More Than Dodgeball | Youth Ministry Blog by Josh Griffin

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Do the Little Things

Have you ever walked into a really beautiful building, very neat and organized on the inside with friendly faces greeting you and showing you around, then you make a trip to the bathroom and whoa! What happened here? It looks like no one has touched it in months, this is what’s stinking the whole place up! Someone’s got to be willing to take care of the smaller, less desirable jobs. Otherwise, the bigger jobs could tank.

One person cannot do it all
It takes a team to get things done. So if you think you are just the guy who stands-by keeping an eye out for anything that may go wrong or just the girl that cleans the bathroom, stop right there! You couldn’t be more wrong. Without you, the guy in the spotlight wouldn’t be so lit up. The nasty bathroom and the fight in the back of the room would steal the light.

Do it willingly
Put more value on what you are doing, it’s not so bad. “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.” (Colossians 3:23) You are right where God wants you to be. You are not working for the people; you are doing the Lord’s work. You are building up His Kingdom so disregard the value the world places on your position and work with joy in your heart knowing it is for a greater cause.

No matter how small your job may seem, it is a BIG in the Kingdom of God. So keep scrubbing that toilet and do it with joy in your heart and when the Lord comes, you can look forward to Him saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

Ashley Fordinal is the Children’s Church volunteer at Family Life Church in Sulphur Springs, TX.

1 View Comments April 29, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Making Tough Decisions

Whether it is stepping in when you don’t want to, asking someone to leave, picking a topic that is tough to discuss, at some point you are going to need to make a decision you don’t want to make.

Recently this meant cutting a program that I love. For two years, I ran a wednesday night drop in. Any student could drop by the church for a game of pingpong, foosball, card games or just to run around or kick a ball. It was a lot of fun for the students, and they loved it. Problem for me was I had the choice I could start a new small group for 3 grade 12 students and 2 college students who wanted to go deeper or continue running “Wednesday hang out” for up to 20 students. Well I cut the program that consistently had big numbers to run a program for 5 students.

Now for me the choice came to which program did I see having the most impact. In my mind it was far more important to equip a few older students with serious spiritual impact than to hang out. While those 20 students are just as valuable to me it all came down to our ministry vision and mission.

Our mission is to create an environment of love and laughter, so we can reach students for Christ and disciple them to be spiritual leaders of this generation and the next.

I believe that when you are faced with making a tough choice you have to look at what your vision and mission is, and weigh where the decision fits against that. If you don’t you will end up making a decision based on immediate feelings and that will often end up not being the best decision you could make.

If you don’t know you mission and vision you need to. Without these two things you don’t truly have a guide to figure things out. If you need to develop these I encourage you to read Purpose Driven Youth Ministry.

My second piece of advice when making a tough decision is to bring in another person or more. When we make decisions in isolation we often make the choice that suits us best, when you bring in another voice you become more likely to flesh out all the options. And let’s be honest as a youth worker you are going to go under fire a lot throughout your career, having a counsel helps you to support the decisions you made.

What pieces of advice do you have on making tough decisions?

Kyle Corbin has been serving youth as a volunteer or pastor for over 10 years. He is currently the youth pastor at the Bridge Church in North Vancouver B.C. You can follow his blog at: kylecorbin.blogspot.com or Twitter: @CorbinKyle

Add Comment April 27, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts Sincerely Freedom – Spoken Word by Nick Vitellaro

Super excited about this new powerful spoken word video Sincerely Freedom by Nick Vitellaro. Good stuff about the powerful addiction of pornography. Love Craig Gross over at XXXChurch for putting this one out. Excellent.

JG

Add Comment April 26, 2013

Colton HarkerMore Posts Student Leadership Lesson: Preparing for Crisis

This weekend was the conclusion of our You Own the Weekend series and it really went out with a bang! They had great stage design, great music, and most importantly, great speakers. One of the speakers was talking about man in crisis. He said that everyone is either about to be in crisis, already is in crisis, or just getting out of crisis. I thought this is a really interesting way to look at it.

As youth pastors, we often see students (and adults) in the middle of a crisis. At this point, they are in survival mode. We have to focus of damage control and how to get through it. Luckily, we often get to lead students to the last part of the process, getting out of crisis. It is here that we get to reflect on what the Lord has done because of the situation and students get to learn about themselves and God… incredible!

But I don’t think that we put nearly as much effort into the first part. We hardly acknowledge the fact that our “summer” will eventually turn into a “winter.” Because of this, we don’t really prepare before hand for the upcoming crisis, leaving us vulnerable and, ultimately, forced into damage control.

This is something I brought up to our student leaders. I told them that crisis doesn’t always mean that parents are getting divorced or siblings are sick, crisis can be those problems that we run into while we are leading a project. Like when the girl that you delegated a huge portion of the event to didn’t pull through. Or when your principal continually shuts down any event your Christian club tries to throw. While those might not be what most people would call a crisis, I think that those can lead to a crisis of the heart. Those situations can easily cause someone to react sinfully in their mind, hearts, words, or actions (or all four!). So how do we prepare for these “crises?”

The answer is prayer. Praying that you are prepared with what it takes to handle the situation that you are going to be going through. This weekend, we had our student leaders read Galatians 5 and talk through the fruits of the spirit. We had them think about each word, talk about what scripture has to say about it, and find out why it is an important characteristic of a leader. We then hung up a sign for each fruit around the room and gave them time to walk around and stop at each one, praying that God blesses them with a better understanding of the fruit and that He allows them to live it out.

I think it is a great lesson for leaders in general (not just student leaders). This worked really well with our student leadership team and I think it could be a win with others as well! Hope it helps!

Colton [Email||Twitter]

Add Comment April 25, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts 5th Year Ministry: Post Graduation Student Ministry

Graduation! Your amazing students whom you have loved and cared for the past few years are heading out to the great unknown of college, the work force, their parents’ basement, or a strange combination of all three! But because moving away to college is such a big deal, those are the students we are going to focus on this week.

As students leave your ministry the temptation is to completely set them free—and while this is the typical model in most churches, what would it look like if you extended your influence in their lives to cover this challenging transition? Here are a few practical ideas how.

Help them find a church. 
For students who move away, the number one in a new city and starting a new life is finding a church home. Oftentimes the struggle is “I just can’t find a church like ours,” which is flattering, but a dangerous position for a student to be in their freshman year. So help! Google the churches within a couple miles of the campus and see which one would feel familiar to them. Visit their Web site, or give them a call and ask a few questions, and pass the information along to your student.

Here’s an idea: Find out where your seniors are heading for college, and ask a key volunteer to do a little bit of church research for each community and, as a graduation gift, give an “Awesome churches near your school” packet to each graduate!

Give them a resource.
Help them in this transition with a devotional resource or a letter a day from a member of your church with a verse to encourage them. Okay, we have never seen that one done, either, but how cool would it be! Don’t let students dangle in limbo spiritually; challenge them to continue in the spiritual disciplines and increase their faith in God even when they are in an environment where it will be challenged daily.

Check in periodically.
Being remembered is huge. Too often students leave for school and leave their mentors, parents, and youth workers behind. That is by design, and one of the catalysts that force students to think for themselves as they barrel into adulthood, but it also leaves them vulnerable to attack.

A quick Skype call, a phone call on the weekend, even a weekend trip to see them could be huge. You never know the power of a simple text; it would probably mean the world to your students 400 miles from home.

This post was written by Josh Griffin and Kurt Johnston and originally appeared as part of Simply Youth Ministry Today free newsletter. Subscribe to SYM Today right here.

Add Comment April 25, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts 99 Thoughts on Marriage and Ministry: $2.50 Today Only!

Love this new resource that is the discount of the week over at Simply Youth Ministry. 99 Thoughts on Marriage & Ministry - a book that looks to help young couples as they navigate these challenging waters. From the back of the book:

Ministry is such a rewarding experience, but why does it create so much strain on marriages? Jake and Melissa Kircher have learned some valuable lessons (often the hard way!) about building a healthy marriage amid the demands of ministry. They aren’t perfect, but they’ve matured individually and as a couple because of each mess, problem, heartache, and obstacle they’ve encountered. They understand your struggles and frustrations, because they’re their struggles and frustrations, too.

Today only – 58% off – just $2.50 each!

JG

Add Comment April 25, 2013

Geoff StewartMore Posts Awkward = Healthy

I love visting other youth groups and seeing the different ways that each of them approaches ministry and seeing the different cliques and types of students that each group attracts. In the city I work, the diversity between each of the different ministries is pretty surprising but something I love to see, that students can find a place that speaks their language, with a community they belong to and feel safe in. Each group is a reflection of the the values and style of each leader and fulfilling the purpose of reaching different students.

When I visit a new group I am always on the look out for one thing, the awkward kids. The ones that don’t fit in a lot of places, the ones that maybe don’t have tons of friends and that might look and act very differently than other students. I am not looking for the jocks, the hipsters, or any sort of “cool” kid, in fact I think most youth groups have their fair share of those students, I am looking for the complete opposite. Show me your kids that like to use the coat rack as a light saber, show me your Zacchaeus’s, those are the students to help point to a healthy community.

It’s easy to create a space where social students can be social, but creating an environment where students that don’t fit in can fit in is what it’s all about. You show me a ministry that has no awkward kids, I would be able to argue pretty quickly that, that group is not a safe place. There are students that are reminded often at school that they are different and they don’t fit in, but there is no way that the same should be said of youth group. You belong here, you are safe here, you are one of us here, you are accepted here.

Awkward kids are a sign of health, a sign of a culture of grace for students of all kinds, where young people can feel that they belong, they are safe and are accepted when in many other areas of their life they don’t experience that reality. A group that is diverse, is a group that is experiencing authentic community and youth group is a great place for that to happen.

-Geoff @geoffcstewart