Was going through a ton of resources that we want to point our students to during The Book (the student version of 40 Days in the Word church-wide campaign). I’m really interested in Lee Strobel’s Case for Christ, as well as Totally Infatuated, a resource from Simply Youth Ministry. This looks like a really good one I’m going to check out:

Maybe the Bible intimidates you or bores you. Maybe it feels old, ancient, outdated, irrelevant. Maybe it’s time for another look. Jacqueline Pierre is a teenager who understands what it means to discover a fresh perspective on the Bible. Her life has been transformed through her obsession with God’s Word. She’s your guide for this journey through the pages of Scripture, as she reveals why she’s totally infatuated with God’s Word.

Scripture speaks to your lifeÑyour school-going, sports-participating, friend-texting, goal-setting, future-dreaming life. The Bible will bring you peace and purpose, value and victory, success and strength. Expect great things to happen as you dive into God’s Word and pursue the treasure of life-changing truth inside its pages.

Let the Bible captivate you. Let God transform you through its truths. Let a new chapter in your life begin.

JG

We often discuss church growth or student ministry growth. This is a topic of conversation for good reason, because we all are interested in building our student ministry. Here are a few reasons why your student ministry may never grow:

1. Lack of Prayer – This is the biggest part of growth. You must daily pray and ask God to build your student ministry. You must be praying for your ministry to grow. Do not expect any growth (or perhaps the wrong kind of growth) if you are not daily praying over your ministry. Bathe it in prayer, and trust God for the growth.
2. Lack of communicating clear vision – This is often times that the biggest problem with growth. You have to regularly communicate vision to the people. It must constantly be in front of the people. Then, you must live out the vision. “If your church does not know where it is supposed to be, then, they will attempt to go everywhere and eventually wind up nowhere.”
3. Leadership – Ultimately, it could be a reflection on YOU. Make sure you are a passionate leader. Make sure you are living the Word. Make sure that you are carrying out the vision and communicating it clearly to your people.
4. Selfishness – This can be a reflection upon leadership and the people. Sometimes, God may want to take the church in a place where you do not want to go, but you are still responsible for going in that direction. Do not be selfish and want the church to be what you want. Also, your people must not be selfish in trying to create the church that they want to have. It is not about us, but all about Him.
5. Energy – If you fill the leadership with energy-less people, you will create a energy-less congregation. Be energetic and passionate, and the congregation will follow suit. Create a load of energy every service for the people to desire to come back.

Let’s make sure that we are doing everything that we can to grow our ministry!

Josh Evans is the student pastor at Union Grove Baptist Church in the Winston Salem, NC area. He has been a mentor and pastor to students for 4 years. You can connect further with Josh on his blog or send him a direct email at joshhevans@gmail.com.

You have a porn problem in your youth group whether you know it or not. High school, junior high, college—it’s present at every age. No longer do students have to go looking for porn, because in today’s age, porn comes looking for them. It might not be an easy topic for most students to talk about, and you may need to find a different way to communicate with students in your group, but it’s a topic that needs to be discussed.

Over the past couple months, we have both taken a week to meet with our junior high and high school small groups to discuss God’s view of porn, how to avoid and battle the temptation, and open the door to conversation. Here are some things we did right, and also some things that we learned from:

·     Make sure all your students are there—especially the ones you know need to hear it most. Both times we had this discussion, there were key students that needed to be there and didn’t show up. This could have been planned or not, but either way it’s important to encourage everyone to be there.

·     Don’t wait. If possible, start the conversation as early as possible. Make sure your students have a comfort level with you, and make sure they know they’re in a safe place. Once that’s established, you’re in the clear. The longer you wait, the more the struggle can root itself.

·     Let them know they’re not the only ones that struggle with it. One of the things I did when having this discussion was made all my guys put their heads down and raise their hand if porn was a struggle for them. 8 out of 9 raised their hand, so I told the group about it. That brings a huge relief factor for the guys, knowing they’re not alone.

·     Use Scripture, but don’t go overboard. You don’t want to hit your students over the head with Bible verses about how lust and porn are bad, but they do need to know what God says.

·     Encourage accountability. XXXchurch.com and their web accountability tool, X3Watch, are GREAT resources for your students. It encourages accountability with someone they trust, which is the best tool for overcoming the temptation of porn.

While it may seem like a daunting task, you can start the discussion to change the course of a student’s struggle with porn. Let God guide your words, and expect him to guide the discussion.

Matt Reynolds and Steven Orel are volunteer youth workers at Saddleback Church. They come from two different generations and work together to be a resource to other youth workers through their blog at GenToGenYM.com.

Last week Group published their annual salary survey results for youth workers across the country. Don’t worry, they made sure that Kurt “money-bags” Johnston wasn’t included because it would have skewed things a lot higher (Josh, “I’m a little bitter” Griffin wrote that intro). The truth of the matter is most youth workers who are fortunate enough to get paid probably don’t get paid enough. And as a result, at some point you may feel the time has come to ask for a raise. Here are some thoughts on the subject:

Pray
It all starts with prayer. Take your requests to God and ask Him for guidance in what to say and how to prepare. It would be unwise to go into this challenging environment without having talked to God over a significant period of time. Ask Him for contentment no matter what the outcome. And while praying, ask God (and be okay with his answer) if your timing and motives are appropriate.

Get your facts straight
If you’re going to talk numbers, it is beyond important to make sure your numbers match up. What is average household income in your area? What do other youth workers in similar settings earn? On what merits does your church grant pay increases, and how are you meeting those?

Prep a few critical people
Be prepared for this meeting and take the time to prepare a few others, too! Chances are there is some sort of budget chairman or someone who acts as a treasurer or CFO in your church. Speak with them ahead of time to get an idea of the budget climate you’re heading into and give them a heads up on your plan. Having a few champions around the table can’t be a bad thing. And, “floating” the idea past an insider beforehand can be a great place to practice your presentation…and a great place to hear a potential voice of reason ahead of time.

Present the need
A great time to ask for a raise is when your lifestyle changes. Show them the needs of your growing family. Help them see the gap between what you make and what you need to make it work.

Show the opportunity
Connect the request to longevity. Offer a commitment of time if they give you a commitment of money. Show them what the future holds in your ministry and what you believe God will do.

Serve like you’re getting paid millions
Did you get the raise? No? It doesn’t matter. Drop the subject of money and give it over to God in your prayer time for this next season. Is He helping you prepare for a new direction? Is He teaching you contentment?

This isn’t going to be easy … so be strong and most importantly, be faithful.

NOTE: In complete honesty, this article was very difficult for us to write together. Kurt has never asked for a raise, and feels like God has blessed his family because of it. Josh has asked for a few raises during his youth ministry career and feels like God has blessed him for his willingness to put family first and make sure their needs are always met. Which is the best approach? It isn’t the approach that is “right” or “wrong”, but the attitude of our hearts.

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.

Weekend Teaching Series: The Book (church-wide 40 Days in the Word campaign kickoff)
Sermon in a Sentence: The Bible is the only rule of faith and practice and has been preserved and inspired.

Service Length: 77 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend we kicked off our church-wide campaign called 40 Days in the Word. In HSM we get to take on the same subjects and theme as the rest of the church but put our own student-friendly spin on it. This weekend I made comparisons of books sales of Hunger Games and Harry Potter vs. the Bible. I also talked about preservation (using the Declaration of Independence as a modern-day example) and the Dead Sea scrolls. It was by far a more historical and classroom-oriented lesson than we would typically have on the weekend, but it was incredibly fun to research and students seemed genuinely interested in this series. Going to be fun to see where this one goes.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we played a quick game of Who Wants to Be a Fraction of a Millionaire featuring Bible trivia questions. We also had too many announcements and a hilarious video called iBible which we ripped from YouTube.

Music Playlist: Brighter Days, Lift Him Up, Words That You Say

Up next: The Book: 40 Days in the Word (week 2 of 6)

Sweet new series video for The Book, HSM’s student version of the 40 Days in the Word church-wide. Parker is doing some awesome stuff with the videos, it’ll get new addition/expansion each week of the series, too!

JG

Beyond excited when the gang over at Simply Youth Ministry told me that they were doing a 1-day sale on Doug Fields and I’s book, 99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders.The book is normally $6.99 – TODAY only it is $2.99!

A small group is a powerful place!

Lives are changed. Important decisions are made. Spiritual growth is enhanced. Jokes are shared. Lifelong friendships are formed. Cliques disappear when a small group becomes a loving community. The result? Spiritually mature teenagers, empowered leaders, and a healthy youth ministry.

Good small groups requires leadersÑand that’s where you come in. If you’re a small group leader, you may have lots of questions: Am I making a difference? Am I wisely investing my time, energy, and resources? Can I really do this? If so, how can I maximize my impact in teenagers’ lives?

Find the answers you’re looking for in 99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders. This book delivers insights, tips, and veteran advice for anyone leading a small group (from young to old). When these bite-size, consumable pieces of wisdom are put into play, leaders will be better equipped and more confident. This book is all about setting them up to win.

UPDATE: They sold out of the deal already! Wow!

JG

Got this picture mail of a freshman student’s spiritual whiteboard this week – made my day. Just wanted to share it (sorry the pic is so small)!

JG

Got the chance to sit in on The Simply Youth Ministry Show this week with my friends Jake Rutenbar and Kurt Johnston. We had lots of random fun and actually did manage to actually talk about preparing a youth talk. Fun to be a guest on the old show!

JG

Hilarious video we played (with a minor edit) during our kickoff to the new series The Book (student-version of the 40 Days in the Word campaign). So funny!

JG