OK, you’ve read about HSM’s 4-year teaching plan strategy and how we’re going “all in” using the LIVE curriculum for our small groups. Simply put, we needed a way to centralize and formalize the teaching plan for all of our small groups. Without a structure and good communication, groups would be headed all over the place and in different directions. When someone graduates, what are we confident they’ve learned?
That’s why we’re using LIVE – 4 years of discipleship and web-based community of our volunteer leaders. Now, I realize the $499 price point is shocking until you investigate it and see how it works. The stuff is pretty slick – an all-in-one solution for small groups in your church.
Youth leaders will experience a bountiful abundance of benefits. (Wasn’t that the name of an old hymn?) Because you’ll have your long-range plans locked down, you can devote more time to equipping your volunteers and building excitement in students about upcoming topics through creative promotions. And of course, you’ll save yourself countless hours of planning.
But wait! There’s more! You know what your small groups will be discussing six months from now, so parents will gain more confidence in your ministry, and along the way, you’ll provide them with resources to spark conversation and dialogue in the home. And if we’re serious about getting families involved in our youth ministries, how can you go wrong with that?
So, check it out if you want, but here’s the deal: I’m giving one away this week! All you have to do is tell me why you (or another youth worker you know) needs LIVE, and we’ll pick the best story and give it to them. Why should we give LIVE to you?! May the best comment win!
JG
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Josh Griffin has been in youth ministry for 15+ years and serves as the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church. [
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Geoff Stewart serves the Jr / Sr High School Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C.
I need LIVE because we are kicking off our first-ever small groups this fall, and it sounds AMAZING!
I’m getting ready to start a new full-time ministry, and I want to implement small groups where they don’t currently exist. Any help for small group leaders would be most beneficial.
You should pick to bless the ministry I serve with LIVE because I’m teaching my youth that they can’t give away to others what they themselves do not have. I’ve seen how packed full of content, resource and training LIVE has to offer and it would be ashame to keep that from my youth; not allowing them the opportunity to be transformed so that they can have a hand in transforming others in their individual spheres of influence.
Thanks for the contest!
Because all the other small group material I have tried at this church the adults don’t like to teach, and I think they will enjoy teaching this one!
Because I commented?
It would inject new life into our small groups, and greatly assist our adult leaders–especially new leaders who are daunted by the prospect of getting into a room with teenagers and leading them into a growing relationship with Christ. Also, it would allow us to ensure that there are certain concepts that have been presented at some point in our students’ time with us.
Well Josh, I believe the best phrase you can use to describe your own ministry in the church is “It’s not about me” I say this for my church because I am leaving my position as youth pastor and moving to finish my youth ministry degree. I am leaving the youth ministry in the hands of my youth workers and have done my best this past year to make sure they have all they need to get along without me until someone new takes over. This would be an awesome gift to them to strengthen their small groups. Thanks for your help with our ministry these past 4 1/2 years.
I would love to use LIVE for our Student Ministry. Our church isn’t 10 years old yet and I am the first full time Student Pastor. Recently small groups for the entire church was added to my job description. I love the church and the opportunities for leadership, but LIVE would help us take the next step for our young Student Ministry.
This curriculum would also be a great tool to get in the hands of my ministry team, as many of them have never led before and this could be the guiding tool to get them moving in the right direction.
Thanks
WE HAVE TO HAVE THIS! Really. I am new to Cooks UMC… I have only been here for a couple of months and until my arrival, the youth ministry was being led by parents who had no experience or idea of how a youth ministry should be run. Before I showed up, the parents here only had youth once a week (Sunday nights) and every week it was game night. There were no lessons, no opportunities for the youth to serve or grow spiritually, it really was just a place for the youth to hang out. There is nothing within the church budget for youth curriculum, and the church is struggling to even pay the bills that were included in the church budget.
All that being said, I have put together a discipleship plan that includes worship, service projects, small groups, and fellowship events, however one of the most difficult things for me to fully prepare for is the small group aspect. We need guided curriculum that will allow us to be separated into small groups, but all still be on the same page as a whole, and unfortunately we just can’t afford anything like this.
I really like what I’ve seen from LIVE and I believe that it can help us tremendously in achieving our goals within this youth ministry.
Pick us Josh! Please. Blessings!
I have a leader who has been running our junior high Bible study small group since before I was here, and even before the youth pastor who preceded me came along. The last youth pastor was on staff for five years, too, so it’s been a while. She’s always been self managed on the small group, too. She’s always buying books and reading them to see if they’ll fit. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it ends up being a waste of money. She keeps going, though, and she has never complained. She loves working with our junior high group, and she’s willing to go through that for them.
If she had something like this to guide her discussion for a long time, it would save her endless hours of research. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to buy it right now. I know she could use it, though, and so could whoever ends up running our senior high small group study that we want to launch.
When I started our youth group 2 years ago, I committed myself to new converts, not transfer growth. We wanted something that would impact the Kingdom of God, not my reputation. Since 2008, we’ve fostered dozens of students from non-believers to born again Christians!
But now, our students are looking for the next step in their understanding of who God is and their relationship with Him. The Live Curriculum would help students grow in their relationship with God, strengthen the bond in our group, and catalyze growth in students who would have otherwise continued to live our their former life apart from the church.
You need a place to stay when you visit Florida right? hint hint!
Well if there were a Zombie Apocalypses and we were trapped in the church with no way to escape to buy new material, I could just open my new free “LIVE Curriculum” and be set until we are rescued.
Thanks for another freebie competitions.
You should send us a copy of LIVE because as a 23 year old woman in ministry…I’m struggling. I’ve been out of school for a year now. Working as “full-time” w/o pay as the youth leader and full-time as a real estate assistant to pay the bills. Trying to lead a women’s house 24/7. Trying to figure out how to love Jesus and people. Trying to make my voice heard in a man’s world w/o acting like a jerk or a bulldog. Desperately trying to equip leaders to disciple kids and impact Christ-centered families. And I’m starting to feel in over my head. The thing is…even in our tiny, no budget church plant – Jesus is moving in ways that I’ve never seen. I wouldn’t trade my life for anything…ever. We are changing the world – and I am always on the lookout for resources to help out. That’s why I would love LIVE.
But I read through the other comments…if I don’t win…I’d really like Alec Alberts to win…I think his sounds super selfless and would probably really be awesome for his group to have with him leaving.
You shouldn’t. I don’t deserve it. But isn’t that the beauty of grace?
We’re a fairly small church, seemingly insignificant to all that surrounds us, yet beautiful in the eyes of God reaching the 20-30 youth who keep coming back thirsty for Jesus Christ.
Hey Josh,
I have emailed you about my situation in the past and again thanks for the great feedback and guidance. You probably aren’t even aware of how much it helped just having you reassure me in taking the steps that I have taken in our youth ministry.
So now that I have buttered you up for a good shoe in on a victory of this contest, let me tell you exactly why I really need this per your requirement. As I have wrote to you in the past, I am a volunteer myself youth minister. I don’t get paid and have a fulltime job, married, and have 4 kids (one being only a couple of months old). I have a great senior pastor and a church that supports me in every way they can. Our church is small but we have passionate people keeping this youth ministry afloat. Without them we would be no where near we are today. However, all of us with jobs, I can really only devote about six hours of my time to the ministry. In the past I have put the vast majority of my time into preparation on my messages but have quickly over this summer transitioned to putting a huge bulk of my time into developing the relationships with the youth. It is paying off now as I have had deeper and more meaningful conversations with the youth in the last month or two than I have in the 8 months I have been teaching them from the stage. Still though, I think LIVE curriculum would be able to help us in establishing small groups which we currently do not have. The biggest fallback has been that our volunteers also do not really have the time to develop their own messages, and I don’t have time to guide them in their messages either since I am spending as much time as I am on my own. LIVE curriculum would definitely be an asset as we move forward with a potential vision of maybe establishing small groups as well as help me in what I should be teaching on each week. I really like the idea of planning ahead as much as possible.
Thanks,
-Travis T.
Josh,
thanks for this great opportunity. It was amazing to read the comments and see how God is using people all over to impact his kingdom, even in difficult circumstances.
I would like to nominate Billy Johnson for these resources. He is a volunteer youth pastor at our church in Topeka Ks. Having just been married a couple of months ago, he is devoting a large amount of time to the students in our church, often using his own money. Currently he is seeking out youth ministry classes and feels God’s call on his life to serve students and families. He is passionate because he often says that “Jesus used the youth group to save my life”. He strives to create an authentic community for students, while on a limited budget, but with amazing volunteers. This curriculum would be a huge resource for our students and parents. Thanks again, and have a wonderful week!
Josh: I have been at my current church for 5 months now and loving getting to know our students and parents and volunteers. I have spent so much time in trying to establish a healthy ministry and get things rolling that I have not done the best job of putting together curriculum for the future–having LIVE would make my job and life much easier having all the resources that I would need for our yet to be developed small group ministry.
Thanks so much
As much as I would love this free LIVE curriculum, I feel I should write on behalf of a youth ministry friend. He’s looking to start a new ministry this fall, and this resource would be such a great way to kick start his new role. Using Simply Youth material for the past 5 years, I’ve found it extremely worthwhile and so beneficial. When you are at the beginning of any ministry you need a little help (especially youth ministry), and this would certainly give him a great start in his new church. Thanks for this offer, Josh.
Hey Josh, I could give a ton of reasons why our student ministry needs this but I won’t. I would really love to be able to give it to a new youth pastor in town. He and his family moved here to reach the much needed Hispanic population and his mom and dad are currently using our youth space to have church on Sunday mornings. He is starting a youth group but has no resources and really doesn’t know where to start. I have pointed him in some directions and even gave him some resources. With them being a church plant with no budget and reaching a huge Hispanic population I know he would be blessed and encouraged. Thanks
Our church has been without any kind of youth budget or curriculum budget since I got here three years ago. I work part time and oversee grades 5-12 (about 80-100 students), with an amazing group of volunteers. We are currently trying to write our lessons and come up with new ideas. I would love a chance to free up my volunteers to be able to actually minister to the teens more by saving them time and energy in preparing. I work with a great group of volunteers who are ready to do whatever they need to do to make the teen program work. They are the reason that I would love this opportunity. It would be an amazing blessing to all of them!
I had a great story about our amazing youth pastor, and how she brought our youth program alive, and how that curriculum could really bring us to the next level. However, after reading Dawn’s comments, I want to nominate her. I think she and her volunteers need the break this opportunity could provide. Keep going Dawn! People like you are why our kids are growing closer to Christ.
Wow.. how do I even compete against all these comments?? I feel like this may be a trick contest though. If I mention someone else do they get it?? If I mention that I want it.. do I not because then I’m being selfish. Darn my over-thinking stuff.
I would love to be the recipient of the LIVE Curriculum. We are a under staffed / under financed church (more or less.. scraping by week to week) and having LIVE Curriculum would greatly help me move our youth ministry in the direction that I firmly believe God is wanting us to go. Deeper discipleship, small groups and setting the example for both the generation before us and the generation after.
Also, wearing multiple hats in the church, I would like to think that following the Curriculum would help me with my organization and planning for each year.
Lastly.. I wanted to play the “I’m a Canadian card..” But I didn’t. (sort of..
Thanks for all you do! You are a HUGE blessing to us all!
You said via Twitter to nominate “yourself or someone in need”. Well, since we fit both do we get double consideration?
In all seriousness. I think you should consider our Youth Ministry because we have been doing small groups for about 4 years now. When we first started it was easy for me to consistently meet with each of my leaders weekly to walk them through my small group lessons. Then as we grew and my role expanded I sent them the weekly lesson that I was still creating. Now we’ve grown, and my role expanded, to the point where it is too difficult to create quality stuff for each group. And our budgets have been HACKED so I cannot afford to purchase your live curriculum.
I think the customizable format and ability to use the web tools would GREATLY enhance our ministry. I hope you strongly consider us!!
This past year has been challenging with many of our teens leaving & a youth pastor coming in. We have a growing church of 150 people with a youth ministry of 20 teens. There are only a few volunteers but we are grateful to the resources from simple youth ministry. There is a lady in our church the pays for our youth resources due to the lack of funding. It would be a great gift to have LIVE for our teens because small groups are the fast growing part of our youth ministry plus we have seen 3 teens come to christ. Thank you for all you do!
Hey Josh, thought I would mention a buddy of mine I grew up with. He recently graduated from Azusa and was just hired to become the senior pastor at a relatively small church in Tucson; a church that not only just lost their senior pastor to retirement, but was also ravaged by arson and is currently without a home. So I ask you award the Live curriculum to him as he will soon strive to literally see his newly acquired congregation rise from the ashes.
I need LIVE because of my changing job description due to economic difficulties. I have inherited many more hats to help validate my pay, including: family pastor, web designer, photographer, sermon writer, small group leader, marriage counselor, etc. What little time I have for youth ministry needs to be focused on building relationships with youth, not writing curriculum.
Newer (2 1/2 year old) church with exploding youth ministry under the direction of Julie Adams. Doing amazing ministry on a very tight budget. LIVE would take things to the next level. Check out http://www.iloveourchurch.com
Our youth ministry is on fire at the moment and trying to move to the small group model with our leaders and youth. We are excited about using it because of the level of maturity across the board of faith with your youth and adults would benefit from this curriculum as our leaders learn more how to lead and grow in their lives, as they invite students to journey and grow with them
Well I would love to have it I am 30yo and start as a youth minster next Monday. I had been doing construction for 14 years tell this year I felt the call. This would be a great help to start my ministry as I have never done this before.
Simply put, the LIVE curriculum would save me time and enable me to work on my greatest weakness, and that is investing time in and building up adults shepherds to work with the students. Thanks!
I am going to Italy this fall. I am going in order to see if God wants me there long term… This small group curriculum would be a good starting point in Italy and could be adapted to any age group. The people want to learn English and what better way than a small group study on Biblical topics and books?
My friend, violet, is a full time youth minister in a small church. She’s spent years of her life pouring tons of time, money, and resources into the youth ministry. This year, at 38 years old, she has the opportunity to get poured back into and is taking a semester and moving 8 hours away to go to bible college, of which she’s only ever able to go for one semester. She really needs a great and easy to use curriculum to leave with her volunteers so that everything doesn’t go south while she’s learning to do ministry on a deeper level. I know the live curriculum rocks and that her church and volunteer staff could really use it. Thanks.
I have led small groups of high school students for seven years. This is an incredible tool and valuable asset to any high school ministry and we would love to use it on our students. I have shared this with our staff too and they agree that this would be awesome curriculum for our small groups. I am in the process of starting my first “full time” youth ministry job this fall and this would come in very, very handy. Thank you Josh and may God bless you, your family and your ministry.
I’m working at a church plant in the Raleigh area, and would much rather spend time training sponsors to use the LIVE curriculum than writing curriculum and training sponsors to use the mindless ramblings I came up with. (See I just ended that last sentence with a preposition). Thanks!
The director of student ministry at the church I am on staff, Chris, with definitely deserves this curriculum. He has been persevering, vision casting, and loving on students for almost six years now…never ever giving up. he’s equipped leaders year after year, and supported and encouraged them even when people let him down or weren’t gifted to serve in student ministry. He will NOT stop until the student ministry at this church grows and grows and small groups become the irresistible norm that kids are inviting their friends to.We’re a Catholic church so we’ve been seriously creating a paradigm shift in every area-especially student ministry.
Also, I am a small group leader serving in the ministry for high schoolers…so I have been through what works and what doesn’t, what gets them talking and what causes them to shut down.We’re all learning, and want to grow and learn and lead. This curriculum sounds amazing and would aid us in continuing to break the mold for student ministry in Catholic churches. Thanks for the generous offer!
Our church would really benefit from this curriculum because as a smaller, albeit continually growing church we can not afford to pay a youth ministry staff and in fact currently are only able to employ the Senior Pastor part-time. Despite this our youth leaders have been faithfully and lovingly running the youth ministry as volunteers for about 7-8 years now. For our church’s youth ministry, a resource such as this one would be a wonderful blessing, not just for a growing number of youth who attend but for those who faithfully volunteer as well.
Thanks so much for the free resources you provide every day both through this wonderful blog as well as through simplyyouthministry.com
Blessings,
Aaron
Our church has no formal youth pastors, no one with any sort of training. The people running our very small youth group are simply some parents who really want more for the students in our church. For the past 4 years they have been running on a $0/year budget, because the church just can’t afford to give them any money, so every year, the leaders simply donate from their own pockets. They personally pay for students to go to conferences, they buy curriculum themselves (which gets costy as you know). I think if they won this Live curriculum it would knock their socks off. I’ve seen it in action from a friend who owns it, and I know our leaders would benefit from it greatly. They have given so much to our youth, now it’s time to give something to them.
Our youth pastor has only been on the job for a year but he has drawn in a whole new nucleus of students from our community. He’s developing a healthy and cohesive group but wants to take it to the next level. I believe Live is that “next level”. Can you hook a guy up? Please?
I’ve been at this church a year. They haven’t had a youth ministry (maybe some social stuff, but that’s it) in almost 10 years. This summer we took 24 youth to Workcamp. Many of them are begging to go deeper, to learn more about what it means to truly follow Jesus and live as a disciple. They want a true relationship with Christ. They’re tired of just fun and games and want to grow and live and let God take control of their lives. But they don’t know how. Live will give me the tools to help them form their relationship with God.
The reason I believe I need LIVE is because I have spent the past 4 years creating my own curriculum. While I think I have done a good job, I am TIRED! I get paid below the poverty line, yet I keep a busy youth program going. I am broke and can’t afford to go buy whatever I need…I have to ask to get anything because they might not want to reimburse me. It would be a great chance to grow the library and build a 4 year curriculum cycle.
Thanks Josh, you’re the best.
I would love to see a close friend and mentor of mine in ministry name Jimmy “Hambone” Camp get this curriculum for his students. Hambone has been in the ministry for a long time and even taught me a lot about what it means to love students and build relationships. He is an incredible father, husband, and friend. He is also a part-time guy doing everything from starting Public School breakout ministries to driving sports buses to interact with teenagers and share God’s love. Something like this would really help him in his preparation!
My students could benefit from LIVE in a HUGE way. I have taken over the student ministry in an inner city dying church. My volunteer staff and I have worked tirelessy over the past couple of years spending our own resources to get kids involved, buy materials and fund camps for these kids. We have practically no youth budget. Having a curriculum such as this would enable me to take this growing group of middle schoolers all the way through the end of high school without having to worry about financing for curriculum. It would be a great way to keep them interested and involved as well as invite their friends to something they’re excited about. It would also allow us to spend our money on missions opportunities for the kids as well as some media equipment we would like to buy. Your consideration would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Hey Josh,
To say that one student pastor would benefit more than another would be the hardest decision ever. Good luck with your choice and I pray that God blesses whoever gets the material and that a lot of prayer went into the choice. That being said I would like to tell my story.
I started at a small church in Russellville, Arkansas 2 years ago. The city I live in has one of the largest high schools in Arkansas, yet every time I go to visit I am almost in tears because of all the lost students that I see. The first night I had one kid come to youth service and I had to beg her to come hang out and talk. It wasnt to long and I had a few kids coming every week and were really starting to dive in to God’s word. A worship time was introduced and we moved into the fellowship hall in our church because we were growing. 2 years later there are 15-20 kids every week that come to RESET (our Wed night service) and out of those 10 are the core kids that have the potential to be leaders and impact their school in a big way. Ive looked at this material and what it covers and it just blows me away. Ive wanted to do do something like this from the first day I started but to be honest the material would take my entire budget for the year! So needless to say, I couldnt buy it. I think the students at my church learning this would impact their school and turn a huge lost school and town into one that glorifies God in everything.
I thank God for you guys for putting so much effort and time into things like this and helping out other ministries for the glory of God.
I work with 15+ inner city church in Toronto-Canada. 13 of these churches are functioning without a paid youth worker. Their budgets are almost non-existent and they struggle with weekly bible studies and formulating a long-term plan from month to month, year to year is not even an option for them right now. Together they have about 150 kids in both Jr. High & High School. This resource would be used immediately and would give them the access and creativity they would need to spend time with their students and not have to spend the time working on bible study planning. This would be a great opportunity to impact not just one church but multiple churches at one time.
Thanks,
Jeff Smyth
Director of Community Initiatives
Youth Unlimited GTA
I am a brand new Youth Pastor. I started June 6th, 2010. I need LIVE because I was looking through the Demo Version, and this is something that would really help. At Rivers of Living Water Ministries, we are going on five years on September 25th, 2010 and we have a small church (I lead on average 6 to 7 youth students). With that said, we are very limited in finances and do not have any curriculum. Each week, I am surfing the web trying to find free lessons, but most are demos also. I want a great foundation to go off of to really engage these students into knowing Jesus personally and and knowing His Word. I love being a Youth Pastor already! But it is just hard to engage them without a set foundation.
Hey Josh! First of all, your website has been feeding me like crazy lately, I love your posts and read them often, thanks for your passion for youth ministry, its a huge encouragement! I also purchased your 99 thoughts for youth workers book, its a gem!
Anyway, the truth is that I have been in full-time youth ministry now for six years and my wife is a stay at home Mom with our four year old son. One of my biggest obstacles over the years has been getting our small group ministry off the ground partly due to our inability to find solid curriculum to use. Finding really good curriculum is really hard to come by and even if I managed to come across some material that looked interesting I don’t have a youth budget to purchase it from. I already spend enough of my own money to purchase things for our youth ministry and just cant afford to drop $500.00 on the Live curriculum. I have been looking at the Live curriculum a lot lately and just know that it would be the perfect small group resource for our small group leaders to use. I already spend enough time working here at church away from my family for me to spend more time writing small group material on top of that. The Live curriculum would be the perfect answer to solving our problem, our leaders could tweak the material to suit their own unique groups and it would keep all of us on the same page. I work with inner city young people who really need structure and mentorship, among other things, in their lives. It would also save me from having to spend any more time away from my wife and son than I already do. Please consider me for the free Live curriculum, thanks Josh!
We desperately need the LIVE Curriculum. In order for you to understand why, I will start at the beginning of our crazy journey.
My husband and I moved to a rural community about a year ago (so he could farm). We looked non-stop for a church, and not until 3 months ago did we find one that was Bible based and preaching the Word. The church body is a wonderful group who loves the Lord and wants to do what is right and immediately we felt at ‘home.’ Two months ago (right before we were going to become members) the pastor was released from his duties because of serious moral and spiritual issues; the biggest wasn’t even that he spent most of his days at the church looking at porn online. Recognizing that a church is more than just a pastor and that this was where we felt led to be and serve, we stayed and became members.
We jumped in with both feet and have been looking for ministry opportunities…I was going to help lead worship and be on the music committee, Brian was going to help on the work committee and start a program for new visitors and we thought we might be helpers in the youth group …when, last month the husband of the couple who were going to take on the Sr. High Youth Group was struck down with migraines that caused him to have a multiple strokes from which he is not even close to recovering from. There isn’t anyone else that either wants to do it or isn’t already committed to the Awana Children Program, so after much prayer and thoughtful consideration we are going to do it.
This is not something that we are taking lightly; I had awesome youth group leaders that set a wonderful example for me. The leaders were there for usually at least 4 year stretches, they were very involved in the schools and in the kids’ lives including extra-curricular activities. Brian didn’t have that…in fact he was the youth group; his pastor would taking him golfing for youth group because it was just him. Brian is wary of what is going to happen because he hasn’t ever seen what a youth group is like. He isn’t concerned about teaching the Bible, he is a very wise godly man and has led other Bible studies, but isn’t quite sure what subjects we need to cover or what to do with the rest of the time that makes up a youth group meeting.
Part of our problem is that there isn’t a program already in place. There have been 3 different youth group leaders over the last 3 years! And, last year the leaders wouldn’t show up and the kids were left hanging (which is a crappy thing to do to them!) None of the last youth leaders had any materials or any kind of structure. We are going to have to rebuild the Sr. High Youth Group from scratch.
We are desperately trying to follow God’s leading, and we are going to do that whether we get the LIVE Curriculum or not. But, I do know that it would help us to be better youth leaders and help us reach out and draw more youth in and have an impact in the community with the program. I know this might sound made-up, but our story is true and clearly explains why we need this program.
I am at a church that is dated and stuck in traditions and the past. Unfortunately, when I stepped in to the youth position, it was too. In one year, we have updated the methods, ideals and outlook for our ministry. I would like to be able to carry our momentum with Live. We are making do with what we have, but a series like this would be a blessing to our ministry, our adult leaders, our students and our friends that are coming. We want to carry God, the Gospel, Jesus in to our kids’ futures with the relevancy of Live.
I would love LIVE, but I am not writing for me. My group just got back from a mission/work trip in Salineville, OH. We went to help a friend of mine that I went through high school youth group with. He needs it and he deserves it. I took my kids down to help out refurbishing a building he has bought to turn into a youth center in this town and we will never be the same. Here is the story. Jim is an amazing guy. He is 36, has two amazing kids and a wonderful wife. Out of his pocket he bout a building that he is turning into a youth center for the kids of this town. There is no real church backing, because there is not much for churches in the area. He is doing it all out of pocket. He started 10 weeks ago to hold a Bible study there, nothing fancy, no big games, just Jim and his Bible, guitar and his family. There are kids showing up in droves, it is amazing and this town needs it. They are rough kids with rough backgrounds, but he is loving them to death and sharing God’s truth with them. Jim’s never been to Bible college, feels completely inadequate, but God is working. Here is why he needs it. Jim works full time, usually 10 hrs. a day. He has a 10 yr. ols and and 8 yr. old, his wife Becky has Lou Gehrig’s disease and is in the final stage and on top of that he is working on the building and teaching these kids. I think LIVE would really help him with the prep timeas he tries to get it all done and allow him to give quality teaching to these kids. The product would not be wasted. I believe in what is going on, it was amazing, so much that I am paying for him to go with my group to the symc11 conference.
I just convinced (or maybe the Holy Spirit did) a husband and wife to give up a job with pay and invest into our students for free. They “get it” – which is why they said yes. But on the shoestring budget our church is on, curriculum is scarce. Please help us out… please “get it” with us as well so this couple can impact the emerging generation with some tools in their toolbox.
I am just getting to my six months marker of being a young part time youth pastor, and going through some early ministry stress. I am trying to find some material that will get my youth group on track for making and duplicating disciples. This curriculum would be a great way to accomplish the need at hand, and ease my burden of planning my lessons out, with an end goal in mind. My teens need the Truth!!!!