guest posts | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Making the Most of Every Minute

Every week we have the opportunity to impact the lives of the teenagers that step through our doors. Let’s make the most of it. Their view of God is often shaped by what we say, how we respond, and what we do. Are they getting a clear picture of the God we are in love with? A few things that have been floating through my head lately:

- How well we listen to and engage our kids will have a great impact than how well we speak or talk.

- Somewhere in your youth ministry is a teenager who need to have a conversation with a caring adult. Will you be that adult?

- Sometimes you may only get 30 seconds with a teenager. If so, let it be 30 seconds where they felt absolutly cherished and treasured.

- You have one shot to be the youth pastor God has created you to be. One shot. Don’t get distracted by your insecurities or by the numbers or by what the other person is doing down the street. Focus on what God wants to do in YOUR ministry. Follow His lead.

- Don’t over entertain but under challenge.

- Be willing to call greatness out of your kids.

- Don’t give out of an empty tank. Nurture your relationship with God. Nobody should care more about your own spiritual growth than you do.

- If yo’ure frustrated because your kids aren’t doing something … lead them to do it. It’s not that “My kids won’t do ______________.” Rather it’s “I haven’t led my kids to do _____________.”

- Be positive. Start talking to yourself rather than listening to yourself.

- Let your kids know that you are proud of them. Teenagers don’t hear that enough.

- Your story may be exactly what they need to hear.

Every week we have the opportunity to impact the lives of teenagers. What an awesome priviledge. Let’s make the most of it.

Rich Yauger is the pastor to teenagers at Grace Community Church and believes in teenagers.You can check out his blog right over here.

Add Comment December 12, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Wanted – Youth Ministry Cheerleader

Job Position: Youth Ministry Cheerleader

Job Description: Encourage, build-up, affirm, applaud, bouy, comfort, strengthen, console, revitalize, energize, refresh, inspire and praise youth workers in your church.

Job Requirements: A heart and passion to encourage those who are working with the youth of the church. Spiritual gift of encouragement helpful but not required.

What would happen if this job description appeared in your church bulletin one week or in your local newspaper? What if such a position existed? What if there was someone whose only job was to affirm and build up youth workers?

Youth ministry is exhilarating, fun and unbelievable. It’s easy to get discouraged though since growth is often slower than you would like and you’re often in a role of planting or watering seeds without always getting to see them bear fruit. I know that for me, it’s often easy to lose sight of the forest while I’m focusing on the tree (planning a night, getting permission slips, cleaning up the broken lamp) that’s right in front of me.

I find myself wondering what would happen to my energy, passion and excitement if I had someone who was consistently reminding me what the forest looked like. This person would have no responsibilities to challenge, push, stretch, correct or mold. There are enough people that do that, are great at it and their presence is very much needed. I’m talking about someone who only encourages. How much different would your leadership team look like if there was someone who did nothing but affirm them? How much more effective would your ministry be if that person focused on energizing the leaders? Imagine the trickle down effect on your students if there was someone whose only job was to refresh leaders!

I recognize that encouraging leaders on my team starts with me and I like to think that I’ve gotten better at it over the years. Our team has put a special emphasis on spiritual gifts this year and using the gifts God has given you to serve. Encouragement is honestly one of the those gifts that I wish I had but struggle with sometimes. I’m a checklist driven, task master most of the time. I’m stunned by the possibilities of what my ministry would look like if I had someone who was skilled at encouragement and was passionate about using that gift with my leader team.

Anyone interested?

Buz is a special education teacher who passionately loves his ladies (wife and 2 daughters). They live in Spokane, Washington and you can check out his blog right here. His guest post was exactly what I’ve been feeling all week. Thanks, Buz!

Add Comment December 11, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon & Middle School Ministry

As a youth pastor, I don’t get to spend alot of time watching TV mostly because I get home to my apartment really late on most nights. One of my favorite shows, however, happens to come on in the midnight hours at 12:35am every weeknight: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. It’s a perfect end to my workday after hours of studying, meetings, school lunches, planning, and writing. Though many of us are still mourning the loss of Conan O’Brian from the late night lineup (and booing Jay Leno, of course), Jimmy is breath of fresh air to an otherwise cookie-cutter program lineup. His years on Saturday Night Live and phenomenal impression comedy put him on the map as the potential host for the third-generation of Late Night. But even as I pass out on my couch watching Jimmy Fallon every weekday night, I cannot help but think about some creative youth ministry parallels (*my nerdy, ministerial mind never takes a break…), especially in the area of middle school ministry.

Middle School ministry is fairly new to me as a pastor. I’ve been a part of a youth ministry that had a middle school gathering and even read a few books on the subject, but nothing is more daunting than actually launching and growing a middle-school ministry from scratch. I’ve always leaned toward the high school and young adults as my primary strength in ministry. New opportunities, however, have recently presented themselves that have gotten me excited as a new middle school pastor. The adventure of beginning a new phase and expanding my professional boundaries is quite compelling. In fact, we just launched our 7th and 8th grade ministry this month at Trinity Worship Center. All pastors learn ministry from someone. Currently, I’m being mentored in middle school ministry by none other than Jimmy Fallon. Here’s why:

1) Personality: Be Yourself!
What I love most about Jimmy Fallon is his personality appeal on the show. He’s just an average Joe like all of us. He laughs at the same things we do. He’s impressed by the same things we are. He’s real and isn’t afraid to be himself. Many times he’ll crack up at his own jokes or completely ruin a skit just because it’s so side-splittingly funny. If you look at some of the old SNL skits, you can see Jimmy cracking up in the background when Will Ferrell is riffing in classic form. When a joke falls flat in his opening monologue, he’ll often give an audience member the cue card as a confession of comedic failure. Many critics ridicule Fallon because they say “he’s just a normal guy who happened to get lucky with a talk show that he doesn’t deserve.” But that’s exactly why I think he’s the perfect guy for the part.

In middle school ministry, I’m learning that being yourself is EVERYTHING. It’s really easy to get caught up in being cool or trendy and miss out on what students are really looking for: a regular guy (or girl) who can be their real selves. One doesn’t have to be a “ministry hipster,” phenomenal communicator, or deep, engaging speaker in middle school ministry. Students need someone who will spend time with them, love life with them, embrace them when no one else will, and laugh at the same things they laugh at (farts, burps, and YouTube viral videos). A good middle school leader operates in honesty and admits it when something goes wrong (to which we hand the cue card off and move on). Being yourself means learning and settling into the flow of your personality and using it as your greatest ministry strength. Perhaps we are all just “normal” people that are gracefully given a ministry that we really don’t deserve.

2) Robert is Bothered: The Reality of Relevance
The very nature of talk shows demands relevance. The interviews are always about upcoming movie releases, album drop dates, or season premiere television shows. Nobody does it better than Jimmy Fallon. Even his comedy sketches in the second part of the show represent the cutting edge relevancy of his show. At the time that “The Hills” was at its pinnacle, Fallon did a series of parodies called “7th Floor West,” where he mocked the dramatic MTV show. From time to time, he’ll do a “fist-pump” during a Roots song a la “Jersey Shore.” One of my favorite running sketches now is “Robert is Bothered,” where Fallon imitates Twilight star Robert Pattinson as he climbs a tree to reflect on various things that bother him (i.e. The World Cup, iPad, and Halloween candy just to name a few). Go check out the “Robert is Bothered” videos here! The fact that all of these segments play on the current culture simply adds to the hilarity of the show.

To be fair, relevancy is overemphasized in the church no doubt. There are countless books on the shelves of Barnes & Noble highlighting the need for relevancy in today’s culture. There’s actually a slew of books that have tried to counter the thought, so much that it’s becoming “relevant” to criticize progression and relevancy. Interesting…Though the principle may be overemphasized, it doesn’t change the reality of it. Relevancy is a part of today’s ministry world, especially in middle school youth ministry. I’m a young, 21-year old pastor and I’m finding with each growing year that even I have to strive to be creative in relevancy. I first realized this when I made a Forrest Gump reference in a sermon that fell flat on its face. Forrest Gump!!! Are you kidding me?!?! Everyone has seen Forrest Gump! Well apparently not. I forget that Forrest Gump was released in 1994 when I was 6 and all of my middle school students were born in 1996-1998. They weren’t even thought of when Forrest Gump was released. Whoa! Wake up call…I’m getting old! It used to be that I measured my decades based on the millennial change. But now, the 90s aren’t 10 years ago, but 20! With that said, we have to reorient our thoughts on what exactly is a “classic.” Sure, our students should see Forrest Gump at some point in their lives. But we also have to remember that Twilight and Justin Bieber are at the forefront of “classic” culture now, not Independence Day and Tupac. It starts with putting ourselves in their “cool” shoes and realizing that ours should find their worthy place in our glass memory boxes, no matter how hard that is to hear.

3) Lick It For Ten: The Thrill of Competition and Interaction
If you watch Late Night enough times in a week, you will almost always see some ridiculous form of competitive game played. Everything from playing golf throughout the studio to ice-covered cornhole to a good old-fashioned game of air hockey. Segments like Lick-It-For-Ten and other games make Jimmy Fallon’s show unique. Again, this quirky style of behavior is what separates those who love and hate the show. Nevertheless, it seems that the thrill of competition keeps with the offbeat nature of the new Late Night series.

I’m willing to bet that no matter how gifted of a communicator a middle school leader may be, he or she can’t just drone through a 25-minute sermon without interaction fom the students. If you don’t believe me, try it…you’ll get humbled really quickly. Due to the rambunctious, crazy nature of middle school students, a competitive icebreaker game or interactive element is a perfect addition for a sermon. When talking about Gideon as a mighty warrior, don’t just describe the historical significance of being weak and from the smallest tribe in Israel. Get the smallest kid to challenge your biggest youth leader (who happened to be the NC Arm-Wrestling Champion in 1979) in a 2-out-of-3 arm wrestling match, and let the kid win! Though it doesn’t have a lot to do with the background exegetical process that your hermeneutics professor taught you about, it still illustrates a point of being a small, weak warrior and overcoming great odds. This is not to mention that it builds self-esteem and essentially provides a commercial break to your sermon, adding almost 10 minutes to their short attention spans. In middle school ministry, Interaction is EVERYTHING! I played air hockey with a student after service last week for a few minutes and it immediately created a bonding point. He asked if next time we could play for eyebrows (loser shaves their eyebrows). Though I declined, he later sent me a picture message where he shaved his left eyebrow off. I hope he was kidding…

4) Thank-You Notes: The Art of Appreciation
Every late-night show has its classic segment. For Jay Leno it’s the Headline list. David Letterman hosts the Top 10 on a weekly basis. For Jimmy Fallon, the “Thank-You Note” segment on Friday nights has become quintessential for his installment of Late Night. He writes out thank-you notes on the show as an appreciation to all of things that provided him with comedy bits and illustrations throughout the week (all with sentimental music from The Roots). For the latest “Thank You Notes” segment, click here.

Affirmation and appreciation is key in all areas of middle school ministry. Celebrating a student’s achievements and spiritual growth is essential. Keep in mind that you may be the only person in their life that is encouraging and uplifting. So take every opportunity to show your middle schoolers how much you appreciate them for who they are. Take this principle a step further: show your leaders that you appreciate them! You can’t do this ministry thing alone. Understand that you can trust your leaders to carry the torch when you can’t. They have ideas, thoughts, and reflections that need to be heard just as much as yours. They spend their valuable time holding your arms up so you can effectively do your job. Your leaders will make or break your success in middle school ministry, so make sure they feel appreciated! Write personalized, thank-you notes to them every once in a while. Take your leaders out to eat occasionally, go to a movie together, and most importantly, pray for them! Appreciation is a classic art that must be rediscovered and should become a regular thing.

___________________________

I hope you’ll never be able to watch Late Night With Jimmy Fallon the same. I encourage all of you who go to bed at a decent hour to fight the fatigue and watch an episode or two (or you can DVR it!). You may learn a few things from someone unexpected, who is probably unaware of his own influence in the world of middle school ministry. So be yourself, challenge your creativity with relevance, throw in a bit of competition and interaction, and learn the lost art of appreciation.

Most of all, remember…”iPads BOTHER ME!”

Bradley K. Chandler is a graduate of Southeastern University and is the Student Ministries Pastor at Trinity Worship Center in Burlington, NC. Be sure to subscribe to his blog here – good stuff for sure.

2 View Comments December 9, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: The Lonliness of a Leader

There is a dark and uncomfortable reality to leadership that never makes it into the glossy brochure. It is my least favorite aspect of leadership and one that no one likes to talk about in anything but the abstract. That reality is this: Leadership can be crushingly lonely.

The ministry that I lead is in the midst of challenges. Energy is lagging. Momentum is a fondly remembered feeling. Attendance has lagged. Leaders are tired. Pressure is mounting. Everyone is looking to me to re-energize the team, kick start a new momentum swing, bring new people in the door, excite leaders and alleviate all of the pressure. That is a lonely and challenging place to be.

Loneliness, whether real or imagined, can be discouraging, alienating and destructive. It’s up to us to determine how to handle it. James starts his letter with an unbelievable exhortation: Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. This is one of those verses that’s far easier to think about or ponder than apply. Often in the depths of loneliness, all you can do is trust God to apply it for you.

Leadership is great when everything is going well but gets lonely blindingly fast when challenges are introduced. For those who have led, you know that challenges get introduced after about .14 nanoseconds and so loneliness can set in pretty quickly. You strive to lead well through the good times and challenges both but as a sinful being, you can only do so much. Those that you’re leading seem to believe that you have unlimited resources, energy and ideas. You can continue the facade or admit that you’re broken, limited and human. Either way, the decision is yours and that’s a lonely place to be. Consider it pure joy, though, because those you lead will test your faith and produce perseverance in you. The perseverance that it takes to lead will make your faith mature and complete.

The flip side of this is our own relationship with those who are leading us. We often expect them to intrinsically know when we’re struggling and need help. Those that are leading you, though, are stretched themselves and can only do so much. You expect them to have the answers and feel a deeper loneliness when they don’t offer them. You feel lonely when they issue challenge instead of encouragement. You feel lonely because you’re scared to admit your own inadequacy to them. You feel lonely because you’re doing to them the exact thing that those you’re leading do to you. You expect your leaders to have all of the answers and solutions just like those you’re leading expect you to solve every problem. Consider it pure joy, though, because following will also test your faith and produce perseverance in you. The perseverance it takes to follow will make your faith mature and complete.

Leading is hard and oftentimes lonely. You think that people will line up to encourage and applaud you but that quickly forming line is often full of people with more problems, more complaints and more needs. Even with these challenges, leadership is a deep and holy calling. Stay the course. Finish the race. Consider it pure joy for it’s making your faith mature and complete!

Buz is a special education teacher who passionately loves his ladies (wife and 2 daughters). They live in Spokane, Washington and you can check out his blog right here.

Add Comment December 2, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: A Lot of Questions, Not a Lot of Answers

Please humor me, this is just the a Youth Pastor throwing stuff against a wall to see what sticks…

The following questions questions come from some of the planning meetings we are having at our church to set down a 2 year and 5 year plan for the ministries here:

As we are looking at the possibilities for the next few years at FBC, maybe we need to focus more on asking the right questions before we present a polished, pretty answer.
If we are presenting a polished answer, does that rule out the fact that ministry to imperfect people is messy and ugly sometimes?
Who are we as a Church? Really, not on paper, Truly?
If you do not know who you are as a church, how can you plan your ministries effectively?
If one of our core values is Family, then do we to focus on the ENTIRE family (where are age group holes we are missing?)
Example: age 18-30 – NO CHURCH in our county is effectively reaching this age group including us! It’s so much more than students that go off to college… If we fail to reach that age group, does that lessen the impact of the students the youth ministry produces once they are out of that “Safe Zone”? Do they leave the youth ministry prepared with no where to go? Are we willing to invest in “preventative maintenance” –> ie help them at the High School to 25 age to learn life spiritual truths, so that we are less likely to be helping them pick up the pieces at 25-30 that might be failed relationships/marriages, unplanned children, addictions, etc….
What other “holes” exist in our ministries?
How do these “holes” affect the future of this church?
If we do what we’re doing right now for the next 2 or 5 or 10 years, what will FBC look like? If we don’t want that, what are we willing to do to prevent that? Does the vast portion of our congregation (and Parke County at large) care what our church did 50, 10, 5, or 2 years ago? Are they more concerned about what we are doing now and planning to do for Christ?
Are we willing to push our congregation to BE the church by showing them how instead of telling them how?
What are we doing that makes people want to bring their friends and neighbors and family members to get involved?
What are we doing that drives them away?
Are we willing to possibly offend parents by pushing them to live a better example to their children? Are we willing to truly call sin what it is?
Are we willing to help them take off the masks without fear of what it may reveal?
Are we truly producing COMMUNITY among believers – both inside and outside the walls of FBC?
Do we have any “clunker fridge ministries” at our church that are there “just because”. (a “clunker fridge” is one from 30 or 40 years ago that kinda sorta keeps soda cold in the garage, but uses 3 or 4 times the electricity of a newer fridge and is long past its prime of usefulness….)
Do we need to be willing to admit that we might be part of the problem before we can help produce the solution?

These were some of my questions. I don’t really place any of them higher in priority than any others, but I hope that some of them can help you and challenge you in your ministry.

Brent Lacy is Youth Pastor at First Baptist Church, Rockville, Indiana. He is a Dad to 3 Kids, a Web Developer, an IT Consultant, and Blogs about Ministry, Tech, and Culture at MinistryPlace.net.

1 View Comments November 28, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: This Week Didn’t Go As Planned

Sometimes in ministry, things can either go the way we plan them, or they can take an unexpected turn, for better or for worse. Although we can never plan for every minute to go exactly the way we want, God can. He will always know exactly what your youth group needs. There are a lot of things that can contribute to something not going according to your plan, but we just have to remember that God is in control.

We’re both control freaks, and most of our lives are planned to the second, but we have discovered that when it comes to small group, there is such a thing as “over planning.” We know because we’ve done it, and during the middle of group something just feels wrong. That’s when it’s time to change course and follow where God is leading that night. It doesn’t take an extravagant lesson plan to have God show up. We need to remember that even though we’re the messengers, God is the giving us the message that our students need to hear. Even the nights that it seems like nothing is going right, you probably planted a seed. Even though you won’t see it right then, that seed will develop into something huge down the road. It’s important to remember that God knows who will be there that night, and what they need to hear. In fact, He knew it long before your group was formed because He formed your group! Sometimes the phrase “let go and let God” really applies here.

Many times it’s best to just let God take control. (Matt: Recently my high school small group had a night where we veered away from the planned message for the whole night and ended up talking about being accountable and the importance of accountability partners. My co-leader and I just sat back and let God work that night through the guys and it ended up being one of the most amazing nights we have had at small group.)

There have been weeks in small group where the group veered off on another subject and we didn’t want it to go that way. When that happens, if it’s productive and the majority of the group is involved in the different discussion, we just let it go there. In the past we would bring the discussion back to what WE wanted to talk about. Later it dawned on us, the guys in our groups had a different need that night, and we should have just let them take over but we didn’t and we quickly lost their attention on our original subject that we wanted to talk about. What a huge mistake!

With that being said, it’s also okay to change plans when you don’t feel like they’re being effective. It’s alright to call an audible in the middle of the play. If your students can’t pay attention, turn it into a fellowship night. Sure, your original plan didn’t go through, but at least your students will be getting something useful out of their time. As a youth group leader, you need to be fast, fluid, and flexible. Teens live in a world that changes faster every single day. Information is hurled at them in a record pace. We need to be able to change and adjust on the fly in order to be successful.

You need to get to your students’ levels, don’t try and bring them to your level. It doesn’t work that way, and you will fail miserably. It’s not about getting your point across, it’s about delivering God’s message to your students; a message they can pass on from generation to generation.

Matt Reynolds and Steven Orel are volunteer youth workers at Saddleback Church. They approach youth ministry from two different generations and perspectives. Look for lots more from them in the future — for now you can follow them on Twitter (http://twitter.com/gentogenym) and check out their previous blog posts (http://www.volunteeryouthministry.com/category/generation-to-generation).

Add Comment November 28, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Pushing Paper

I read an article on CNN’s website the other day that said that the You Version Bible app has now reached 10 million downloads and I will admit that two of them are me. But in recent months, I have started to consider whether or not to allow students to use them at youth. The more that I think about it, the more I feel convinced that there is no substitute for the real thing and here are a few things that I am considering in the process.

Status: I may seem obvious but in most cases, a students cell phone is the most expensive thing they own, its their treasure and something they have worked very hard for. I respect how important the phone the is to them but I ask them to respect or request to put it away in place of a paper Bible. We do allow phones and have had students text in questions, but for the most part, we ask that they be present and resist outside distractions, allowing them to focus on God.

Less Distractions: I don’t often find students thumbing through Leviticus instead of listening to my Sermons but I know that there are tons of distractions on iPods and cell phones and if I were honest, I would be working my way through Angry Birds some nights. Limiting distractions is helpful to keeping students focused, and help to not be a distraction to those around them.

Bibles are Cumbersome: This is a good thing! I love seeing a student walk in with a Bible under their arm. They are distinct and beautiful, many decorated with stickers, duct tape and they are unmistakable. Carrying your bible around is a statement, it’s a stance, it shows that it is something you value and that you are willing to tote around this obvious symbol of that. Each week we have a “Bible Booya” when students who brought theirs, slap them together, its silly but more students each week are bringing their Bible or ordering one from us.

I am not sure this is a hill am willing to die on, but I might stick around for a while. I feel wholeheartedly that there is value in students turning those pages, making notes, and watching as the pages become worn and tattered from studying them. I just think a worn in Bible is a beautiful thing, how about you?

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 MoreThanDodgeball.com. You can, too! See how right here.

15 View Comments November 22, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: The Desire Deep Inside

I’m not sure I will ever be able to describe this feeling…

Francis Chan has been something of a distant mentor to me ever since reading Crazy Love for the first time nearly 4 or 5 years ago. I’ve followed his travels, listened to podcasts, and watched interviews all in the effort of trying to understand Jesus a little better as Francis portrays Him. I was at Passion 2010 when, during a breakout session, Francis detailed out the feelings, emotions and thoughts that went through his head and heart when he finally pleaded with his brother to begin to explore a relationship with Christ. He took us down the road the Paul went down as He, literally, bled for the Church that he had so passionately and fervently devoted his life to beginning and nurturing as the Holy Spirit led him.

Recently, I was sitting in my office after a Wednesday Night and could not help but know, very well, the heaviness that I felt in my heart. It was something that I could not describe with words, I would never be able to completely understand, and continued to be inexplicable for the duration of the week. The best I could come up with is the term that Francis used this past January, Holy Anguish.

My heart bleeds for the Church. Now, more than ever. I have always had a distinct desire to see change in the church, both older generations and the new, but it has been a very clear angst that has developed in my soul over the past year or so. Where I constantly see my heart leading me is toward the next generation. It’s not that I don’t think that the current generations in the church are unreachable or that they are not worthy of attention from the almighty Geoff Cocanower. But, God has placed inside of me a very obvious and distinct desire to see the next generation reach their potential, together, for the cause of Christ.

The point of this post is probably more for personal reflection than anything else. Which means it probably should have made it onto the pages of my moleskine instead of the pixels of my screen. However, I think that there is something inside each and every one of us that we cannot fully explain. Desires and passions to see a difference in something that we cannot completely comprehend and at times, when we truly allow it to take over, we are unable to avoid its pull on our heart and mind. We cannot begin to explain it or even come close to having people understand us for it. But we are incessantly consumed by it. It is the Holy Anguish that we feel for a certain group of people or a place or a longing that we feel but words can never do it justice, songs cannot describe it and, in the end, we are the only one that can truly understand the passion that we feel for it.

Bring this back to practicality. At some point, our lives must come to be shaped by this longing and this indescribable desire. Clearly, we are at our best when we are controlled and moved by the Spirit of God and we cannot truly be maneuvered by Him when we are pursuing the things that we want by avoiding the things that we desire. So the question becomes rather simple. What are you doing, right now, that is simply driven by the desire that is inside of you that forces you to lose sleep? And, What is it going to take for you to finally recognize that those things, the things that cause temporary insomnia, unintentional daydreaming, and immeasurable euphoria in your heart to take over your life and determine how you are go about your days and nights?

Geoff Cocanower is the senior high director of at Nappanee Missionary Church and blogs at
www.geoffcocanower.com.

1 View Comments November 21, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: 43 Top Church Resource Websites

There are plenty of websites that promise to help you do one thing or another in your ministry. Below are seven categories of resources that I hope you will find helpful:

Curriculum Resources

Walkthru.org — Bible studies ranging for those for individuals to church-wide studies
SimplyYouthMinistry.com — Doug Fields site full of Bible studies, videos and small group resources.
Youthministry.com — A website dedicated to youth ministry. Full of free resources and articles that tackle the hard topics.
Symlive.com — Simply Youth Ministry small group curriculum. I personally use this.
Open.Lifechurch.tv — A website full of free resources. I’ve spent a few hours looking around the site and don’t feel like I’ve even scratched the surface.
StuffICanUse — Another website that is full of free resources.
XP3 — A subscription based website that allows you to download messages.
MyGrapple — An online community that allows students to go online to complete challenges to complete the lesson from Sunday School.
EyeOnYouth — CE National’s own Biblical-based studies

Printing Media

NextDayFlyers — Cheap printing. Get your orders in early and save even more!
LogoDogz — Custom embroidery, screen printing and promotional products
Powerpoint Sermons — Subscription packages of jpeg stills and motion backgrounds
GetPaint - Free Photoshop style program for download
sxc.hu — Free photo exchange
Shutterstock — Subscription based photo downloads

Videos

Wing Clips — Inspirational Movie clips
Worshiphouse Media — site full of mini-videos, videos, stills and software
SermonSpice — Website full of videos and countdowns to use before you start teaching
BlueFishTV — Full of full-length videos, clips and stills to use throughout your services
Deidox — Testimonial videos featuring real people
I am Second — Professional athletes, celebrities and others share the importance of Jesus in their lives
Animoto — Turn videos and pictures into amazing slideshows

Organization

Planning Center — Get your service organized using this great website. I personally use this as well!
Here to Lead — The official blog of Michael Lukaszewski
Dial 2 Do — Create reminders for yourself for free. Other features do cost $3.99/month or $39.99/year.

Purchasing Resources

Dealnews — Find the best deal on pretty much anything
Musicians Friend — Great deals on musical instruments and audio equipment.

Parent Resources

Plugged In Online — Want to know what the new pop album says? What the new hit movie is about? Check out Plugged In for an honest review.
The Center for Parent Youth Understanding — Understand today’s culture and how to impact it

Other Resources

Monergism — Great articles from many of the fathers of our faith
CARM — Apologetics
x3 Watch — Free Accountability Software
Safe Eyes — Internet filtering software
SimplyTxt — Text all of your youth group kids at once using this awesome program
Poll Everywhere — Text message polling software. Free for the first 30 users, price increases from there
Covenant Eyes — Another great accountability and filtering software
Grooveshark — Great music streaming service
Big Huge Labs — Do funny things with your photos
Open Resources — More free church media
YouVersion — Interactive Bible
TokBox — Free video chatting
SurveyMonkey — Create free surveys
Zamzar — Convert files online for free

Did I miss any services that you use? If so, let me know in the comments.

Zach Younkin helps out wherever needed in the Delaware Grace Brethren Youth Ministry. You can follow him on Twitter at @zachyounkin and check him out on his blog.

5 View Comments November 20, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Lessons I’ve Learned Losing My First Youth Ministry Job

When I graduated college a year and a half ago I was excited about where my life was heading. I had a diploma, a new marriage, and was about to start a full time youth ministry job at the church I had been interning at for the last year and a half of college. Many dreams were coming true all at once. Although we made financial sacrifices to be at this church, I was receiving some of the biggest paychecks in my 22 years of life and thought for sure we would make it work. Fast forward to now: I am still excited about what God is doing in my life, though it’s more about His presence than hitting life milestones. The road has been bumpy. Less than a year into my first youth ministry gig I was told I wasn’t what the church wanted for their youth ministry. It was a blow to my ego, my calling, my vocation, and my young family. My wife and I felt tossed aside by a church that we had devoted ourselves to for 3 years, the church we were married at, the church we called “home.” I’ve wrestled with a lot of things in the months since then, yet had incredible confidence in who God is and that He wasn’t done with us. These are some things I’ve learned as I’ve dealt with what happened and prepared for what’s next.

1. God’s plans are bigger than my dreams and nightmares. I knew I wanted to do youth ministry since I was a young teenager. I never had specific dreams of what that meant, but I imagined it looking like the church environments I knew. I didn’t picture California (being from the Midwest), the leaders and students I would work with, or the mentors I would have, but all of these things turned out better than I could have expected at my first position. I never imagined losing my first position so soon or that the circumstances of it would be so difficult- it was a lot more of nightmare than a dream- but I have seen God do amazing things through this experience that I never expected. I am thankful for the things God has done in my life beyond my dreams and in my nightmares.

2. The people in my life are “better than I deserve”. I steal this from a phrase Dave Ramsey says, but it characterizes the humility I feel towards all of the people who have supported me. I can’t say enough about how much my wife has meant to me, how she has loved me and challenged me to move forward in faith. We have been supported greatly by our families and the family of God. Friends and mentors have been there to walk with us. I know this time would have been much more devastating without these people God put in our lives.

3. Purposeful ministry has to be planned. I have learned a ton about ministry in the last few months from a lot of people and books. My head is filled with ideas that make me anxious to get back to youth ministry and let them out. From choosing and empowering leaders strategically to accomplishing all that the church is meant to be, it takes intentional work from the person in charge. Some aspects of ministry I could do with little thought, but valuable ministry comes from doing things on purpose with God honoring vision, leaders, and programs.

4. My life is filled with God’s grace. I think I have seen God’s hand in my life more in my recent experiences than any other time. These manifestations of God’s grace remind me how thankful I am to be walking through life following Him. The encouraging conversations with others, more part time jobs than I ever thought I could balance (FIVE at one point), sunrises driving at early hours to these jobs, better gas mileage than average, my wife getting a job on the last day of my severance, frozen pizza sales, and new experiences have all shown me God’s grace and encouraged me to keep walking forward with Him. I am thankful for the simple, complex, meaningful, and bizarre miracles of my daily life.

Losing my job was difficult, scary, and confusing. Walking through all of this with God has given me great peace throughout it. My wife and I have seen how blessed we are, and often say to each other that we love our life, even through this difficult time. God has provided for our marriage, our finances, and faith beyond what we could have expected — and this utter dependence on Him has humbled us as a couple. He has blessed us with incredible people to support us. He has grown me as a learner and taught me countless things. Best of all He has been present. I still don’t know when I will be back in youth ministry or even what the next few months look like, but I am excited for them and to see where God takes this adventure.

Mike Shaffer is an intern in social media at Saddleback Church and praying about his future in youth ministry. If you want to get in contact with him, here’s his email address. We had coffee this week and I asked him to write this post after hearing his story – proud of him and excited to see what God has next!