Josh GriffinMore PostsHSM Bowl Rules and Info Packet
The HSM Bowl is a fun activity we do every year – thought you might be interested in grabbing the info and rules this packet for this year’s event. Might help you pull off an event like this in the future – you can grab it over on Taffy’s Rice and Worship blog right now!
JG
Josh GriffinMore PostsNEW! Series Video
New Year’s Bumper Video from Saddleback Church on Vimeo.
Here is the series video for our New Year’s Weekend adults services this past weekend. So clean and simple, some really great work by Parker!
JG
Josh GriffinMore PostsSummer Camp Rules with Matt McGillOne of the best summer camp rules videos I’ve ever seen. Matt McGill in rare form – how did I just stumble across this now? Genius.
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Josh GriffinMore PostsPOLL: Do you listen to secular music?
I’ve got a feeling this poll will be a little polarizing. Do you listen to secular music? Would love to know your thoughts about the type of music a youth pastor can listen to and vote in this week’s poll!
JG
Josh GriffinMore PostsMoreThanDodgeball’s Year in Review: Top 5 Blogs of 2011I read about a jillion (with a “j”) blog posts every week. There are a ton of different blogs I subscribe to, but here are my favorites from 2011:
DougFields.com – I’m so glad my friend Doug Fields got into the blogging game. He is the best blogger in youth ministry and I read his stuff, every word of every post, because it is brilliant. OK, I skip some of it just like you do on my blog – but it is filled with incredible youth ministry, marriage and leadership insights and is not to be missed. Best new blog of the year!
DougFranklin.com – solid blog from LeaderTreks’ Doug Franklin doesn’t stray much from the student leadership drumbeat. Solid, consistent posts that are easy to rip off and share with your volunteers like you wrote it yourself!
Learning My Lines – Walk Mueller is in youth ministry culture, and cares about it more deeply than I ever will. I love that I can get up to speed on issues and influences of teenagers in seconds.
Glass House Spouse – Another GREAT new blog – this one focuses on the spouse of someone in ministry. Honest, funny, candid – I love it, my only hope would be that it becomes daily in 2012.
More Than Gossip - My friend Neely McQueen is doing some great work on her blog More Than Gossip. She’s always got an insight or observation from her focused ministry to girls. I learn a lot from her and appreciate the heart she puts into the site. Check it out!
What was your favorite blog in 2011?
JG
Josh GriffinMore PostsMoreThanDodgeball’s Year in Review: Best Book of 2011This year I read quite a few books – you can see most of the book reviews here on the blog by using the book review tag right here. Which book was the best? Before we get there, here are a couple of runner-ups:
Pray for Kaia – Youth worker Ryan Donovan tells the most touching story about his daughter’s painfully short life. I literally cried my way through the end of this books. An absolute testimony to faitfulfulness in the middle of unspeakable pain.
Onward – Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz writes a way-too-long but great history of his little coffee company and a vision of the values they are taking to the future. Really interesting story of the Starbucks journey.
Stuff Christians Like - Jon Acuff takes his best stuff from his blog and drops it into a fun book making fun of but loving Christians. Excited Jon is a speaker at SYMC this year, excited to hear him speak in person about youth workers. Ha!
Lord, Save Us From Your Followers – Dan Merchant brilliantly shows us the clearest picture of what Jesus intended His followers to live by contrasting it with how we (himself included) have managed to mess it all up. Innovative stuff, even if I’m late to the party since the book was published 4 years ago.
My favorite book from 2011:
Steve Jobs – I realize it was trendy to read this book this year and kinda lame to make it my favorite – but it has to be conceded that 2011 will forever be marked by the loss of Steve Jobs. I think I’ve learned as much what TO do as what NOT to do by reading about Steve’s life and management style. Incredible success, incredible failure.
What was your favorite read this past year?
JG
Josh GriffinMore Posts4 Things That Are Changing in Youth MinistryThere has been a lot of talk this year about the changing shape of youth ministry. As we wrap up one of our last articles of 2011, we thought it was a good idea to talk about a few of these changes … and point out a few things that don’t seem to be changing anytime soon. Up today, a few ways youth ministry seems to be evolving.
There are now many, many voices
It wasn’t that long ago that you would go to a youth worker training event or check out the youth ministry books online and see just a handful of resources by a handful of people. Today, youth ministry is rapidly expanding to include scores of voices from all sizes of churches and experiences. Thanks to the world of blogging, podcasts and Twitter, you can access the wisdom and experience of countless of youth workers with the click of a mouse or a push of a button on your cell phone while sitting at a red light (wait, is that even legal anymore?). There is room for your voice, too! The best voices are from the trenches of day-to-day youth ministry — so blog, tweet and podcast away!Emphasis on parent ministry
Youth ministry is no longer just about students (actually, it has never been just about students, but we are finally waking up to this reality), it is about reaching, equipping and empowering parents to be the primary discipler of their teenager.Team-based ministry
Youth ministry was never meant to be done alone! One of the radical shifts still gaining steam is the networking and collaboration of youth ministries worldwide. Everyone is beginning to understand the value of sharing resources and pooling our creativity to inspire others and share the timeless message of Christ.Church together
Youth ministry is no longer an island to itself. Churches and youth ministries are actively seeking out ways to serve together, worship together and learn together. By all means there is still plenty of room for age specific, segregated ministry to happen, but connecting adults and students together in healthy spiritual mentoring relationships is a needed and welcome change.
What else do you see shifting in youth ministry right now?
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.
Josh GriffinMore PostsMoreThanDodgeball’s Year in Review: Top 10 Guest Posts of 2011Every weekend I get the privilege of posting a guest post or two from the More Than Dodgeball community. It is open to everyone – provided it is solid and fits some basic requirements (like somewhere south of 500 words, and isn’t a blatant infomercial for something – if you’re interested get the scoop here). These are the best of the best – the most popular guest posts from 2011:
JG
Josh GriffinMore PostsMoreThanDodgeball’s Year in Review: Top Pages and Tags of 2011I don’t have too many static pages on the site, but here are the Top 3 most popular pages on MoreThanDodgeball.com
The 4th most popular is the Contact Page – if you ever need to get a hold of me that’s where you can find me. And here are the most popular tags from this year as well – tags will pull up all of the blog posts around that subject:
JG
Josh GriffinMore PostsMoreThanDodgeball’s Year in Review: Top 10 Posts of 2011So glad that so many of you found my blog helpful this past year! It was awesome to look back on the stats for the year and see what people really paid attention to as I write and/or share about a little bit about youth ministry every day. In this end of the year series I’m going to look at some interesting trends and or list out some popular stuff from the blog in case you missed it the first go round.
Up today is a list of the Top 10 blog posts from 2011, based on the sheer number of views of that page. Some are old, some are new. Here they are!
JG
Josh Griffin has been in youth ministry for 15+ years and serves as the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church. [read more]
Geoff Stewart serves the Jr / Sr High School Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C.
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