One of my good friends and co-workers announced that he is leaving his job the other day. The good news is that it was no big deal to the volunteers who he announced it to! Though, it probably would have been good for the ol? ego for there to be weeping and gnashing of teeth, the truth is, this response is an indicator that he did a great job! One of my biggest pet peeves in youth ministry is to see a young leader get a promotion and then watch that young leader?s program die. It has nothing to do with the fact that I think the leader shouldn?t have taken the promotion. It?s not that I think the only commitment you should ever have is to youth. Let?s face it.
Number one?this is tough work and there are few who can do it for years at a time.
Secondly?.Youth Pastors are often thought of as the minor leagues for ?The Big Show.? This is the way the system has developed. Student pastors are the future leadership of the church. But this is a topic for another time. So?back to my issue. Why do we see this pattern across the country? A new person coming in, a youth group growing, that person leaving, and the youth group dying?waiting for the next big personality? Come to think of it?why is that the pattern we see in the church in general? I think the problem is us! We can be pretty cool. We are relational, so people are attracted to us. We have vision, so people are inspired by us. We are creative and do a bunch of interesting and new stuff, so people like to come see what we do. People dig us. And therein lies the problem?right there in front of our eyes. It?s us.
In my world at North Point Xtreme, our anchor is the small group leader. The only thing consistent every week is the same small group leader with the same group of kids. When my friend, with an identical program, announced he was leaving today, it was not a big deal. When I leave, the show will go on the same way. (I?m not saying it will be easy on my ego.)
Great speakers (the hooks) come inside our student ministry and then go on to do great things on bigger stages. Great bands (also hooks) minister to our kids, are developed, and head on to ?Big Church.? They go to the ?Show!? I love it when that happens?and the ministry keeps growing and doesn?t miss a beat!
So?I hope you are incredibly talented, passionate, and an amazing vision caster?but the truth is, You may be a great hook?but?it?s not about you?it can?t be about you.
Is your ministry built around a hook or an anchor? What are you doing to make sure your ministry outlives you??Tom Shefchunas is the Multi-Campus Director of Middle School @ North Point Community Church. Hit up his blog in your Google Reader for sure!
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Doug, Matt, and Jake tackle some of the best questions we’ve ever had. But before that there’s a discussion of road trips and things guys do on them. Don’t worry it’s not that long. Matt also re-thinking rudeness. Once they get to the questions they discuss keeping pride in check, being under staffed, and pastors mentoring other pastors.
- After spending the better part of 3 days with middle school youth workers at SYMC, I am (once again) convinced that many of the sharpest minds in youth ministry are found in middle school ministry!
- At a conference like SYMC (or YS or any other large gathering of youth workers) you meet lots and lots of people. It’s always such a great reminder to me that God uses an amazingly vast array of people to pour into students. I’m so thankful that the stereotypical youth worker (young, cool, plays guitar, surfs, rides skateboards, has a tattoo….) is no longer the “norm”.
- We are starting a 3-week series this weekend called “STUFF”. We are using household stuff as object lessons to teach a biblical truth. It’s a series we have done once before with great success. This week’s lesson: Take Out The Trash!
- Quite a few people tracked me down at the conference to ask me about regional campuses (basically church plants that are still part of the mother ship). Questions about how we structure etc. My simple answer: “Treat them like a franchise with freedom” They are a franchise in that there are certainly some things that they have to do in line with the main campus because they are the same church. But there shouldn’t be an overly large amount of control…they need freedom to tweak the ministry to their context.
- Dear Denver Broncos, Please get rid of Brandon Marshall.
- Dear senate and house leadership, Please either sign [...]
Every church and organization has a mission statement. And, for the most part, every ministry leader has a mission statement for their specific ministry – especially in the church. Mission statements are important because they articulate (hopefully) what we’re about, what we stand for and what we’re seeking to accomplish. These are good.
But there is something I want to point out that causes confusion. Or, at least, can. And that is church-based ministries that have a different mission statement than the church they are a part of. I see this all the time. The junior high ministry has a mission. The high school ministry will have a different one. And the church yet another one. Now, the truth is when you boil mission statements down, most churches are basically saying the same thing…just worded differently. But different mission statements in the same church?
Really?
Are we really seeking an entirely different mission? Or, are we simply seeking to move people in an age-stage toward embracing the same mission? If we’re a part of a church, I hope it’s the latter. Sure, the vision of implementing and applying that mission should be unique for age stage ministries, but it’s not a different mission! Well, at least it shouldn’t be.
Here are 3 encouragements:
Please check out this great article from my friend Eric Iverson. Good thoughts to consider whenever you’re taking your group on a mission trip.
Fuller Youth Institute – Youth Missions Article
What do you think? Is Eric right?
I asked u to post ur 3 faves and 3 “not so much” aspects of the Simply Youth Ministry Conference. Now its my turn.
My three faves? 1) Not knowing (or caring) who’s who: Did u know the color of your name tag meant something? I didn’t care and neither did most other people. Sure there are always some who want to see and be seen with the right color tag but for me? Was SO good just to hang with new and old friends. Got to know some folks a lot better over a few meals. Maybe next year we should eliminate the colors and be color blind?
2) My Small Church Track Attendees: There are other people like me! Other folks who have the same joys and concerns in ministry. People who def aren’t doing it for the pay check but do it for the love of sharing the Gospel with teens. We don’t take ourselves too seriously; no cockiness or arrogance about who we are or how big our scope is. We are who we are and we can laugh at ourselves. I had SO much fun with these folks. (Hey track attendees: FB friend request me!)
3) The Inside Track Team: I love these people like my (extended) family. Its one of the gifts God gives us in the Body of Christ. They loved, served, laughed, shared, and served some more. They share all year long about the ministry of the conference. I [...]
I don’t know about you, but I’m very excited that Conan has taken over the Tonight Show. And one of his bits is my pick for Friday Fun. He has started a Twitter Tracker to track all those fascinating celebrity tweets.
Check Out the video:
And if you want more Twitter Tracker, check out it’s site: Twitter-Tracker.
You can also follow it on Twitter: Twitter.com/Tw1tterTracker.
Happy Friday.
I have to say that of all the tools I have found, Ping.fm dulls the pain of updating mutiple social networking sites better than anything else. If you have friends and students split between twitter, myspace and facebook, the chore of updating statuses and tweets gets tedious at best. What I was looking for several months ago was a place I could go to make one post that would push to all those places. Ping.fm does just that. I log in (or click the button on my iPhone) type my status/tweet and viola, it’s done. It appears that I am taking the time to update all those places without taking the time to update all those places.
And the best part? It’s simple. It doesn’t try and cram 900 features into what should be a text box and a post button. It’s only real feature besides its accessibility and compatibility is that it allows you to group your statuses, blogs, etc. and choose which group any particular post applies to before sending it out.
Did I mention that it works with EVERYTHING? By everything I mean Jaiku, Tumblr, iMeem, Wordpress, del.icio.us… a total of 30 social networking platforms at the time of this post.
I find that it seems like I am always recommending this to friends, acquaintences and strangers looking at my iPhone, and couldn’t believe I had not shared it here. Basically, if you have more than one platform for connecting with people online, you have to start using ping.fm period.
I think the stuff that comes out of the TED conference is some of the best on the net. If you’re not familiar with TED it’s a conference and the name stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. The talks are diverse and I almost always find them fascinating. One of the best parts is they are almost all around 20 minutes, so you can get through one quickly.
This years TED conference is going on right now and here’s the talk Bill Gates gave. The title is How I’m Trying to Change the World Now. It’s worth a watch:
If you liked it I recommend subscribing to their podcast (link opens iTunes). Or if you’re an iPhone user they have an app too.
I had a hard time picking my favorite Superbowl commercial this year. None of them were in the same class as Apple’s 1984 ad, but I think this is definitely in the running. It made me laugh.
If you wanted to view them all Hulu.com has them posted. It was a great game, but you know that people will still be talking about the commercials in the morning. If you want to engage your students about these commercials check out this great download from Walt Mueller over at YouthMinistry.com, it a set of questions to help think about them critically. Could be a great thing for Small Group this week.
Check them out here: Superbowl Commercials at Hulu & Discussion Guide
I love tech podcasts. Whenever I’m at the gym, in the car, or doing yard work you can bet I’m listening to one of my favorite personalities talk tech. Here are a couple of should-not-miss podcasts centered around our favorite pastime: technology (insert Napoleon Dynamite song here). Please leave your own in the comment section.
These are a few of my favorites, but the net is not short on great tech podcasts. If you just can’t get enough stop by Tekzilla, Tech Five, Apple Phone Show, Girls Gone Geek, and Systm.
We’ve all had illustrations that didn’t quite work how we thought, but I’ve never ended up at the doctor because of one.
Do you have an illustration gone bad story? Share it in the comments, and our favorite wins a download of RaceThis 2 from Simply Youth Ministry.
Dan’s Back from Jason Mitchell on Vimeo.
Thanks to Rick Lawrence of Group Magazine for the tip off.
I just downloaded a great free CD from Phil Wickham. It’s called Singalong and was recorded live at a recent concert. I really like Phil’s music, and thought I would pass along the opportunity. Just head over to PhilWickham.com, you’ll need to give them an email address, and they’ll send you the link.
Enjoy.
I realize that this is probably a fake video, but I still tempted to try it out with the guys that run our youth room sound. They could make popcorn while they run the songs on Wed nights.
OK, this doesn’t have much to do with technology, but it is summer many of you still have summer camp or mission trips ahead of you. So I thought I would share a post I read at Stuff Christians Like. It’s “Making Purple: 11 Ways to Stop Camp Kissing.”
Here are some of my favorites:
2. Encourage bad breath
In the eighth grade I used to date a girl named Sue. After every school dance, during which boys sat sweatily on one side and girls on the other while listening to Ace of Bass, we would walk to a local pizza joint. It used to kill me when Sue would eat Cool Ranch Doritos. Those may taste great, but it makes your breath smell like warm garbage. And Smartfood white cheddar popcorn has the same effect. It tastes good but makes your fingers and your mouth smell like throw up. So instead of having a well-stocked snack table or snack booth at camp, only offer bad breath items after 5PM. Call it the “garlic pickle rule.” Don’t sell gum or mints or other things that are going to make kids’ mouths like Alpine ski resorts of freshness. Focus on things like Swiss cheese, beef jerky and other unpleasantly-flavored delights.3. Know your enemy.
Weeks before camp or a retreat begins, go over the roster of people that will be attending with your staff. Put a check by the name of everyone you think is likely to at one point kiss someone. Go ahead and put a check by any of the pastor’s kids. Don’t be fooled by the dorks either. You might think the kids playing world of warcraft 82 hours a day aren’t going to make out, but they will. As Sun Tzu says, “if you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt.”5. Get an informant.
You need an inside man. Someone that can feed you information, like when someone is sneaking out or where the sneak out spot is. You’ll be tempted to play this role yourself, but don’t. Teens can spot a youth minister trying to act cool a mile away. Instead, find someone that will do the job for you if you give them an important sounding title like “assistant to the regional manager of no kissing.”
It’s a really funny post, I encourage you to ahead over and rest the rest. And for those with summer camp, trips, or retreats still ahead of you, now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
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