Words of challenge and words of grace

As I reflected on this past Sunday’s sermon on the power of our words to encourage others, I thought of two prominent youth ministry leaders who influenced me when I was a youth pastor and how their words, although very different, encouraged and challenged me in important ways. This post is adapted from the May 19th, 2009 blog post.

“Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

Two of the most influential voices in my life during my youth pastor years were Mike Yaconelli and Ron Luce. They were two men who loved Jesus, loved teenagers and youth pastors, but could not have been more different in their approach to youth ministry. Yaconelli was the co-founder of Youth Specialties, an organization that provided tons of resources and training to youth pastors across the world, but during his later years became a man with an almost singular focus on the importance of helping teens and youth pastors develop intimate relationships with Jesus. He hated how youth ministry had become so focused on big events, big numbers, and attractive personalities, and loved to honor those men and women who may not have fit the stereotypical mold but because of their willingness to love teens were making an eternal difference. He would tell stories about 75 year-old grandmothers, rough-around-the-edges truckers, and scared youth leaders everywhere who just wanted to love young people to Jesus. Yaconelli frequently boasted about being the pastor of the “slowest growing church in America”, a small community church out in California that had shrunk since his arrival, but based on his stories seemed to be made up of a lovable band of misfits who would dare to follow Jesus wherever He led, even if it involved doing things that normal churches might not do. His message was a simple message that always reminded me of Jesus’ incredible love and grace over us, no matter how far we fell short of the ideal.

And then there was Ron Luce. In some ways, Ron seemed to epitomize everything that Yaconelli was speaking against. He also loved Jesus, loved teens and their youth pastors, but was a man of tremendous vision and passion who was always looking to do something bigger and with greater impact. He founded an organization called Teen Mania, putting on high energy conferences around the country called Acquire the Fire, and organizing dozens of mission trips for teens every year to places around the globe. He created a discipleship school called the Honor Academy, wrote books and produced videos about growing your youth ministry and reaching teens for Christ, and seemed to do it all from a perpetual high. When we went to Acquire the Fire, teenagers inevitably came away “on fire” for God, ready to conquer the world and defeat all enemies in their path. And we youth pastors all came away determined to not let the fire go out, but to challenge our teens to higher and greater depths in their walk with the Lord.

Mike Yaconelli and Ron Luce were two who loved Jesus and loved youth ministry, but who could not have been more different in their approach. I resonated so deeply with Yaconelli and his Jesus who passionately loved us and was full of compassion and grace towards the broken, the ordinary, those who just never measured up to the person they knew God wanted them to be. But something in my spirit just longed for what I saw in Ron Luce, a man who you knew was up at the crack of dawn to seek the Lord on his knees, who lived with passionate abandon for God, with a desire to see the gospel reach the far ends of the earth and to do everything he did with excellence unto the Lord.

I also realized that there were downsides to both approaches. With Yaconelli, his emphasis on intimacy with Jesus and the grace of our Savior made it tempting for me to become complacent, to rest in the accepting love of God and never challenge myself to move past that. On the other hand, with Luce, I could see how easy it was for teenagers to equate spiritual maturity with always being “on fire” for God and to believe God’s love for us was based on our performance. Therefore, when the passion faded (usually about 24 hours after an Acquire the Fire conference), they would come to see themselves in some sort of spiritual backslide, never living up to the Ron Luce Jesus who seemed to be like a coach on the side of the track with a stopwatch, yelling “Faster!!! Faster!!!” at us until we finally gave up.

This past Sunday, as I preached on the power of the words we speak to bring life and encouragement to others in our life, I was reminded of these two men. There are people in our life, like Mike Yaconelli, who excel in reminded us that God loves us, that He likes us, and that His grace is so much more extravagant than we dare to believe. These men and women help deepen our intimacy with and our love for God. And then there are people like Ron Luce in our life, who challenge us to become the men or women they know we can be, who don’t let us settle for giving God or those in our life half-hearted efforts, but who push us to give ourselves fully to the Lord.

The truth about the love of God is that for those who know Jesus, God loves you just as you are, but loves you too much to let you stay the way you are. He wants you to be just like Jesus. Therefore, I think that the way to become like Jesus is to have both kinds of people in your life: the Mike Yaconellis who remind you of the perfect love of God, full of grace and intimacy, drawing you to worship Him and seek Him and trust Him as a Father who loves you, and the Ron Luces who will not let you stay as you are, but want to continually challenge you to greater depths in your walk with Jesus, to always give Him your all so that the gospel might go forth to all your nations. Some are better at communicating the beautiful love of God that is extended to all of us, no matter how much we stumble and fall, while others excel at communicating the love of God that calls us higher, that exhorts us to spend our lives on that which truly satisfies. I encourage you to seek both of those voices in your life, to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and to allow God to use both of them in your life for His glory.