437. A different kind of teaching- Stories

Anthony • Youth Pastor
September 25, 2025

3 Minute Read

Beginning this Sunday youth will have opportunity once a month to hear a Bible story. It might seem like it’s just church-y way to pass time, but I believe there is a lot of value in learning Bible stories. Stories help us think through situations and teachings much deeper than the teaching itself both in our youth and adult lives.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” might sound like just a creation story, but it’s imparting accessible Theology. That God created ex nihilo, he created something from nothing. When students hear God loves them as a concept, it doesn’t land as hard as when they read the story of the the shepherd leaving the 99 to go after the one.

I think stories are effective and sticks because it engages our emotion and imagination, both are gifts from God. Personally, I have found stories that I carry with me evolve with me and keep me engaged in my reflection of God. For example, in the parable of the prodigal son, the Son asked for his inheritance early and ran away. I used to relate to him when I first read the story. Later in my life I started to think more about the heart of the Father, what it must of felt like to have your own son leave and the heartbreak. These days I find myself thinking about the older brother, who was upset at the younger brother’s return and acceptance. It made me reflect on my heart, do I have any trace of the older brother in myself?

My hope that the new monthly Bible Story initiative will help our youth grow in their theological reflection of God. It won’t be a sermon where I’m trying to teach them a big truth, but simply present the story. I trust in the sufficiency of scripture and the Holy Spirit to reveal to our youth what the stories mean over time.

Although Bible Story is for youth only, as adults we also benefit a lot from stories. In our own quiet time or devotional we can be so quick to try and “find the meaning and application,” of the passage. But I encourage you, as I have been trying while preparing Bible Story, to just try and sit with the story. Digest it. And just allow it to linger in the back of your mind. Sometimes greater insight and revelation comes when we don’t force it but allow our minds to wander and ponder the story.

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From this Author: Anthony
September 18, 2026 • 2 Minute Read
476. Parents Conference is now Parents Connect
During the early years of launching youth house church there were changes that needed to happen before it could be implemented effectively. One of those changes was partnership with parents. Parents conference was created out of a necessity to fill the gap and bring parents and youth shepherds to work together towards the same goal—youth house church. I have witnessed the culture shift over these ten years. Parents are fully onboard with home gathering and actively communicate with the youth shepherds to coordinate and rotate homes. So now, the emphasis has shifted from “bringing parents onboard” to “continuing to build and maintain good ministry relationships with parents.” Hence, starting this year the youth ministry team felt it appropriate to rename parents conference to parents connect. Back then “conference” was definitely the right word. However, with the current stage of ministry partnership we are in, conference feels too heavy and distant. “Connect” communicates more of what we are trying to achieve in that session and our current relationship with our youth parents. Although much of the structure remains the same, there is an additional emphasis to discuss with parents how they can practically help youth house church through home gathering. By strategizing together, I believe we can come up with greater ways to support each other and the mission of Jesus at our church. The reason I am sharing is simply this—God has been faithful. I’m so grateful for how God has taken the small step the youth ministry team took towards parents partnership and grew it abundantly. I believe we are now at the next level of partnership in our church culture. Connecting once a year isn’t much, but when done over 10 years, it can completely shift the culture and dynamic of a ministry. Witnessing it with my own eyes builds my faith that God can take our small initiatives of obedience and faith and turn it into something amazing. It just takes a bit of time.

Anthony

Youth Pastor

June 12, 2026 • 3 Minute Read
469. Evangelism through lifestyle, not knowledge transfer - Anthony
Recently I joined Caleb, Jen, and the grade twelve graduates for graduation dinner, during which the graduates shared one thing they took away from youth ministry. Of course as the youth pastor, I leaned in to listen to their answer. None of them mentioned my sermons. Both of them replied (paraphrased), “I learned how to love and serve people through watching my youth shepherds.” If they were placed in a situation where they had to love and serve others, they said they felt like they could, because of what they experienced in their youth house church. Some of them also received Jesus because of those very experiences. The more we do house church ministry I’m convinced what changes a heart to open up to living by faith isn’t simply through knowledge transfer of “Christian teachings” but the modelling of Christian life through church community. The feeling, “maybe I can do that too,” was instilled in the youth because of what they could see; namely, an adult leader, a couple years ahead of them, trying their best to live out a Christian life. The impact we leave to the next generation is not how perfectly teach Jesus, but the visible effort we made to follow Jesus, even imperfectly, and their proximity to it. In house church, we can all be part of someone’s finding of Jesus, not because we transferred our knowledge, but because we showed them who Jesus is through our service and actions. So if you truly want to bring someone to Jesus, instead of agonizing over your next potential argument (knowledge transfer), focus on inviting them to come see the community of Jesus (Christian life modelling). As a pastor, my temptation is to believe knowledge transfer is always the answer to the gap between someone not growing in faith. But through youth ministry, I’ve learned many times the gap is filled organically through spending time with them and modelling love, care, and service. There is definitely a place for knowledge and learning. However, I’ve come to accept my main evangelistic channel is living the Christian life, to the best of my ability, and to allow others into my life that they may see Christ through me, despite my imperfections, just like the youth shepherds. What blesses people is invitations into our lives, not invitations into our minds. So even if you’re not a Bible scholar, you have a lot to offer others in their journey of faith if you do life together in house church ministry.

Anthony

Youth Pastor

April 1, 2026 • 3 Minute Read
459. Why I Don’t Sanitize Sunday Messages For The Youth - Anthony
There are topics inappropriate to discuss with children because of their life stage. However for youth, there is no need to censor or hide anything when it comes to the Bible. Often well-meaning Christians try to omit difficult passages for others to experience. I agree that we should highlight first in the Bible what is clear and let newer and younger Christians digest that material first, we should not bring about a culture of Biblical censorship. The Bible is not just writings about God. The Bible is writings about God in history. Therefore, it includes all the descriptions of what happened throughout that history, good and bad. There are descriptions of violence, sexual violence, slavery, war, betrayal, crime, and exploitation not because God condones it, but because these things really happened. This is the fallen world we live in, and the Bible is not shy to tell us so. Yet, often people worry that youth cannot handle such content so they censor it. However, youth are in public environments, such as school, where difficult topics are already brought up all the time. Sex, money, politics, violence, and crime to name a few. They understand and discuss the challenges and brokenness of the world. However, if in their church and Bible all that’s presented is a sanitized view of life, it will turn them off from accepting it as the truth. The irony of sanitizing Christianity from sin is that it ends up having the opposite effect on youth. This is because youth already understand the world is messed up and they are messed up. They are looking for the best worldview that explains why and how to overcome it—the truth that works. When interfacing with youth I try not to be afraid to share the truth and get vulnerable. We are not protecting them by censorship. Youth seek authentic voices, people willing to say the truth even when its difficult. They don’t like facades. I’ve found youth start to really listen and engage, when we explain God’s faithfulness in the midst of our failures, not when we say feel good messages. They don’t need censored self-esteem boosters. They need the courage to admit they are sinful, which comes from someone else first acknowledging how broken they are. When we view the youth as emerging adults, it becomes clear. We need to treat and trust them as people soon to bear adult responsibilities. So, I don’t tone down the messages to a youth-level hoping adults understand. I preach to adults, and hope youth are able to understand. Even for youth retreats, I set the content level of my preaching to young adults or grade twelve. And when the temptation comes to avoid a topic or avoid a passage in the Bible, instead of explaining it away that, “they are too young for this,” I challenge myself to think, “I don’t have enough courage or wisdom to explain this.” And I turn to God for help.

Anthony

Youth Pastor

November 27, 2025 • 3 Minute Read
446. Learning at Church is not only through Sermons
One truth about living in community is this: your life is transparent. Just like in a family, your life is visible to others, because they know you and care. Transparency is a blessing because, only when people know the real you, can you feel real love and trust. Transparency allows us to feel known and loved, but it also comes with responsibility—to live rightly. When working at a cancer research lab, my professor taught me to follow proper protocols like wearing gloves and masks to reduce the chance of contaminating the results. However, he himself rarely wore gloves and masks. He would just grab equipment and mix solutions, with no mask and no gloves. Eventually, I found myself doing the same; conducting research with no mask and no gloves. However, I got scolded by one of the other PhD students. In the middle of me getting scolded, guess how I responded? “But, professor does it!” My professor always taught me: wear gloves and masks. But what I caught from him was a different lesson: it’s okay not to wear gloves and masks. This experience is often the same in church. As Ralph Neighbour Jr. emphasized Christianity is caught, not taught. This is not to undermine the importance of teaching, but to highlight the reality that most people get their cues from the people around them, especially their leaders. Therefore, as people living in community we should be mindful of how our decisions impact the next generation. Because again Christianity is not taught, but caught. We can tell our students listen to wholesome music, but if they get in our car and we’re listening to explicit music, that becomes their learned standard. We can advise our students on wise dating, but if they don’t see it modelled from us, they will struggle to believe it and apply it. At Houston, my hosting shepherd told that because they love their house church members, him and his fiancé committed never take overnight trips together before marriage. He explained, “even if we got separate rooms, I wouldn’t do it. I’d rather wait until marriage than risk any misunderstanding and be a reason for my house church members to stumble.” I was truly impressed. His awareness of the impact of his decision in community and his intentional decision to model it, tangibly showed how much he loved his brothers and sisters around him. Christianity has a built-in self-humbling apparatus. As I continue to youth ministry, I am constantly humbled. Preaching better does not make me a greater blessing to the next generation. Instead, only when I more humbly, more intentionally follow Christ and become a real life example for those younger than me in the faith, am I becoming a real blessing. My hope and prayer is that The Seed does not delegate the job of “training the next generation in righteousness” to the Sunday sermons, but takes upon themselves the responsibility of modelling godliness for the next generation. Make the mission personal.

Anthony

Youth Pastor

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September 25, 2025 • 3 Minute Read
437. A different kind of teaching- Stories
Beginning this Sunday youth will have opportunity once a month to hear a Bible story. It might seem like it’s just church-y way to pass time, but I believe there is a lot of value in learning Bible stories. Stories help us think through situations and teachings much deeper than the teaching itself both in our youth and adult lives. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” might sound like just a creation story, but it’s imparting accessible Theology. That God created ex nihilo, he created something from nothing. When students hear God loves them as a concept, it doesn’t land as hard as when they read the story of the the shepherd leaving the 99 to go after the one. I think stories are effective and sticks because it engages our emotion and imagination, both are gifts from God. Personally, I have found stories that I carry with me evolve with me and keep me engaged in my reflection of God. For example, in the parable of the prodigal son, the Son asked for his inheritance early and ran away. I used to relate to him when I first read the story. Later in my life I started to think more about the heart of the Father, what it must of felt like to have your own son leave and the heartbreak. These days I find myself thinking about the older brother, who was upset at the younger brother’s return and acceptance. It made me reflect on my heart, do I have any trace of the older brother in myself? My hope that the new monthly Bible Story initiative will help our youth grow in their theological reflection of God. It won’t be a sermon where I’m trying to teach them a big truth, but simply present the story. I trust in the sufficiency of scripture and the Holy Spirit to reveal to our youth what the stories mean over time. Although Bible Story is for youth only, as adults we also benefit a lot from stories. In our own quiet time or devotional we can be so quick to try and “find the meaning and application,” of the passage. But I encourage you, as I have been trying while preparing Bible Story, to just try and sit with the story. Digest it. And just allow it to linger in the back of your mind. Sometimes greater insight and revelation comes when we don’t force it but allow our minds to wander and ponder the story.

Anthony

Youth Pastor

June 12, 2025 • 2 Minute Read
426. The reason I post youth ministry-related announcements for Sunday
Youth ministry (and Children’s ministry) are often easy to view in a silo. Simply because they are isolated, separate ministries that operate independently of adult ministries, it can be easy to think what happens in youth ministry is independent of adult ministry. However, youth ministry impacts the entire church because of two key components: graduation and youth shepherds. Graduation means that youth of The Seed will become adults of the The Seed. So successes in youth ministry directly translate over to successes in adult ministry, since all the success stories of youth ministry are moving in towards adult ministry. Youth Shepherds, through youth ministry, become strong adult members who trust in God and have a shepherd heart. Many team leaders in our church, are youth shepherds or former youth shepherds. In many ways, youth ministry has impacted and shaped the core leaders of adult ministry today. I used to not put youth ministry only announcements for Sunday announcements, since I too, once believed youth ministry was it’s own bubble. But now, I am very willing to inform church members, even about youth ministry announcements on Sunday service. This is because I believe youth ministry and adult ministry are linked and dependent on one another. And specifically, I believe youth ministry blessings, become direct blessings to adult ministry as well. There will be an upcoming graduation service. This is not just a routine thing we do every year for students moving on from high school, but also an acknowledgement of members from youth house church transitioning into adult house church. There will also be an upcoming youth shepherd appreciation as new youth shepherd appointment ceremony. Again, these are not just youth ministry staffing changes that made it’s way into Sunday service, but highlights and celebrates adult members who have caught our mission to restore the new testament church. These adult members return to their house churches as stronger house church members, because they understand the shepherd’s heart. So when you see a youth ministry announcement don’t dismiss it as irrelevant information, but rejoice for we are one church, one body, with many parts (1 Cor 12:12). And when you see a youth ministry budget increase, don’t think “youth ministry is taking all our money.” Think “that is a great investment for our entire church.” Because successes in youth ministry always flow in the direction of adult ministry.

Anthony

Youth Pastor