Josh Griffin | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts 4 More Responsibilities of a Leader of Leaders

The reaction to the post The 4 Responsibility of a Leader of Leaders generated some solid reaction – thus inspiring this sequel post of sorts based on additional thoughts and your comments. So how do you lead leaders? Here are a few more ways:

Challenge
Leaders of leaders need to be challenged. Give them a big piece of the ministry of they will find a place that will trust them with more. A great leader surrounds themselves with great leaders – and then gives them a chance to demonstrate it. If you are intimidated by good leadership around you, you’ll continually limit them to pacify your own insecurities. Set them free, challenge them even, and everyone wins.

Communicate
The leader must communicate. It should be first and last of their list of to do’s every day. Communicating involves what’s happening this week, but also talking through when things go wrong and you taking account for what happened and lead through how it’s not going to happen again. Communicating is also a big part of creating a compelling vision for everyone to follow.

Champion
No one cares about your youth ministry more than you. Speak out, share and affirm what your leaders are doing with the larger church.

Captain
The biggest thing a leader/pastor needs to do is be the captain. I’ve suffered in ministry when the leader refused to be in charge and when the leader let more charismatic people took the helm and drove the ministry into the rocks on the leaders’ watch. Being a captain also means you are the one creating vision and direction for the church. While others may man a wheel of the minsitry, having clear direction and course from the captain keeps the ship off sandbars and from straying off the path or going aimlessly in circles in the sea of uncertainty.

Create Culture/Context
Leaders must create and/or nurture sustainable cultures in which the Gospel can be manifest in that leaders’ context/environment. Copying another leaders style, say from the West Coast, might not work as well in the East. Hopefully, the four things you’ve listed will accomplish this goal, but I bet it’s worthwhile to remind the leaders to examine the culture and context in which they serve. The correct placement of your passion with the world’s needs is critical to ministry.

Model
Every leader of leaders should have chiseled abs and stunning features. I’m just messing, but seriously. I think on the flip-side or in complementing coaching we must lead by example. Our kids aren’t the only ones that watch what we do or the choices we make, in fact, sometimes the leaders we lead are more influenced by us than the kids are. They often take their leadership cues from us. I was talking with a missionary this past Sunday telling him about the various resources I was looking at for our youth ministry and staff and he said, “Well, whatever resources or curriculum you decide on, just remember that your life is the real curriculum teaching these kids and staff.” Wow.

Thanks to Matt Murphy, Rusty and Micah for these additional thoughts!

JG

1 View Comments August 10, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts POLL: How often do you teach about sex in youth group?

Vote in this week’s youth ministry poll – how often do you teach about purity/sex in youth group? I’m considering kicking off the school year with a sex series next month, which we’ve never done before. Pastor Rick changed up our fall campaign so I’ve got a few weeks and thinking of starting it off with a bang. Vote now!

JG

5 View Comments August 9, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Operation Backpack Highlight Video

A little highlight video from a summer serve project called Operation Backpack. School supplies for needy kids in our area. Great project for students to be involved in – over 1,300 backpacks filled and ready to go!

JG

3 View Comments August 9, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts 50,000 Gamerscore … Finally!

After a couple month hiatus of Gamerscore movement (sometimes real life gets in the way of my gaming addiction) our Xbox 360 crossed a huge milestone this weekend. 50,000 points! The boys and I rustled up some achievements playing Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (B+), Plants vs. Zombies (A+), Kinect Fun Labs (B) and Spare Parts (B).

JG

Add Comment August 8, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Called to Youth Ministry

I remember hearing a pastor once talk about his “calling to ministry” — my first thought was how mystical it all sounded; that God would pick out some normal person and make them super special for ministry. Would God’s calling be accompanied by bright light, an audible voice, smoke and lasers? I always wondered what God’s voice must have sounded like (probably like Morgan Freeman’s), and how it must have felt to be hand-picked by the Creator of the Universe for this special job.

And then I felt called, and it wasn’t anything like I thought it might be. It wasn’t super magical, but it was life-changing. Here’s a little from each of us on our calling to youth ministry:

JOSH: My first inclination that God was calling me to youth ministry was through a significant mentor in my life. I was about to graduate my senior year of college and Jerry Dorman told me he was about to leave his current position and become a pastor. He asked me to consider becoming his youth pastor. I couldn’t believe what he was asking (I was newly married and about to graduate with a business degree) but said I would pray about it. Little did I know that this nudge from a caring adult in my life would lead to a lifelong pursuit and calling from God to minister to students.

KURT:Like Josh, the first time I truly felt “called” to youth ministry was through a significant mentor, and it was a fairly powerful moment. I had taken a semester off from college to go on an extended mission trip to England. My prayer before leaving was, “God, I don’t want to return to school until I know exactly why I’m there.” I hadn’t told anybody about that prayer, but one night on the trip while the team was huddled together under Big Ben praying for those we had ministered to throughout the day, my youth pastor pulled me aside and said that he believed I was gifted for ministry and should consider changing my course of study when I returned to school. No lasers, no Morgan Freeman voice, but pretty epic nonetheless.

Do you remember your calling? Maybe you were raising your hand to ask a question and someone thought that you were volunteering to work with junior highers. Maybe you accidentally made eye-contact with your senior pastor at exactly the wrong time and you ended up running youth group for the next year. Or maybe you had a very provocative Saul-on-the-road-to-Damascus meeting where God shined a blinding spotlight directly at you. Maybe you stumbled into youth ministry and have felt God’s calling over the months of serving and seeing lives changed and hearts being drawn to Him (side note: We have learned over the years that this type of calling is the most common).

At the end of the day, you are called. You are chosen. You are one of the few … the proud … the youth ministry nation. We share in that calling and are honored to encourage you, equip you, and hopefully inspire you to keep on serving students today, and tomorrow….and the next day. In fact, that’s why we are so excited about the opportunity to write this little column a few times a week!

So think about your calling this afternoon. Thank God for it and reflect on what He wants to do with and through you. We’ll be back tomorrow with a few reminders of why that’s so important.

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.

1 View Comments August 8, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Speaking at a Few Youth Worker Events in 2011/2012

A few times a year I get a chance to meet/hang/speak at youth worker conferences or leadership events – thought I would post them here in case you were planning on attending too and maybe we could arrange a meet up. I’m a sucker for late-night Steak and Shake. Here’s what’s on tap this next season:

The D6 Conference - I’ve never been to this event and it has been one I’ve wanted to get to check out the last couple of years. Check out their fantastic official trailer here, if you’re in/around Dallas or in town for it this September- I’ll see you there! I’m speaking on a panel about youth ministry and leading a commissioning prayer during the last session of the event. Pumped.

YS National Youth Ministry Convention: San Diego - honored to be invited to speak at YS-San Diego! I’ll be doing a few workshops there in September focusing on teaching calendars, sermon preparation and training small group leaders. I enjoyed this little promo video of their event from Tic Long, too. I’m also on a panel with some legit dudes on the future of youth ministry. Excited and intimidated.

YSPalooza Orlando – This is the first time I’ll be teaching at YSPalooza, too! We’re still working out the details, but it is going to be fun in Orlando this January.

Simply Youth Ministry Conference 2012 - Without a doubt this is the event I’m most heavily involved in again this year. I’ll be doing the general session programming (with the infamous Jake Rutenbar) and there’s even talk of me maybe speaking a little chunk of a creative new general session idea. Who knows … I just know it is going to be awesome and you really, really need to be there, too – Louisville, KY in March. Be there with Francis Chan and Jon Acuff and more.

JG

Add Comment August 8, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Dangling Carrots

Tonight a dear friend of mine said that he will be pay me $1,000 if I lose 20 pounds in one year. I need carrots. This is a nice carrot.

I am fascinated by the effective use of incentives (carrots) that parents use to motivate their teenagers. I’ve heard of cash for grades, clothes for good behavior and even a new car for remaining a virgin throughout high school. I asked several of my high school friends about carrots and many of them receive all kinds of perks if they follow through on the activities that their parents value the most. So I asked, “should parents give carrots to teenagers for attending church, reading the bible or serving the less fortunate?” I could tell by looking at their faces that they were uneasy with this one.

I’m willing to bet you that if you took a look around the children’s ministry at your church you will find carrots galore! If you show up on Sunday you get a star on the chart or if you memorize the verse of the week you may get a tootsie roll. These are not trivial tokens! Imagine giving some smarties to a 2nd grade boy but not his four buddies seated near him or the over achieving girl who didn’t get an attendance star because she was out-of-town visiting her grandma. DRAMA!

Starting in middle school and especially in high school ministry you see a transfer from carrot encouragement to the focus on consequences. Where a kid once got candy for coming to church, now he can’t play in the praise band if he doesn’t have adequate attendance. It is this very mindset that propels we youth ministers to focus more on what Dallas Willard calls “sin management” instead of authentic discipleship. I am fully aware that God has consequences for his children, but I don’t see that He uses consequences as His primary motivation. Having said that, I’m not convinced that I see the use of “carrots” as a means for spiritual growth, except for………

The Kingdom Carrot-
Is the promise of a new heaven and new earth or eternal life enough for a 16-year-old? Should we focus more on passages like John 10:10 describing the abundant life as a means to spiritually motivate young people? I may have more questions than I do answers about this post, but doesn’t the Promised Land seem to be a decent carrot to encourage tired, thirsty people to follow God? There is also a good question that some folks on my team brought up about the difference between a salvific carrot and a Christian leadership carrot, but I digress.

Matthew 6:19-24 is a classic Jesus response about the ultimate carrot and how distracting earthly possessions can be. It is no coincidence that Jesus ends by saying we can’t serve two masters in reference to money, which might give us some insight on the dangers of certain types of spiritual carrots. While I confess to you that I needed the $1,000 to lose weight, I pray that for you and I, the Kingdom carrot will be enough.

Nate Stratman is the Director of Student Ministries at First Presbyterian Church in Colorado Springs, CO.

2 View Comments August 6, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 149

Weekend Teaching Series: liveSTRONG (week 2 of 4)
Sermon in a Sentence: This first week of the series focused on Paul’s mission to live Christ above everything else.

Understandable Message: I was gone this weekend to Costa Rica on a mission trip – so once again I’m writing this based on what was planned for this past weekend since I didn’t make it to any of the services being a few thousand miles away. Chris Wohlers from the HSM team stepped in to speak this weekend, and taught Philippians 2 expositionally. You can read the arc of the whole series right here if you want, too. The big idea was that Paul knew we would live the best life when we put everyone else’s need above our own.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we introduced our newest staff member Hannah and set her up to host a game with our resident creative geek pastor Parker. Hannah was a cheerleader in High School and Parker was Parker, so it felt like a great juxtaposition for a crowd-level game. Yup, just used the word juxtaposition like it was no big deal.

Favorite Moment: My favorite moment was hearing about how God was using the weekend to change lives. I watched eagerly for Facebook updates and word in Costa Rica that it was great – so excited how great the weekend turned out. For a first time speaker (at this size program), Chris nailed it. What an incredible young pastor God has given HSM, beyond excited for his future here.

Up Next: liveSTRONG (week 3 of 4)

Add Comment August 5, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Right Contestant Makes All the Difference

From time to time we play a game in youth group that requires a contestant or two on stage. Here’s a quick principle that I’ve seen work over and over again:

The right contestant makes a good game great.

Picking a great contestant on the fly from stage is really difficult – the host feels pressure to pick a contestant right away and the person that typically immediately responds to the call for a contestant doesn’t usually make a good one. Since the right student is so important, here’s what I suggest: pick them ahead of time. During the countdown to your service starting (or whatever you use to kick things off) take a second to scan the crowd and select a solid person to play the game. It will save you from that awkward moment when you don’t have anyone volunteering or the same kid raises their hand eagerly every week. Pick them ahead of time and you’ll get variety. skill and personality like never before. Try it and you might never go back.

Any advice for youth workers picking a student to play a game?

JG

1 View Comments August 5, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Youth Pastor Heartbreaker

Thought that my good friend Neely McQueen had an insightful post on her blog this week about male youth workers and adoring female students. Some very good stuff over there, worth the click over for the whole thing. Here’s a clip:

Are you single?
Does your wife serve in other areas in the church?
Are you young?
Are you friendly?

If you answered yes to any of these questions than there is a good chance that a girl in your youth ministry has had a slight crush on you. Now, don’t get all crazy and start avoiding the girls in your youth ministry just to make sure that it never happens again. Usually, the girl(s) that are prone to inappropriate crushes are the girls who need the most support and encouragement in their life. So, how do you help them and protect yourself?

Make sure you are empowering the female leaders in your ministry to provide pastoral care to the girls in your ministry. In the sensitive and powerful moments of ministry it is normal for a very real and deep connection to be formed…if that is happening between a guy and a girl it can be misunderstood as something else. Allow your female leaders to care for the girls in your ministry.

If you are married or dating someone…don’t be bashful when talking about your love for them but remember to be appropriate.

Set up guidelines for yourself and other leaders…communicate them so both leaders and students know them well.

JG