Archive for the ‘Youth Ministry Leadership’ Category
Planning: Why Bother?
“I tried making an annual plan for my youth group, once…”
So what’s the big deal about planning? Things never quite happen like you expect, so maybe it doesn’t seem worth the effort. And life + youth group is already crazy–why add one more thing to the to-do list?
A truly effective plan for youth ministry doesn’t just take up time. It helps you save time and make the most out of the limited time that you do have. In fact, effective planning should be front and center in every youth ministry.
1000’s of Ideas
Right now you can run into any Christian bookstore, lay down $20, and walk away with hundreds if not thousands of youth ministry ideas in your hands. Is that a good things?
In the end, it might not be. We all love sifting through ideas and looking for the good stuff–it’s important to always learn & try new things. But what happens when we’re driven by ideas more than vision?
It’s easy to let happen. Instead of running after that God-inspired vision for ministry, uniquely fit to the church and community we minister in to reach and disciple students, we’re just scrambling for something to do this week.
Ideas are helpful, but we need to be driven by vision. And that takes planning.
Jesus lived purposefully, on purpose, while constantly staying connected with the Father. He knew where He was headed, and He was constantly praying and listening to the Father for direction for the future.
To make the most of our short time on earth, we should be planners, too. That doesn’t mean we need to figure out our 30 year goal, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Plans change as we learn, adapt and grow, but pro-active planning keeps us focused and at the top of our game.
Leading purposefully is the only way we can make the most of the unique opportunities we have as youth pastors. And the “hard work” of planning always pays off.
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Nathaniel Dame is the president and founder of Called to Youth Ministry, and he leads a new online training opportunity for youth pastors titled Creating a Movement of Student Discipleship.
During this unique small-group experience, youth pastors learn how to lead on purpose, make the most out of every discipleship opportunity, and develop a committed, engaged adult leadership team.
A new session starts soon–register by August 6th for the best rate. To learn more visit http://www.calledtoyouthministry.com/training/creating-a-movement or email nathaniel@calledtoyouthministry.com.
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You Don’t Need Permission to Lead
Okay, now don’t read the title of this post and say, “Yeah, I know that.” I’ve known this for a long time, but I still struggle with it, so you may too.
This isn’t one of those big youth ministry leadership lessons that is easy to grasp and start putting into practice. It’s one of those that is hard to really understand and live by.
Why? Because the root of this issue is fear and insecurity. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: We Want Community!
My wife and I have gone through a lot of transitions lately. We’ve moved four times in the last 18 months.
In that same time period, I’ve changed jobs twice, Christa has changed jobs three times and is now a full-time student again, and we have been regular attenders of three churches (and frequent visitors of several others).
I’ll be happy if we can stay in the same place for at least a year! But all this change has left us with a huge lack in our lives.
Fix Yourself Theology
Some say that there is too much “how to fix yourself” theology coming from the pulpit.
You know, the kind of preaching that says, “We’re all sinners. You’re a sinner. In fact, you probably sinned this week. So take out your notepad and write down these three simple steps to stop sinning.”
Whatever happened to the grace of God? I thought my sins were already forgiven? What’s with all this stuff about changing?
Some churches talk so much about how to fix yourself that I worry about the impressions visitors might get.
What about youth groups? Are we teaching our students about the endless love of Christ as well as the call to live a life seperated unto Him?
F. Scott Fitzgerald said that, “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” This is one of those times when we must be so careful to hold two apparently opposing ideas in our mind, or we risk leading our students off the cliff of self-perfecting perfectionism.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? …As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:14,26)
The Role of Adults in Student Leadership
The guys over at Cadre Ministries have made one of their many great resources available online for free. Check it out:
The Role of Adults in Student Leadership
Video: Stuck on an Escalator
Is this the attitude this generation is being raised with? Who’s teaching it to them?
Hmm…
Watch more Effective Youth Ministry videos
Video: Lost Generation
There are lots of scary stats that should concern us, but I refuse to believe that this is a lost generation.
Reflections of a Gym Teacher
I’ve been given the chance to teach gym a few hours a week at a Christian K-8 school, and I love it! The kids are real good (well, mostly) and the school itself is amazing.
We’ve been working on volleyball, and yesterday was a surprisingly good day. The kids were angels, but I did have one very interesting interaction with a 5th grader.
Too Little Time, Too Many Programs
Whenever I’m around youth, all I want to do is build relationships & minister. That’s what it’s all about, right? It gets me so worked up when everything else gets in the way.
I think we all believe in the importance of relationships, but when the rubber meets the road, the struggle is finding time for it with all the boring planning & detail work. Programs seem to continuously crawl up out of nowhere to soak up all our time and energy, and the thing we want to do the most–be with students–is squeezed out of our weeks.
Here are a few quick tips you can use to evaluate your own ministry and become more student-focused.
Are you an idea-aholic?
Are you constantly looking for new ideas and giving them a try? Are you known for being extremely creative? Innovation is great–and necessary in youth ministry–but too much is still too much. Trying new things every single week can be a real time drainer. Building strong relationships is a ministry model that’s been proven to work for thousands of years. One day you might have an entire youth staff to help you out, but until then, try pulling back a bit to purposefully make more time for one-on-one discipleship moments.
Are you a lone ranger?
I know some youth pastors that are surrounded by energetic adult volunteers but still do all of the work themselves–from preparing everything, setting up the youth room and leading the actual meeting, to running the cafe, tearing down, cleaning up and locking the doors. If you love your programs so much that you’re not willing to share the work with others, it’s no wonder that you don’t have the time you wish you had with your students.
Is the weekly sermon required?
This last one is may be a bit more outside of the box, but I think it has the most potential. Do you really need to spend time every single week teaching students via a sermon?
A recent study of Illinois youth pastors found that they spend an average of 80% of their time preparing sermons. If time is money, that’s quite a chunk of change! Now look at it from your students’ perspective. They just spent an entire week listening to boring lessons at school and are already in the habit of zoning them out. What if we instead aggressively engaged them with an entirely new teaching format?
Try converting some of your sermon times to extended hang out times for your students. Then make a careful plan for you and your adult leaders to sit down individually with your students during those times to let them know you care for them, find out what’s going on in their life, and pour into them. You will learn incredible things about your students and have amazing opportunities for ministry. Give it a try and let me know what happens. I’ll be posting more about this idea in a future post.
The Heart of the Matter
The goal isn’t legalism. It’s having more room for ministry. We should always be looking for ways to free up our time so that we can do what we know has the greatest impact: Building solid relationships with students and student leaders, and pouring into them individually.
