!

Do you spend time with people or invest in people? We aren’t going to live forever. Have you made the investments into people to take over for when you won’t be here anymore? The legacy we need to leave needs to be better than before, to help bring the next people to success.

We must celebrate regularly: Celebrate what God is doing in your area! When we celebrate, we don’t forget what we are doing and why we are doing it. But we also don’t get burned out. Remember God is faithful, and don’t lose trust in his plan.

Reflect over the ways Chris has learned from God these last 25 years. Find ways God has taught you in your time with First Priority, and how it can help you in ministry for the years to come. You can listen to the podcast here.

This blog was written by Kenley Kizer

Shepherding the Flock

By First Priority Of America, Leadership Development, Podcast

Natalie Kenney spoke at this year’s Fall Conference. She spoke about the theme of the year, shepherding! Natalie was told that we are so busy shepherding, we forget that we are sheep. But if we are shepherding in a way to honor God, we are still his sheep and should smell like our flock!

1 Peter 5: 2-3 says, “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”

To start shepherding, you must show up! Show up for your community and show up where they can see you. Whether that is a football game, choir concert, or helping your local youth groups. Find ways that you can show up in your community and where God wants you to be. When you’re in the community, it makes it easier to talk about First Priority. Never underestimate the power of showing up and how the Lord will reward you for doing so.

Another way is to start looking for volunteers outside of the church realm. It limits us when we only have pastors and youth pastors partnering with us. Find active and patient parents or family members. Though church leaders are great volunteers, local volunteers will be able to show up year after year! Natalie challenges her listeners to show up with First Priority gear and to be intentional about having a conversation. Does your community know that you are involved with First Priority?

People want to be surrounded by love. When people watch how you serve, lead others and love, they may want to serve alongside you! Loving people is showing your volunteers they have value. Through your actions and speech, show your volunteers what they mean to you through love.

Lastly, communication is key anywhere you are. Natalie asked, “Are you communicating with your volunteers weekly or weakly?” As an expert of First Priority in your city, it is important to communicate with your volunteers weekly! Communication will help you and your clubs to succeed. It can help you retain relationships with your volunteers. Train your volunteers by equipping them with what they need, so they have a desire to stay with you.

First Priority is a relational ministry. It is important to be more about the people than the program. We cannot do this by ourselves! Show up, recruit volunteers, and shepherd your flock.

This blog was written by Kenley Kizer

If you don’t measure it, you don’t care about it

By Leadership Development, Nehemiah

I recently heard someone say, “If you don’t measure it, you don’t care about it.” Whatever ‘it’ is, he is totally right. The new year always evokes change in people. But because this is not only a new year, but a new decade, it has us writing goals and making adjustments to our life; spiritually, physically, financially, emotionally, and so on. A few weeks ago I shared a quote I heard from Toby Mac. He said, “if you are not changing it, you are choosing it.” there is that ‘it’ again.

Let’s talk about physical goals for a minute. If you don’t know how much you weigh, how are you going to know if you are making progress? If you don’t know how big your arms are when you start lifting weights, how can you celebrate the win? I know you can see the results eventually, but isn’t it more fun to celebrate your achievements from where you started? I love to step on the scale after a week and see that I have lost 5 pounds. I need to lose 20 pounds, but how rewarding is it to celebrate the 5 and then be motivated to do the next 15? We measure so that we can celebrate us changing the situation, not choosing it.

Financially, you need to know what you have coming in so you can make a budget based on your measurement. Whether that measurement is small or large, you set goals on saving, giving, etc.

Spiritually, I need to measure the time I spend with God. I heard a guy say that the hallmark of discipleship is discipline. If I do not take time to spend reading the Bible and continuously putting God first in life, I, like everyone else, will fall back into the worries of this world and be defeated by the enemy.

In your ministry or business, you have to have something to measure. If you don’t, how can you get anyone to join you or partner with you if you can’t measure your accomplishments. No one wants to be a part of a ministry that can’t show results.

Why do we at First Priority bug you so much for your numbers? Because we want you and everybody else to celebrate the win that God gives us. I heard someone ask a campus ministry guy how many schools his ministry was in, and he said, “I don’t know, the Lord is just doing incredible things, and we can’t keep up.” What? Are you kidding me? My first thought was, man, I would never give that guy a dime of money or a minute of my attention. He told me loud and clear that he does not think being on the school campus is important even though that’s what his vision statement says! I know in the ministry world we like to say, if just one person gives their life to Christ, it was worth it, and I agree, but God also wrote a whole book on Numbers.

Hey, in this new year, this new decade, let’s make sure we measure so we can celebrate the win with God.

What is your #1 Team?

By Leadership Development

After a recent loss, a thirteen-year-old boy on my son’s soccer team said to me, “Well, I don’t feel like I lost.”

“Really?” I asked him. “How do you figure?”

He proudly announced, “Well, I’m a forward, and we forwards did our part by scoring three goals. It’s really the defense that lost the game because they gave up too many goals. They’re the losers.”

I kindly pointed out to him how absurd his reasoning was, not only because there is only one score for the team, but because every player on the field plays defense, though perhaps on different parts of the field. Even a forward plays a role in preventing the other team from scoring by making it difficult for the opponent’s defense to organize an attack.

To be fair, the kid smiled and acknowledged the ridiculousness of his original remark.

Story found in Patrick Lencioni’s book The Advantage

I know that historically this has been a problem for the teams I have been on. For example, in my church work previous to working with First Priority, we had a choir director and a praise band leader on staff with us. Each Tuesday morning during staff meeting, there was unspoken tension between the two. It didn’t come out verbally very often, but every once in a while when a major change was on the horizon, the subtle comments about whose service was better or larger or fill in the blank started to come out. I never realized that the church staff was my number one team rather than the youth team. I loved my student ministry volunteers and cared for them deeply. I thought that they were my number one priority. I knew that I didn’t want to be a part of the worship wars, so I stayed away. But had I realized that being on a united team with the staff rather than my youth team would have taken our church further, I would have put more time and energy into those relationships. Instead, the whole conversation irritated me.

This brings me to First Priority and the HOPE writing team. We are better together in the FP family! Having Joel, Phillip, Natalie, and now Haley and Steve Coleman on the HOPE writing team has increased the quality and the effectiveness of all of our clubs around the country! I would go as far as saying that even the clubs that do not use this year’s HOPE writing are affected in a positive way by it being there. I know that the HOPE writing is better because of the EPiC strategy being used this year in South Florida. Why? Because we glean from the South Florida team and use it in HOPE. What is my point? The First Priority family around the country is all of our number one team.

Patrick Lencioni says it like this: “The only way for a leader to establish this collective mentality on a team is by ensuring that all members place a higher priority on the team they’re a member of than the team they lead in their department.” (page 68)

For those of you working inside an FP chapter as a club’s Coach, Area Coordinator, Teacher Sponsor, Board Member, or other volunteer, would you see your place in the chapter as the team to have unity with? We can quickly get caught up in the ups and downs of a club, but by being on the larger team in your community, all clubs will rise together.

For those of you who are Directors and Coordinators of a FP Chapter, will you see First Priority in America as your number one team? If so, thank you!  So many of you do feel this way already, which is why the FP tide is rising!! We have several teams that are working on more than the HOPE strategy.  Scott Emerine is leading our marketing team. John Carruth is leading the team planning the 2020 FP fall conference. Shane Kenney is leading a think tank on writing a new four-week strategy. Joel Rowland is leading the HOPE writing for 2020-2021. Mark Robbins is putting together a team to rework our mission statement. There are a few people on the fund development team who work on strategies and training. 

By sharing your voice on one of these teams, you are being a part of the team that you are on rather than simply (not that it is simple) leading your chapter. I believe, no I KNOW, that your chapter will be better because you are sharing your voice in the collaborative efforts of First Priority. 

For those of you on a team already, thank you! For those of you who are not, would you consider it for the good of your chapter and for the First Priority family?

Christian adults can’t share Jesus at a public school, but Students can!

By Student Leaders, Church Leaders, Leadership Development
You know this! I have nothing new to tell you. But it is an excellent reminder that our job as youth pastors, leaders, ministers, etc. is to equip the saints. Check out Eph. 4:11-12:

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

As you also well know, the most significant influence on a student is another student. Students reach students. I am convinced that if we as adult leaders teach, show, and give students simple tools to share their faith, they will. I have seen it time and time again, whether it is the Roman road to salvation, the GOSPEL bracelets or whatever tool you choose, that if you teach it, model it, and give students the opportunity to practice it with other students, they will take it and run with it. This generation of students is not afraid to talk about their faith, as a matter of fact, they want too. It is our job to help them do that. It is our job also to help give them a place to practice what we have taught them. Can you think of a better place to try out their new gospel knowledge than at school with their peers?

This is where we can help. You need an outreach strategy for the public schools, you need a way in, and you are tired of the school dictating culture. You can be a catalyst for change in the schools in your area. We can help guide you to organize and train student leaders to start a First Priority club on the campus that will pay spiritual dividends for years to come. The simple training you did with students, just might be the spark that gets a spiritual fire started (sorry I was having a flashback to camp). Ok anyway, you and I are called by God to be equippers of the saints. Let’s be an influencer of culture and pray for revival.

Keep fishing,

Mark

Why We Do First Priority

By Local FP Communities, Student Leaders, Leadership Development

We do First Priority because it changes lives. Lives of students like Abigail, who was trained to serve as a student leader for her First Priority club at her high school. The opportunity and lessons Abigail learned while serving as a leader, have helped her to follow God’s call in her life as she starts a new chapter and heads to college.

Here is Abigail’s story:

I was just getting serious about my faith when I first started high school and, I was really struggling when it came to being bold in my walk with Jesus, especially on my school campus. First Priority became a place where I felt safe to go and speak about my faith with other believers, invite unbelievers to hear about Jesus, and practice telling others about all God has done in my life.

This club has provided ample amounts of opportunity for me to pray over people who are struggling in their walk with Jesus and celebrate with those who experienced God’s grace for the first time! I have been able to experience all of these things because of your support, whether that be financially or prayerfully.Abigail

Once a month, we were able to provide pizza for our club, all thanks to your giving, which encouraged over two classrooms full of students to come and hear the great news of Jesus Christ, some for the first time. The impact you have had on C.E. Byrd High School has had incredible eternal value and, as a, now former, First Priority leader, I am incredibly grateful for the sacrifices you have made to help us win the lost for Jesus!

In Luke 10:2 Jesus tells us that “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” and then calls us to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” You are living this out by supporting First Priority. You guys have given over and beyond which has allowed First Priority to give away the scholarship I have been honored to receive.

You are equipping students to share the gospel middle and high school campuses and then sending them off to do the same things on their college campuses through your giving.

As a four year member of First Priority and now a recipient of the First Priority Scholarship, I would like to personally thank you for the sacrifices you have made so that I can do all Jesus has called me to do. I will be eternally grateful for First Priority and all it’s equipped me to do.

Thank you!

Abigail

Summer Prayer Challenge- Week 7: FAITHFULNESS

By Local FP Communities, First Priority Of America, Leadership Development, Community Leaders

The act of saying “yes” to Jesus causes the “fruit of the spirit” to come through us! The seventh fruit we are focusing on is FAITHFULNESS. Our God keeps His Promises which make our faith have meaning and our eternity secure. Practicing faithfulness takes effort and we as humans often fail. So first pray for it, then model and share God’s faithfulness to others!Faithfullness
Challenge: Because God is always faithful, let’s commit to being faithful in praying every day even when we don’t necessarily feel like it. Let’s ask God how we can show others His faithfulness this week.
Let’s also pray for the students who will be sharing about FAITHFULNESS in their schools during the month seven HOPE cycle.
// One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. – Luke 16:10 //

Summer Prayer Challenge: Week 6 – GOODNESS

By Local FP Communities, First Priority Of America, Church Leaders, FP Tools, Leadership Development, Community Leaders

The act of saying “yes” to Jesus causes the “fruit of the Spirit” to come through us! The sixth fruit we are focusing on is GOODNESS. In the same way that the Goodness of God moves Him to act, the Goodness He imparts to us is what causes us to be world changers. Goodness is a heart change that occurs when we put Jesus in charge of our life.Goodness
Challenge: let’s pray that this week we wouldn’t just strive to “do the right things” but that we would seek Jesus deeper so that our hearts and minds will be transformed to imitate Jesus.
Let’s also pray for the students who will be sharing about GOODNESS in their schools during the month six HOPE cycle.

// For we are God’s Masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago – Ephesians 2:10 //