creative | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: My Terrible Ideas

90% of my ideas are terrible. No, for real. They’re really bad. What sucks is that I’m full of ideas. I’m constantly dreaming up how to tweak or completely transform our approach to student ministry. I generate so many bad ideas that my team often just tunes me out. I get the courtesy, “That sounds cool” with a plastic smile. Currently I’m doing my best to convince our team that what we need is a ginormous student building with 5 attached houses. I’m telling you it’s the future—for so many reasons. Someday when every church has a student building with 5 attached houses and our church missed the boat everyone will realize how innovative I am and promote me.

Here’s the thing about my ideas. While 90% of them are terrible and following them they could lead to immediate dismissal, the loss of thousands of dollars and probable hospitalization, 10% of them are genius. 10% of my ideas could potentially change the world. The trouble is that I can’t predict which ideas are in the 90% and which ideas are in the 10%. You really don’t want to guess wrong because great ideas invent the Internet and bad ideas take you to a Nickleback concert.

My guess is that whether you realize it or not, you also have more bad than good ideas. The thing is, if we could better discern the quality of our ideas we’d save ourselves and our teams a lot of grief. Nothing is more demoralizing than when the team is chasing down an idea that everyone knows is a dead end.

The good news is that somewhere along the line I stopped implementing all of my bad ideas. When? What was the big moment? It wasn’t a big moment but it was when my ideas were forced into community. When my ideas are stuck spinning within my own head almost all of them sound fabulous. However, when having to verbally explain and defend my ideas, 90% of them are revealed for what they are. Dumb. I know you’ve been there, when you realize that the words coming out of your mouth are exceeding illogical and you wish you never started talking in the first place—humbling.

Within the context of community (that is well intentioned debate over the validity of ideas) my 90% was revealed to be what they were and my life and ministry was protected from stupidity. The unforeseen byproduct of submitting my ideas to community is that my good ideas were refined and became significantly more awesome. “I like this idea that you call the Internets. But what if we could connect our gaming systems and play each other? And what if you took the “s” off it and just called it the Internet?” GENUIS! You might say that in the context of community my 10% became 90% better. If you’re not strong at math I probably lost you right there. I think I lost myself.

The point is, when you have the humility to submit your ideas to your community before implementing them you will uncover the fact that most of your ideas are terrible but a few of them are genius. Failure is not the best way to learn. Realizing that an idea is a failure before failing is a cleaner and less destructive way to learn. The moral of the story is this: if you don’t have an ideas community, get one! Honest community will save you from your terrible ideas and help reveal and refine your great ones.

Aaron Buer has been a student pastor for 10 years and currently serve as a high school pastor at Ada Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI. Read his blog here.

Add Comment May 19, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Getting Creative

Are you creative? The fact that you are involved in ministry tells me you are. Maybe you are a creative speaker, a curriculum developer or a worship leader. No matter what role you play there are times you have to get creative. The problem is sometimes we get stuck in our creative process. So what do we do, we try to find a way to get out of that rut. You might try exercising while you think, perhaps it is writing until an idea starts to flow.

In my church I am the go to guy when it comes to youth ministry, its just me and our volunteers. Because of this it means that I have to do everything my volunteers can’t help me with which means using a lot of my creative brain. The problem is lately I have been stuck in a bit of a creative rut so I decided to try to break out of it.

I have tried a lot of different techniques; from writing with the wrong hand to running while thinking through problems; with not much to help this time. So I decided to go out of what I have read and just do what felt natural. I started by getting some good tunes going and pushing aside my laptop. (Typically when I plan I use a laptop and a whiteboard). I grabbed a pad of paper, a calendar, a sharpie and results from a recent parent questionnaire I sent out. I pushed my chair to the side and started to get moving. (Throwing a ball against the wall and pacing back and forth).

Suddenly it started to happen; questions and ideas began to flow and I started writing anything that came to mind.:

What are we doing right?
What good things can we expand on?
Are there one or more sacred cows that need to be put to rest this year?
What would changing our format look like?
Who are some possible new leaders in our church?

As I started thinking about these things and my proposed calendar ideas started blowing up for programming, events, volunteer opportunities, parent seminars we could run. Every time I had an idea I wrote it down or printed off something to do with it.(I did use my laptop a little, but no Facebook or Twitter in between).

Now I have an office that looks like I am the guy from a Beautiful Mind; either that or people will think I’m crazy.

So I want to encourage you; if you are starting your new year in a rut; try something a little different that still feels natural. Chances are if you have been spending some time with God before hand and are truly seeking him, the ideas will start to flow. This is just what worked for me. Give it a try; if it works for you great; if not find something natural and go with it.

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 January 13, 2013

Chris WesleyMore Posts How To Stay Creative

The good thing about busy work is how it helps you feel productive. Budgets, forms and emails are all tangible tasks with tangible results. You might hate doing them; however, when you clear that pile of paperwork off your desk or you inbox is empty you feel good. To get through the busy work you just need to focus.

Then there are those times when youth ministers need to be purely creative. There are messages to be written, curriculum to be designed and problems to be solved that demand your creativity. Unlike busy work it’s hard to stay focused on creativity because it requires so much more of our emotions and energy. To stay creative is a challenge.

To consistently think outside the box is not only a challenge but a skill. To keep the ideas flowing and to overcome potential roadblocks you need to be consistently:

CAPTURING IDEAS: Whether it’s writing them down in a notepad or putting them in your Evernote folder you need to be capturing every thought or idea that runs through your mind. Even if you do not know how you are going to use it put it down. Then take some time each week to review those ideas to determine how you might use them. Staying creative means creating a bank of ideas to resort to later on.

EXPLORING STORIES: Readers are learners. Doesn’t matter if you what you are reading is fiction, an auto biography or a classic read. Exploring stories written by others will open you to new perspectives and thoughts. It will give you examples and analogies you can draw from later. While it doesn’t really matter what genres you are exploring it’s important to mix it up, so that you can continuously challenge yourself and learn from new paradigms.

FUELING YOUR PASSIONS: When I hit a writer’s block I love to go out for a run or cook. There is something mindless; yet, rewarding about those two passions of mine. If you are stuck on an idea or need a new one, go to the things that bring you joy. It’s a way of connecting with God that frees you from the burden of a creative cramp. A true passion is something that allows you to take a step back from the craziness around you, clear out the junk and focus on the idea in front of you.

SITTING IN SILENCE: It’s so important; yet, silence is something many people fear. If you sit in silence either two things will happen. First: You might discover that you are tired and need rest. If that’s the case go and sleep because an obstacle to creativity is a lack of rest. Second: You might begin to hear God’s soft whisper. The reason you need silence is so that you can hear God’s promptings. He will guide you and direct you. You just need to slow down to listen.

While there is no exact science to getting your creativity flowing, there are definitely habits you can develop to keep them moving. Making your creative time a planned part of your schedule; but at the same time give yourself some flexibility. It will stink when your mind can’t go further, but trust that God will see you through.

How do you stay creative?

Chris (Twitter)

Add Comment November 27, 2012

Chris WesleyMore Posts Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Your Ministry

Is your youth ministry original? Feels like it needs to be, doesn’t it? When your ministry is original, it’s fresh, and exciting. In fact isn’t the reason teens leave your ministry due to the fact that you aren’t wowing them anymore? Yes and no. While originality is important, it isn’t the only way to shape your youth ministry’s identity. In fact if you can REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE what you already have, you’ll create capacity to do more. It’s not always about the activities, message or curriculum present. It’s about the environments and relationships you set-up. Unfortunately, if you are constantly worrying over new content and new ideas, you’ll miss out on some of the most important aspects of youth ministry.

To create more capacity, to focus on what’s important you need to make sure that originality isn’t standing in the way. When you reduce, reuse and recycle it gives you margin. This is how:

REDUCE: Clutter is one of the biggest obstacles to creativity. In order to free up new ideas you need to go through your files and folders and throw away the ones that have been lingering around for too long. Sitting in messiness is also a recipe for a cluttered mind. If you have time clean your desk, your office and reduce the amount of distractions pulling you from your projects. To reduce in your ministry create systems when you are storing ideas and then cleaning inboxes, file cabinets and desktop folders. A weekly habit is best.

REUSE: Don’t be afraid to duplicate your efforts, especially if it worked before. It’s easy to just toss something away after you’ve spent hours and days working hard on it; however, before you toss it, archive it instead. There might be a time when you need to use that same message, that same exercise or activity. In fact look to pass it on and share it with a youth minister friend who could benefit from your hard work. It will save time and energy the next go around. To reuse without sabotaging you reducing efforts, give your reuse folder an expiration date. It’s on that date you can determine if this idea or activity is still useful.

RECYCLE: Outsourcing is one of the best ways you can do something new. There are so many people out there with great ideas, willing to share them with you. In the end you don’t always have to be original. If you can take an idea here and another there (With permission) and work them together, you’ll find something fresh. To recycle properly just break the outsourced material into components, separate them and answer the question, “What can I adapt for my ministry?” Maybe it’ll work well with another resource, but don’t be afraid to try.

When you can save yourself some time on creativity you can give yourself more margin. When you have this margin you can pour into your leaders, the students and parents of your ministry. As a leader you don’t have to spend your time sitting behind a desk trying to come up with something new. Look to your fellow youth workers and to what you’ve done before. Make sure you set yourself up for success by taking away the junk.

How do you reduce, reuse and recycle in your youth ministry?

Chris (Twitter)

1 View Comments November 24, 2012

Geoff StewartMore Posts A Summer Letter To Students

I can’t believe we are only 8 weeks from September, and that means my attention is fully on Summer and September at the same time and thinking about the fall has me asking a lot of questions. Yesterday I met with two of our core students who are truly invested in our group and talked cadidly about how we have not done a good enough job of challenging students to serve regularly. Sure we give them chances here and there, but creating a greater student ownership at our weekly program has been lacking. We have half heartedly suggested from the platform that serving was important but this year we are taking a much more proactive and thoughtful approach. We chatted, I repented for doing a poor job, and we came up with a strategy.

That strategy went into place this morning when we began the process of emailing / messaging every regular attending student personally and asking them to take a few weeks and pray about how they could serve in the fall. Here is an example of a message that went out:

Hey Madi, hope you’re having a great summer!

We’re already starting to dream about the fall and are praying about what the next season at Journey is going to look like. I look at you and I see a really gifted young person, and I’d love to give you the opportunity to take on a bigger role at Journey.

Over the next three weeks can you do me a favor and pray about these two questions?

1- What talents and passions has God given me (Madi)?
2 – How could I use them to serve at Journey/ Peace Portal?

To get your mind going, here’s a few places we have a need:

Hosting/ Welcome team
Prayer team
Worship Team
Tech team
Creative team

Blessed to have you a part of Journey!

Pastor Geoff

I am pumped to see what putting even more of the ministry in the hands of our students could look like and are praying that this is the beginning of new things. We have the feeling of “Home” as a core value of the group and having students bought into that vision and serving accordingly could be a game changer. Praying for BIG THINGS this year.

-geoff

4 View Comments July 12, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts David Hughes IS Soccer

David Hughes IS soccer. Funny video to illustrate dedication and investment – David spoke in our entry-level service last weekend in HSM.

Add Comment September 8, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Family Feud

This weekend we played HSM Family Feud, and one of our volunteers scored us another cool element on screen. We got the responses to the question from sending out a SimplyText and counted up the replies! You can download it here, and the controls are as follows:

Space Bar: Takes you from the logo to the game board.
Space Bar again: Takes you back to the logo
Q: Displays the question
1-7: Displays the corresponding answer
Z, X, C: Displays either X, XX, or XXX for wrong answers
R: Resets the board

3 View Comments October 13, 2009

Josh GriffinMore Posts Character During the HAPPY Series: FACE

One of our fantastic HSM volunteers Parker created FACE, a character that turns our screen into a living breathing person. He was voiced by Jake Rutenbar during the service, and is sure to make a appearance again soon. You can now even control him yourself right now for fun!

Controls:
Mouse – controls eye movement (click and drag to move)
Q through O – controls the eyes
A through G – controls moving mouths (hold to make mouth move)
Z through B – controls static mouths (hold to make them stay on the screen)
Space Bar – controls talking mouth (hold to talk)