Monthly Archives: May 2012

05.31.12
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Thoughts on Middle School Youth Ministry

Middle school ministry can be a very trying time for a leader. Sometimes working with middle schoolers, you wonder if anything you are doing is effective. Recently, we started taking a group of students on Wednesday’s to McDonald’s before our student ministry service. It was a small group of middle schoolers, and it slowly grew and grew! It brought up some thoughts about middle school ministry that I wanted to share with you:

  1. Not everyone is cut out for middle school ministry- Do not just throw someone into work with 7th graders. We have been guilty of this, and it is plain and simple NOT EVERY LEADER IS EQUIPPED TO WORK WITH MIDDLE SCHOOLERS! Some are, and some are not. We just recruited a guy who is able and desires to work with middle schoolers, but there are many on our leadership team who have personalities that adjust better to high school students.
  2. Middle school ministry requires patience- I have to be much more patient when working with an 8th grader than an 11th grader. They do things that sometimes drive me crazy, but we have to remember we were just as immature at a stage in our life! If you have no patience, I would recommend not working with middle school unless you are begging God to teach you patience :) .
  3. Middle schoolers need a plan or they will make a plan- This is extremely important. Sometimes, high schoolers want a more casual environment, and do not need as much structure. If you plan like this for middle school, you are in trouble, because they will create their own “wacky” plan for you! When working with middle school, have a structure and a plan to the event.
  4. Middle schoolers need to be taught the basics- Sometimes we get frustrated, because the middle schoolers are not grasping the material like a high school student! Remember, they are younger, and MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS! Do not expect them to be like a senior when they are in the 8th grade. It is okay to dream them there, but not totally expect it or you will be disappointed.
  5. Middle school ministry is energetic and fun- I actually love it. Our student ministry’s energy is driven by our middle school students right now. They are excited and involved in everything that we do right now.

Question: Do you work with middle school students? If so, what are the best/worst ways that you communicate with middle school students?

05.30.12
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NEW College Ministry Blog

I was talking with an intern working in our church about his vision and plans for the college ministry of our church. His name is David Sheldon. David is beginning a sick college ministry in our church called, “The Well.” The ministry begins next week. We were chatting about blogging, and I challenged him to create a college ministry blog. We all know that this is one of the crucial yet neglected age groups in the church today. We looked, and did not find many solid college ministry blogs outside of simply youth. So, David created a new college ministry blog that I encourage you to check out! He is stoked about his vision for this blog and the ministry to college students. Subscribe and refer others to his blog today!

Visit David Sheldon’s college ministry blog here!

Connect further with David:
Twitter
Facebook
Blog

05.29.12
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How to use twitter effectively in student ministry

Twitter is an incredible tool for student ministry! I tweet regularly from my personal account (@grovepjosh) and from our student ministry account (@ugbcgrove). I have to admit, when twitter first came out, I was not into it at all. It took me some time before I got into it, kind of like my blogging experience. Now, I am finding it as effective  as any other communication with students. I want to give you a few thoughts about using twitter in your student ministry:

  • Promote your events- I use our student ministry twitter account to promote our events. I schedule tweets using hootsuite for the entire week. On the day of the event, I have scheduled many tweets promoting the event with a countdown, and more. Twitter is the best way to get info out quickly about your events.
  • Learn from others- Honestly, most blogs and articles that I read are referred through twitter. I have google reader, but I read many blogs because someone retweets an article or shares a blog post. It is a great tool for you to glean insight from others, and keep up with what others are doing in ministry.
  • Train your leaders- I share articles on leadership through my blog on twitter. I also share other articles on leadership and specifically student ministry leadership to my leaders through twitter for them to read! It can be used as a great quick training tool for your leadership.
  • Build Relationships- All of these social sites main goal is relationships. They are using these sites as tools for people to connect more with one another. I am starting to connect more with our students on twitter than I am on facebook. More and more of our students are moving from facebook to twitter each day, and it is a great way to connect with them where they are.
  • Share pics and updates on trips for parents/leaders back home- I update pics and status updates through twitter while away on events. I find it easier to do it through twitter, and send it to my facebook.

Twitter is great, and if you are not on there, make sure you get on there. The major negative that I am seeing on twitter is that many parents are behind and not on twitter yet so students are more bold in what they tweet than what they facebook, because most parents, church leaders, and teachers have facebook, but not necessarily a twitter account.

I would love to connect with you on twitter so follow me @grovepjosh. You can also follow our student ministry @ugbcgrove. If you have any further thoughts about using twitter in ministry, please let me know through the comment system below:

05.28.12
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Intentional Student Ministry

If there is one word that I am trying to define our student ministry, it is the word, intentional. I looked the word up in the dictionary, and the definition is extremely simple. It means, “Done on purpose.” I want what we do in student ministry to be done on purpose. Have you ever heard of the idea, “if you do not set a goal, you will hit it every time?” I want goals, and I want to do student ministry in an intentional way so that we can better try to complete the goals that God lies on our hearts. So, how are we doing student ministry in an intentional way?

  1. Plan events/trips with purpose and a desired result- Every trip and event should have a purpose. They should reflect your mission. Our events are divided up into Evangelism, Service, and relationship building. We try to make sure that each event is focused on one of these three things. Some events, we incorporate 2 out of the 3, or 3 out of the 3 purposes. Be intentional with your event planning. Do not just throw an event together without a desired purpose.
  2. Use your lunch time to build relationships and disciple others- Try and schedule lunch appointments to minister and disciple others.
  3. Go to school functions, events, plays, and sporting events- This is so that you can support your students, your local schools, and to meet new students in the community.
  4. Volunteer at your local school- Get in the door however you can! You can slowly get your student ministry name out there.
  5. Speak on subjects that are relevant and applicable to your students- This is obvious, but we are more effective at this thought when we are pouring into the lives of our students. We will then know them better, and be able to speak to them practical applicable principles that they need and can apply to their personal lives.

Question: What are you doing to be intentional in your student ministry?

05.26.12
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Guest Post- Spiritual Maturity: A Challenge to Parents

Doug Fields had Gregg Farah write a guest post on “Spiritual Maturity: a challenge to parents.” I thought that the material was great, and I wanted to share a bit of it with you.

“GUEST POST by Gregg Farah serves as a teaching pastor and the student ministry pastor atShelter Rock Church on Long Island. He and his wife, Janine have been married for 20+ years and are the parents of three amazing daughters. Gregg says besides hanging out and laughing with his family, he enjoys writing, pursuing the perfect pizza slice, cheering for the Mets, and playing sports. Gregg is trying something risky–click here to get involved.

Developing a spiritual growth plan for families is tough. Face it: being married and/or being a parent has enough challenges. And you want to add a spiritual growth component? What’s next: faithfulness in marriage, remembering your anniversary, and putting the toilet seat down?

Before things get out of control, let me assure you that this can be done. It is possible to lead your family spiritually and live to tell about it. But it’s not easy!.

Whether parents choose to ignore this or not, the Bible is clear regarding whose responsibility it is to spiritually nurture a child.

5 “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. 7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:5-9, NIV).

The Bible instructs parents to disciple their children, yet many expect the church to do so, primarily for three seemingly overwhelming challenges. The good news is that the challenges can be overcome.

We’re Too Busy
Time challenges everyone…in every stage of life…in every profession…every day. We don’t have enough of it…or it at least feels that way. While time management gurus would likely dispute the notion that time is limited, let’s agree with the perception and respond to it.

Solution: Start doing something. Any small step is better than no step. I’ve found that it’s best to connect new commitments to old habits. For example, if you have a hard time remembering to pray for your kids, commit to pray for them when you get out of bed in the morning and when you go to bed at night. Try to learn a Bible verse as a family by reviewing it while brushing your teeth. Place an index card with the verse next to your toothbrush or tape it to the bathroom mirror. While you’re in the bathroom, keep a short devotional book nearby. Make it a habit of asking “what did you learn about God” anytime someone is in the bathroom for an…ahem…extended time….”

Pretty great stuff, huh? To read the remainder of this post, go HERE. 

05.25.12
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Freebie Friday: Youth Series- Friday Nights

I came across this legit series as well as many other free series through the website, stuff I can use. Stuff I can use has provided a FREE sermon series for your student ministry or college ministry. It is completely free, no strings attached. You can download the 4 week series HERE.

The series includes:

  • Sermon audio in MP3 format
  • Sermon Slide Backgrounds
  • Sermon Series Title Slide Background
  • Promotional Materials

Here is a bit about stuff i can use:
“StuffICanUse.com is a collection of resources, links, and other materials produced mainly for the student and college/young adult ministries at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY. The idea came from us making sweet stuff for our programs and then it was sitting on someone‘s computer doing nothing, so we decided to setup vineresources.com in order to make our stuff available for you to use in your ministry. We adopted an open source philosophy and decided to give away free swag to you. We hope you can use these resources to help your ministry communicate the love of Jesus”

Connect further with Stuff I can Use:
Website

DOWNLOAD THIS FREEBIE HERE!

05.24.12
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Poll: What curriculum do you use in your student ministry?

We use Word of Life curriculum for our Wednesday program, and we use Word of Life for our Bible fellowship program (Sunday mornings). We are looking at changing from Word of Life in our Bible fellowship, and moving to something different. We are satisfied with our Wednesday Word of Life program, but wanting to do something new and fresh starting in the fall with our Bible fellowship curriculum. What curriculum do you use? Here is a quick poll, and I want you to comment below to let me know the positives and negatives of the curriculum that your student ministry uses:

Please comment below if you use something else not listed. Also, please let us know why you like or dislike the curriculum that you are using.

05.23.12
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Summer Slasher Video Trailer

We wanted to do something creative and out of the box for our student ministry for our summer program so we are creating a continuation movie called “Summer Slasher.” It goes along with our summer program title, Summer Sizzlers. It is going to be an intense horror film. We will show a portion of the video throughout the summer only to find the results and the murderer revealed during the last youth group meeting of the summer. Here is the trailer for the video:

05.20.12
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7 Things you need to train your kids to do via Craig Groeschel

I wrote a quick book review on Craig Groeschel’s book, “Weird.” You can read my review here. In Craig’s book, he gave 7 things that we must train our kids on from God’s Word. It was dynamite, and it helped me so I wanted to share it with you:

  1. Train them to manage God’s money- Proverbs 3:9-10
  2. Train them to carefully select friends- Proverbs 13:20/I Corinthians 15:33
  3. Train them to watch their words- Proverbs 4:24/Luke 6:45
  4. Train them to be responsible- Proverbs 6:6-8
  5. Train them to guard their minds- Proverbs 23:7
  6. Train them to be generous- Proverbs 11:25
  7. Train them to fear God- Proverbs 1:7

Buy a copy of the book here!

Obviously, there are many things we need to teach our kids, but here are a few that Craig mentioned that were great! If you have something else to add, please share it by commenting below:
05.18.12
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Free ebook from Mark Oestreicher: A Beautiful Mess

Mark Oestreicher came out with a new book this past week entitled, “A Beautiful Mess.” This is a small e-book that he has made available for a limited time for FREE! This is a great resource that you need to take advantage of today! Go HERE and download this free e-book!

Here is the summary on the back of the book:

“When you think about the state of youth ministry today, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you cheer or fear? Is the glass half full or half empty? In this honest, frank, blunt examination, veteran youth worker Mark Oestreicher offers a fresh perspective on what’s working in youth ministry today—and discovers that perhaps things aren’t as broken as some of us might have thought.

Theologically and anecdotally, we can uncover plenty of encouraging signs in the realm of youth ministry, according to Oestreicher, whose youth ministry experience includes time as an in-the-trenches youth worker and as a publisher of youth ministry books and resources. A Beautiful Mess features insights on the issues and opportunities facing youth workers, including the trend toward longevity in ministry, the power of smaller churches, the work of the Holy Spirit, the rewards of authentic relational ministry, the need for integration instead of isolation, and the centrality of faith and humility.

This book will help you experience the freedom of your calling, rather than the stress of expectations. You’ll discover an abundance of reasons to remain optimistic, intentional, and faithful as you engage in the lives of today’s teenagers.”

Download the FREE Ebook Here!