All good things must come to an end. And we probably haven’t said it enough while you have been serving so let me say it now – THANK YOU for all that you’ve done. You’ve changed lives and prepared students spiritually for adulthood. Since we can’t convince you to stay on for another season (and we can’t right?), here are a few ways you can leave right as one of our key leaders:

== Finish Out Your Commitment
We ask each of the small group leaders in our ministry to serve for a year at a time – we hope they re-up at the end of the year and come back for more, but it isn’t always the case. If you sense your commitment is about to change, do your best to serve out the rest of the school year if it is at all possible. There are times when this isn’t the right answer, in some instances leaving is actually better. Weigh out the options and if possible, finish the year strong.

== Communicate with the Small Group Leader/Coach
Don’t let you not coming back as a small group leader come as a surprise to the leadership of your student ministry. Let them know with ample warning they need to fill your spot in the coming year. You care most effectively for your students in this transition by giving the team time to search for a great small group leader to fill the big shoes you’re leaving behind.

== Support the Ministry from Afar
You know the mission and heart of the student ministry from first-hand experience. Use that passion and knowledge to encourage parents considering joining your church to be a part of the ministry. Use that knowledge to build up the perception of student ministry in your circles of influence inside and outside the church.

== Always Be a Recruiter
Although you’ll no longer serve actively as a small group leader – you know personally the reward that it can bring into someone’s life. Be contagious and encourage others to fill the needs in our church and volunteer in student ministry.

Thanks again, you will be missed!

JG

January 25th is the last chance for a discounted rate for the Simply Youth Ministry Conference. Jake and I are putting the finishing touches on the evening general sessions – you really should check it out and join us late next month in Chicago. Going to be GREAT!

JG

Really appreciated an article written by one of our HSM volunteers over on Volunteer Youth Ministry. Some good stuff in there about small group leaders digging behind the smiles to get to what is really going on. Here’s a clip, definitely head there for the whole thought:

Being a “young” youth ministry leader, I have very little experience. This small event has changed the way I will look at my students entirely. No matter how well we know each student, or how much they open up to us, the human soul is always a mystery to everyone but God. As a leader, I have to remember to take nothing for granted.

Each week may be the week that someone opens their eyes to Christ. Someone who looks solid by all human means of evaluation may actually the one who is at a spiritual crossroads. This thought unnerved me… had I ever neglected her because I thought she had it together? Had I focused totally on the kids who were obviously hurting or struggling and forgotten about those who seemed happy? Could I potentially have been responsible for letting her slip through the proverbial cracks just because she wasn’t a mess?

Of course, God works throughout all of our efforts as servants to these kids, and this girl’s story seems like it’s heading in a wonderful direction. She activley serves in missions in the church and continues to grow into a beautiful young woman inside and out.

God’s lesson to me was this: You can’t always see what I’m doing under the surface… you must be consistent and faithful with each one that I send to you.

My job is to cheer on these girls as they take each little step towards becoming more like Christ. My new prayer is that God will help me never to forget to cheer as loudly as possible, no matter where they are on that path.

JG

Some youth ministry resources to help your ministry to hurting kids:

We will ride every ride in the park in 2010!

We got Disneyland annual passes from my parents this Christmas, and we’ve decided to put them to good use. Our family fun day goal is to ride every ride in the park at least once before our passes expire. I found a list of all of the Disneyland (and California Adventure) attractions, and converted it all into an Excel sheet that will track our progress. Excited to balance out the frantic pace of ministry with turn-off-the-phone-family-fun in 2010.

JG

PS: If you want to download it, go ahead.

So you just signed up to be a small group leader. You got a little training, probably from someone who is just a little older than your children – and the first meeting of your small group is next week. This might help get you thinking about the kids God has trusted to you in this next season. I want to highlight a way of connecting with students – my mentor Doug Fields’ always called it the 5-3-1 Rule. Here’s my take on it:

Care for all
You’ve been given somewhere between 5 and 12 students – and we’re asking you to care for all of them. Simple stuff really, just know their names, be involved in their life and connect with them on a weekly basis. We divide up the large group into small groups so all can be cared for. This is where you come in – be a minister, think of yourself as the pastor of this little church within a church.

Pour into a few
There’s a few of the students in your small group you immediately connect with. Maybe it is a share interest or a similar story – either way, you just click with them. So pour into them a little more than the others. When you’re running an errand, ask one of them to join you so you can turn the mundane into ministry. When you happen on a day you can sneak away from the office, try to sneak by and catch the end of their swim meet or pick them up for a life conversation over a Coke.

Mentor one
After a few weeks, ask God to show you the student who you believe He is calling you to mentor. Pray for them, give them extra challenges, ask them to step up and lead the group one night when you’re gone. Connect with them outside of group, meet regularly and share what God is teaching you. Allow God to speak through you to shape them into a great minister and future small group leader. Maybe it’ll be the church kid who needs you, maybe it’ll be the unexpected fringe kid. You’ll know!

Blessing as you serve students in your small group!

JG

Some suggested youth ministry resources to help small group leaders:

A fun little opening video from our Super Sweet Leaders Night this week.

JG

A few resources that might help youth ministry volunteers:

Weekend Teaching Series: Step by Step (week 2 of 3)

Sermon in a Sentence: Spiritual growth comes from taking steps forward in your walk with God – to grow on your own, to share life in community, to serve others and spread the Good News.
Service Length: 77 minutes
Bible: Acts 8:26-40

Understandable Message: This week Jason talked about the story of Philip and the Ethopian Eunuch from two perspectives – 1) from Philip, on being prepared to share your faith and grow on your own, and 2) from the Eunuch’s perspecive of searching out what God is pressing on your heart. Good applications for all types of students that attended our entry-level service this weekend.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: Ministry team students ran lights, camera, sound, band, control room, and student leaders owned greeting in the services. Limited volunteer involvement on Saturday night, but good the rest of the weekend. Lots of students involved for sure!

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Jake reprised his character of Dr. Eugene Henry, an overly-excited Southern evangelist who likes to take pop culture songs and put God’s Word to music. This week’s story of Noah set to Sweet Dreams by Beyonce – totally brilliant. We also had Not Fair rolling during the countdown which got a solid response, too.

Music Playlist: We Shine, Count Me In, Hosanna, Tell the World

Favorite Moment: For sure the best moment in the service was the live baptism – the story from Acts ends with a baptism, so we did a live baptism on stage to finish, too. We played a quick little interview with each person (a different student was baptized at each service) and students cheered and loved it. We usually do baptisms once a month after services, but these were special for sure. Awesome!

Up Next: Step by Step (series finale, week 3 of 3)

The latest episode of the Simply Youth Ministry Podcast … episode 123!

JG

Thinking about youth ministry fundraisers – are they working well for you? I’ve never served in a church where it was allowed, but curious how it worked for you!

JG

Talk about a first-class response – Colt McCoy after Texas’ loss in the National Championship game. Would make a GREAT illustration of humility/trust in God in a youth talk.

JG

An article I did for Sermon Central went live this week – it deals with the relationships of senior pastors and youth workers.

A few years back, at one of Saddleback’s youth worker conferences, we offered a workshop called Senior Pastor: Friend or Foe.

Unfortunately, it was a really popular seminar.

It seems that youth pastors deal in extremes in many ways—not just in the lives of students at a critical and often misunderstood age, but extremes in their relationships with their supervisor. No matter how good or bad your relationship is with the lead youth worker in your church, I applaud you for reading the title of this article and at least being mildly interested in the perspective of a guy who’s played number two his whole career.

I’ve sat in my church office (which was located in the basement, though I’m sure that fact was no reflection on my value), completely frustrated with my leader. Wrongly, I’ve done youth ministry all alone, frustrated by the lack of camaraderie with my boss. I’ve dug myself into some pretty terrific pits in my time as a youth pastor, too many without the confidence of a trusted partner in ministry. Someone on your team might be thinking or feeling this way right now … in their basement office.

The relationship between the church staff team has to be effortless. But it takes a ton of effort. When people look at a great marriage, they may not realize the arduous amount of hard work that it takes—and your staff is like a second spouse. (I’m just being figurative here, in case you felt like I was endorsing concubines.) You’ve carefully invested day after day in your marriage and built up trust; the same has to be true with that guy sitting in the basement.

I want someone to offer a workshop for pastors on how to partner with your youth pastor—the room would be packed! And I want that person to be you. In order for the relationship to change, there will have to be some game-changing effort put into it. Here are a few first steps to challenge you, the senior pastor, to make the first bold move”

Take them out for lunch
My love language is food, but beyond that, it’s always easier to talk to someone over food—your treat (hey, you get paid wayyyy more than we do). And don’t let your youth pastor choose the place to eat, either. Our cars will autopilot us straight to Taco Bell, so make sure you have a nicer place in mind when you make the ask. And offer to drive, too—no senior pastor should ever have to experience the disaster of the passenger seat of a youth worker’s car. It could take them a half-hour just to make room for you to sit down. Once you’re there, spend time communicating and developing that all-important relationship with one of the key leaders in your ministry. Bonus: Even if they can’t make it to lunch that day, you’ll still get major credit.

Spontaneously buy them a gift
When your youth pastor walks into their office (or is starting the trek downstairs to find it), they’ll be greeted by voicemails, a mountain of email and a list of items to respond to, all with varying urgency. But also waiting for them is a little gift from you. And while thoughtful, it isn’t a gift-with-a-hidden-meaning, like a book on better time management or a polo shirt as a subtle reminder to dress up a bit. Here’s a little gift equation as a guide: A little thought + unexpected – agenda = super meaningful. Something little could be really big.

Invite them to speak in the adult services
I knew this one would be tough; that’s why I put it in the middle where it wouldn’t shock you as much. Go ahead—take the risk and let them speak every once in a while. You know you could use the break, and we always talk about God’s Spirit showing up when the pastor speaks, so why not give it a shot? You could start by giving them the Sunday night message, I suppose, but we both know that doesn’t really count.

Offer to cover for a getaway weekend
This shows you care about your youth worker beyond the workplace. Think of how valuable it would be if someone on the elder board did it for you (I may have just stumbled on my next article). Offer to give them a break, and once you’re there, (with the youth leader’s permission) cast the vision of the church and clearly show how students fit into that plan. Be sure to brag on the youth worker when they’re gone.

Just drop by youth group for no reason
When my senior pastor does this, I totally freak out. I immediately begin to come up with excuses why attendance is off a bit and come up with plausible explanations for the mysterious new hole in the drywall by the drinking fountain. It would be tragic for the only time the senior pastor enters the youth room is when there is a problem. So make it normal for you to drop in. Become the youth group’s unofficial cheerleader, and your youth pastor will take the ball further down the field than you ever imagined she could.

Let me wrap up with a single suggestion: Put one of these ideas into action this week; it could change your church staff relational culture overnight.

JG

We’ve been talking about this for a while since it was featured in Wired Magazine – HSM just picked up Yoostar green-screen system to create some fun announcement and welcome videos for our youth ministry weekend services. It’ll get its first test today for a video for our leaders appreciation evening called Super Sweet Leader Night. I’ll give you a full review of it next week and throw out some examples of ones we made. Fun possibilities!

JG

Video we played behind the band doing the cover song, Party in the USA. Fun!

JG

Weekend Teaching Series: Step by Step (3-week discipleship series)

Sermon in a Sentence: Studying God’s Word is how God speaks to us, we need to approach it openly and follow its instructions.
Service Length: 80 minutes
Bible: Luke 24:13-35

Understandable Message: This week Jason taught about the experience the two men on the Road to Emmaus had with Jesus. Former summer intern Taylor Ishii also got his first shot at teaching a point of the talk as well – super excited to see him take this big step!

Volunteer/Student Involvement: Students and volunteers were involved in all levels of the weekend – band, greeting, lights, sound, and control room. We still need to concentrate on recruiting more adults for the Saturday night services – I won’t tell you the ratio of student to leader, but it wasn’t pretty!

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we kicked off the service with a falling New Year’s ball (made by a volunteer) and an opening cover song from Miley Cyrus – in the background we played the music video where the guy does sign language, too, so great! The energy in the room was great – students obviously loved getting back together the weekend before school was back in session. Packed!

Music Playlist: Party in the USA, His Glory Appears, Came to My Rescue, With Everything

Favorite Moment: Jake Rutenbar did one of his crazy on-stage characters this week – this week he was a special guest that took pop songs (from Taylor Swift and Black-Eyed Peas) and put in lyrics about Bible stories. He was totally brilliant -  the story of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea to the tune of You Belong With Me was absolutely priceless.

Up Next: Step by Step (week 2 of 3)

We’ve all done it … gone into small group unprepared or having prepped at the stoplight and hoping God’s Spirit shows up with an extra dose of His work. If you find yourself in a situation like this – here are 4 quick lessons you can probably give with little or no prep at all:

1) Your Life Verse
Maybe there’s a verse that your parents dedicated you with as a child, or maybe there is a verse that you personally claimed during a particularly challenging stretch of your life. Either way, pull out that special verse and share the story about why it means so much and how you’ve experienced it in real life. Maybe encourage others to share a key verse that has help them in their experiences, too.

2) Your Story of Trusting Christ
There’s nothing more powerful than someone’s story of coming to Christ. It might be a good small group night just talking about when you trusted Christ personally, your journey to faith. Others may also be willing to share, and you might be surprised at the discussion that comes up about faith, unbelief and even doubt. Just share your story and see what happens!

3) A Life Changing-Moment
For each of us as small group leaders there’s no doubt a spiritual moment that defines us. It could be a huge high, or a dreadful low. Whether you share a joy or regret on this low-prep night – students will be riveted hearing how your life changed after that experience. Your failure stories (like getting caught for cheating) will be particularly powerful, though an emotional experience (like holding your first child) might ring well in their ears, too.

4) Finding Your Spouse
One of the guaranteed most interesting small group nights you could ever have is when you talk about God guiding you to your spouse. Even unmarried small group leaders have this interesting story to share about their journey – they’re just still in the middle of it. Students are keenly interested in relationship dynamics and will hang on every detail.

Obviously, I hope you find time to prep your lesson this week – but if you’re just having “one of those weeks” give one of these ideas a try!

JG

Ringing in the New Year here with a little boost to the Gamerscore on my Xbox 360. 32,000 is the latest mark to run past – thanks to some Christmas break gaming of Sega Genesis Collection (C+), Mini Ninjas (B+), Wall-E (B) and the really-fun-and-very-underrated Fracture (A-). You can read my 360’s blog all about it right here. Good times!

JG

This Christmas break I finished up a review copy of the Mike Calhoun book The Greenhouse Project: Cultivating Students of Influence – a good read for anyone looking to overhaul or reemphasize discipleship in their student ministry. The book actually covers more than discipleship, but the theme is very primary and central to his thesis that of all the purposes for student ministry – discipleship is the one that matters the most. Each chapter is guided by a contributing writer like Greg Stier, Mel Walker or Jay Strack, so while the writing feels a bit random, the multiple voices lends credibility and varied perspective. My wife actually graduated from Word of Life Bible Institute and I have enjoyed the camps and speakers in the past – I think the book is good for many settings though if you’re a “Word of Life church” it’ll really hit you where you’re at. Great title, too, our student ministry should be a greenhouse for helping students grow up in Christ.

JG

Finished up some reading I’m getting pretty far behind on – Multnomah Books sent me a review copy of Mark Batterson’s new book Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity. To me, Mark feels like half amateur scientist and half pastor, dragging his readers back in time to the origins of faith with both Scripture and science. My favorite chapter was The Island of Colorblind, which focuses on the lack of wonder in Christians any more. That we are so familiar with faith we no longer truly see it for the radical nature and God at the very heart of it. Really good stuff to challenge us about what God is calling us to do while we’re here on earth.

JG

One of  the best comedy writers in the world has unleashed his Year in Review and it is absolute must-read. Hilarious and at times painful, click on over to read Dave Barry’s Year in Review 2009. Brilliant!

JG

Our fiscal year ends in June, but for many youth workers, the end of the year means a reset to the budget year. I realize not every youth ministry benefits from the blessing of a budget and even if you do, times are really tight for everyone right now. Either way, here are a few of the things I might spend end of year budget on:

Nothing!
Are you kidding me? Money left? I’ve actually a little overspent or barely have enough to go to McDonald’s with! If that’s the case – use the pennies left and hit up the Dollar Menu and taking out your senior pastor to help soften the blow when he/she actually finds out the bottom line. I recommend springing for the McRib combo.

Invest in items that benefit you in the next fiscal year
Use the offerings and tithes that have been entrusted to you by getting some long-term bang for your buck. Looking for small group material that will work in the coming year? Grab the LIVE curriculum now, and set yourself up for the next season of small groups. Think about services like SimplyTxt or stocking up on sale items and discover discounts that will give you a supply of resources you typically reach for close at hand.

You can never go wrong with volunteer training
Search for end of the year resources to help encourage and/or train your team in the various aspects of youth ministry. Picking up Youth Worker Training on the Go or a little book for each of them might be good use of your budget money. Short, quick reads will always win. Be sure to write a note inside, too!

Go for personal development
This is a big one for me – when I head into the end of a budget year, I try to register for an event or training that will help me be a better youth pastor. Registering in advance is expected, and doing it over two budget years may allow you to spread the costs out. This year I’ll be at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago – spots are going fast (I hear it is 75% sold-out) and it’d be fun to meet you and you could use the break.

Pre-pay for Events, Camps or Retreats
If you know the camp or retreat center you’ll be using in the coming year, consider placing a deposit on the location and lock it in. If you’re doing an event at a rollerskating rink and you know the date, plunk down some money in advance while you’ve got it.

A few ideas as we end 2009 – if you are interested in more related articles, check out 6 Ways to Stretch Your Youth Ministry Budget, When to Buy Youth Ministry Resources or the book $5 Youth Ministry.

JG