Josh Griffin | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts Planning a Great Summer Calendar: Part 2

Here are a few big picture thoughts to help you plan a great summer calendar

Go with something gender-specific.
A couple of years ago we tried a girls-only Bible study called Bagels & Bibles. It didn’t even necessarily cover girls issue that first year—but we stumbled onto something great: Something for the girls was a HUGE hit. In fact, the guys startled grumbling and asked for a Bible study of their own, too! While Donuts & Dudes has a much higher sugar content, it is a great idea, too. We also do a guys overnight trip called “Burly,” and a girls trip called “Girly.”

Give guest speakers that stage.
You probably want to teach during the most important weeks of the year—back to school, promotion, New Year—but summer is a great chance to develop some new teachers and build skill in the second tier. Let them have it! It’ll give you a chance to be the relational giant you thrive at, anyhow.

Carry over the winners.
Every summer you learn from the last—carry over the winners from summer to summer, and create a few key traditional events and activities students will look forward to year after year.

Steal from everyone else.
Be a learner! Scour youth ministry blogs for ideas on summer ideas that might work in your setting. At your next network meeting ask around and see what is and isn’t working for other people. Even ask members of your congregation for their best summer memories as a teenager and see if you can create or recreate something special and memorable. Quick aside: If you trigger good memories for people from their childhood, they’re super likely to volunteer at a similar event hoping for others to have the same life-changing experience they once had.

Block out a week at the end for you.
Don’t make the mistake of planning a killer summer and then heading right into “back to school” mode and fall kickoff. Take a break! This year we’re planning a “down week” at the end of summer and making sure that everyone is refreshed and healthy for the new school year. A great summer sets the table for a great fall—make sure you build in some time and space for yourself as well.

This post was written by Josh Griffin and Kurt Johnston and originally appeared as part of Simply Youth Ministry Today free newsletter. Subscribe to SYM Today right here.

Add Comment May 3, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Preparing for Growth in Your Youth Ministry

A youth worker sent me an email with a question about preparing for growth in their ministry as they were seeing larger classes in their children’s ministry heading their way – it looks like their ministry is on a path to double soon. Here’s part of how I replied to him, thought it may be helpful to you as well:

Infrastructure is absolutely key. I would definitely start building a team of leaders with all your energy. You might be tempted to think adding more programs but I think people and systems are the best choice.

Adding a position
Getting another staff person, even part-time, is a crap shoot. Flirt with it in your mind, but in my experience that is usually where it stays. Typically leadership waits to see results and staffs late, or staffs intentionall what is hurting instead of what is building. Ironic, but want to be real with you so you don’t get your hopes up. I do think it is time to ask for help before it is too late. And either way, start pouring in to your leaders and building a team of people, paid or not.

Core Leaders
Start a core team of people who are totally on board with the vision of your ministry and love and follow you. These are the people you’ll do life with and know the best. You need to trust them. They will trust you. You need to eat together, laugh together and develop some inside jokes and memories as soon as possible.

More Leaders
Next, I’d work on developing as many additional leaders as I could. Get your small groups/life groups super small next year, so they can scale and grow with more students as they start entering the ministry. If each group has 4 students, you could easily give them 6 the next year and 8 the year after. So make them all super small right now and get the rookies some experience and get ready with an infrastructure for growth.

Systems
This is where you can prepare for growth as well – make sure that all of your systems are ready to scale as well. Take a look at your communications tools, your curriculum, your web presence, your parent ministry – all of these systems need to be able to scale up to double/triple their size. If not, you need to ditch the tool now before it dies under the strain of growth. Take care of these things now and adding students is a breeze.Wait and it will crush you and slow your momentum to a crawl.

Other random stuff/links to consider:

JG

1 View Comments May 3, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Buck the Stats

Our profession has a problem. If you believe statistics (and 89 percent of you do), you’ll be searching for a job on Monster.com in about 36 months. I’ve joked with my friend Doug Fields that his book Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry will always be a bestseller.

This painful turnover needs to stop. It won’t be easy because many youth workers end up wounded soon after the honeymoon ends. We begin anticipating attacks (not teamwork) and jeers (not cheers). But despite all the challenges, you can stay strong for the long haul with these “lifer” tips:

• Hold some stuff sacred. To increase your chances of lasting in ministry, it’s essential to set boundaries on your time and life. Do you take a day off every week? A break might be difficult during an occasional week-before-summer-camp, but if you’re cheating too often, you won’t survive. Do you rest and exercise regularly? How’s your family life? Having a long view of ministry means putting family first. There’s a connection between your faithfulness to your spouse and your faithfulness to God. You have a problem if you’re constantly looking at your phone instead of at your own children (56 percent of you have them).

• Let some things go. Too often, youth workers want to fight over things that don’t really matter. We take a stand when we should sit down, and we speak up when we probably should shut up. If you fight for everything 100 percent of the time, you’ll be too wounded to endure. Over time, you’ll begin to understand what’s truly worth fighting for. Pause today to reflect on some things you might be grasping too tightly.

• Surround yourself with the right people. To build and maintain a long-term ministry, you’ll need the right people in your life. You’ll need: 1) a ministry cheerleader, 2) a ministry mentor, and 3) someone who doesn’t know you work at a church. Who’s cheering you on? Who’s in the stands watching you and yelling encouragement? (Eighty-eight percent of us have someone yelling at us…but it isn’t encouragement.) Who’s the wise sage nudging you on with practical wisdom? Who do you hang out with who cares nothing about your career? These people are sustaining and life-giving, and they’ll make a huge difference.

Live out of these truths and you’ll have a much greater chance of becoming a youth ministry lifer—not a statistic.

Originally appeared in the March/April issue of Group Magazine. Don’t get the magazine yet? Hit this link to subscribe and get in on the action today!

Add Comment May 3, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Should We Wear Nametags at Youth Group?

Do we really need to wear nametags at youth group? We’re in the middle of refocusing on them right now in HSM so I say yes and here’s why:

Nametags say: you want to be introduced
Nametags say: everyone is equal
Nametages say: bring friends
Nametags say: I’m a leader
Nametags say: you can ask me a question
Nametags say: I know where the restrooms are
Nametags say: you expect people not to know you

What do you say about nametags?

JG

4 View Comments May 2, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Taking the Team to the Fam Conference

I’m super excited to take my team up to the Fam Conference at Azusa Pacific University next week. I’m pumped to hear from George Barna, Dave Gibbons and most excited to hear Kara Powell’s Sticky Faith 3-session Deeper Learning Workshop. I’ve got the books and met up with her a little bit at SYMC and am so pumped to learn more:

Session 1: The Sticky Gospel: Teaching That Launches Young People Toward Lifelong Faith
Research from the Fuller Youth Institute revealed that students often leave our ministries carrying a gospel a lot like a jacket: It’s mostly based on behaviors, and students feel like they can put it on or take it off when they want depending on the situation. In this first workshop, we will introduce the research and explore ideas for using relationships and our teaching to move students beyond a “Jesus Jacket” gospel and into lives immersed in God’s grace.

Get Sticky Faith at SYM

Session 2: Sticky Churches and Families: Helping Adults Get Out of Their Seats and Into Kids’ Lives
One of the most powerful things we can do in youth ministry is connect teenagers to adults: their own parents and caring adults in the faith community. Sadly, few youth ministries truly embrace the power of intergenerational relationships or harness that power to disciple students. In this Sticky Faith track workshop, you will leave with a host of practical ideas from churches engaging parents and the intergenerational church family to holistically surround kids.

Session 3: A Sticky Youth Ministry: Small Ministry Changes that Deliver Big Results
Graduation. Change. Transition. Unfortunately, more and more youth workers are finding that close to half of high school seniors’ journeys after youth group are filled with twists and turns that leaves their faith stranded. What can we do NOW that will help our kids develop a faith that sticks? This seminar in the Sticky Faith track will look at ways to structure the youth ministry environment to facilitate growth in middle school and high school students and will explore everyday ideas to prepare seniors for the transition out of high school.

If you’re going – we’ll see you up there, too. Gonna be great!

JG

Add Comment May 2, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GIVEAWAY: WorshipHouse Media Stuff

We use WorshipHouse Media stuff regularly in HSM – most recently we used the “Your Light” video to end week 1 of our Brainwashed series. I think WorshipHouse Media is a great place to get church videos – I was talking to Luke over on their site last week and they offered up some prizes – so simply leave a comment and you could win! Do it!

Random Comment Grand Prize: DVD Bundle with Mini-Movies, Worship Backgrounds and WHM T-shirt worth over $100
Funny Comment, as chosen by me: $30 Promo Code to be used on any product(s) at WHM

JG

49 View Comments May 1, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 179

Weekend Teaching Series: Brainwashed (week 2 of 3)
Sermon in a Sentence: A look at how we are brainwashed about God the Father.

Service Length: 62 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend I wanted to go into a few final ways we are brainwashed about God and our relationship with Him. I took students through Romans 5 and helped them better understand God’s love for us, His forgiveness and desire to be in a friendship/relationship with us - these things directly contradict how we are brainwashed into thinking we will always be unloved, unforgiven and apart from God. I tried to have the message pull together the themes from the earlier weeks with the Gospel being clearly presented as well. We ended the service with prayer with all of our volunteers scattered around the room. Had some awesome conversations and times with students after the service, love it when I see our team scattered around a room after a service talking with students instead of everyone just filing out of the room.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we played a “Get to Know You” game where we used polleverywhere + random trivia facts on the screen. Students would use their phones to text in their guess which person on stage the fact was about. Lots of funny bits were built into the game – super easy and fun. We also had a good push for Student Leadership, Summer Camp and had lots of students serving in greeting, lights, camera, sound and cleanup. Oh, and we played the best dodgeball promo video ever, too.

Music Playlist: Blessed Be Your Name, Take It All, God Above All, Learn to Love, Hosanna, Grace

Favorite Moment: Without a doubt the spoken word at the end of the message was the moment of the weekend. One of our students named Ashley wrote a piece that summed up the whole series – it was super powerful and I’m so proud of her.

Up next: Summer Camp Speaker Weekend (1-off)

Add Comment May 1, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Relationships Are the Reason Students Leave the Church

I really enjoyed reading Thom Shultz’s Holy Soup take on why students are leaving the church post-high school. There’s been so much discussion about this issue I enjoyed a fresh angle on how to help fix it. Here’s a clip, head there for his complete thoughts:

So, why are our young people losing faith in the church and God? It’s a relationship problem. They don’t think of Jesus as their friend. He’s a concept or an historical figure. He’s an academic subject that their churches teach. And once they graduate from youth group, they forget about the Jesus subject—just as they forget about their other high school subjects. Jesus gets left behind with algebra and early American literature.

Ironically, many youth ministry analysts suggest that the cure to the young’s exodus is . . . more academic religious knowledge. They insist what’s really needed is “deeper study,” “stronger biblical teaching,” and “more robust theology.”

Thorough Bible knowledge is a good thing. I’d like to see more of it. My organization publishes Bibles and Bible resources. But kids aren’t walking away from the church because they lack an adequate accumulation of Bible facts.

They lack relationship. And relationships—of any kind—rarely grow and bond primarily due to the accumulation of data. Relationships—with people and with God—develop through demonstrations of unconditional love, building of trust, forgiveness, reliance, and tons of two-way communication.

JG

1 View Comments April 30, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts POLL: Do you allow parents as small group leaders?

Got a great question this week at YSPalooza in Orlando – do we allow parents to be small group leaders in our own ministry – specifically for their own teenagers? Our answer is yes at our church. We don’t prohibit or discourage it in any way. I do totally get the concept and value the idea of another adult Christian modeling faith and mentoring our children, so I get why some ministries may choose a different way. Vote now!

JG

4 View Comments April 30, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts WINNER: Magnum Clock Giveaway

So thankful for the guys over at Magnum Clock who donated a killer TT4040-C (the same one we’ve got!) as a giveaway here on the blog. All you had to do to win was enter your senior pastor’s average message length in the comments of the post. The winner, chosen at random was Charlie!

Thanks to everyone who entered and be sure to swing by Magnum Clocks and check out their awesome gear that might help keep track of time in your youth ministry or church!

JG