Tag: youth ministry

  • How Do I Matter?

    Every person who attends your church needs to know the answer to this question. Church leaders, how are you answering it?

    There are two thoughts that lead me to this question. The first comes from Christopher Brook’s blog. He contemplates our freedom of conversion in contrast to the cost associated with that conversion. In some cultures, it has become illegal to convert from one religion to another… and that obviously presents a problem for Christianity. Even in Westernized countries our culture questions the morality of religious conversion. And it led Chris to the question, “Why are conversions down in America?” Why is it hard to have someone new come into the faith and easy for them to walk away?

    The second comes from an observation I made in talking to a former student yesterday. We were talking about her choice to change churches. At Romeo she felt as if no one really cared about her… rather focused on what could she do. Or extended guilt because of one thing or another. She’d have a few weeks where she wouldn’t be at church for various reasons. Upon returning she felt like no one really cared about her story, just immediately asked her to serve. Talk about devaluing a persons journey. She doesn’t want to come to a church where her worth is answered in “she fills a slot in ___ ministry.” And I don’t blame her.

    This leads me to say this, I think it is every churches responsibility to help their people understand how they matter. 

    People are wondering… do I fit in here? Are these my people? Am I one of them? Or am I just another body to fill a slot, fund a ministry, and boost the Sunday morning attendance by one. Here’s what they need to know.

    1. Does my service matter?

    2. How does my money matter?

    3. Do my prayers matter?

    4. Does my journey of messiness fit in?

    5. Do my vocational talents/interests matter?

    6. Do I matter enough to be loved for who I am right now?

    7. Am I worth a phone call, email, facebook message, text message?

    8. Do you love me for who I am or what I can do for you?

    Next, I wonder how many church leaders will read this and think… “How arrogant that a person would want to know how ‘they’ matter to my church? Of course they matter. I just don’t have time to tell people they matter.” My reply to that is pretty simple. People matter. It’s the reason why we do church. People are the reason there is a church. People are the reason we did all this training. People are the reason we have programs to find people to work in. People are the reason we prepare messages. It really is all about the people. And people is made up of very expensive individuals. Each one cost Christ a lot. Each individual is more valuable than your building, budget, or Bible lesson.

    Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

    For discussion: How do you express people’s worth where you go to church? 

  • Travel Day

    It’s after breakfast in Romeo and I’m wide awake here in San Diego. (4:00 am) The last 24 hours have been a blur as I commuted about 3000 miles to work yesterday. (Going home Friday) Besides the travel I did get some stuff done yesterday and I’m looking forward to getting more settled today.

    The first thing on my mind about yesterday is that people on early morning flights are boring. I’m not one who would like to talk for 4 hours to a stranger on a plane, but at the same time both flights I took yesterday morning were nearly silent. If it weren’t for the guy in 6C asking me about switching to Mac somewhere over Arizona I wouldn’t have said a word to anyone all morning. I’m all for keeping to ones self but lets all acknowledge one another as humans, OK?

    The second thing on my mind is that I have a really cool job ahead of me. Like any job my new role as “communitymeister” has a lot of things to do which are really important and will occupy my mind for more hours than I’ll admit. But there are two different aspects of my new job that have me jazzed.

    Over the last few Sunday’s numerous people at church have asked me, “So what is this new job all about?” I’ve always translated that to “I want to know if this new job is worth losing a pastor over at my church.” And people from the greater youth ministry community have been asking me to give a little more insight into my new role as well. (One friend even asked me, “Can I see your full job description?” Um, no.) So here they are… two aspects of my new job I totally dig.

    • I get to help youth workers from all over the place. It’s awesome that folks can write or call YS and get practical help and encouragement. And it’s fun to be that first connection these new volunteers and paid staffers have to the greater community of youth workers out there. I love listening to them and helping them with a couple of pointers from my experiences in the trenches… but I really, really love pointing them to places online where they can learn my most favoritestist word in all of church leadership… “Collaboration.” There’s nothing like the moment when the light bulb goes off, “You mean I’m not the only one who has a parent issue like this?”
    • I get to help tell my friends about Youth Specialties. Literally, I’ve had one day in the office and my mind is already racing with ways I can help connect this amazing staff of people with the greater community of youth workers.

    Just like at Romeo, it’s not going to be my habit to talk about work very often on my blog. Sure I will talk about things that are going on in my life or things that I’m excited about. But my purpose in blogging has never been to expose the inner workings of my job… because lets face it, that’s boring for all of us. It’s not like I’m one of those early 2000s bloggers who would rant on and on about the inner workings of their jobs. I’ve been blogging a long time. And I have rules to follow.

    My purpose in blogging has always been to expose the inner workings of my mind. And for those brave/stupid enough to want to know all about that I suggest you subscribe to my RSS feed (or email) and get ready to laugh a lot.

  • Our Big Move

    our big moveThe last few weeks have been a whirlwind… literally. First, there was the crazy phone call that started it all. Then there was a lot of prayer. Then there was the trip out there. Then there was a lot more prayer. This was followed by some very tough conversations, more prayer, and a decision. Then some waiting, some finalizing details and finally here we are.

    What’s the scoop? A week and a half ago I met with the deacons of our church to formally tell them that we are leaving our beloved ministry in Romeo to accept a new calling on our life at Youth Specialties.

    Following that, we told our students and parents followed by an announcement to the congregation on May 11th. I’ll talk more about this later… but the people here in Romeo have been amazing to Kristen and I for the last 5 years. They are either truly excited for us or are really good liars. I’d like to think they are excited for us. If they aren’t, please let me believe they are!

    In the coming days I’ll begin to share a little bit more about my time here in Romeo and describe a little more about what I’ll be doing in San Diego.

    Kristen and I are just a mashed potatoes of emotion. We are sad to leave a place we love. We are thrilled by this door God has opened for us. We don’t want to move. We do want to live in San Diego. We don’t want to leave the security of our life here. We love a little adventure.

    The byline of my blog and subplot of my life is: Crazy enough to want to change the world. The last few weeks God has gotten up in my devotions and said, “Oh really? Wanna prove it?” I don’t know about the changing the world part… but this is the most exciting and craziest thing God has ever asked us to do.

    More to come…

  • Youth Ministry & Risk

    I’ve been thinking about successful youth groups vs. unsuccessful youth groups. And truth be told the exact same thought holds true for churches.

    • Successful youth groups takes measured, bold risks.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups take few risks.
    • Successful youth groups generate excitement both internally and externally.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups are boring.
    • Successful youth groups have a two-fold reaching/teaching mode.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups have a one-fold teaching model.
    • Successful youth groups have the support of the church leadership.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups aren’t sure they have the support of church leadership.
    • Successful youth groups have intentional event planning.
    • Unsuccessful youth groups have events that are based on what kids want.

    Of course, all of this comes down to “How do you measure success in youth ministry?” How do you answer that question?

  • Twitter takes off in Youth Ministry

    twitIn the last two weeks Twitter has gotten extremely popular among Youth Ministry people. The two biggest Youth Ministry companies, Youth Specialties and Simply Youth Ministry put their Twitter accounts in this weeks newsletter. (YMX was ahead of them by a couple months on this one!) And it seems like every youth pastor around is jumping on the bandwagon now that Andy (the main dude at Simply) has a battle with Doug Fields to get to 1000 Twitter followers. (Both YS and SYM seem to be using Twitter for viral marketing, bravo!)

    I maintain that Twitter is a fad that will fade as soon as a more interesting platform is created. But for now Youth Ministry is on fire with Twitter.

    What is Twitter all about? (see the video) It answers the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less. Think of it as “open” instant messaging. I look at it as a back-channel communication for my friends. No fluff, no pontification… just simply “What are you doing?” I’ve found it a cool way to get to know people in a new capacity.

    Here’s what is happening on my Twitter right now.

    You can follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

  • Youth Ministry Ad Network

    youth ministry ad networkMaybe you’ve noticed that there is a small block of ads on the right side of my blog. What is that all about?

    Patti & I have been thinking of a very focused, very profitable (for both advertisers/bloggers) niche` ad network for youth pastors for a long time.

    Essentially, our goal with it is to connect the best youth ministry bloggers with the best youth ministry advertisers. Its a natural fit… but it needed someone to be the conduit. That’s where YMX stepped in.  For the last two years we’ve built relationships with many of the best companies in youth ministry and we’ve done “direct sales” of ads since the beginning. In other words, we’ve had our own internal ad network for a couple years… so creating another separate network was a natural fit for us.

    Next step. From there it was all about finding the right people and letting people know about it. From January 1st-March 31st we ran a pilot program. When that went well, we decided to keep it going… and here we are!

    Why is it different? Unlike the two most common forms of online advertising (Pay per click [google ads] and Pay per action [affiliate links]) our bloggers are guaranteed payment just for displaying the ads. That isn’t altogether unique… but our payment structure is! The ad network only makes 20% of the revenue… whereas the accepted standard is 50%. That means we’re passing almost all the money onto our youth ministry bloggers. They are happy. Our advertisers our happy. It’s a cool thing.

  • 10 Things I Did While My Friends Were in Florida

    I mentioned this project earlier today, here is the video. I think it turned out pretty funny. What do you think?

  • Off to Shoot a Movie

    Today I’m hanging out with my favorite peeps, the cast and crew from Light Force. We’re going to conceptualize, shoot, edit, and release a movie today.

    It’s called “10 Things I Did While My Friends Were in Florida.” We’ll be driving all over the Metro area shooting all sorts of weird things. I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

  • You Matter to Your Schools

    You Matter to Your SchoolsThis was just posted over at Youth Ministry Exchange. Here’s an excerpt:

    Here’s a thought that will blow your mind. The God of the Universe chose you to help him build the church in your town. Here’s another thought to give you some perspective. The God of the Universe has an enemy, Satan, whose deepest desire is to distract, discourage, debilitate, and destroy you. It’s as if Satan has a special department in the community you live in just for that. Just like there is a Street Department and Water Department, Satan runs the Ministry Destruction Department in your town and people like you are his number one project.  Read the rest

    (more…)

  • 3 Teen Pregnancy Resources

    Time Magazine Teen PregnancyEvery once in a while we get a great string of synergy at Youth Ministry Exchange and we really hit it out of the ballpark with solid resources.

    Today we released 3 different resources on teen pregnancy.

    Big props to Amy for putting all this together. She’s mucho good at what she does.

    I am continually in awe of what God is doing with YMX. The other day I had the opportunity to talk to a “real publisher” about YMX and publishing and starting a business and all kinds of things. As I look back at the quality of things that we are able to produce with no money, no staff, no offices, and no backing from a major publishing house… it is clearly a God-ordained movement. It really is youth ministry people encouraging and uplifting one another and sometimes I sit back and just go… whoa, this is cool.