More Than Dodgeball | Youth Ministry Blog by Josh Griffin

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 130

Weekend Teaching Series: You Own the Weekend: Trabuco Hills HS (series premiere, week 1 of 5)
Sermon in a Sentence: Jesus brings peace to the stress of life.
Service Length: 68 minutes

Understandable Message: You Own the Weekend is all about students doing everything – and this week several students crafted a 3-part message on the event in the Bible where the wind and the waves were calmed by Jesus. The 3 parts of the talk each focused on a different part of the story, with a testimony (the first live and the second on video) breaking up the segments. The students had so much Scripture to use this weekend they even filled the back of the bulletin with lists of verses on worry and stress. Good stuff.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Students shot and edited several videos for the weekend – including a tremendously off-tune version of We Are the World called We are Trabuco. Painful to watch, hilarious in the a crowd. They also had the school mascots on stage, as well as a fun video shot all over their campus helping set up the big idea on stress.

Music Playlist: Salvation is Here, God is Love, Love Came Down, Salvation is Here (reprise)

Favorite Moment: You Own the Weekend’s big idea is that every student from every school gets an invitation to church. So many non-church students show up and participate in the service, it is incredible to see the turnout and get a chance to meet them. What an incredible weekend!

Up Next: You Own the Weekend: Mission Viejo HS [series premiere, week 2 of 5]

Add Comment February 27, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Links and Videos from Today’s Radicalis Youth Track: Individual Life

In the last of our 3 youth track sessions we focused on the individual student. We talked about everything we do outside of the large and small groups that are options for individual students to take steps forward in their faith. Here’s a few links for more depth on a few topics:

JG

Add Comment February 27, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: 6 Essential Resources For Sermon Preparation

I am a youth pastor who oversees and teaches 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students. And anytime I prepare to teach a passage of the Bible to them, these are some of the first books I grab. Here’s why these are some of my essentials for teaching:

The ESV Study Bible — I use this because it has a very comprehensive section of notes which helps me keep my message on track with the Biblical context. Plus, it gives me other ideas of points I may have missed.
The IVP Bible Background Commentaries — I use these because they unpack the cultural background of everything that happens in a passage. So when you read, for example, in Ruth 4 that the kinsman-redeemer took off his sandal and gave it to Baoz, you get 150 words or more on the cultural meaning of this action at the time it was written. This is indispensable for knowing what’s going on and for helping contextualize it for a younger audience.
The Illustrated Guide To Bible Customs & Cultures — I use this because it has pictures. And it’s not as heady as the IVP Commentaries.
Zondervan’s Teen Study Bible — I’ll check in here to see if there are any teen-friendly explanations/illustrations of a certain part of Scripture. When they do, it’s usually pretty helpful for my audience (and is often something I hadn’t originally thought of).
The Student Bible — The one pictured above is the same Bible I used when I was a student in a youth ministry. The publisher put in some short student-friendly thoughts, but this Bible also has my notes and markings from when I was a student. It helps me remember what was important to me when I was the same age as my audience.
The Message//Remix — I don’t teach from this translation, but I read it as I prepare to pick up any other nuance I may have missed in the previous resources.

I pull these books off the shelf each week as I prepare to teach my students the truths of God’s Word. And for me, I’ve found them to be essential teaching tools in youth ministry.

Sean Kahlich is the Mid-High Youth Minister at The Kirk of the Hills — check out his youth ministry blog called Awaiting Epiteleo.

2 View Comments February 26, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Its Time to Recruit

September may seem a long way away, buts it’s a good time to start finding people to join the team for next year. Depending on your situation, finding people might be easy; it’s finding the right people that can be a lot more work. It may seem early to be looking for volunteers, but in my experience, the longer you wait, the more reactionary your decision making becomes, but being proactive allows for you bring together a focused team of people who are called to serve and will take it seriously. Here are a few things to consider when looking for new volunteers for the ministry.

Be Selective- Its early, and you have the chance to start hand picking the people you want to start talking to, it could be young adults, young marrieds but keep your eye out. I remember hearing someone say that when looking for volunteers they would look for people who brought their Bible to Church and closed their eyes when they Prayed (hilarious). For me, its going up to people and planting the seed by saying “I think you would be a great youth leader, have you ever considered it?” Choosing people now means that you won’t have to settle for people you are unsure about later to meet a need.

Give them the vision- Where is your ministry going, what are its core values. People want to be a part of something, and if it’s a ground up rebuild, the people you need are different than adding to an existing team. Invite them out to a youth night so they can see the ministry in action, no commitment, just experiencing the culture. This is also the time to let them know the time commitment they are making and the basic expectations of being a leader. You want people all in, but they need to know in advance what being all in looks like.

Give them options- Not everyone is going to be a small group leader, but if they have a heart to serve, give them other options. We have a hand out that includes eight different options of how they can serve and includes expectations as well as the value that will be added to the ministry by that person filling that role. Its likely that most outsiders would think that to be involved in youth ministry means that you have to have a small group, and that you can’t volunteer unless you are willing to do so and this is not always the case.

Give them time- This is where being proactive pays off, because now the person has time to pray and consider this opportunity to serve. We ask leaders to sign up for 11 months and they are free agents in the summer and ask them to re-sign by the second week of August. The best leaders are the ones who God has called and committing to serving every week is a big deal, and one that should not be taken lightly. Pray for them as they consider, but let them seek the Lord guidance on leadership.

Recruiting leaders now makes life easier in the fall as you are being proactive and not reactive. But the message it sends to the people you ask is that you see a gifting in them, and you feel that they would be a great role model and spiritual mentor to your students. Great leaders are hard to find, so think about starting the search now.

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. You can, too! See how right here.

1 View Comments February 26, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts FAQ About Saddleback Student Ministries Weekend Services: Part 2

Yesterday I posted the first half of the frequently asked questions about our large group program at Saddleback Student Ministries. We’ve been assembling them for the Radicalis Conference here on campus this week – our student ministries track is jammed packed with info and thought I would share some here on the blog as well. Here’s the other half of the questions, hopefully these will be helpful to you in some way, too:

[READ THE FIRST 5 QUESTIONS HERE]

6. How often do you (as the primary leader of the ministry) teach?
a. Wildside — although he is our Student Ministries Pastor, Kurt teaches 50% of the time in Wildside and the remaining 50% are split up amongst the Wildside team
b. HSM — I speak a little over half of the time, we spread out the rest over guest speakers (mostly internal) and students during You Own the Weekend.
c. Crave – Pastor Brad speaks about 35 weeks a year

7. What roles do volunteers play in your service?
a. Wildside — volunteers lead our music, run games, give announcements, lead grade groups, host sections, run audio/video, etc.
b. HSM – volunteers greet, work crowd, keep order, do announcements, etc. We use student leaders equally or perhaps even more than adults at this level program.
c. Crave – message research, worship leaders, greeters, tear-down/setup, ushers, A / V, 1st time attender’s party and more.

8. What percentage of the service is made up of music?
a. Wildside — approximately 20% of our service is worship through music
b. HSM — we usually have 3-5 songs each service.
c. Crave – approximately 30%

9. Do you use secular music at all? And if so, how?
a. Wildside — Yes. We use appropriate secular music as opening songs, videos, music videos, background music, games, etc.
b. HSM — we use it every weekend during the countdown, often for opening cover songs, sometimes behind games/announcements, etc.
c. Crave – Rarely; we sometimes play it before and after the service just so non-believers hear something familiar.

10. What is your follow-up strategy for connecting with students after the service?
a. Wildside — We aren’t great at follow-up, mostly because we don’t do check-in/out, and thus have a tough time getting accurate contact info on our students. We do encourage our leaders to take note of grade group attendance as best they can, but with four services that gets tough.
b. HSM — our large group time is totally anonymous, if a student gives us their information on a response card we take it very seriously. If a student trusts Christ, we send out a new believer’s packet. If a student checks the “first time” box we send out a little card. Those are the pulse of our ministry, response cards are like gold to this level service.
c. Crave – We email, Facebook and sometimes call those who’ve made commitments or are seeking greater involvement.

JG

3 View Comments February 23, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Triple Rewards Points at Simply Youth Ministry

SimplyYouthMinistry.com is are giving away triple reward points on every purchase for the next 2 days. It’s a great time to pick-up any resources you’ve been thinking about and get some free stuff in the process. You can check out the Reward$ program here if you haven’t seen it yet, too.

JG

Add Comment February 23, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Links and Videos from Today’s Radicalis Youth Track: Small Groups

If you were at the youth track today at Radicalis you heard about a ton of links and resources to help you with small groups. Here’s a little cheat list to get quick access to the things we love and stuff we use every day. Enjoy!