best practices | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts Youth Ministry Best Practices

This week we’re going to focus on some of the best practices of youth ministry nationwide and hope that it generates some helpful conversation as you agree, disagree or have no opinion either way! Right up front we want to let you know that there is no PERFECT way to do youth ministry; our hope is that you prayerfully consider your context and determine what would and wouldn’t work in the ministry you lead.

BEST PRACTICE: Dividing up junior high and high school students.
There is simply too much difference between a 12-year-old 7th grader and an 18-year-old graduating senior—specifically, the developmental differences. Plus, on a practical note, keeping them separate gives the junior highers something to look forward to. Having said all that, there are some incredible opportunities when you keep these groups together. The older students can disciple and model what younger students can become over the next few years.

QUESTIONS:
• Do you have separate ministries for junior and senior high?
• Why or why not?
• What are other pros and cons of dividing up these age groups?
• What would happen if you made the switch?

BEST PRACTICE: Small groups being the primary method of discipleship and fellowship.
Most youth groups meet once a week for a large-group time of celebration, fun, and worship; and then either as part of that gathering, or at another time during the week, divide up into small groups for fellowship and discipleship. The overwhelming model has been for groups to work through a curriculum and also share life and Christian community together.

QUESTIONS:
• Does your church have small groups, Sunday school, or just large group times?
• Why have you chosen this strategy?
• What is the weakness of this model?
• Sunday school used to be invincible; now it has largely been replaced by small groups. What’s next?

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.

4 View Comments December 7, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: 5 Trends in Growing Student Ministries

Here at Vanderbloemen Search Group, we are often asked, “What is everybody else doing out there?” Since we work with many churches and student pastors throughout the country, we have the honor of seeing what some of the most growing churches are doing in their student ministries. Every student ministry is unique, but here are a few trends we’re seeing in growing churches:

1. Small Groups – Generation Y craves relationships. Student pastors often share with us that the best discussion and discipleship happens in the context of small groups. Some churches have their small groups on Sundays, and some have them throughout the week. Some have them at the church facility and others have them in homes. Regardless of the approach, we are seeing that small groups are a pivotal part of healthy student ministries.

2. Leadership Development – We find that the healthiest student ministries are equipping their high schoolers with leadership skills to lead Bible Studies, outreach events, and mentor programs to the middle schoolers. We also see churches involving the youth in the Sunday service, training them with responsibilities of sound, lights, worship, etc… Developing an effective leadership program may be time consuming at first, but the long-term benefits are worth it. Many youth pastors we talk to bring on a few of their high school leaders as interns over the summer. These students often pursue ministry after high school.

3. Volunteer Training – Recruiting volunteers can be one of the most challenging aspects of ministry for student pastors. It’s difficult to find dedicated volunteers who also have the “cool factor” that high school kids are looking for. We find that youth pastors who succeed in finding great volunteers invest in their training and development. Bring in a leadership coach and be sure that your volunteers have the resources they need to invest in your students.

4. Separating Jr & Sr High – Some of the most growing ministries are separating the Jr and Sr high worship services to provide a more tailored message to the age groups. Jr highers are concerned about different topics than Sr highers, and the way you approach topics with each group should be different. We’re noticing that growing churches are developing separate teams over Jr and Sr high with a director leading the vision of both ministries.

5. Outreach – We see students craving purpose and meaning. Student pastors are getting students out in the community to serve under-resourced communities. Students like being given significant challenges and responsibilities. Effective student pastors are also networking with local schools to identify the scope of their ministry responsibilities beyond the walls of the church.

Depending on the unique needs of your students, these strategies may or may not be effective in the context of your ministry. If you’re using these strategies in your ministry, we’d love to hear your thoughts! If not, what strategies have you found to be effective for your students?

Thanks to VSG for this guest post! They are currently searching for Student Pastors who are dynamic leaders in a few churches like this one in NV and this one in GA.

3 View Comments November 29, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts 3 Practical Teaching Tips When Speaking to Teenagers

One of the key roles of a youth worker is speaking to teenagers. For some this is a gift that comes naturally—lots of youth workers are gifted speakers, while others have had to learn how to communicate effectively to an audience. Regardless of your skill level, these tips will either affirm what you’re already doing or help you push forward in your skills on stage.

Find Your Preferred Outline Style
Everyone has a preferred style of notes—I (Kurt) prefer a simple student outline with a few speaker notes written in the margin. I (Josh) prefer a fully written out manuscript when speaking to teenagers. Experiment with both and you’ll quickly find what works best for you and gives you the most comfort on stage.

TIP: Kurt’s style allows for more spontaneity, while Josh’s ensures what is meant to be said actually gets said!

Practice It Once or Twice By Yourself
Prepare your lesson early enough to provide time to run over the talk out loud as if you were giving it live on stage. Work on your delivery, and add new thoughts and ideas to your outline as you progress through the run-through. So often great lines, dramatic pauses, or a fresh idea come through when you’re practicing. Too often what looks good on paper doesn’t work verbally, so get the kinks out before you’re in front of your students. I (Josh) have made this a non-negotiable part of my lesson prep. Kurt, on the other hand…well, the results speak for themselves!

Ruthlessly Debrief Your Talk
There’s nothing more vulnerable than walking off stage and allowing someone to critique your message…BUT, it’s a key component of improving your delivery. Fight through the pride and let your volunteers, a key leader, or your spouse (man oh man are our spouses honest with us) help you get better each week.

You’ll improve greatly if you open yourself up for honest feedback. The truth of the matter is this: People are critiquing you anyway; why not give them permission to share their observations!

So there are a few ideas to help you teaching teens. Add one in the comments!

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 October 9, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Spiritual Maturity: A Note to Youth Workers, Part 4 – Best Practices

“I’m a student, not a guru.” I love that quote from Derek Sivers’ book Anything You Want. Even after selling CD Baby, the largest seller of independent music on the web, for hundreds of millions of dollars, Sivers encourages his readers to disagree with the points in his book and to then share their points of view with him. Sivers models the leaders are learners lifestyle. Part 4 is called ‘Best Practices,’ but that’s only because “some really good ideas” isn’t nearly as marketable. So while I will share one strategy for developing a spiritual growth plan for students, understand it is just that: one strategy.

Do your homework

Pray for wisdom and clarity
Read what the Bible says about spiritual growth
Read what others say about spiritual growth

For a list of helpful books on the topic, click here. (appendix)

Plan with the end in mind
Part 3 in this series included a helpful definition of spiritual maturity, but it’s important to personalize yours. What does a spiritually mature student look like? Our ministry phrase “we want our graduates to not graduate from their faith” gives us a picture. We envision a college freshman, successfully navigating the temptations on campus while living with purpose and passion for Jesus. We considered what a student needs to know, feel, think, and do, and we described it in general terms under three broad categories of “knowing God,” “knowing themselves,” and “knowing their world.” Click here to download a copy. (appendix)

Put meat on those bones
Planning with the end in mind gives you a skeleton. It produces statements like “our students will know the Bible,” and “our students will pursue purity.” Those are great! But what does it look like? What do you actually want students to know, do, and feel? How do you want them to act? These questions helped us fill out our skeleton. Click here to download a copy. (appendix)

Build a roadmap to get there
Don’t stop! You’re close, but this next step is the second most important one to take. You know where you’re going, but how will you get there? My family will travel to Washington state to see family this summer, but we need to formulate a plan on how to get there. The same is true with discipleship. Telling a student you want him to love God more this year is a terrific goal, but what’s the plan? This step takes more time and plenty of scrap paper. It could be frustrating, but get it done. And if after a year you decide it’s not working the way you hoped, don’t worry, because that’s where the final step comes in.

Start over
This is the most important step to take. It’s a reminder that there is no formula that guarantees success. Even if you’re doing well this year and next, don’t assume it will continue the following year. Be a student, not a guru.

Most believe in the importance of student ministry, but few have a plan to do it well. Don’t worry about building the perfect plan, just build one and rebuild or redesign as you go. Making disciples is hard work, but it’s a high calling.

Gregg Farah is the Student Ministry Pastor at Shelter Rock Church on Long Island, NY. He’s excited to be back in student ministry after his 7-year journey as a church planter in New York City. Prior to his church planting days, Gregg served as youth pastor for 9 years in the suburbs of Seattle, WA and Orange County, CA. Be sure to visit his blog for much more, including a way to help finance his new line of books he is writing!

Add Comment June 2, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Youth Ministry Life Book

Another new book! What? Hahahah … was excited to find out last week that Simply Youth Ministry was taking Kurt Johnston and I’s Today newsletters and making them into a new book! You can now get Youth Ministry Life on Simply Youth Ministry’s website you can download it as an eBook or get a physical copy shipped to your door. Yeah!

The most solid youth workers are the ones eager to learn, hungry for wisdom, excited to discover new truths and rediscover old ones. With that in mind, we’ve handpicked some of the best, deepest, richest content from our Simply Youth Ministry Today emails and created Youth Ministry Life. This book will help you navigate four major areas of ministry for every youth worker:

The PHILOSOPHY of youth ministry–why we do what we do and what difference it is making for God’s kingdom

The PEOPLE in youth ministry–those we are serving and those who are serving alongside us

The PRACTICE of youth ministry–programming for the most effective reach

The PERSONAL aspect of youth ministry–how and why we need to grow and strive for personal and spiritual health as the point people of our ministries

JG

Add Comment March 5, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Remind People You Are Real

Meeting with my one of my volunteers recently we talked about her small group, how it was going, how she was engaging with them and she confessed that she felt she was just not a good small group leader. I was astonished; she is a gifted, Jesus-loving, hard-working leader who has been one of our core team members for years. I needed to know why she was feeling this way and for how long… and I quickly discovered that one of the biggest reasons for feeling this way was me.

After years of listening to my sermons, retreats, and anecdotal accounts of my life she felt that; for lack of a better word, she was boring. That was hard to hear, that because of the person that I put myself out to be and all the stories that have I shared from the front she would feel that her life could not measure up and therefore her small group girls could never be satisfied with her. The reality is that I am a pretty boring guy – after all I am a frequent attender of estate auctions, I re-purpose antiques in my garage, sell things I make online, and golf. All of these things are pretty dull to the average teenager. But have I painted a misleading portrait of who I am and what I do, and have made myself out to be a caricature of an actual person? Am I even real to them?

This is a struggle that most pastors (especially youth pastors) have. We end up sharing lots of the crazy stories that have happened to us, including the ones many of us go out of our way to make happen because they might make great illustrations. (One time I drove 5 minutes past my exit of the freeway following a pick up truck full of loaves of bread because I was hoping some would fly out and hit my car – and sure enough three loaves did.) But I really enjoy spending time with students, especially my small group, one-on-one because if anything they get to see that I am a pretty normal guy. The ones that don’t know the real me look at my twitter and Facebook, and it’s one event or conference after another, one more “adventure” that I am on. This highlight reel is not in any way, shape, or form an accurate portrait of my life.

Then what do we do? I would suggest that you do what I try and do and remind people that you are normal, that you watch TV with your wife and cats, that you sometimes clean your garage on Friday nights, I don’t read my Bible all day either and that that’s okay. Remind your leaders that students desire for them to be real, not a superhero leader whose life is not attainable; to be a leader who is authentic, who struggles with things, who loves Jesus, and shows the ins and outs of their relationship with Him. Remind them that their story is God’s story working itself out through them and therefore is valuable and meaningful. Take every opportunity to be real with them and remember to do life with your team as well as your students.

Geoff Stewart is the Pastor of Jr & Sr High School for Journey Student Ministries at Peace Portal Alliance Church and regularly contributes GUEST POSTS to MTDB. Be sure to check out his Twitter stream for awesome ministry goodness. Want to get in on the fun and write up a guest post yourself? See how right here.

Add Comment February 8, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Book Review: The 9 Best Practices for Youth Ministry

Just finished up reading Kurt Johnston and Tim Levert’s new book, The 9 Best Practices for Youth Ministry. This is the first book that Kurt (full disclosure – he’s my boss at Saddleback!) has written for youth ministry in general, not just something junior high specific. The best practices are based on the Exemplary Youth Ministry Study and made practical by the authors from their 30 years of youth ministry experience and observations of youth workers and churches across the country.

The book was good – ranged in content from familiar to very fresh – my favorites were Chapter 5 (Increase the Congregation’s Appreciation of Students) and Chapter 7 (Develop Confident, Competent and Committed Leaders). I learned some great principles to help communicate the wins to the church as a whole and was reminded to intertwine the youth ministry as part of the entire church. I also really appreciated the chapter on the TILT model of volunteer placement within a specific area of ministry.

Good stuff on a whole lot of fronts – probably one of the must-read youth ministry books of 2010.

JG