by David Hanson | Sep 18, 2013 | The Youth Ministry Blog
Organizationally
1. How can the Youth Ministry play a larger role in the church?
2. What perception does my church have about youth ministry? Does it need work?
Personally
3. How am I growing in my understanding of adolescent culture/development/faith?
4. Is my family suffering because of my church ministry?
5. Do I have a Paul (mentor) and do I have a Timothy (disciple)?
Spiritually
6. How am I expanding in theological understanding?
7. What is feeding my soul outside of sermon/small group preparation?
by David Hanson | Sep 16, 2013 | Podcast, The Youth Ministry Blog
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Welcome to The 3rd Youth Ministry Blog Podcast!
Summary:
1. Do a meet-n-greet for 6th Graders (or whatever your transition grade might be).
Regardless of when students enter your area of ministry, you will want to do some form of Meet-n-Greet event. If you are a high school pastor, use it to get to know your incoming Freshmen and their parents. If you are in “tweener” ministry with 4th & 5th graders, do it to help parents terrified their “little baby” is growing up.
2. Use it to establish rapport with parents!
Building trust and rapport with parents is crucial. Make sure the first experience they have with you (and your ministry) is a positive and encouraging one. Use this time to cast vision for the parents. Project where you would like to see little Johnny be by the time he exits your ministry. Tell them what you hope to accomplish, how you can work as a team, and what resources are available to them. When you end your time with these new parents, make sure you make yourself available. Let the parents know they can come to you at ANY time, not just after little Johnny gets caught __________.
3. Use it to get to know your new students.
If you have been working in tandem with your Children’s ministry, then many of the students might already know you. Use this time to get to know them a little better. Break down some of the walls they might have built about how “scary” the student ministry can be. Give them something like a t-shirt from a past event, a youth ministry sticker, really anything free will go a long way with new students!
4. Resources:
MailChimp Email Service – Free & Easy way to start a Newsletter to parents!
Parent Point Card – Download and print on card stock.
Parent Point PNG – Use this to brand your parent communications
Share the Love:
1. Subscribe to the Podcast
2. Leave me an honest review
by David Hanson | Sep 10, 2013 | The Youth Ministry Blog
It seems like every conference I’ve gone to in the last year has had a common theme woven through them. The practice of discipleship keeps coming up. We Christians love to come up with discipleship plans and models. We are hooked on the idea that we can come up with the perfect methodology to make other people more like Jesus.
I have yet to find a passage in the Gospels where Jesus clearly defines the process of discipleship. In fact, Jesus’ plan of discipleship seems to be simply “Follow me.” It’s in observing, listening and imitating Jesus that we become like Him. Paul followed suit when he said, “you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” (1 Cor. 11:1 NLT)
So, this naturally leads me to the questions “What should discipleship look like in our youth ministries?”
If you’re looking for a five-point answer to this question then you can stop reading because I don’t have one. Instead I have a thought.
What if a key factor of the discipleship of teens is to normalize the Christian faith.
Let me unpack that. Normalizing the Christian faith does NOT mean that we live ordinary lives. It does’t mean that teens are unchallenged to take risks for the Gospel.
To normalize the Christian faith is to create an environment where teens see how the Christian life fits into their everyday normal lives.
Many of our ministries do the exact opposite. Think of the last evangelism push that you did in your youth group. Did you make a big deal about your students inviting their friends or talking to others about Jesus? Did you bring someone up and give them a big prize (as I have done in recent months)? I think an unintended consequence of these kinds of over exuberant celebrations is that we communicate that evangelism is hard and takes an extraordinary level of faith.
In discipleship we create an environment where they see that following Christ means a radical shift in what we think “normal” is. This radical shift leads to a new normal where prayer, scripture, sacrifice and sharing Christ happen everyday because of our new identity in Christ.
An example of normalizing is that over the past year, I’ve been getting into healthier patterns of eating and exercise. I had to break many unhealthy habits, including my love for cheese covered foods. Over the course of the year I have “normalized” my portion sizes and my food choices. Has it been easy? No way! But because I’ve become accustomed to my new normal and seen the difference it makes in my own life, I am changed from the inside out. When we normalize discipleship we communicate to our students that the Christian life is a way different kind of life, but it is available for everyone not just the super-spiritual.
For us, this means that this semester we are experimenting with normalizing the practice of evangelism. Instead of making it a big deal, we’re going to talk about it as if it’s an everyday occurrence. Instead of counting successes for our win column, we’re going to share stories of students trying (even failing) and we’re going to learn from it. Instead of coming up with a one size fits all method, we’re going to help our students feel natural talking about Jesus and addressing questions in everyday conversations. We hope that by not hyping up evangelism, more students will actually feel that sharing Christ is within their reach.
What about you? Is there an aspect of the Christian life that you would like to see normalized in your students? What are you going to do to make that practice a new normal for them?
Kevin Libick is a Middle School Pastor living in Fort Worth, TX with his wife Kara and her two cats. He is a novice banjo picker and expert Hawaiian food eater. Kevin loves to connect with other youth workers and equip them to live out their calling in God’s Kingdom. Connect with Kevin on Twitter: @kevinlibick
by David Hanson | Sep 5, 2013 | The Youth Ministry Blog
I have a confession to make: I’m an optimist.
By nature I can spin anything to a positive. If I accidentally cut off one of my fingers, I would be happy that I still have nine others. If my dog got run over, I would be excited about getting a new puppy. I know, “that’s just wrong,” but yes, I have a serious positivity problem.
But I’m not alone. I am preaching through the book of Philippians with my students on Sunday mornings and I’m pretty sure Paul was the supreme optimist. At the end of chapter one, Paul states, “The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.” (Philippians 1:17-18)
In this passage we find Paul in prison in Rome writing to the church at Philippi where there are other leaders trying to replace Paul’s headship. What if that happened to you? What if you got thrown in prison for preaching, then a week later you found out that your church had hired a new youth pastor? Would you be as optimistic as Paul?
“Well, at least the gospel is being proclaimed!” Even I have a hard time spinning that…
Here’s the deal: I think students need a healthy dose of positivity! Every day they are surrounded by negativity…it’s called High School. But I also think I, I mean we, can go too far.
So this morning I unleashed my rarely seen, “Negative Nancy.” I was at a morning school Bible study and I wanted to prepare students for what troubles the upcoming year could hold. I wanted them to understand that our joy in Christ is not dependent upon our circumstances.
Paul got it. Paul was in prison and being replaced, but Paul didn’t see his circumstances…Paul saw Jesus.
I pray that my optimism would not be self-induced, but the result of Christ in me. I pray that you would find your joy in Him. I pray that we would prepare students for the hardships of life in a way that does not create a false sense of security, but in a way that points them to Jesus regardless of circumstance.
by David Hanson | Sep 4, 2013 | The Youth Ministry Blog
“Don’t forget to drop off your prayer requests in the big white box at the back of the room!”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said that phrase.
On our weekly bulletin we have a “Let’s Get Acquainted” tear off that allows students to write down prayer requests.
While this is FAR from ground-breaking, I have discovered a few things about communication cards:
1. If they are an option, you will get a minimal response.
2. If you provide a response space in the service, where they are focused to writing out prayer requests, you will gain invaluable insight into the hurts and struggles of teenagers.
My challenge: Mark off the last few minutes of an upcoming service for your students to write down prayer requests.
Oh, and then ACTUALLY PRAY over those requests!
