Josh Griffin | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts Youth Workers: Be Teachable

One of our favorite quotes among our Pastoral staff is, “Leaders are learners—when you stop learning you stop leading.” These words have become commonplace in our church culture, but they’ve never been more true. As leaders, we have to be hungry to learn and willing to humble ourselves to someone else’s wisdom and experience.

So what makes somebody “teachable”?

Someone Who Asks Curious, Thoughtful Questions
Somebody who is curious and asks lots of good questions is hungry to learn. They are processing the information that has been provided, and now they’re seeking clarification for an even deeper understanding. They KNOW they need to learn and use the answers to those questions to propel themselves forward. If you want to show someone you’re listening, learning and leading, ask great questions.

Of the two, this one is easy. Obviously some folks are more inquisitive, and better at asking questions, but almost everybody enjoys learning life lessons and having teachable moments that they initiated!

Someone Who Is Humble Enough To Let Others In
It isn’t easy, but a truly teachable person allows others to speak into their life through exhortation, encouragement, correction, and coaching…even when they aren’t asking for it!

This one…is tough. To be open to correction you didn’t know you needed. To be coached in areas you thought you had already mastered. To be pushed in directions you don’t think you want (or need) to go. To learn from people who don’t know as much as you do. For instance, Josh knows almost nothing compared to me (Kurt…and apparently I didn’t write the “pride” article the other day), but I am shocked at how much I learn from him when I open myself up to his wisdom.

Chances are the older, more experienced, more educated and more “successful” you are, the less teachable you are, too. While this is natural, it doesn’t make sense. In the fast-paced, ever-changing world of ministry leaders simply can’t afford to quit learning. What I’ve discovered about so many of my youth ministry friends…and about myself…is that while we’re quick to ask questions and learn stuff we WANT to learn, we’re sometimes a little slower to become truly teachable.

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.

2 View Comments October 31, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Food Donation Drive

We’ve been doing a canned food drive for the month of October in our youth ministry – seems like this time of year our supplies run low and requests are at their highest. So we’re helping our our food bank! This year we pitted the classes against each other, and will make a music video honoring the winning class. Should be fun – the lead has bounced back and forth a few times.

Good cause, good prize. Always need both when planning a serve opportunity like this. Of course, I’ll make sure to post the video here next month when it comes out, too!

JG

Add Comment October 30, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Why You Plan the Teaching Calendar in Advance

In December HSM is gong to do a series call Instalife about jealousy, pretending and bragging – talking through what the Bible says on these very important subjects. I happened to stumble on an article (poorly titled, but oh well) on the very subject on Gizmodo that is absolutely perfect research for my message. You can certainly read the whole article, but my favorite part of it being the list of questions the author put at the end:

Am I sharing this picture only because I want people to wish they were where I am?
Am I someplace expensive? Is it obvious?
Am I someplace nobody else was invited? Do they wish they were invited?
Am I posting this only because I want people to like it? Or like me?
Am I posting this only because it makes me look good?
Am I posting myself and explicitly stating how good I look?
Am I a nice person?
Have I called my parents lately?
Did my parents get divorced because of me?
Did my parents stay together because of me?
Do I know for sure that my ex follows me on Instagram and I want to make sure she sees this so she’ll regret it—oh, how she’ll regret it all!
If I saw what I’m about to share, would I roll my eyes?
Can I imagine anyone commenting, on this picture, “Ahhh I’m so jealous! I hate u!”
Is this an Instaboast?

Now … this is a completely secular article but points out some great truths for me to now use in my message. If I didn’t know roughly what I was teaching on I wouldn’t know to collect stuff like this right now. If I’m preparing a “Saturday night special” talk for my audience on Sunday morning, they’ll never be as good as when I prepare in advance.

Let me spell it out rapid fire if it isn’t obvious:

Plan in broad strokes your teaching calendar for the season ahead
Be a collector of what you read/stumble on
Listen well to what you hear around you and in the culture
Look for stories on your theme in your community
Pray throughout the process
Deliver a great talk

Good luck as you prepare your talk this week … and the one 2 months from now!

JG

Add Comment October 30, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Why Be a Team Player

Matt McGill (who has been on a blogging streak lately) posted some great reasons why your youth ministry should be aligned with the whole church and not just a siloed ministry. Here’s 1, 3 and 4 – head there for the rest and be sure to subscribe to his blog, too:

1. The youth ministry is not the church–it may be the best part of the church, but it’s still just a part.

3. Greater alignment usually means greater impact. Being a team player increases your alignment with the bigger picture.

4. Lead by example. You know how friendship works: if you want a friend, be a friend first. There will be days when you need help from the rest of the church. Be the first one to serve so that they are more eager to serve you. Obviously, this can be twisted into a game of politics, but you don’t have to go that far with it.

JG

Add Comment October 29, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Simply Youth Ministry Conference Secret MTDB Promo Code

I had a chance to sit down with Jason Ostrander, the man behind the incredible Simply Youth Ministry Conference this year – easily one of my favorite weeks of all time. This year we’re in Indianapolis in March – going to be really, really fun:

What is the heart and vision behind SYMC?
The Simply Youth Ministry Conference (aka. SYMC) has always been unique in the landscape of youth ministry conferences in that it is, by design, a conference “by youth workers –for youth workers”. In all aspects of the conference youth workers are an active part of both its development and implementation. The true heart behind SYMC it is to be a place where youth workers from around the world can come to learn, connect and recharge and the vision is always to support the local youth worker in every way possible so that they can thrive in youth ministry.

There are a lot of conferences out there, maybe now more than ever – why choose SYMC?
This is a great question. My immediate response takes me back to when I was a youth worker attending SYMC –I remember that everyone I met seemed to identify with me as well as my journey. It felt good to be known (and remembered year after year!) As the conference director, I would say that SYMC works very hard to cut through the fluff of youth min conferencing so that we can fully engage youth workers right where they are. I have been a part of some SYMC Lead Team meetings in the past few weeks where we’ve cut out potentially “good” things to make room for the “most important” things that we should be offering to youth workers.

When is the best time to sign up to get the best deal?
Of course the deepest discount for SYMC would be the early bird registration ($40 off the regular price) –which ends THIS WEEK on October 31^st!

Hmmm … I should have seen that one coming. Well, youth workers love freebies – give us a deal or secret freebie just for MTDB readers!
OK…how about a secret MTDB gift bag that includes: a $25 coupon for the SYMC Bookstore, a special early-entry pass for the nightly General Sessions (and other free SYMC-related resources)? If you register with the code MTDB you’ll receive your gift when you check in at the conference!

Hahaah that’s the best! See you at SYMC!

JG

2 View Comments October 29, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Student Leadership Celebrations

We start each student leadership meeting with what we call, “celebrations”. Celebrations, a tradition inspired by our weekly staff meetings, is a time where our student leadership team reflects on the things that God has done in the weeks since we last met. Students will share things like a great conversation they had with a classmate, a powerful moment they had at the small group they lead, a story from an event they threw at their school, or even them getting into a college! This is one of my favorite parts of our meetings because we are able to slow down, take a breath, and acknowledge all of the great things the Lord has done through our team. Through this reflection, the Lord continues to work and helps us build a great community and teaches us some really great leadership lessons.

Community Building. Through celebrations, students are able to identify with each other; they see that they aren’t alone in the trenches and that they have a community that is there to support them with their projects, ministries, or events. For example, Delaney shared that the Jr. High small group she leads finally opened up to each other. McKenna (who is also leading a Jr. High small group) revealed that she was having trouble getting her girls to be open and honest and asked for help. One by one, other students who lead small groups began to share advice and things that they had been learning. It was awesome to see a community instantly built through one student sharing about what God did in her small group.

Leadership Training. Celebrations are also an awesome way to teach applicable leadership lessons. I love this because we get the opportunity to teach on more than the book we are going through or the podcast that we listened to. For example, Lauren shared that the event she threw at her school was a huge success. She went on to admit that she was really scared at first and almost backed out completely. She shared that she knew God was calling her to lead the event but she felt like she wasn’t the right person for the job. But then she remembered the story of Moses and that God provided for him each step of the way, and that God was glorified through Moses’ weaknesses. Boom! A student just taught an incredible leadership lesson that anyone can identify with!

Our “celebrations” have really grown us as a team. I think a lot of the success comes from how organic it is. We get to learn and get closer together without a structured lesson or game. It just feels like a group of friends laughing together, supporting each other, and loving each other. A total win!

What activities is your ministry doing to build up your student leadership team?

Colton Harker is the Student Leadership Director at Saddleback HSM. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact him at coltonharker@gmail.com or on twitter at @ColtonHarker.

Add Comment October 28, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Water Sunday

Came across this cool project it might be fun for some youth ministries to get behind – it is a clean water project called Water Sunday. I asked the folks over there for some details on the project and how others could get involved. This is part of a conversation I had with Nic, part of the team responsible for getting the word out:

1. What is Water Sunday?
Water Sunday is an initiative of Water Missions International, inspiring a movement within the Church to respond to the global water crisis. Together, we can be the solution. Water Sunday is the start. The participating churches will have a Sunday to educate their congregation about the Global Water Crisis as well as help them to find ways to implement things they have learned to transform lives around the world. Check out our website here.

2. How did you get involved, Nic?
When I was in high school, my aunt and uncle visited Charleston, SC and told me about Water Missions International. They live in California and had heard about Water Missions there. They were excited to get to actually tour the facility while they were here – and invited me along. I was really impressed with the organization’s ministry. In college, I did a presentation about Water Missions International for a youth ministry undergraduate class. I’m graduating in December and requested to do my senior internship with them. Working with this team as an intern has been one of the highlights of my program.

3. Is this something a youth group could participate in?
Yes, we’ve had many youth ministry programs get engaged with Water Sunday. In particular, they’ve been impacted when participating in the water fast. Youth leaders challenge their students to drink only water for a set period of time (2 weeks or so) and donate the money they save by not drinking other beverages. The student’s really come to realize how vital water is to their everyday lives.

4. There are so many important social justice issues, why water?
In John 4:10 (NIV), Jesus tells the woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” WMI provides clean drinking water to communities without – and by doing so, has the opportunity to lead them to Jesus, the living water. 1 in 8 people around the world lack access to safe drinking water. This crisis kills one child every 15-20 seconds. What makes water so powerful for your youthgroup is (1) it’s easy to understand, we drink water ever day and (2) it’s solvable. Water treatment options have been around for a long time, we have a solution! Your church/youth group be part of the solution

5. Do you have a good story of a community that has been impacted?
Last year, churches that participated in Water Sunday were able to help provide safe water to four communities around the world. One of those communities was Kimmi Island, Uganda located in Lake Victoria. 3,000 people live on Kimmi, the majority of the population is made up of fishermen. Besides rain water harvesting, the community members use water from the lake for all their daily needs. Drinking this water causes dangerous illnesses – typhoid, cholera, bilharzia’s, stomach pain, and diarrhea. These ever present illnesses affect all aspects of society. It was awesome to see the pictures come back from the community safe water celebration when the water system was fully installed. Thousands of people were present to participate in boat races, soccer, singing, tug-of-war, ribbon cutting and accompanying speeches. Seeing the faces of the children and statistically knowing that by providing safe water, you are saving some of their lives, really touches the heart.

Be sure to check out the Water Sunday website here!

JG

Add Comment October 28, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: The 5 Easiest Ways to Make Sure You Lose Your Job

Every few weeks, I hear about youth workers who need new jobs.

Sometimes they leave because they want to
Sometimes they’re asked to leave. We call this a forced resignation.
Other times, they’re outright fired

When I started to learn about how devastating the effects of youth worker turnover are for the local church, I started doing some research. I discovered several themes – the easiest and most common factors that cause good youth workers lose or leave their jobs. Make sure you’re not one of them

If you want to stay in youth ministry for the long haul, don’t do these five things:

1. Mismanage budgeted money. Depending on your theology, it’s either God’s money or other people’s money. Either way, it’s not your money. You’ve been given the responsibility to be a good steward of some of your church’s resources. You might not know what you’re doing yet, but you’ll need to figure it out soon. (This link contains all kinds of good information about managing your church’s money better.)

2. Fight with your Senior Pastor – especially publicly. One problem with working in the Church is that many of your friends will come from the congregation. We all like to vent about our bosses, but if you’re venting to a fellow pew-sitter, you’re in the wrong. If you’re in the business of creating division in the Church, you won’t be a staff member for very long.

3. Show up late for your own events. Parents have their own jobs with their own responsibilities. They know exactly what would happen to them if they slept through their alarm more than once. You can expect the same thing to happen to you.

4. Work way too hard and never, ever take a break. Your own soul care ought to be a top priority. When you’re worn down and hurting, you’ll be less effective as a youth worker. Less effective youth workers frequently become baristas. Besides that, a lack of soul care is the easiest way to make sure you run yourself out of youth ministry. The church doesn’t have to fire you if you get exhausted and quit.

5. Refuse to participate in the larger life of the congregation. You’ll appear much more dispensable if the rest of the congregation never sees you – or your youth group.

Find ways for you and your students to become a crucial part of everything the congregation does. Crucial people are much more difficult to fire.

Now it’s your chance to be the teacher. What is one of the money mistakes you’ve made? How did you fix it?

Aaron Helman is on a mission to help end the epidemic of youth worker burnout. He writes Smarter Youth Ministry to help youth workers with their biggest frustrations. He is also the youth minister at Firehouse Youth Ministries in South Bend, Indiana.