More Than Dodgeball | Youth Ministry Blog by Josh Griffin

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Spring Weekend Teaching Calendar

We try to sit down and carve out the next 5-6 months (poll results on the subject) of the weekend entry-level teaching at a time. Here’s the next batch of where HSM is headed in the coming months:

February
Each 1, Reach 1
Q:
Q:
Q:

March
Simply Jesus
Simply Jesus
Simply Jesus
Stories 2

April
EASTER (No services)
1-off Weekend
You Own the Weekend: Trabuco
You Own the Weekend: El Toro

May
You Own the Weekend: Capo
You Own the Weekend: Mission Viejo
You Own the Weekend: Tesoro
TBA
TBA

June
TBA
Senior Testimony/Honor Wkd
James
James

July
James
James
James

JG

Add Comment February 22, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts How to Filter Through a Ton of Blog Posts

I read a TON of blogs every day – I love learning from people in the youth ministry trenches, learning from people at the top who give insight into how they got there, even business leaders that share their current learnings. Here’s how I filter them every day, thought it might be helpful to you, too:

Subscribe to a ton of blogs
I pick up a new blog just about every week. I use Outlook 2007 and Firefox Live Bookmarks to grab the content from all over the web and bring it right into my workspace – as of this writing I’ve got 127 blogs that drop content on a regular basis. If you’re not familiar with RSS, basically every site has a pipeline of content that you can “subscribe” to. A ton of people use Google Reader, and if you’re looking for the feed for this site, grab it here. If you stumble on a blog you think you might like – just subscribe!

Delete most
If I’m honest, a quick scan of the title of the articles let me take a pretty good guess if it is worth my time or not. Post titles are KEY, if it isn’t interesting, it isn’t going to be read. I delete about 75% of the posts that come in at this point, really I’m aggressively sifting for the best of the best at this part of the process. I hate to think about people scanning what I work so hard to write and dismissing it so quickly, but the process is ruthless.

Scan some
If the title gets me interested, I’ll give the full article a quick scan. I’m reading the first few sentences looking for the hook, and if it is listed in bullets or points I’m giving them a once over. I delete another 10% of the posts at this stage, continuing to filter the bulk for the select few I’m going to spend time with.

Engage with a few
So now there’s only about 15% of the posts left – and these are the ones I pour over. These are the ones I link to on my blog for others to see. These are the posts that get in my head, show up on Twitter and get forwarded to my team or volunteers. These posts are why I read blogs.

Unsubscribe if there’s consistently nothing I benefit from
It takes me a while, but eventually I might unsubscribe just to reduce the number of inputs in my life. A quick process of elimination usually leaves me with a few great posts to read every day. I encourage you to do the same!

JG

7 View Comments February 22, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Videos Used During the Intelligent Design Talk

Couple of great videos used this weekend. The first is from The Family Guy, about how Christians are mocked for belief in a Creation.

This clip from Dumb and Dumber was to illustrate the idea of “chance.”

Sean McDowell didn’t play this one, but talked about the scene from Friends where Ross/Phoebe discuss Creation/evolution.

JG

Add Comment February 21, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 87

Weekend Teaching Series: Q (week 2 of 3)

Sermon in a Sentence: A study of the scientific evidence points to an Intelligent Designer.
Service Length: 75 minutes

Understandable Message: This week guest speaker Sean McDowell took a look at evidence that contradicts Darwinism/evolution that specifically points to an Intelligent Designer (Creator God) of the universe. He used some great pop culture nods [Family Guy, Friends] that demonstrated the pressure on us to believe evolution because it is rational and has tons of evidence to back it up. But then he started to demonstrate evidence and ideas that put those things into question – how perhaps the gaps and holes in the evolutionary theory actually point us to the Creator, and how even evolutionists are starting to admit it. Some really good stuff, so glad he’s here to help our students get this stuff.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: Students jumped in on most of the supporting roles of the weekend – greeting, cameras, lights, sound, control room, etc. The student band was also great, and adult volunteers jumped in for conversations and greeting. Several new volunteers this week, which is always GREAT!

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: During the countdown again this week we used www.polleverywhere.com to have students send in captions for a photo (I posted a screenshot of one as an example above). We kicked off the weekend with a cleaned-up version of some Rick Gervais stand-up act about Creation that was done live by Phil, the latest member of the HSM staff. He’s a full-on British import, and nailed it perfectly.

Music Playlist: Run, Indescribable, Cannons

Favorite Moment: We had fun with Rebeckah Holley this week – she’s been an intern on the HSM staff for the last year and a half who is finishing up in August. She got engaged this past week (to Brian, the student pastor from Saddleback’s Corona campus), so we brought her on stage to tell the story and have some fun teasing her about her new last name. Cute!

Up Next: Q: (series finale, week 3 of 3)

1 View Comments February 21, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts POLL: How far in advance do you plan teaching topics?

I try to plan our High School Ministry’s teaching calendar about 6 months in advance. Keep in mind there aren’t a lot of details, the series titles and maybe a little arc of where it is headed and what we’re hoping to convey. As we get closer to the series, more details come into place and then the week of, the final outline is done. How about you?

JG

polls

3 View Comments February 21, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Are You Blogging SYMC?

Are you going to blog the Simply Youth Ministry Conference? At least tossing out some Tweets? If so, leave a comment here and I’ll post up the official list as well as a recap of the best posts each day. See you next week in Chicago! Wooohooo!

JG

53 View Comments February 19, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts 2 Reasons NOT to Remove a Student from Your Small Group

I think there are some legitimate reasons for removing a student from your small group — and there are some other reasons that maybe feel right, but absolutely aren’t. Here’s a couple I’ve seen in the past couple of years in our ministry

I’ll remove them from the group – they aren’t showing up anyhow
Just because a student isn’t showing up doesn’t mean you should let them go — it actually means you might have an opportunity to go the extra mile and care for them. Be faithful to call them and check up on them, even if it feels futile. A student not showing up is an opportunity, so don’t be discouraged by it. We divide the large group into small groups for this very reason: so that someone will care for them and notice when they’re gone. Don’t give up on them yet — the next call or text could be more meaningful than you will ever know.

I’ll remove them from the group – they don’t seem to care about group
If we removed a student every time they were dejected or apathetic we wouldn’t have too many students in small groups! In fact, if I’m honest I don’t always feel like going to or participating in church stuff myself sometimes. Again, this is an opportunity to care for them, to coach them about the importance of community and accountability – if they get these concepts as a student their adult life will be so much better! Jesus cared for his sheep, but took the time to go after those that wandered off as well. Let’s do the same!

JG