“Pastors ask me, “Where did u get all those young leaders?” I invested in them when they were teens that nobody wanted!” -Willie George

I am at youth camp right now with a bunch of teenagers! I love it! I’ve been working with teenagers for over 8 years! It’s been a blast and I am just starting to see the returns on some of my investments in the next generation. It’s an amazing thing. I thought I’d share with you some things I’ve learned about investing in the next generation:

Investing in the Next Generation is Always Worth it - it may not always seem like it. It may not always seem like they care or that they are paying attention, but they do and they are.

You Don’t Always See the Return on Your Investment until Years Later -Some of the most rewarding days of my life are when I see students that were in our youth ministry years ago, and they come back and talk about what God is doing in their life and how thankful they were for people who invested in them while they were young.

The Next Generation is the Future – When you invest in the next generation, you’re investing in something that will outlive you! You’re creating the future. You’re creating your legacy.

The Next Generation will Help Keep You Relevant if You Invest in Them – One day, I won’t be as cool as I am now. I don’t really believe that, but it’s probably true! One day, I’ll need to rely on the next generation to help me connect and reach their generation as well as the one coming up behind them.

When You Invest in the Next Generation, You Never Know Who You’re Investing In - John Maxwell tells the story often of having Larry Bird in his church’s youth ministry. He said, “Do you think if I knew I had Larry Bird in my youth ministry, I would have spent more time with him?”

This is one of my favorite pictures. It was taken in 2006. On the left is Zack Blair, a great friend that now oversees the youth and young adult ministries at Victory! I’m on the right. In the middle is Pastor Larry Bettencourt. Pastor Larry invested in Zack and I when we were young and right out of high school. He believed in us, invested in us, and gave us opportunities that we would have never had otherwise.

It’s been 8 or 9 years since PL invested in us. In the beginning we were two 18 year old kids, now it’s 10 years later and we’re both doing great things. At the time, Pastor Larry probably had no idea what we would be doing with the investment he made in us. The reality is, when you invest in something or someone, you don’t know what they’re going to do with the investment, if they do anything at all. However, I’m convinced that we wouldn’t be where we are today if Pastor Larry didn’t invest in us in spite of the risk involved.

Who invested in you when you were young? Who were the teachers, youth pastors, and coaches that made an impact in your life?

Let’s pay that forward. Invest in the next generation. Go for it. The payoff is always worth it in the end!

 Two years ago, my friends and I were playing pick-up hockey for fun and decided to join a deck-hockey league. Our first season, we went 0-10 and lost in our first playoff game. Our second season, we won 2 games. Every season we got better. On Monday, we won our first championship. This was our 6th season together as a team. I was reflecting back on our journey and wrote down a few things I learned about teamwork along the journey. I thought I’d share them with you!

Winning Teams Believe They Can Win – This sounds simple, but it’s not always easy to convince everyone on the team that a team can realistically win it all. Until everyone on the team is entirely convinced it can do anything, your team will struggle and be held back from reaching its full potential!

Winning Teams Need Attitude Captains – Every team has players who will complain and see the worst in every situation. It takes an “attitude captain” to make sure everyone is inspired and excited about what is happening.

Winning Teams Need To Hold Each other to a High Standard – You should expect nothing but the best from your teammates! If someone starts to lower their standards, you need to confront them about it! It will make them better! Purpose to bring out the best in every player on your team!

Winning Teams Trust Each Other – If the team doesn’t trust each other, no one will be able to hold anyone to a high standard.

Winning Teams Coach Each Other - Though my personality by nature hates getting criticized and corrected, I learned to love them both while I was playing. I must have heard my teammates scream, “BUBBA! Do this ____” a million times while I was playing! At first I got embarrassed and wanted to just sit on the bench. Eventually, I learned to love it. In the long run, it made me better and I respect the people who were willing to speak the truth in love to me more than those who don’t speak up at all.

Winning Teams Need the Right Players – “Not everyone who starts the journey with you will finish the journey with you.” It is sad, but it is true. Our team only has 4 players from our original team. If you want to win, you need to get the right players on your team!

A Winning Team Realizes that the Goal is More Important than the Role – This was a hard obstacle to overcome. Who gets the most “ice” time? Who gets to play the power play? Who gets to play the last two minutes of the game? We all had to overcome selfishness and lay down our own desires for the good of the team!

A Winning Team has a Leader – Everything rises and falls on leadership. Every team needs someone to cast vision, give direction, handle problems, and make tough decisions.

A Winning Team has Fun Together – This is extremely important. If you’re not having an absolute blast journeying together, what is the point? Have fun. Make memories. Take pictures. Laugh often. That’s what it’s all about!

Have you been on a winning team before?

What qualities did that team possess that was responsible for the success of the team?

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. -Hebrews 11:6

At this point in my life, I can say that life is better than it has ever been! I couldn’t always say this. In fact, there was a point where I thought life kept getting worse than it had ever been! The following is an excerpt from a message from Keith Moore that I have listened to over and over and over again. It helped me immensely! It helped me believe in the goodness of God. It helped me believe in the faithfulness of God. It helped me believe in the sovereignty of God! I hope that you’ll be encouraged by it:

“How can you tell if you believe something? You get excited.Talking about the good words of the Lord, if you believe them, you will get excited, every time.

How many of you have had some good things happen in the past? How about better? Sign you up? How about better? Better than the best you’ve ever had. Better than the best you’ve ever experienced. Can God do that? Is He big enough to do that? Is He good enough to do that? Yes! So I’m looking for it. The bible says seek and you shall find. Look for it, and you’ll find it.

So rest of the service, on the way out, tomorrow, just look at somebody and say, “Life is better than it’s ever been!”

“It’ll be so with the physical body, it’ll be so with marriages, it’ll be so with children, and it will be so with finances . . .It won’t be long. People sitting here, people watching this broadcast now and later whose situation has been dire. Their family, friends, and co-workers  know how tough and stressful it has been. But in not many days, they’ll ask them, “Well how goes it? How is it?” And with a smile they’ll say, “It’s better than it has ever been! Ever been! It’s never been this good! At it’s best, it was never this good.” -Keith Moore

No matter how discouraged I got, I kept believing that God would bring me to a place where life would be better than it has ever been. Right now, life is better than it’s ever been! It didn’t happen overnight, but I just kept believing! 

 I believe that if you’ll trust God and believe that He is a good God and wants the best for you, that it won’t be long until you are saying about your life: “It’s better than it has ever been. Ever been. It’s never been this good. At it’s best, it was never this good.”

God is big enough and good enough to give you a life that is better than it’s ever been.

Believe it!