Josh Griffin | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts Simply Youth Ministry Podcast: Episode 121

Missed the latest episode myself to spend time with the team for our State of HSM address. More on that later – but enjoy the show now (embedded above)!

JG

podcast

2 View Comments December 12, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts Yup, Crossed 31,000 Gamerscore

Thanks to Guitar Hero: World Tour (B+), Spyro the Dragon (B+) and Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (B-), my gamerscore on the Xbox360 crossed 31,000 this weekend. Woohoo!

JG

Add Comment December 12, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Mission Critical Jobs

I’m taking a break and letting my brain breathe from a project that I’ve been working on this morning. (This is actually one that I’ve been working on for months and will probably continue to develop it for years) But what I’m working on is something I call Mission Critical Jobs. These are coordinator jobs that are critical to our youth ministry. It’s our goal to have a volunteer in each of these roles and empower them with the ability to do more than just fulfill a job description but to have a passion and vision for that ministry area and how it will help advance God’s work at our church and in our community. (Craig Groeschel once said “Delegate authority, not responsibility”)

Some may say, isn’t the youth minister supposed to do these jobs? Yes and No. Yes…the youth minister should oversee and work with these coordinators to see that all these major areas are being developed and led in a productive way. No…it would be near impossible for one person to truly devote themselves to all these areas. No one excels in all these areas. No one is a “people person”, a visionary, a detail-er, an organizer, a designer….you get the point. We all have strengths and so we should capitalize on those and let others with a different set of strengths focus on theirs and fill in those gaps where we struggle. Not only that, in the majority of churches, youth ministries are overseen by one youth minister and there is only so much one person (especially those with a family) can do.

That is why I am convinced that without a team of key, high-level volunteers, our youth ministry (and others) will quickly reach it’s wall of effectiveness and sooner or later, even begin to regress. So, if you’re in youth ministry, start today working on what your mission critical jobs are. Be sure to develop some sort of job description or at least a detailed list of responsibilities. Then, prioritize them in order of what is needed now and start finding people who want to do more than just chaperone a trip or bring in donuts. Find those adults who want to pour their heart into a vital part of youth ministry.

This will probably an ever growing and developing list but here are our Mission Critical Jobs right now (in no particular order)…

Bible School Coordinator
Breakaway Coordinator (our weekly youth worship)
Sunday Night Coordinator
Wednesday Night Coordinator
Service Coordinator
Mexico Mission Trip Coordinator
Teen Lounge Coordinator (our youth room)
Big Events Coordinator
Shepherding Coordinator
Outreach/Evangelism Coordinator
Prayer Coordinator
Volunteer Coordinator
Technology Coordinator
VBS Coordinator (don’t judge, believe it or not, our teen VBS draws a pretty large crowd)

Joe Thompson is the mission critical Youth Minister at Fairmount Christian Church. Check out his blog right here and tell him JG sent ya.

Add Comment December 12, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts 4 Ways to Spend Your Time in the Christmas Downtime

I realize not everyone gets to enjoy the Christmas season at a slower pace – for many youth workers, the Christmas season is a giant snowball that builds and builds, eventually gaining insane speed and crashing into the New Year with a resounding thwack. But for me this year, we’re scaling way back for the holidays. We cancelled the Christmas Extravaganza, small group parties are happening on their own, a special speaker doing the Christmas teaching and the big New Year’s Dance never made it on the final winter calendar. So what to do with all of this newfound time, free from the endless barrage of emails, phone calls and events?

If your pace does slow down a bit, here are 4 places you may want to spend your Christmas downtime:

Spend time alone
Finish the books you’ve started 2 months ago and are still on chapter 2. Get away from the noise. Turn off your phone and escape for a day. Pray. Meditate, reflect, celebrate. Get a waffle cone and people watch.

Spend time with students
Gather up the core students for a spontaneous night out. That one kid who comes on Sunday morning – ask a regular kid what his name is again then take him out for coffee. Think about that regular kid who needs a big challenge, the newbie who could use a connection and the hurting kid who could use a hug. Go after the people you haven’t had the time for this Fall.

Spend time with volunteers
Take a few volunteers out for a late-night movie, your treat. Surprise a small group leader at her office with a morning pastry. Invite some of your key leaders over for a casual dinner with your family.

Spend time with family
Look your kids in the eye and have a genuine conversation with them. Enjoy the lights of the Christmas tree, just you, your significant other and some egg nog. Plan a “camping night” in front of the fireplace.

JG

3 View Comments December 10, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts Couple of Youth Ministry Surveys

Matt Slippy, a youth pastor from Iowa, is working on a youth ministry research project looking for 1,000 youth pastors to take an online survey at www.youthministrysurvey.com. It looks like it’ll take about 15 minutes or so if you’re up for it.

Also, Jeff Weathersby is a senior at the University of Southern Mississippi and has a survey on the usage and effective of youth tracking software as part of a class project. It is a tad long and boring (no offense) but Simply Youth Ministry is giving away a free membership to Simply All Access to one lucky participant! You can take that survey right here.

JG

Add Comment December 10, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts POLL: How long should the youth group sermon be?

This week’s poll: what is the perfect youth group sermon length?

JG

polls

14 View Comments December 10, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Purpose of Small Groups

Been doing some interesting thinking about the purpose of small groups – wondering if it is possible for us to use groups more strategically in the discipleship process. As it stands right now, they are 70% fellowship (adult life with student life, accountability, relationship) and 30% discipleship (Bible study).

Some of this happens organically now, but what if we mixed it up a bit and it looked like this:

Learn – 2-3x a month
A couple of weeks out of the month, the small group does significant and intentional Bible study. The leaders prepares a lesson selected from the materials provided/approved by the ministry, and concentrate on helping their students grow in Christian education and faith.

Grow – throughout the month
Throughout the month, the small group leader checks in on their students’ spiritual disciplines and holds them accountable to growing on their own. The idea here is to gently disciple students to a faith that they can take with them beyond high school. The leader looks for spiritual conversations and opportunities to challenge a student personally. Tons of resources are close at hand to help a student take a spiritual step forward.

Serve – 1x a month
One night a month the entire group spends time serving together. Care for one of the student’s teachers that lost a spouse recently, serve at a local shelter, help someone with yard work, adopt a city block, visit a home for the elderly. The ministry provide tons of options and ideas, but each group has the flexibility and freedom to create their own monthly service project.

Play – 1x a month
Take the night off! Pool party, lazer tag, pizza buffet, world series of poker marathon, sledding – whatever, it doesn’t really matter. Just something super fun and community – no agenda, just life on life happening.

Just thinking out loud. Your thoughts?

JG

2 View Comments December 10, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Leader May Be the Roadblock

I liked Kurt’s post about him possibly being in the way of changes (that he even iniated) in our student ministry. Might be time for you and I to stop and think about how we may be bottle-necking or roadblocking the youth ministry, too. Here’s a clip:

- Very few people “bleed” the ministry like the leader does, so he/she usually has more history with the status quo and has probably invested the most into it. In short, it’s often very hard for the leader to actually make the changes he/she knows need to be made.

- If the changes don’t go well, everybody else gets to hide behind the leader and say, “It was his idea!”. The leader has no place to hide.

- The leader has to defend/sell/propose the changes to those higher up the food chain…which isn’t always an easy sell. Many leaders don’t have the political pull, the trust of sr. leadership, the “fight” etc. to go to bat on behalf of the changes they want to implement.

JG

leadership

Add Comment December 9, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 77

Weekend Teaching Series: Why I Need Christmas (Week 1 of 2)

Sermon in a Sentence: I need Christmas because I am broken and I need fixing; but it’s been done for me by Jesus coming to earth and dying for my sins.
Service Length: 80 minutes
Bible: Romans 3:23, Jeremiah 29:11, Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 5:6-8

Understandable Message: This weekend the action steps for students were to know the cost of our lives and then change our lives accordingly. In the middle of the busyness of the season, we encouraged students to take a moment to look at their current life state and remember the real reasons that they NEED Christmas. Jake Rutenbar filled in for me this weekend, I was enjoying some time off with the family.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: Students made up the band and ran all of the lights, cameras, sound board and control room. Adult volunteers were around to greet and love on students. Student leaders also jumped into to fill some of the gaps for a weekend where a few staff members were away.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Everything was centered on Christmas – the stage was decorated, all the slides and backgrounds were Christmas themed, and we showed a couple of funny Christmas videos. We also played “Who Wants to Be a Fifty-onaire” with Christmas trivia.

Music Playlist: We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Solution, Safe, Tear Down the Walls

Favorite Moment: Robby Boyd, playing host of the game, handed his personal cell phone to a student to “phone an elf” as one of the lifelines. In the middle of the fake phone call, the student handed the phone back and told Robby he had a text message from a friend. It threw Robby off for a bit but he recovered by replying to the text while the student took too long to answer the next question.

Up Next: Why I Need Christmas Week 2

(this report was written by our two killer HSM interns Rebekah and Haley – love them so much!)

Add Comment December 8, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts Book Review: The Most Loving Place in Town

Just finished reading Ken Blanchard’s recent book, The Most Loving Place in Town. It is a modern day parable of a church that has lost its first love in programs, hype and busyness. It is a call for the church to be led by servant leaders and a call to action by showing God’s love in community service. The story is pretty straight-forward and fairly interesting, but the real win here are the principles and Scripture that challenge us to love others as the church, not get caught in the traps of programs and politics. A good read, especially if you’re afraid your church has lost its first love.

JG