Josh Griffin | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts 3 Things Youth Workers Need to be Good At

It is easy as youth workers to get bent out of shape when we don’t get recognized for something we did. There’s nothing more painful to be forgotten in the wake of the other initiatives and projects of the church. At times, affirmation seems to be elusive, in fact, sometimes we tend to feel that we hear only criticism.

Knowing and experiencing this reality on a regular basis should give youth workers cause to develop these muscles to be used on a regular basis. Here are three things you probably don’t get enough of that we need to make sure as youth workers we give out generously:

Followup
Who needs a call back this week? What email has been sitting in the bottom of your inbox that needs a reply? What made it on your task list, but sits there with persistence week after week? Who did you promise something to, but haven’t delivered on? Follow-up is a scare commodity in our fast-paced, disorganized world.

Thank yous
Who needs a note from you this week? Can you crank out a couple emails that would mean the world to people who receive them? Who did something for you that needs to be appreciated? Build this into your routine of the week, or chances are you’re unintentionally burning bridges behind you if you say nothing after the ask.

Affirmation
To me this is different than thank yous – thank yous are for people who have given you something and need to be appreciated for something they did. Affirmation is for who someone is. It is an appreciation of their legacy and character that is making an impact. Affirmation is also ultra powerful way to build up someone’s self-esteem.

Take a second and create a short list of people who need one of these actions this week.

JG

2 View Comments September 21, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts Happy Series Bumper Video

A student made this little bumper video for our new HAPPY series, it played right before the message.

JG

1 View Comments September 21, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts Back to School Kickoff Growing Deeper Worksheet

We launched something new the past couple of weeks – and I’m pleased with the results so far. Our weekend is designed to reach several audiences from crowd to core, but from time to time regular attenders ask for “more.” To that end, we’re providing some homework each week, written by the weekend speaker and designed to flow hand in hand with the sermon that weekend and help them to grow deeper on their own.

If you want to check it out, here’s the Growing Deeper worksheet from kickoff weekend.

JG

1 View Comments September 21, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts Labels Sermon Series Released

Excited to see our LABELS series just get released this week as a sermon series from Simply Youth Ministry. If you didn’t read the two weekends in review back in April when we did the series (week 1 and week 2), it was a mirror-smashing series that we really had a lot of fun with. To check it out, click the image above!

JG

Add Comment September 21, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 66

Weekend Teaching Series: Happy: Week 1
Sermon Title: Step One: Realizing I am not God
Sermon in a Sentence: A study of recovery and hope from the beautitudes.
Service Length: 78 minutes
Bible: Matthew 5:3 (NCV)

Understandable Message: Doug Fields kicked off the new series this weekend in HSM. The entire church is doing this study – Life’s Healing Choices its called in big church and Happy in HSM and Wildside (jr high). He covered the first step in happiness, which is realizing that you are not in control but that God is. Doug used a couple of powerful illustrations to help our students think about the path they had planned for their lives, and presented them with the opportunity to follow God’s path. He kept things interesting a clip from Shark Tank, and a fantastic story of one of our high school students from a local high school.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: This was choir weekend which we do about once a month, so we had students everywhere and the energy was fantastic. Students sang and played in the band, and also made up the greeters, cleanup/setup and even helped me host an opening game. Students also manned lights, sound, cameras – and for the first time ever – completely ran all of the positions in video control room and computers, too. TONS of students involved!

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We had some fun with a little character called FACE, an animated smiley face that we could have do all sorts of funny expressions and voiced totally improv by Jake Rutenbar. We also had a fun game up front – a Search and Seizure game that turned into Let’s Make a Deal – all in keeping with the theme where the winner would become ‘very happy.’ Lots of fun, and epic music rounded out a solid weekend. Download the program sheet here.

Music Playlist: Sweet Home Alabama (during countdown), Yours Forever, Your Name High, Song of the Broken, Hold Me Now, Your Name High (reprise)

Favorite Moment: Doug used an illustration about playing in the dirt vs playing at Disneyland that has really stuck with me (and I hope our students this week). Really clear illustration of what we think is happiness, but God opening the gates to His kingdom to us when we follow His ways.

Up Next: Happy, week 2

2 View Comments September 21, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: 6 Thoughts on Networking

Networking can be difficult in our already, way too busy lives. But there are many of us who see youth ministry networks as an important way to re-energize, fellowship, and unity. Networking happens to be a passion of mine so I thought I would share with you six things that are important to think about when starting or maintaining a youth ministry network in your community.

1) Focus on soul care: When youth pastors get together we tend to create things, this happens naturally. However we often forget that part of why we network is to recharge, and encourage each other. So many youth workers are on all the time, let meeting together be focused on relaxing, praying and laughing together, not busting out our schedules for a collaborative event.

2) Tell stories: Veterans and rookies, we have all had that one time, great ministry blunder. It’s important for us to remember where we came from, but also share success and encourage one another with stories of student’s whose lives have been changed. Be careful not to let it become a senior pastor or parent bashing session. It’s important to be honest, but it is equally important to respect people and those who are in authority over us.

3) Be intentional about time together: Get creative with the meeting place, or what activities you do together; being respectful of people’s time of course.

4) Split responsibilities: Don’t let one person handle everything. Besides, shared responsibility keeps the network from dying when that one person leaves (the number one reason I hear networks collapse).

5) Commit to each other: A network doesn’t work very well when there is no one to “network” with. Be consistent with meeting times and be realistic about how often you meet.

6) (Last but not least) Food: Good fellowship revolves around good food! Take turns providing it or see if a local coffee shop will donate food and beverage for everyone (the worst they could say is no).

Jonas Knudsen is a youth worker who loves students and blogs at Raising Ebenezer. If you want to write up a guest post for next weekend, submit your article this week.

2 View Comments September 19, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts Guy Talk, Girl Talk in Small Groups

This year we’re decentralizing our small group material, instead of a rigid and uniform cirriculum plan we’re allowing leaders to pick from close to 100 different lessons to share with their students. Among them are Guy Talk, Girl Talk 1 and 2. I’m excited about this because one of the few lessons I remember from youth ministry myself as a teenager centered around these issues from a biblical viewpoint. If you haven’t checked them out before, click on over and see if it is right for your ministry, too.

JG

Add Comment September 17, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts Changing the Name of Small Groups

Some conversations this week combined with our small group leader training has me thinking about changing the name of our small groups. Just a far-fetched idea and rambling at this point, but thought I would share it here and see if there would be some action in the comments.

The primary purpose of our small groups is fellowship. We emphasize “life-on-life” conversations, accountability and community. Secondarily we strive for discipleship, asking small group leaders to teach Bible topics and lessons in a relevant and personal way to our students. We’ve called these groups in the past “Area Bible Studies (ABS)” and currently HSM Small Groups. But I’m wondering if the name combined with the emphasis on a curriculum, tips the scale toward discipleship and undermines the value of sharing life authentically together? I’m wondering if by default students expect a Bible class or theology lesson, instead of bibical community centered around God’s Word?

In a perfect world and our current discipleship process, I would say that groups should be 70-80% fellowship, and 20-30% fellowship. I wonder if it could be done without specfic materials at all, but share the outpouring of the leader’s and students’ walk with God. I wonder if there is a more accurate expression for our groups that convey the purpose more effectively.

Maybe we should call them … Life Groups.

If you have small groups, what purpose do they serve and what do you call them? I’d love to know and discuss.

JG