Josh Griffin | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Twitness or Transparent or Both

Twitter and Facebook have become regular and prominent parts of being involved in youth ministry. I didn’t really get the purpose of Twitter at first, but once someone described it to me as:

“Facebook is for connecting with people you went to highschool with and Twitter is for connecting with the people you wish you went to highschool with.”

I have a hard time disagreeing with this claim, but it doesn’t resolve my wrestle with the role that Facebook and Twitter can and should play in my ministry life. I follow some pretty bright minds on Twitter and some fall into the Twitness category: sharing verses that challenge me and quoting Charles Spurgeon, amongst others, to provoke thought. There are some that share leadership strategies and thoughts, some promoting themselves and others who tweet about their lives, the vacations, family happenings, funny things they see, etc. My tension is that it is still not clear to me what role twitter and facebook should play in ministry. The two paradigms I regularly see people align with are:

Twitness: I find much of what I would consider twitness type content on Twitter to be very encouraging and helpful to me as a Pastor and a Christian. It’s great to read the thoughts and feelings of others and hear about what they are reading or learning. But my dilemma is — who is my audience? My twitter followers are a mixed bag of friends, students, youth pastors, youth workers, Christians, non-Christians and Atheists. We are called to make disciples, but I just don’t know if reciting scripture and tweeting assertions of God’s sovereignty is the way that I can accomplish that. It’s not that I don’t see value in this style, but I wonder if it’s having the desired effect that the writer intends.

Transparent: This is the direction that I tend to lean towards; not because it’s easier, but because the biggest impact on my leadership has been people who I have seen living out their faith in all aspects of their lives. I love the idea of my life being open to my students, leaders and friends. That they can see the way I live, the way I love and honor my wife and family, my love of Christ and the things that I value. My desire has always been to model a Christ like lifestyle that is real and attainable. I want my students, friends, colleagues and congregation to know who I am, what I stand for, and what I care about. Perhaps this is not for everyone, but I don’t always understand why some keep a guard on being transparent.

So if you were looking for a definitive answer, you came to the wrong place, but perhaps you have some thoughts on where you land on this. At this point, I am not ready to be a full on Twitness because I am not sure where I am going to land on the spectrum, trying to strike a balance between investing in my students, friends, and congregation with wisdom and scripture, and allowing my life and ministry to be a true reflection of myself and my walk with Christ.

Geoff Stewart is the Pastor of Jr & Sr High School for Journey Student Ministries at Peace Portal Alliance Church and regularly contributes GUEST POSTS to MTDB. Be sure to check out his Twitter stream for awesome ministry goodness. Want to get in on the fun and write up a guest post yourself? See how right here.

2 View Comments August 4, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts New HSM Staff: Hannah Rich

I’m excited to announce a new addition to the HSM Team! Hannah Pratt-Rich has been a small group leader the last few years and she recently accepted an offer to join our team part-time. She’s going to be working to help strengthen our pastoral care ministry to girls and has a huge heart for serve projects and missions. So excited she’s on the team!

JG

Add Comment August 4, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts The 4 Responsibilities of a Leader of Leaders

Was thinking this week about the challenge of leading great people – and how we are not only leaders of students as youth workers – we’re the leader of leaders as well. Here are the 4 jobs I think we have as leaders of leaders. Add your thoughts in the comment!

Cheer
Your team is doing a great job, so cheer them on! Many of us in leadership understand the vacuum of gratitude for what we do, largely from first-hand experience of loneliness at the top. Invisible leaders will soon be invisible altogether. Don’t let this be the case for your people!

Care
Simply put, when you care for people, they’ll be better leaders. They will last longer and endure more under your leadership. The opposite is also true – if they aren’t cared for, when hard times come (and they will) they’ll disappear. Care for your people and they’ll care for your people.

Coach
Coaching is the gentle nudge of your leadership to get people back on track. Coaching is the side conversation that helps people see a better way or a different perspective. Coaching is helping people get better every day, rather just when they mess up. Being a leader of leaders means thinking about your people and coaching them every day.

Correct
Leaders are going to lead – and occasionally leaders in your care will need to be corrected. Correction goes beyond the earlier concept of coaching – this is the firm conversation or confrontation to make a change. Correction is part of your job description, too.

I’ll unpack each of these in an upcoming Simply Youth Ministry Today free newsletter. What else do leaders of leaders have to do?

JG

4 View Comments August 4, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Episode 1: The Simply Youth Ministry Show

Proud of my friends Kurt Johnston and Jake Rutenbar for their first Simply Youth Ministry Show! I loved it … great job, dudes. Excited for the potential with some legit guests in the near future, too.

JG

1 View Comments August 3, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts POLL: How was your summer?

Summer is winding down, in many places pre-season athletics are starting and it is just about time to head back to school. We’ve still got a full month of time off before our first day of school, but it begs the question – how was your summer? Vote in today’s poll!

JG

1 View Comments August 3, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Follow Through — Follow Up

I have read a lot of articles and blog posts about dealing with volunteer leaders in the past few years, and as you know they can be a great part of the pastoral gig or a burden and challenge. You work so hard to make sure that expectations around lifestyle and conduct are clear, understood and an upheld and for the most part leaders honor and uphold this agreement. But from time to time, something happens, where all your best preparations could not prevent, and one of your team violates the agreed leadership covenant and action needs to be taken. There is so much that needs to happen around this but for this, lets focus on following through and following up with your leader.

Follow Through: If we have a leadership covenant with clear expectations and consequences, it will be worthless if we are unwilling to do the tough and messy job of upholding that which we have expressed as the standard. If someone breaks the covenant to the point that the painful task of removing them is necessary, we would be poor leaders if we were not willing to engage the difficult process of removal. Though there is pain and sadness is following through on this, the reality of not doing it could have much more dire consequences to our leadership when we are not willing to take a stand for something that is obvious. We owe it to our team to act in grace and forgiveness, but to be firm when needed.

Follow-up: This is the hard part and something I have done poorly in the past. Asking a leader to step down or removing them is tough and made tougher knowing that the process of restoration is likely to take a season. If it were like firing an employee that you never saw again it would be easier, but the reality in ministry that the process of restoration can be long, difficult and necessary. Our leaders commitment to mentor and growing our students should be a reflection of our commitment to mentor, grow our leaders even through the tough stuff. The Follow-up process should come from a heart of forgiveness and guidance to help your leader see what led to what happened and help them focus on restoration.

This is the stuff in Ministry that is not easy or enjoyable to deal with but is a necessary part of being a Pastor. God never gives up on us, even when we don’t honor commitments we made to Him. We have the opportunity to live that out through our leadership, when we make tough calls and choose to forgive and love in the midst of painful but necessary decisions. If we commit to our leaders, we need to be committing to the good times and bad and be a leader in all seasons.

Geoff Stewart is the Pastor of Jr & Sr High School for Journey Student Ministries at Peace Portal Alliance Church and regularly contributes GUEST POSTS to MTDB. Be sure to check out his Twitter stream for awesome ministry goodness. Want to get in on the fun and write up a guest post yourself? See how right here.

Add Comment August 2, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 148

Weekend Teaching Series: liveSTRONG (series premiere, week 1 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! So I’m writing this based on what was planned to happen since I didn’t make it to any of the services. Phil Chenery stepped in to speak this weekend, and taught Philippians 1 expositionally. You can read the series arc right here as well. The big idea was that Paul wanted to honor Jesus and did that by putting his interests above his own desires.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we were stripped down to a pretty classic format – music, fun announcements and message. Really straightforward, but totally solid.

Music Playlist: We Shine, Cannons, Savior of the World, The Stand

Favorite Moment: My favorite moment was being able to trust our team to be gone for the weekend. Nothing is better than hearing amazing things that happened without you there. Means you’ve got some incredibly capable people on board, and we sure do.

Up Next: liveSTRONG (week 2 of 4)

Add Comment July 29, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Costa Rica Prayer Guide 2011

I’m excited to be travelling with our youth group on a mission trip to Costa Rica. The team put together this little prayer guide for the trip – thought it might be a good example of something you may want to do for an upcoming mission trip of your own. Would appreciate your prayers of course, too!

HSM Costa Rica Prayer Guide

Students: Please pray that the Lord will work in their hearts and minds as they learn how to do ministry on the Mission Field. Pray that they will grow in their faith as they minister to others in Costa Rica; that they will have open hearts and open minds to however the Lord might want to use them there. Please pray for good attitudes, energy, peace, and a gentle spirit. Pray for relationships with their peers and leaders. Pray that the students will rely on the Lord to help them know what to say and how to act when they may feel uncomfortable.

Leaders: Please pray that the Lord will guide us as we lead our students. Pray for energy and enthusiasm, wisdom, discernment, strength, peace, and patience. Pray that we would have open hearts and minds to all the ways the Lord will want to use us in the lives of our students and those we’ll be ministering to in Costa Rica. Please pray for our relationships with the students and people of Costa Rica.

The People of Costa Rica: We will be working with a number of people in Costa Rica (Pastors, teenagers, children, etc.). Pray that the Lord will give them open and hearts and minds to the message of Jesus we are bringing to them. Please pray that we would be able to help and love on them in whatever way possible.

Churches: Please pray for the churches we will be partnering with in Costa Rica. Pray that the help we give would be sustainable so that they can continue to grow in health and outreach even after we leave.

Events: Please pray that all will go according to plan, and when it doesn’t, that we would be flexible and ready for anything. Pray that the people of these events would see Jesus working through them and understand His love.

JG

Add Comment July 28, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts A Safe Person Outside of Your Youth Ministry

Last night I spent some significant time with a great friend well outside of the day-to-day operations of our church.

He’s one of the few people that understands and gets me and what I do more than anyone else. He was a youth pastor in the past and his insight, wisdom and listening ear alone made me walk away refreshed and ready to take on the challenges of another season of youth ministry.

Reflecting on it this morning made me so thankful to have him in my life, and brought back memories of that dark period early in my career when I did youth ministry alone. I didn’t know better. I was a lone ranger. I was living dangerously. And today I just wanted to encourage you to find someone like this in your life – they’ll be more valuable to you then you will ever know:

You need a safe person to vent to when things get tough
You need someone with an outside perspective to shine some light on things
You need someone who will set you straight when you’re wrong
Sometimes you just need someone to listen to your thoughts
We all want someone to cheer us on

You can get some of these things from a youth worker network, from podcasts and even blogs to a degree. But there’s nothing better than a late night hang at Denny’s with a real friend with no agenda.

Don’t stop searching until you find one.

JG