More Than Dodgeball | Youth Ministry Blog by Josh Griffin

Josh GriffinMore Posts Book Review: What Would Google Do?

Just finished up What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis. It was a really interesting read – helping unpack the Google way of doing business and transferring those game-changing principles to your world. I enjoyed it a lot, the first two thirds more than the ending act I have to admit. In the main section of the book Jeff teaches us how to be more Googly, sharing principles of how to build business through relationships, how (and why we must) hear and respond to our customers and tons of other great insights about the new work ethic and new speed of business: instantaneous. The illustrations are fantastic and deepen his points throughout. Then he changes pace and begins to apply its own principles to various industries – some were a total hit and interesting, some not much honestly. Of course, I was wishing he had done a chapter on churches or non-profits than I would be singing a different song. All in all a very helpful book that I enjoyed reading and translating internally to youth ministry and the church. B+

JG

2 View Comments December 25, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Merry Christmas!

From everyone here at MoreThanDodgeball.com … wait a minute, it is just me here … either way, here’s hoping you and yours have a very Merry Christmas!

Blessings,
JG

(love the iPad/iPod/iPhone music video from North Point)

1 View Comments December 25, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Book Review: 10 Stupid Things That Keep Churches From Growing

I found out while I was reading 10 Stupid Things That Keep Churches From Growing that the author Geoff Surrat, was coming on staff at Saddleback the next week. If what he’s written is any indication of who we’re getting, I’m super excited. Taking a swift turn from his thought-leading Multi-site church books, Geoff takes on the common mistakes church leaders make in an effort to serve the church. Right out of the gate, he had me with his “the pastor has to do everything” trap – and I fondly recalling taking on everything and in the end everything suffering. Lots of great stories, mistakes and failures punctuate the points on how to be effective in ministry. I could have lived without the cartoons and layout, but the book is solid nonetheless. Welcome aboard, Geoff, we need you more than you know!

JG

Add Comment December 25, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Saddleback School of Leadership Survey

Saddleback was recently given some amazing property a few miles from the main campus. In dreaming about what to do with it, Pastor Rick came up with the Saddleback School of Leadership. If all goes as planned, it’ll open this Fall.

Right now they’re identifying people who have a heart for church planting and are working to develop the core programs. If you want to give input input to what should be included, take this 10-minute survey. Cool!

JG

Add Comment December 23, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Pad Thai Peace

Thought it would be fun to post my entry in Pei Wei’s Blog Asia Contest:

I love my wife. We’ve been married just short of 15 years and have 4 amazing children together. We did things right and have no regrets about our dating life and marriage — we followed some of the advice of our elders: “learn to become husband and wife before you learn to become mom and dad.” The sage wisdom was right, and we loved being a couple then and we love being parents now.

Just an aside: maybe space your kids out a bit, we had 4 kids age 4 and under for a little while there. Holy smokes.

My wife and I are the complete opposite in every way — she is introverted, I am extroverted. She loves one-on-one conversations, I love being in the middle of the crowd. She loves ready books alone in front of the fireplace — I love watching movies in the prime seat of a packed, noisy theater. I love LA and Vegas, she enjoys suburbia and the quiet side of life.

In that opposite world there’s one thing we agree on: Pad Thai at Pei Wei.

Every week or so we drop off the kids at school and ask each other where we should go for lunch together. We rattle off a few names of places to go, then during a pause in the brainstorming we realize the perfect place to eat: Pei Wei. Maybe it is the allure of the new Coke Freestyle machine cranking out 103 different soda flavors (Peach Sprite is incredible, by the way) or the laid-back style of the restaurant and menu. Either way, there is a moment where we just agree. The planets align and for all of our differences there is one moment of commonality.

We both love something, and that something is Pei Wei.

The conversation is familiar while we’re in line: will we try something new, or go with the old standby? Occasionally there’s a risky adventure into something that involves mango or a spicy glaze, but we usually land on Pad Thai as the classic cuisine of marital peace. She smiles … I smile … we eat. Life is perfect.

To top it off in our marital bliss we snag a fortune cookie from the bin of ample supply. I read mine — it says, “you need to be in touch with your feminine side this week” so I kiss her on the cheek and call it good. Then I grab a few extra fortune cookies, convince a server to give me a “to go” cup for more of the life-changing Peach Sprite and we make our way out into the world of opposites again.

She’ll go back to her books, I’ll enjoy movies and our wonderful dance in opposite world will continue again for another week. Then we’ll look at each other and begin the dance of where to eat — and we’ll probably be sitting in our booth at Pei Wei eating Pad Thai once again.

JG

1 View Comments December 22, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Simply Youth Ministry Podcast: Episode 150

UPDATE: Click here for the episode. For some reason the show played automatically every time you visited this page.

Episode 150: The Ultimate Administrator
Our 150th show, and the last of 2010. Doug, Matt, Katie, and Josh are all back this week. We find out that admin stuff has Matt in a funk, but he pulls out of it to help answer your questions about: letting teachers decide what to teach, labor force mentality in churches, background checks, Doug is the ultimate administrator, materials to help students grow spiritually, keeping students engaged in youth group, salaries, and dealing with problems with your senior pastor.

JG

Add Comment December 22, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Soul Surfer Youth Worker Movie Screenings

Was talking with Marc over at Outreach and he gave me the first word on some youth worker screenings of the upcoming movie Soul Surfer. If you haven’t heard about it yet, it looks like it is going to be great. Stars Helen Hunt, Dennis Quaid, Carrie Underwood, etc. and is the true story of surfer Bethany Hamilton. We’ve had Bethany at our student leadership conference in the past, and her story is inspiring, amazing and full of faith.

So go see the movie early – I know I will!

JG

1 View Comments December 21, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 125

Weekend Teaching Series: I <3 Xmas (series finale, week 2 of 2)
Sermon in a Sentence: Christmas is a time of salvation – the manger was the beginning of a story of new beginnings.
Service Length: 87 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend Phil finished off our Christmas series – we’re not having youth services this Christmas/New Years so this was our last service of 2010. Phil brought some great Christmas humor wrapped up in the best Christmas present of all – salvation through Jesus Christ. It was another great week of Christmas fun, warmth and focusing on the real message of Christmas.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We opened up with the epic killball video as countdown filler this week, and had an acapella quartet from one of the local high schools do a sweet Christmas opener. Csnap and Asizzle worked hard on a Christmas rap music video about Santa’s health and we played a quick round of Let’s Make a Christmas Deal. Lots of holiday fun, lots of student greeters, fun Christmas decorations and the return of our digital fireplace (flatscreen with a looping yule log in a fireplace frame one of our volunteers whipped up like magic).

Music Playlist: Christmas Acapella Quartet opener, Silent Night, o Come All Ye Faithful, Joy to the World, With Everything

Favorite Moment: It was awesome to sit in the balcony for one of the services (I didn’t have any responsibilities on stage, yeah!) so it was awesome just to soak in the whole scene. Great students, inviting their friends, and the clear plan of salvation being shared at Christmas. Love it!

Up Next: HSM is taking off the next 2 weekends to celebrate Christmas and New Years as a whole church family.