by David Hanson | Jul 14, 2015 | On the Job, The Youth Ministry Blog
If you have already been to camp this summer, you’ll want to remember this for next summer. If you have yet to go to camp (I leave this coming Sunday!) then it’s not to late to take this extra step!
What’s this extra step?
Get your adult congregation to join you at camp…through prayer.
Here’s the reality, summer camp in youth ministry can either be something that only effects 20% of your church, or it can be something that reaches 100% of your congregation. One small step will get the remaining 80% of your congregation on the summer camp train.
That small step is prayer bracelets.
Each year, I buy some cheap Tyvek wristbands. Like the one’s you get at waterparks. I then write the name of each student and adult going with us to camp on these wristbands (one name per wristband). You will want to make a few more than the average weekly attendance of your church.
Doing this ensures that a handful of adults will be praying for EACH student that is with you at camp! How cool is that?! Ask your pastor if you can make a verbal announcement and ask your congregation to take a wristband and commit to praying for one student each day for the week you are at camp. It’s totally worth the time, and you’ll end of doing it every year!
If you love this idea, be sure to share it so that other Youth Workers can use it also!
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David Hanson: Texas native, Texas Tech Red Raider, M.Div. at Truett Seminary, husband to Ashley, father to Ava & Ben, Student Pastor at The Fellowship in Round Rock, Tx, table tennis (ping-pong) extraordinaire, addicted to coffee. For anything else…you’ll just have to ask.
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by David Hanson | Jul 8, 2015 | On the Job, The Youth Ministry Blog
Taking students around the world to see God’s global mission is one of the great joys of Youth Ministry. Watching the eyes of students opened to God’s heart for the poor, oppressed, and marginalized is priceless. A well planned and organized mission trip can be an Ebenezer in a students life. What follows are 20 Mission Trip Musts that have helped make mission trips successful. A Mission Trip Guide per se:
- Talk with church staff about global, national, local mission relationships
- Use a Mission Trip Middle Man (Makarios, The Global Orphans Project, Praying Pelican) who has a long-term commitment to a church/location/people group.
- Recruit Leaders for the trip. Assign logistical duties to each leader.
- Open Trip Registration and interview potential team members. Pick a team.
- Schedule 5 pre-trip meetings.
- 1st Meeting: Cover trip logistics (passports, immunizations, etc), fundraising, and assign mandatory reading (When Helping Hurts, The Hole in Our Gospel).
- 2nd Meeting: Cover the purpose of the trip. Is the trip focused on service, discipleship & evangelism, partnership development, or vision casting?
- 3rd Meeting: Focus on Spiritual Development. What are you learning from the readings? Assign team members a prayer partner and travel buddy who will keep them accountable and cover the other in prayer.
- 4th Meeting: Do something fun together. Have a cook-out, invite families, and conclude the night with families praying over the mission team.
- 5th Meeting: Have a packing party where all bags are weighed and supplies are checked and double-checked. (Best done the day or two days before.)
- Begin each day of the mission trip with personal quite times. Encourage journaling.
- During the trip drink lots of water, work your bottom off, and watch God move.
- Regardless of the purpose of the trip, emphasize to team members that relationships are most important. Encourage them to actively engage with locals.
- Each night of the trip have a team debrief. Ask: Where did you see God at work today? Who did you see God using? What did God teach you about himself?
- After debrief, let different members lead a team devotional each night.
- Bringing someone who can lead the team in worship through song is always a plus and helps set the tone for evening meetings.
- Each morning, have the team draw names out of a hat. Each team member will write an encouraging note to that person.
- The last night, turn the corner during your evening debrief. Emphasize how our mission field happens to be the location and people God has placed before us. Our jobs, families, schools, and communities are our mission field.
- Also, have you team prepare to share their experience. They should be able to answer:
- What did God do on your trip?
- What did God do in your heart?
- What are you going to do now?
- Have a team meeting a week or two after you return. Ask what joys and frustrations they have experienced upon re-entry to everyday life. Pray that all would embrace a missional mindset and fulfill the promptings God has given each of them.
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David Hanson: Texas native, Texas Tech Red Raider, M.Div. at Truett Seminary, husband to Ashley, father to Ava & Ben, Student Pastor at The Fellowship in Round Rock, Tx, table tennis (ping-pong) extraordinaire, addicted to coffee. For anything else…you’ll just have to ask.
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by David Hanson | Jul 3, 2015 | On the Job, The Youth Ministry Blog
This past week I was in the Dominican Republic. It was an amazing and transformative week. It was also a breath of fresh air, as I was able to rely on so many people to help pull this trip off. You see, I was dropped into this trip. I’ve only been on staff at my new church for 2 months and this student mission trip was planned sometime last year!
This week was an excellent reminder that the best ministry you will participate in is the ministry others have been empowered to do. You as a youth pastor/worker are not the be all/end all when it comes to youth ministry events/trips/gatherings.
Yes, there is a feeling in your gut that if you don’t stick your fingerprints on it somehow it won’t turn out the way it should…but that’s simply not true.
Get over yourself and empower others!
That’s it for today.
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David Hanson: Texas native, Texas Tech Red Raider, M.Div. at Truett Seminary, husband to Ashley, father to Ava & Ben, Student Pastor at The Fellowship in Round Rock, Tx, table tennis (ping-pong) extraordinaire, addicted to coffee. For anything else…you’ll just have to ask.
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by David Hanson | Jun 17, 2015 | On the Job, The Youth Ministry Blog
This summer, we will be changing up the way we structure our teaching time on Wednesday night. During the school year we have a sermon followed by small groups where students break down the message and then exhort each other in community.
While this system has served us well, the groups, divided by grade and gender, tend to be larger and quickly get off track. Our Small Group Leaders do a great job facilitating discussion surrounding the message, but you can only wrangle 20 7th grade girls for so long!
This summer, we’re going to switch it up a bit. The goal is for students to own their faith. Students need to learn what they believe, why they believe, and know how to talk about what they believe.
We are going to seek to achieve this by getting students into small groups led by both Small Group Leaders, upper classmen, and our Summer Interns. Our system will include a master teacher teaching in short 5 minute bursts and then initiating discussion questions that will be carried out by the table leaders. Table leaders will then seek to get students talking about what they believe and why they believe. Am I a little nervous about protecting correct doctrine? Sure. Am I a little worried about what will be discussed at each table? Sure. But I know that students “getting it right” will only be a by-product to students first learning to think critically as they verbalize their thoughts and feelings.
[shareable]If youth workers answer all the questions, students are robbed of opportunities to think, process, and develop faith. @YMinBlog[/shareable]
With this in mind, what do you do to get students talking? How do you give students the opportunity to verbalize their faith? Comment below!
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David Hanson: Texas native, Texas Tech Red Raider, M.Div. at Truett Seminary, husband to Ashley, father to Ava & Ben, Student Pastor at The Fellowship in Round Rock, Tx, table tennis (ping-pong) extraordinaire, addicted to coffee. For anything else…you’ll just have to ask.
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by David Hanson | Jun 4, 2015 | On the Job, The Youth Ministry Blog
This past Wednesday we kicked off Summer a littler early with a Paint War. We wanted students to be excited for everything that’s ahead this summer and what better way then with hot dogs, worship, a short message, and a paint war?
Our students hand an absolute blast! We rented a pavilion at a near-by park where we grilled hot dogs, socialized, threw the ball & frisbee, played 9-square, worshiped, jumped into the Word, and then had our paint war. This is a great summer event that you can pull off! With minimal supplies, you can host your own paint war…and it’s totally worth is simply for the fun, community, and awesome pictures!
I HIGHLY encourage you to host your own paint war. And here’s the deal, I’m going to make it easy for you. Click the button below and I will send you a Paint War Cheat Sheet with all the details/graphics/supplies/rules you will need to pull off your own Paint War! You’re Welcome! Enjoy!
Click Here for a Paint War Cheat Sheet
by David Hanson | May 21, 2015 | On the Job, The Youth Ministry Blog
For the last several months I have been researching what impact too much screen time can have on our kids. As I have gone deeper and deeper into the research I found that both young girls and young boys suffer under the consequences of too much screen time. But overwhelmingly, it is the boys, our future young men who suffer the major consequences associated with too much screen time.
Scientists have mapped out the brain growth in individual children and teenagers and have shown that during the ages of three and twelve there are some hardwired connections made in the front of the brain. This is the area that controls attention. These are connections that must be made for young men to function cognitively in the world. But those connections are being broken, or at best, rewired during their over use of screens.
Other studies show that those connections being made are not for the benefit of the young man. Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane in their book Growing Up Social say, “With increased screen use, the neural circuits that control the more traditional learning methods used for reading, writing, and sustained concentration are neglected.”
So it is not only that an abundance of screen time is rewiring the brains of our young men but that it is rewiring it in such a way that these young men are not gaining proficiency in areas that will help them grow. Their brains are being broken in the areas that are specifically needed to help them excel in school and in life.
Their reading levels are lower. Their writing abilities are hindered. They are no longer able to concentrate. One study found, “Tissue development can be retarded in certain parts of the brain, especially among young children whose brains are developing rapidly. The human brain is genetically wired to develop in natural, sensorial, and kinesthetic settings by doing things with one’s senses. A brain that develops in front of a screen for too long can miss out on its natural growth trajectory.”
This rewiring sets young men back in their mental development. This is something that we cannot afford to allow to continue. This decreased mental capacity leads to other problems as they grow into their adult years.
There is more research out there that I could share with you but hopefully you see that our young men are facing a problem today. It is a problem that they are not even aware of. We, as adults, must begin to work on solutions. I am afraid that our young men are going to be stuck in adolescence. I am scared that we are not developing creative, thoughtful, virtuous men. What can be done? I offer two points of action.
Become Aware
By reading the information in this article you have been introduced to some of the facts available about the consequences of too much screen time for our young men. But you should also do some real life research.
Watch the young men around you. What happens when they play video games for a while? Do you notice a change in their attitude? Do you notice any behavior changes? Have you noticed a change in performance in school as your young man spends more time in front of a screen? As you become more aware of what happens you will realize that screen time is not neutral in the life of the young men around you. Hopefully this new found awareness will move you to action.
Offer Challenges
Young men are wired to be challenged. They are wired to grow through challenges. Frankly, we do not challenge our young men enough. We do not challenge them to grow emotionally or mentally or even physically. Why are they so drawn to video games that deal with war and fighting? Because they long for challenges. Video games offer challenges and adventures that our young men are not having in the real world. False world challenges are not challenges at all. We must begin challenging our young men to grow and develop in the real world.
Challenge them to read a book. Challenge them to serve their community. Challenge them to learn a sport. Challenge them to learn to play a musical instrument. Challenge them to learn another language. Challenge them to memorize Scripture. The possibilities are endless. Find something they are interested in and challenge them to grow in that area.
It is my opinion that we cannot wait any longer to act. Our world is hurting for men. It is hurting for men that can think. Men that can solve problems. Men that stand on principles. Men that will fight for what is right. You and I are responsible for developing this generation of boys into men.
Let us get to it!
“Tomorrow’s illiterate will not be the man who can’t read; he will be the man who has not learned to learn.” – Alvin Toffler
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Richard Hawthorne grew up in Oklahoma (Boomer Sooner) but now lives in the Panhandle of Texas. He received his M.Div. from Criswell College in 2012. He has served in student ministry for 6 years.
He has been married for 12 years and has three daughters. He loves to spend time with his girls and is actively preparing for the day when they begin dating…..at the age of 25! He also loves to buy books and sometimes read them. His wife has had to set a monthly budget to control his monthly book purchases.
He also loves to connect with other like-minded in people in ministry. He especially likes to write and you can read some other stuff he has written on his blog sameshirtyesterday.net
He would love to connect with you on social media!
Instagram and twitter @rahawthorne
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