Matt Slippy, a youth pastor from Iowa, is working on a youth ministry research project looking for 1,000 youth pastors to take an online survey at www.youthministrysurvey.com. It looks like it’ll take about 15 minutes or so if you’re up for it.

Also, Jeff Weathersby is a senior at the University of Southern Mississippi and has a survey on the usage and effective of youth tracking software as part of a class project. It is a tad long and boring (no offense) but Simply Youth Ministry is giving away a free membership to Simply All Access to one lucky participant! You can take that survey right here.

JG

This week’s poll: what is the perfect youth group sermon length?

JG

Been doing some interesting thinking about the purpose of small groups – wondering if it is possible for us to use groups more strategically in the discipleship process. As it stands right now, they are 70% fellowship (adult life with student life, accountability, relationship) and 30% discipleship (Bible study).

Some of this happens organically now, but what if we mixed it up a bit and it looked like this:

Learn – 2-3x a month
A couple of weeks out of the month, the small group does significant and intentional Bible study. The leaders prepares a lesson selected from the materials provided/approved by the ministry, and concentrate on helping their students grow in Christian education and faith.

Grow – throughout the month
Throughout the month, the small group leader checks in on their students’ spiritual disciplines and holds them accountable to growing on their own. The idea here is to gently disciple students to a faith that they can take with them beyond high school. The leader looks for spiritual conversations and opportunities to challenge a student personally. Tons of resources are close at hand to help a student take a spiritual step forward.

Serve – 1x a month
One night a month the entire group spends time serving together. Care for one of the student’s teachers that lost a spouse recently, serve at a local shelter, help someone with yard work, adopt a city block, visit a home for the elderly. The ministry provide tons of options and ideas, but each group has the flexibility and freedom to create their own monthly service project.

Play - 1x a month
Take the night off! Pool party, lazer tag, pizza buffet, world series of poker marathon, sledding – whatever, it doesn’t really matter. Just something super fun and community - no agenda, just life on life happening.

Just thinking out loud. Your thoughts?

JG

I liked Kurt’s post about him possibly being in the way of changes (that he even iniated) in our student ministry. Might be time for you and I to stop and think about how we may be bottle-necking or roadblocking the youth ministry, too. Here’s a clip:

-  Very few people “bleed” the ministry like the leader does, so he/she usually has more history with the status quo and has probably invested the most into it. In short, it’s often very hard for the leader to actually make the changes he/she knows need to be made.

- If the changes don’t go well, everybody else gets to hide behind the leader and say, “It was his idea!”.  The leader has no place to hide.

- The leader has to defend/sell/propose the changes to those higher up the food chain…which isn’t always an easy sell. Many leaders don’t have the political pull, the trust of sr. leadership, the “fight” etc. to go to bat on behalf of the changes they want to implement.

JG

Weekend Teaching Series: Why I Need Christmas (Week 1 of 2)

Sermon in a Sentence: I need Christmas because I am broken and I need fixing; but it’s been done for me by Jesus coming to earth and dying for my sins.
Service Length: 80 minutes
Bible: Romans 3:23, Jeremiah 29:11, Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 5:6-8

Understandable Message: This weekend the action steps for students were to know the cost of our lives and then change our lives accordingly. In the middle of the busyness of the season, we encouraged students to take a moment to look at their current life state and remember the real reasons that they NEED Christmas. Jake Rutenbar filled in for me this weekend, I was enjoying some time off with the family.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: Students made up the band and ran all of the lights, cameras, sound board and control room. Adult volunteers were around to greet and love on students. Student leaders also jumped into to fill some of the gaps for a weekend where a few staff members were away.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Everything was centered on Christmas – the stage was decorated, all the slides and backgrounds were Christmas themed, and we showed a couple of funny Christmas videos. We also played “Who Wants to Be a Fifty-onaire” with Christmas trivia.

Music Playlist: We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Solution, Safe, Tear Down the Walls

Favorite Moment: Robby Boyd, playing host of the game, handed his personal cell phone to a student to “phone an elf” as one of the lifelines. In the middle of the fake phone call, the student handed the phone back and told Robby he had a text message from a friend. It threw Robby off for a bit but he recovered by replying to the text while the student took too long to answer the next question.

Up Next: Why I Need Christmas Week 2

(this report was written by our two killer HSM interns Rebekah and Haley – love them so much!)

Just finished reading Ken Blanchard’s recent book, The Most Loving Place in Town. It is a modern day parable of a church that has lost its first love in programs, hype and busyness. It is a call for the church to be led by servant leaders and a call to action by showing God’s love in community service. The story is pretty straight-forward and fairly interesting, but the real win here are the principles and Scripture that challenge us to love others as the church, not get caught in the traps of programs and politics. A good read, especially if you’re afraid your church has lost its first love.

JG

Two days ago the Assistant Director of Children’s Ministry at our church announced her resignation at our monthly all-staff meeting. Her simple explanation to the staff: “I’m burned out.” This brought immediate understanding to the ministry personnel sitting around the table. It wasn’t a sin issue or a leadership conflict; it was another burn out.

As I’ve experience the ups and downs of ministry for the past 5 years, I’ve hit points where I ask the question, “Am I getting burned out?” The mind flashes to the statistic pounded into us at Bible College: the average youth pastor lasts 18 months before getting burned out. I’ve heard about and witnessed the burnout of so many ministry friends and colleagues in my years as a church-going Christian, why would anyone get into a profession so fraught with the fear of burnout?

Then a thought struck me today. It’s not a fully developed thought, and at this point it is more of a question: Have we created a culture in which ministry professionals expect to burn out? Do we talk about it so much that when things get tough and difficult we automatically think we have reached an irredeemable point of tiredness? Have we given ourselves a two-word explanation that keeps people from asking any more questions?

There will be obvious times when we get stuck in a rut, and there will be times when lose sight of our vision, and there will be whole seasons in which our ministry life seems to take away any chance of a healthy spiritual life. But I don’t know that we can call that burned out. Maybe “routine” or “tired” or “too busy.” Maybe.

Do we need to find a place in which we are fulfilled, using the gifts God has given each of us in full dependence upon him, and making an impact because of that? Please, yes! Will there be down times even when we find such an oftentimes-elusive ministry position? Of course.

Maybe I’m just burned out and don’t want to admit it. Either way, let us think twice before we use such a poignant phrase. As we disciple the next generation of youth workers, let us create a culture of success instead of fear. Let us be honest about our struggles before we are beyond help. And let God take the glory as we press ever forward building His Kingdom.

Andrew Rothacker is the youth pastor of LEFC Student Ministry and Twitters right here. I follow him, do you?

As youth pastors we don’t like to talk about numbers, but they matter and people are definitely looking at them.

Try as we might to help leadership see the student ministry discipleship process as more than a headcount, it remains as one of the universally accepted currencies of “health” in youth ministry to the outside observer. Here are a few numbers that I keep an eye on- add other numbers you think are important in the comments:

Weekend attendance – we use a simple headcount to track this metric. It matters, especially to see trends in the year, trends by series/topics, and shifts in big picture participation. This measurement is often weighted too much in many church cultures (ours included), but it can still be a helpful number to watch because people do vote with their feet. A growing weekend number reflects a strong ideal entry-point for our student ministry, students are entering the ministry through the top of the funnel. To some degree, this reflects the health of friendship evangelism in HSM.

Small group signups - we use churchteams.com to track this number, the system is also great as it allows us to stay in touch easily with our leaders. We understand that the additional level of commitment to join a small group causes participation to decrease, so we expect this number to be less than the weekend number. Knowing how many students are signed up and/or actually attending can be helpful to make sure students are entering and flourishing at the next step in the discipleship process. This number should grow in proportion to the weekend number.

Salvations/baptisms - we try weekly to share about the life-changing message of Christ, and once a month we have baptisms offered after all of the 4 weekend student services. It is continually important and recharging to see how God is changing lives. We celebrate any student that accepts Christ and gets baptized because it is such an important step across the line of faith. This number is usually compiled from respose cards collected on the weekend.

Text Database – Texting is our primary method of communication with students, and we use SimplyTxt to keep track of all of the students we can contact about our ministry. We have all types of students in this database, but seeing this number grow is a reflection of the lives we are touching. Students can sign up online and be added/removed with a checkbox on the response card. 

Blog/social media traffic/friends – This one is still very emerging to me, but it would be nice to see what kind of “buzz” is out there in the wild about your youth ministry. Using Google Analytics, YouTube Insight, Twitter Search and other analytical tools you can see who is viewing your videos, visiting your blog, how many people are checking you out and see what people are saying about your services and their church experience.

There are other numbers that certainly matter (kids doing ministry, offering, distribution of spiritual growth tools, etc) – what matters most to you? What’s missing here?

JG

The latest episode of the Simply Youth Ministry Podcast … I have to leave 1/2 way through, but a more-than-worthy-guest jumps in my place.

JG

This weekend we’re going to highlight a few students who are using the message outline hooks and featuring them in our next big push to get them out in the wild. We did a text to have students send in some pics of their hooks as they’re using them – here’s a few of them in action. So sweet! And yes, I do realize  haven’t posted about our new bulletins yet (and the history of bulletin formats we’ve used, just for fun), I promise that is coming … here’s out hooks promo here and here.

JG

If you haven’t checked it out yet, stop what you’re doing and watch the new To Save A Life movie trailer debuting at Apple.com’s trailers with Switchfoot’s new hit “Mess of Me”.  This powerful new movie for teens and their families opens in theaters January 22nd – you can read my review of a rough cut of the film almost a year ago right here. Looks good!

JG

Here are the rules:

1. Weigh-in on Friday, December 4, 2009 (if you’re not going to the SYM Conference, you can weigh in anywhere from December 4-7)
2. Send photo of scale weight and “before” photo
3. Contest will be 12 weeks, ending on Friday February 26th (first night of Simply Youth Ministry Conference for those attending. Contest ends 12 weeks after weigh-in
4. The winners will be the ones with the greatest percentage of weight lost.
5. Prizes to be announced soon to those who enter contest.
6. Weight loss coaching available from Matthew McNutt (current youth pastor and former Biggest Loser contestant who lost 170+ pounds—see www.matthewmcnutt.com)
7. Send photos to Iamaloser@simplyinsider.com

JG

I just did one of those height/weight calculators online to see how much I should really weigh - the top end of the weight window was 194. So according to that, I’m more than 100lbs overweight. You?

JG

313.2lbs.

That’s my starting weight for a brand new 12-week weight loss contest that ends the opening night of the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago this February. Want in on it? Details and official rules should be out soon, but for now express your interest to community@simplyyouthministry.com and start eating healthy immediately. I will beat you, I promise.

We’ve been talking quite a bit on it during the podcast, and the winner will get all sorts of great resources from SYM and I’m sure much, much more. Who’s in? Percentage of total weight lost is the only number that matters, honor system so play nice!

JG

Yes, this is the opening video to this weekend’s service. Thank you MuppetsStudio HD YouTube channel!

JG

Here’s the music video from the Save Andy Sale at Simply Youth Ministry if you missed it the other day. There’s still about 24 hours left on the sale. Ha!

JG

While I was checking out the new Microsoft Store in our mall, I was interviewed by C|Net for an article they were running on the opening. Just found out it was online, here’s a clip for fun:

To that end, Microsoft has pulled out every tool in its arsenal, from PCs to phones to the Xbox 360, as well as a huge “video wall” made up of dozens of 42-inch flat screens connected to form a single, though constantly changing, image or video display.

But by far the biggest draw is a product that isn’t even for sale–the Surface tabletop computer. During the several hours I spent at the store, it was that device, more than the laptops, that drew people in and captured their attention.

Josh Griffin stopped in at the store with his three kids, with all four quickly heading to the Surface. “This is cool,” said Griffin, who came into the store to check out Windows 7 among other things. “I’ve read about Surface before, but never been able to see it. It’s actually a little cooler than I thought it would be.”

The three kids began carving virtual pumpkins on the Surface while we chatted, but eventually Griffin turned his attention back to the tabletop computer. “Can I do one?” Griffin asked his kids, trying only somewhat successfully to elbow his way in.

Surface, though, isn’t the only thing worth pointing out.

JG

We used to do our weekend teaching series in our youth ministry back-to-back, but recently we’ve been doing more 1-offs in-between series. Is there a strategy, you ask? Kinda-sorta … here are some current thoughts, chime in with yours in the comments, too!

1-Hit-Wonders between teaching series…

… gives you extra time to gear up for what’s next.
I like the space between series because it gives us a chance to breathe. We get a little bit of extra time to work with volunteers on a new stage design, get the word out for an extra week, and let’s everyone let down just a bit. Not that the 1-off’s are throw away by any means, but they are certainly less effort than a series kickoff or finale for sure.

… lets the primary communicator take a weekend off.
Taking a break between series also gives you a chance to take a break. You know that I totally believe in the power of different voices, so why not use the in-between weeks as a way to bring up other communicators. Plus, you need the break for sure.

… allows you to hit topics that aren’t big enough for a whole series.
Building in some 1-hit-wonders to your teaching calendar is a good idea because there are a ton of topics you want/need to cover from God’s Word that simply don’t warrant an entire series. When you work out the big arcs of where you’ll be teaching in the next season, build in some other opportunities to address issues that can be tackled in a week, too.

… it provides an opportunity for you to address current issues/problem areas.
When a current event hits the scene and fits a topic you want to cover, you’ve got a spot for that. When a crisis hits your youth group, you’ve got room to address it. When you see a weakness or blind spot in your ministry, you can jump right on it. Having some “off” weeks will give you a chance to plan for more Spirit-led surprise weekends.

JG

Pretty hilarious sale going on over at Simply Youth Ministry starting today – Andy Brazelton is considering a music career, and if the sale goes well he can keep his day job and not release a CD. When you watch the music video, you’ll know why I’m encouraing you to head over there. And, awesome deals on sermon series, books and great youth ministry resources.

JG

Weekend Teaching Series: This is My Story (1-off)
Sermon in a Sentence: Student stories that demonstrate the power of God, changed lives and the hope we have in Him.
Service Length: 59 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend was all about stories – we asked students to share their stories in a unique mix of formats. A couple of them were on video (check them out here and here), others were live, one was done with a song and displayed silently on screen. The message was clear – our stories have value, and Jesus gives us hope. The challenge at the end of the service encouraged students to share their story with someone (like a small group leader) who would care for them.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: This weekend an adult never took the stage – and I loved it! We had good volunteer involvement in the crowd and greeting, but this weekend was run completely by students. A student owned the program, coordinated testimonies, orchestrated all of the moving pieces and pulled it off. A great team of students jumped in to serve – the band, lights, camera, sound, skit, testimonies, editing, dress rehersal, graphics and more – it was all done by them. Super cool – and a nice break for the adults the weekend after Thanksgiving, too.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: The environment was welcoming and positive, though we didn’t have too many typical fun elements. We did had a fun preview trailer for the “Grelf” Christmas video series we’re doing, and the hosts of the weekend set things up with announcements as well. We also brought back the LifeHouse skit - it seemed to fit so well with the stories we were telling. We kind of jumped pretty much straight into the content for the sake of time/feel/direction.

Music Playlist: What I’ve Done (Linkin Park cover), Overcome, This is My Story, Desert Song

Favorite Moment:  Lots of great moments, the favorite for me was at the Sunday 11:15am service – Mariah, one of the students who shared her story, celebrated her 1-year birthday of being clean today. We surprised her (and the crowd) with cake for everyone to join in and celebrate with her. So cool – I’m beyond proud of ALL of the students that shared this weekend. Wow.

Up Next: Christmas Series (week 1 of 3)