More Than Dodgeball | Youth Ministry Blog by Josh Griffin

Josh GriffinMore Posts Evaluating Your Summer Youth Ministry

Noticed that Doug and Matt’s YM Daily yesterday had some great thoughts about looking back and taking time to debrief, evaluate and celebrate the past season. They had some great questions to think about (which I think I’ll answer in a future blog post) that would be good to think about this week as you enter the new school year.

…| What happened during the summer that was great? What do we want to be sure to repeat in the future?
…| Where did God show up? What victories could we celebrate?
…| Where was I surprised? What last minute “audible” or changes was I forced to make?
…| What went wrong? What could have been better?

JG

Add Comment September 1, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Simply Youth Ministry 2011 Conference Promo Video

The official site of SYMC 2011 is live – SO excited to be there with so many of you, too! Killer speakers, great full-day and half-day concentrated learning tracks, total access to speakers, teachers and authors, a live Simply Youth Ministry Podcast and so much more. Be there!

JG

2 View Comments September 1, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Power of Story – Life Groups Testimony

A fantastic testimony shared during the Life Groups weekend of the LAUNCH series. Parker finished his story live on stage – talking about God changing his heart and encouraging students to join small group as well.

JG

Add Comment August 31, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Weigh In: Volume 2 – Connecting with Local Schools

Every so often we take a question, perhaps from the Simply Youth Ministry Podcast, and pose it to you to answer instead of our panel. Here’s a great one that came in – if you have some wisdom I hope you’ll share!

I’ve been looking for ways to connect with our local school districts that are appropriate as a church worker and not offensive, ways to let them know we care about the students and are willing to help in any way that we can. Any suggestions you have in this area would be greatly appreciated.

Now – weigh in!

JG

20 View Comments August 31, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Life Groups for Students Highlight Video

A strong testimony using during the LAUNCH series to help encourage student to see the importance of joining and HSM Life Group this fall.

JG

Add Comment August 30, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts POLL: Do You Have a Youth Ministry Education?

This week’s question – have you had formal education in youth ministry? I’ve had a ton of on the job experience with 15 years and through a jillion events and conferences. You?

JG

7 View Comments August 30, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 109

Weekend Teaching Series: LAUNCH: Ready for Re-Entry (week 3 of 5)
Sermon in a Sentence: Launching into a successful school year includes getting accountability and community by being a part of an HSM Life Group.
Service Length: 73 minutes

Understandable Message: This week was all about Life Groups. Our small group year starts in just a few weeks, and registration for the big launch ends in 14 days. This weekend was taught by Life Group volunteers (Matt and Mel – Team M&M) and they hit on the importance reasons to be in one using an acrostic (L-I-F-E-G-R-O-U-P-S) and testimonies both live and on video. If a student wasn’t in a small group, they would sure want to be at the end of the hour.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Matt did a good job of bringing humor into his talk – he made references to Justin Bieber and Batman and made comparisons to the pop stars and comic books of his day. There was a very positive environment to the weekend – you could tell the community that they were teaching on was genuine in their group and a goal for all of HSM’s Life Groups.

Music Playlist: Rise and Sing, Beautiful Things, How He Loves, Burning Ones, With Everything

Favorite Moment: The power of story is always amazing to me – when a student gets up to speak the students listen intently to what they have to say. And it totally works both live or on video. I’m also so impressed by the strength of the students who got up to share their story this week. Epic stuff.

Up Next: LAUNCH week 4

Add Comment August 29, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Gamerscore Lands at 36,009

It has been too long since I passed another milestone on the Xbox 360 – one of the ways (of probably 5) that I measure successful “me” time away from youth ministry is my Gamerscore steadily increasing. And last night, helped by Frontlines: Fuel of War and Red Dead Redemption, we crossed 36,000. Finally!

JG