I have a good friend who is a pastor, and we had one of our several disagreements when he said, “As a pastor, my people should never have to hear me say the same thing twice.” I couldn’t disagree more. His point was that he should have so much to teach that his messages shouldn’t ever repeat. I understand his perspective, but people rarely learn what is taught the first time. Every leader should wrestle with how to communicate the most critical principles as often as possible in as many ways possible. This is called creative redundancy.

Some of the most creative messages I have ever heard use this technique to reinforce key concepts. Amazing teachers like Rick Warren and Andy Stanley are masters of creative redundancy. Years go by, and I still hear the main principles that they repeat, re-repeat, and so on. Things stick easily in your brain and are more quickly put into action when someone finds multiple ways to communicate a concept.

This is relevant to me because I am wrestling with how to continue telling people about my book College Impact: Empowering Collegiate Christians for Campus Influence without boring them or desensitizing them to my message. Marketers and advertisers know how to use creative redundancy and use it in their promotional materials. Consider the insurance company, Geico. They have a gecko, a caveman, and an announcer. The big goal is the same, buy their insurance, but the vehicle is adjusted to ensure that every person hears the message.

So, I am in the process of figuring out how to say, “Buy College Impact” in new ways to ensure that it is an option for college students. The big goal is an awakening on college campuses, and I believe that my book is a part of the way that is going to happen. It’s the same message that I have been saying for a while, but I may need to say it in a new way.

I am a bit of an oddball in college ministry circles. College ministries are similar to churches in that they have a large emphasis on the amount of people that will come to a gathering. Although, I enjoy being a part of large gatherings of students and leaders, I see those times as rare. Some of my peers look at me like I am crazy when I tell them that the largest amount of students I have at one place at one time is during an outreach event.

I see the benefits of having hundreds students come to a weekly worship times, but that just hasn’t been my area of strength. At my local church we have a monthly worship gathering and it is small in comparison to the much larger outreach times. We have several hundred students that attend our church, which is good. But, the students that attend the more intimate connections are mobilizing to reach their campuses. That is what I care most about!

Too many students and Christians for that matter look at the wrong metrics. If I have people coming to hear my great messages and very few of them move to action I see that as failure. The ministry shouldn’t be mostly sitting and listening, it should be engaging with the culture for Christ sake. The sitting and learning should be motivation for impact.

I am not trying to devalue mega-churches (I am a college pastor at a local mega-church). I am not saying that people who focus on large numbers are bad leaders. I’m not even saying that I won’t have a regular large offering for students. I am saying that we should be more known for the students that are making a difference than for the amount we can have sitting for a message. If our students are great listeners and bad missionaries then that is a reason to lament. If we have few students but most of them are missional than success. The goal should be to send them all!

So, if you’re looking at my leadership consider this. My staff that have embraced this perspective and they are strategically in place at Golden Key, Kennesaw State University, Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and Emory University. Or that I have students who are kingdom leaders at Spelman College, Kennesaw State, University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, University of Michigan, and Elon University just to name a few. Those are better metrics.

I adopted this saying for 2009, “Don’t be stupid”. I taught it to my students, and it became a rally cry for many of them. On the surface, this statement may seem either a bit harsh or overly simple, but I believe it is appropriate. This statement was at its core a call to overcome the sins that so easily knock us off course Hebrews 12:1. All Christians struggle with something whether pride, insecurity, lust, laziness, etc. No one is exempt. We are not doomed to yield to these challenges, but rather to submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee James 4:7.

Our problem is that we can get real stupid when it comes to our own struggles. We are brilliant when it comes to seeing issues in the lives of others. But, we can be as blind as bats when trying to seeing our flaws. I am no different; this is a part the human condition. It’s why we need the Holy Spirit to convict of our sins because we tend miss it at times. This is not an excuse for sin, but an admission of weakness and our great need for a Holy God.

Don’t be stupid. It’s interesting to me that we have a tendency to venture dangerously close to our own sin areas, and then we are shocked when we fall spiritually. We play with fire, and wonder why we keep getting burned. So, don’t be stupid. I have had people tell me that they thought they we mature enough to try (you fill in the blank), and that is why they messed up. My response to them that maturity knows where you are most tempted and stays away from those environments. That’s like expecting a former alcoholic to succeed working at a brewery. Don’t be stupid.

I present this statement to you in the hopes that it will ring in your ears whenever you are seduced by rationalization of your weakness. The Bible gives us the solution, “Don't be so naive and self-confident. You're not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it's useless. Cultivate God-confidence.” 1 Corinthians 10:12 (MSG). We have to tell ourselves, “Don’t be Stupid”, only because we have such a propensity to be. 

I think this generation is different from previous ones. Without a doubt, there are ways and tendencies that are consistent with cultures and peoples throughout time. The Bible says, “There is nothing new under then sun” Ecclesiastes 1:9.

The uniqueness of the 21^st century is that there are more distractions than ever before. Every moment can actually be consumed with things that are trivial. Never before have we had an opportunity to watch hundreds of television stations. And when you add to that the barrage of tweets, facebook updates, and cell phone conversations, it’s easy to see the many things vying for our attention.

As Christians, we are encouraged to grow in our faith by Bible reading and praying. Those two activities can seem boring and slow in comparison to the instant information and interaction that our technology allows. Why spend the time reading when I can just do a word search for the answers I need? Why spend time praying and waiting on God when I have the world feeding me what I want to hear at a push of a button? I believe that today’s Christians have to face the challenge of finding God through the clutter of the other stuff that fills our lives. To the degree we do that successfully is to the degree that we will engage with God in a way that changes us and gives us hope to give others.

So what is the solution? I believe that the solution for the 21^st century Christian is the same “old” truth of the Bible. It’s to find God more pleasurable and engaging than everything else. That is relatively easy because He already is. We can put so much on our faith that we forget the basics. God is more glorious, beautiful, and desirable than anything else in all of creation.

So when faced with the decision to connect with Almighty God or play the latest game console, we choose to throw the console out the window (not literally, but you get the point). When the decision comes to engage in this love relationship with the Alpha and Omega or to send one more tweet, it’s simple. Go for that which will satisfy, and only He can do that! When the followers of Christ see Him exalted above all else, we automatically compel others to come and see. May God ruin us for all other fleeting pursuits.

It’s my job to prepare young adults to live effective Christian lives that are not dependent on their parents and me. It’s one of the hardest parts of my work. Pastors all over the world know that feeling. It encourages you and hurts you all at the same time. It’s encouraging to see the people that I have poured my life into move forward in what God has for them. It hurts to see these same people leave and no longer be immediately available. I call this the pastoral paradox.

I recently had a young lady that wanted to sit down and talk with me about her life, and right away fear struck me, “Is she going to tell me of her intentions to leave?”, I thought. My heart sank, and I had no idea what the purpose of our conversation would be. That is the tension present within this profession.

Any pastor worth his/her salt would want their followers to fulfill their God given destiny. The challenge arises when that destiny is somewhere else. I have seen great people of God grow increasingly offended at the thought that someone would leave their ministry. The truth is that we are not to be the final stop for everyone. This is especially true for me as a college pastor. Most of my students will leave to pursue the careers that their degrees demand.

I am learning to hold on to people loosely. This job requires that we lead with open hands. We are to carefully watch the sheep God has given us and keep them from harm. Conversely, we are to bless them into whatever God has for them. Some times that thing God has is away from us. It hurts to see the birdies fly from the nest, but I am proud to be the one who gave them the lessons necessary for soaring. That’s the pastoral paradox.

The rub is that people won’t always leave when I am ready for them to, but rather when they sense God’s leading. Even if I see a crash and burn coming, it can be more detrimental to try to stop them from taking the chance than to let them learn through the things they suffer. The goal should ever be to teach people so well that even if they are not successful in their attempt they know how to follow God’s leading to get back up. Pastors should not be assessed based on the amount of people they can seat, but rather the amount of people they send.