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Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: 11 Great Ministry Moments of 2011

Meeting our new 7th graders — Every year we get to welcome in a new class of 7th graders into our Mid-High ministry. I have LOVED every one of these guys!
Mission Trip to Arlington, TX — We sold out for this trip in 2 weeks and had an incredible time serving the city of Arlington, learning Spanish on the fly, and playing dodgeball in Cowboys Stadium!
NERF War — It’s every kid’s dream: have a massive NERF war with no adults around. We expected a few students to come, but we blew the doors of the place and we’re STILL picking up ammo from it!
Thanks for Abortion – Two years ago I spoke about abortion. Two days ago a student (who is now in high school) came up to me and thanked me for that message. This student has a friend who is struggling with what to do with her unborn child and that message two years ago has been really helpful!
TRIBES — Last summer we did a 6-week competition designed to bring students to Christ through recreation. Towards the end, individual tribes were larger than our entire first night!
DISCipleship Hole-In-One – We played disc golf all summer. I got a hole-in-one. The guys in my group got to see a reaction they’ll never forget. Moving on..
Greeters Kidnapping a Student – We have a greeters team in our ministry. One Sunday they “kidnapped” a new student who had walked in with her parents and brought her down to the youth area. She’s been coming ever since.
The Change to Cell Groups – We used to do small groups one way, realized it wasn’t achieving the goals for which it was designed, so we’ve overhauled the way we do things. Now our students are being pushed to be “on mission” and they don’t have teachers, they have coaches. It’s awesome!
Night of Impact & Goats – We challenged our students to raise money to buy goats for an orphanage in Africa. In one month they raised enough money to buy over 13 goats!
Transfer for the Gospel – One of my students (who grew up going to a private Christian school) decided to follow God and transfer to a public school this year so he could have MORE opportunity to share the Gospel. Put that in your pipe and smoke it cultural stereotype of teenage boys!
My Entire Volunteer Team – Without my team, none of this could have happened. They love God and like teenagers and I am proud to serve with them in this crazy ministry to 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students!

Sean Kahlich is the Mid-High Youth Minister at The Kirk of the Hills — check out his youth ministry blog called Awaiting Epiteleo.

Add Comment December 29, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Coaching Your Volunteers

Ah, the fall. High School Football. You can see your breath. You’re eating overpriced nachos from the under-staffed school booster club concession stand. There’s nothing better than the crack of the football helmets hitting together. The cheerleaders in the background, the coach barking commands to his team. The team listens then works together in perfect unison to score a touchdown.

The difference between the picture we just painted and your role as a youth worker? You’re not in the stands in the youth ministry game, my friend. You are a coach. Here are some thoughts about coaching your volunteer team in the seasons ahead.

PRESEASON (late summer)
A coach in this season is focused on making sure his team is ready to perform at the highest level. Training and conditioning are the key. Preparation is essential for success on the field. In your ministry pre-season (July/August) make sure your team is trained and ready for the challenges of the season ahead.

INSEASON (school year)
A coach in this season is focused on winning games. Watching game films, evaluation and adjustments are key here. A youth ministry coach needs to constantly be evaluating services, programs and people to make sure each are working effectively. You can make changes at this point, but they have to be the right ones because the game is on the line.

OFFSEASON (summer)
This season is hardly “off” right? We recently looked back on this past summer and it felt busier than another other season this past year. So forgive us where the analogy breaks down a bit — but a coach in the off season becomes a strategist. They change up the playbook. They toss out what wasn’t working and experiment with something new. They take advantage of the lull and focus on recruiting new talent for their team. They plan ahead and make sure they are ready for when the team is assembled in the preseason once again.

Go get ‘em, coach!

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.

1 View Comments October 25, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts 25 Questions to Help You Debrief Your Summer Youth Ministry Calendar

Last week we talked about debriefing your summer calendar, and we got a great response from it (largely asking the question, “how?”) and thought it might be good to devote a whole article on the topic. So today we’re going to list 20 questions to help you begin to evaluate your summer youth ministry calendar:

What did we plan that was a success?
What surprised us that was totally awesome?
Where did we get blindsided?
Was there a good balance of evangelism, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and worship?
Did we lose/gain momentum at any time this summer?
What was an epic fail?
Where were the wins with parents?
Is there an event we need to move to a different place in the calendar?
Was the format of our website/Facebook/blog/printed calendar clear?
Was there enough promotion for our events? How could we make it better?
Is there a sacred cow we need to shoot?
Where were our leaders unprepared?
Are there opportunities to integrate our students into the church body we should consider next year?
What event should we never do again?
Were there any surprising turnouts in numbers?
Where did we communicate poorly?
In what circumstances did parents contact us?
Who is a key volunteer we need to circle back with now that summer is over?
Was it easy for parents to find out information/download forms/get a registration packet?
Were entry level — core students challenged this summer?
What was so great we need to consider making it an annual tradition?
Which volunteer was incredible and needs to be challenged to be a small group leader this school year?
What events seemed best to invite friends to?
Where did I as the leader have the most fun relationally hanging with students?
Where did we see the most decisions made for Christ?

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 August 31, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Philosophy Behind HSM’s Summer Calendar 2011

Last summer was incredible so this summer we’re hoping to build on what we learned and have another great break. Here is a little insight behind what HSM has planned for this summer. If you haven’t seen the calendar and list of events yet, you can check it out here:

All about relationships
The summer is all about hanging with students. We embrace the beauty of time off from school and the different pace around the church office. Summer = relational ministry goldmine.

Free, free, free
Summer camp is the signature event to kickoff the summer and the only one that costs money – after that every event is totally free. In the past we have had events that each charge admission, and over time these add up to frustrated parents and limiting participation.

Low prep time
The events on the summer calendar are meant to be low-prep time events. They are basically excuses to do relational ministry. Prep for Free Coke Friday? Grab some frisbees and a cooler of Gatorade. Done!

Regular recurring events
Want to remember the summer schedule? Every event happens 7 times this summer. 7 Midweeks, 7 Free Coke Fridays, 7 Bagels & Bibles. If you come to one, you can figure out the schedule for the summer. If you’re free on a Friday, you know what we’re up to that day.

Lots of Bible time
One of the big emphasis of our summer is plenty of time in the Word. One of the advantages of no small groups and no high school classes is that we have blocks of time and regular opportunities to pull off our own classes fr spiritual growth.

What should we try next summer that is working for you?

JG

1 View Comments May 18, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts 5 Ways to Squeeze More Out Of Your Youth Ministry Schedule

I might not be the best person to take time management advice from – I perpetually run about 15 minutes late to everything. So I don’t have it all together but have found a few ways to squeeze a little extra productivity out of the work week. Here are a few of the ones I like the most:

Get a 10-minute jump start on your day the night before
This one might not be the best one for everyone in case it would upset your restful sleep – but for me I can get a ton of work started if I do a quick check in right before bed. Once the family is set for the night and the house is quiet, I like to steal 10 minutes on webmail to set the day tomorrow. Maybe a quick scan of the calendar, a short reply, or an awareness of tomorrow’s challenges help me prepare mentally for the next day.

Turn off work on your day(s) off
When it is time to be off – be off! I realize that many church cell phones are also your personal phone, but you’ve got to shut them down. If you play hard, it’ll help you focus on work when it is time to work. Religiously take a day off, and make sure you’re really off.

Ditch TV unless you’re exercising or being productive
A great way to make sure you get both exercise and entertainment in during the week is to combine them. If you find yourself killing too much time on the couch, limit the amount of TV you watch by time on the treadmill. You might be surprised by what you could do (start a blog, write a book) if you force yourself to be productive at the same time or drop TV altogether.

Cut the distractions in the office
Turn off your email alerts. Disable Facebook’s constant stream of interruptions. Make sure Twitter isn’t always stealing your focus and concentration. Close your door if you have to. When you give yourself wholly to a task or complete it, reward yourself with a social media break or walk around the church office.

Lump similar tasks together
Let’s say you have to make 5 phone calls, write 15 cards, return 16 emails and work on budgets with multiple people. By putting these tasks into chunks of time you’ll be able to knock them out more quickly. Get in a rhythm, crank out the calls or projects all at once.

How do you squeeze more work into your work week?

JG

6 View Comments May 16, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Killing the Sacred Cows

Doug Fields would always use to play this clip when he talked about some programs in the church that need to be ended. Blogging a little bit yesterday about sacred cows on the calendar made me think of it. Ha!

JG

1 View Comments April 16, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts 4 Guiding Principles for Planning the Youth Ministry Calendar

This week we snuck away for the afternoon to take a stab at creating the first draft of our fall youth ministry calendar. There were lots of laughs and some good ideas for what’s next for HSM. Here’s a few things that were running around in my head yesterday, and am thinking about as I continue to process the stuff we came up with for our students:

Kill the sacred cows.
Each year, everything is on the chopping block. Annual events are fun and I totally love and support traditions, but have to be careful they don’t become something doesn’t becomes untouchable. Sacred cows haunt the halls of too many churches, this will not be one of them. Nothing is sacred. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt when someone offers up one of my favorites to be sacrificed, but I have to be willing to put a bullet in it.

Effective is what matters most.
This ties in pretty closely with the first principle, but what matters more is not size, buzz or fun. Those things do matter and certainly play into our decisions – but what matters most is whether the event we are putting on the calendar is effective. If a discipleship class is bombing, don’t get rid of discipleship, just search for a way to do discipleship that is more effective. If an evangelistic event is huge but isn’t bringing students to Christ and/or back to church, why bother with it? Put aside personal feelings and inferior measurements and talk about effectiveness.

Know your unique strengths, identity and culture.
Here’s a few of ours that help shape what we do: the fall has natural momentum with the launch of small groups and the launch of our weekend services. Fun after-service events have been way more effective than separate night our events. We are an evangelistic-leaning ministry (trying to balance the biblical purposes). If you know where you’re leading your youth ministry and have a firm grip on your strengths and specific culture, it will help you guide the planning session accordingly.

Last years successes can be this years successes … or failures.
Don’t change for the sake of change – but realize what worked last year may not work again. Copying the previous year may seem like a good idea (and it just might be) but be careful not to get too comfortable in the same path because they easily turn into ruts. Surrounding your past, present and future plans in prayer and asking God to guide you into your future is always a good plan.

I wrote 5 Steps to Calendar on Purpose a couple years ago … might also be helpful. What else?

JG

3 View Comments April 15, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts What to do When You Blow the Youth Ministry Budget

I just got off the phone with a youth worker who overspent summer camp by $6,000. Now, his entire youth ministry budget is $9,000 – two months into the church’s fiscal year nearly his entire youth ministry budget is toast. So now what? As I thought about his situation (a little shout out to Mike!) I came up with a few practices that have worked for me when we have to pinch every penny:

Don’t be afraid to change the calendar
I wrote 6 Ways to Stretch Your Youth Ministry Budget, and when there’s little or no money left that’s when those principles have to be put into practice. Just because something is already on the calendar doesn’t mean it gets a free pass in the new day. Go low cost. Go free. Don’t subsidize it. Cut it. Change up the youth ministry calendar to reflect your revised financial state.

Make every event break-even
I’ve posted in the past 4 Rules to Make Sure Break-Even Events Break Even, and with no budget left to spend this is more critical then ever. Be extremely conservative in your estimates. Set and promote registration deadlines and stick to them so you’re not stuck with the bill. Charge a couple bucks extra, even if it means taking a few less students.

Wait for super deals on resources
With little or no budget left, you might have to put the brakes on significant purchases for your youth ministry. And while some dreams may have to go on hold – good deals on youth ministry resources pop up from time to time so take action when they do. Look for bundle deals, or products that you can purchase one time that keep giving all year (specifically subscription stuff, like the LIVE small group curriculum, or Simply All Access).

Find ways to get more funding
Asking for more budget due to mismanagement will be a tough ask. But growth in your youth ministry is totally a viable reason to look into getting more funds. If you’ve grown 15% halfway through the year, consider going to your leadership and asking for ways to fund the growth – that’s the best kind of “blowing your budget.” Consider making your need visible to the church body and look at other fundraising options if your church allows.