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May is tough on youth workers
May is youth ministries weirdest month
- Attendance and interest typically fades.
- Things like prom, impending graduation, end of the school year studying, spring concerts, and spring sports ending all fit into a tiny window. It’s nearly impossible to program anything.
- You want to put a bow on your youth ministry year with a party or something, but it often feels like all the air is out of the balloon.
Danger Month
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Four Hours of Summit Videos
Go ahead and melt your brain for the next four hours with these Summit videos. Go back-to-back 19 times. Amazing stuff.
Today we are announcing the first round of speakers for The Summit 2014 in Nashville. We’ve also extended the event to 2 full days at no additional cost. (We used to charge $40 for Pre-Summit sessions, they are now included.)
We’d sure love to have you there.
Perks! If you register in the month of May for $149 ($20 cheaper for groups) we’re giving you $145.99 in perks. Like I said, we’d sure love to have you there.
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Do you own that? Ethical considerations for church workers
“Make sure you know who owns what.”
I remember Bob MacRae, my undergrad advisor, telling that to a class full of youth ministry majors about the stuff that you acquire and produce as part of your job.
This brought up ethical questions like:
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My 4 goals as a small group leader
As a youth ministry volunteer here’s what I’m not able to do.
- I don’t guide the programming or the overall things we do in our ministry.
- I don’t guide what’s taught.
- I can’t control the environment, how the room looks or feels.
- I don’t know every student that comes, I struggle to remember the names of the guys in my group.
- I can’t be at every youth group event or activity, much less attend sporting events or just randomly show up like I did when I was in full-time church-based ministry.
In truth, just showing up on Wednesday night for a few hours is about all I’ve got to offer the high school ministry. It is important to me. At the same time, just being blunt, helping in the high school ministry is not my number one priority these days… it’s not the trump card it was when I was on staff at a church or even when Kristen and I were volunteers in our mid-20s.
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Assume the Best in Everyone
- Most people are generally good.
- Stranger danger doesn’t apply, necessarily, to adults.
- Crime is way down. You grew up in a more dangerous society than your kids.
In yesterday’s post, Impending Doom, I shared about a segment of our society whose entire life narrative is built around the hope they find in a world headed to hell in a hand basket, praying for and even seeking to manipulate world events to usher in the imminent return of Jesus.
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Impending Doom
Last month, I drove from Nashville, Tennessee to Starkville, Mississippi for a Sunday afternoon speaking engagement. As I drove across rural Alabama and Mississippi, through small towns, flooded fields, and by countless small farms, I got a glimpse into a religious phenomenon oddly familiar.
On this drive were hundreds of religious signs. Most mentioned the name of a church or the times of a service. But many focused on a central message: Impending Doom.
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Simple Growth Strategy
A big term in college basketball this year was, “Are you the hunter or are you the hunted?” In other words: Are you the aggressor?
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Vision Trip Report
The cool moist Pacific air greeted me. I sent a text to Kristen, who was waiting in the cell phone lot. “I’m outside.” Three minutes prior I walked off my Southwest flight from Chicago, the last leg of my return flight from Port au Prince. A few minutes later and I saw her pull up in our white minivan. She slid over to the passenger seat, I tossed my bags into the back, and the trip was officially over.
