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Josh GriffinMore Posts Lessons Learned from a Veteran Youth Worker: Teach the Word

TEACH THE WORD
I have found that of all of the things that I have poured into my ministry that have had by far the biggest impact on individual lives and on groups as a whole is good, solid biblical teaching of God’s word. That means different things to different people. What I mean is regular (weekly), verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter teaching. Such teaching allows God’s word to teach God’s word, not choosing a topic to teach and then searching for various verses to back up the message you want to get across.

Now there is nothing wrong with topical teaching. I actually believe that a short stretch of a certain topic once in a while that pertains to your students is very healthy. But a regular diet of topical teaching is like feeding your students ice cream week after week. They need the meat of the word. And that means expository teaching.

Many people will disagree with this and I believe they mainly do because they either have not seen this type of teaching over a long period of time impact lives or they are ignorant or even lazy. Expository teaching is, here it is, hard work. It takes much more time and effort to dig for what a passage really means, what it meant for the people that it was written to, and what it means for its hearers now.

You will do your students an injustice now and over the long haul if you fudge in this area. We live in a world of extreme biblical ignorance and I believe that is mainly the church’s fault—starting in the youth ministry. If you focus your attention on developing your ability to teach the word in a way that truly feeds students solid meat, the impact of your effort will be seen in the lives of your students now and in their lives down the road as they continue to crave the meat of the word.

LAST WORDS
Youth ministry is a wonderful, unique, challenging, often misunderstood and rewarding career. It’s no longer as much a stepping stone to being a REAL pastor as it is a very specialized ministry that requires a disciplined work-ethic along with the ability to learn how to focus on what one has been specifically called to do. This takes years of patience, endurance, faith and heart to get it right. In my experience, more than 30.

Rob McIlvoy is a 30-year youth ministry veteran who has worked in churches, Young Life and internationally. He initially wrote this for his 23-year old son who had just landed his first full-time youth ministry position. He was hoping to impart words of advice as he began his own calling.

Josh GriffinMore Posts Lessons Learned from a Veteran Youth Worker: Develop Your Leadership Skills

DEVELOP YOUR AND OTHERS LEADERSHIP SKILLS
“Leadership is influence – The ability to obtain followers – The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” *ch1 Your students don’t need your friendship as much as they need you to lead them. They also need you to help them develop their leadership skills. “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” *ch 10

Leadership seems to be more and more of a lost art in youth ministry. It is so easy to get lost or buried in the week in and week out responsibilities of lesson and meeting prep and all of the other details that can engulf you in youth ministry that you neglect to build into yourself, your leaders and you students what they need most: the joy of knowing how God has called them to lead in whatever situation in life that they find themselves.

Let’s face it, if leadership is influence, then everyone in your ministry is and will be a leader. You have the privilege of helping people learn to lead where they are and to learn skills that will carry into their marriages, families, businesses and ministries.

You do this by helping them to see where they are gifted and allowing them to try on different ways of using their gifts. If all of your time is spent developing your program and trying to be “successful” (whatever that looks like for you), then you will surely end up neglecting the development of leaders.

This means more than just helping your students and volunteers figure out how to lead. It means first and foremost helping them understand what it means to be a servant leader. They need to know what the heart of a leaders looks like. They need to see that a true leader ultimately serves those he or she leads out of love for them and a desire to see them succeed. Focus on helping them learn to have the heart of a leader.

Now this is all fine, but if you are not constantly developing your own leadership skills, you will constantly bump into your own shortcomings in this area. I suggest you do a few things to develop your own leadership skills:

Read books on leadership
Ask others how they perceive you as a leader. Ask for an honest critique.
Put yourself in situations that stretch your present leadership skills.

Rob McIlvoy is a 30-year youth ministry veteran who has worked in churches, Young Life and internationally. He initially wrote this for his 23-year old son who had just landed his first full-time youth ministry position. He was hoping to impart words of advice as he began his own calling.

Josh GriffinMore Posts Lessons Learned from a Veteran Youth Worker: Be a Learner and Be Teachable

ALWAYS BE TEACHABLE AND A CONTINUAL LEARNER
To be teachable not only means that you can be taught how to do ministry but it also, and more importantly, means that you are able to learn from your mistakes and from others’ advice. To not be teachable is to be arrogant and ultimately a sub-par youth worker.

How can you know if you are a teachable person? A teachable person welcomes input into their life and ministry (and then implements it), especially input that is tough to hear, but necessary. A teachable person longs for input that will in any way make them a better person and help them to have a healthy ministry. If you find that you are hyper-sensitive to input that goes against your ideas, or that you are less than positive about getting others’ input, you are not a teachable person.

As I stated above, making assumptions that you know how to “do” ministry can be your Achilles heel. The reality is that the moment you stop learning, you die. Having the mindset of a continual learner will help you to stay fresh and keep the people you work with fresh and excited about ministry and their faith. Knowing your church and community culture is vital. There are other things though that you need to always be learning about.

First and foremost it is important to be a continual learner in your faith. You are young. Don’t assume that what you believe in now is all that God has for you. You may find that as you pursue learning some of the theological beliefs that you held near and dear as you grew up or learned in bible college aren’t necessarily true or as concrete as you thought. Is Reformed Theology 100% true? What is your End Times beliefs? Young or old earth? NIV or ESV? These might seem unnecessary for youth ministry, but believe me, you will come across these and more as you forge ahead and want to know what YOU believe, not what others have told you to believe, especially if you are a teachable person.

Next, is to be a continual learner as far as how to communicate to young people. As you learn the style of communication and teaching that you feel most comfortable with, it is important that you not think that it is the final word. You will find that as you mature as a person and as a minister, how you communicate will also mature. The adage that I have always lived by when it comes to communicating and teaching is, “You are never as bad as you think and you are never as good as you think.”

Lastly, always be learning about how to best reach the students that God has called you to reach and minister to. Just because a camp, retreat, style of worship, room set-up, time of meeting or any program is working great, don’t assume that it will be that way in the future. Never adopt the, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” mindset in ministry. Look around you. The most successful endeavors in society, especially with technology, happen because people are watching and learning how to best stay effective.

Not that you need to adopt the world’s way of doing things per se. But to assume that something will always work just because it has been working is ludacris. The needs of your youth group will change. They’d BETTER change! If you are pouring into your ministry as you should be, change will happen, in you and in others. Needs will change. Learn to discern when these changes are taking place and always be learning what you need to do to facilitate these changes.

Rob McIlvoy is a 30-year youth ministry veteran who has worked in churches, Young Life and internationally. He initially wrote this for his 23-year old son who had just landed his first full-time youth ministry position. He was hoping to impart words of advice as he began his own calling.

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Training Day

As student minister’s one thing we have to always strive for is to be a perpetual student of our craft. We can never know too much about youth ministry. This is one thing that I defiantly do not have a problem with. No matter what I have done in my life I always threw myself into it full force. When I played drums in band in high school I studied, not only in school, but on my own. I listen to instructional by well known drummers at the time, I went to drum clinics, and dissected drums solos by popular drummers. When I joined the Army as a Military Police officer, I took baton instructor classes, correspondence courses, and unarmed self defense training. As youth ministers we must constantly be students of our own art. How do we do that? Here are some quick sources for training!

1: The Bible: I know I know, you’ve heard it a million times but that doesn’t make it any less true. The better your relationship with God the better off your ministry is.

2: Blogs: The cheapest form of training out there! Find a youth ministry mentor such as Josh Griffin at morethandodgeball.com, Doug Fields’ Blog, Stephanie Caro’s blog, or even my own at lifeintheymfishbowl.com. Want find great ideas to try? Read a blog. Want training on ideas to help grow your youth group? Read a Blog. Also there are non blog websites out there that are great. One I love is youthministry.com. Great articles and great ideas.

3: Certificates: Many colleges offer online youth minister training for a small price. Plus you get a handy certificate to hang up on the wall. Another place to check out is youthsphere.tv. This site offers a great certificate and great training under the giants of youth ministry. Use promo code MTDB for 10% off, too!

4: Group Magazine: Some of the best youth ministry ideas delivered to your door once every two months. Nuff said!

5: Other youth ministers: Your local youth minister’s network is a great source of training. You can pick up great life lessons while sitting down for a cup of coffee.

6: Youth Minister’s support networks: many denominations offer great youth minister support networks who can offer great advice and ideas.

7: Conferences: I’ve often heard conferences called the poor man’s seminary. That’s about the truth. With SYMC coming up you have the option of the large conference and it’s many options but also don’t over look the smaller local conferences that are out there, if money is an issue.

8: College: This option is not for everyone, but if you feel like God is calling you for a deeper commitment this is a great option. I’m currently enrolled online for a degree with a Student Ministry emphasis. There are many great colleges that offer Youth Ministry Masters degrees also many Seminaries that offer degrees with youth ministry minors.

9: Books: Some of the best training I’ve ever received was through two books, “Purpose Driven Youth Ministry” and “My First Two Years in Youth Ministry” both by Doug Fields. Books are the best way to glean ideas from well renowned youth ministers. Not just Doug but many giants of youth ministry have published books that are great training resources.

10: Last but not least: This one may strike you as odd…..your senior pastor. I know your thinking “He did not just say I could get training from the old man/woman” Yep I went there! Some of our senior pastors were youth ministers once. They can be great resources for ideas and wonderful sounding blocks. I was thinking about revamping our “Sunday School” class and asked our senior pastor what he thought. Low and behold we had the same idea and he had many small details that I hadn’t pondered.

If you look around there are many great resources out there for youth ministers to learn from. We really have no excuse to not stay on top of our game. You owe it to you church, your kids, and yourself to be the most well trained youth minister you can be.

Kevin Patterson is the youth pastor at Dawson Springs First Baptist Church in Dawson Spring, KY. Be sure to check out http://www.lifeintheymfishbowl.blogspot.com/ to regularly get in on his learnings, too!

Add Comment February 5, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Importance of Your Students Hearing From Different Voices

This summer we’ve been hosting a midweek Bible study in the Refinery on Wednesday nights called Midweek. It’s been incredible! We lucked out with having Pastor Rick speak on the opening night, which was great, and the last few weeks we’ve had very different voices from a bunch of different places. The picture above is of Debbie Eaton, the director of Women’s Ministry at Saddleback. It was a huge change up for us, but I heard from both students and leaders how great it was!

Here’s why I think it is important – students (us, too, for that matter) get used to the same voice and it starts to lose impact. Familiar speakers get in ruts, and even the best communicators get better with a little margin. Change it up this week and give someone with a new voice a chance, it has been incredible for us this summer!

JG

1 View Comments August 19, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Simply Youth Ministry Podcast 158: What Have You Learned?

The gang returns to the table for a little youth ministry conversation. Doug asks the question: “What have you been learning in youth ministry lately?” Everyone takes a turn answering, and they even sneak in a few of your questions.

JG

Add Comment April 23, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Learn

After five plus years of being in the youth worker game, I have come to the conclusion that the key to youth ministry is the desire to learn. When you break it down, learning is what it is all about:

You have to be willing to learn about the teenage brain and how they think. To know who GaGa, Gandolf, Gryffindor, and Garret Gilbert are because they matter to your students.
You have to learn how to listen and when to talk, how to not act shocked when you hear of the details of some kid’s lives, and how to convey emotion over Facebook chat.
You have to learn how to be (or at least seem) interested in stories that really don’t make sense.
You have to learn how to let kids beat you in basketball, teach you things you already know, and the Heimlich in case of a game of Chubby Bunny gone bad.
You have to know all the “Q” words that don’t require a “u” in Scrabble, and who has texting on their phones and who doesn’t.
You have to know what it means when Master Chief is in his cryo-tube and when the ACOG scope for the FAMAS gets unlocked in your third prestige.
You have to be able to cheer for 6 different high school mascots and know where 6 different auditoriums are located within a school.
You have to know who is gone every other weekend because they’re at their dad’s house, and who you haven’t seen in church for a couple of weeks.
You have to learn the names of all your students, and never ever call them by their sister’s name, even though they are identical twins. You have to learn how to remember the joys amid the deep disappointments, remind yourself that everyone makes mistakes, and always expect the unexpected.
You have to learn how to balance church life and “real life”. You have to learn how to leave your work at work. You have to know when the play performance is, the time of the choir concert, and who plays on JV and who made varsity. You also have to know who got cut, and be sure to let him know that it’ll be OK.
You have to know who is struggling and who is excelling; who needs help, and who needs space to sort things out on their own. You have to learn to not compare one kid to another, but rather appreciate each for who they are. You have to learn to not get down about who is not there, but rejoice for those who are.
You have to know how to Tweet, update, upload, post, poke, promote, and share, sometimes all at the same time. You have to know to avoid what’s so fifteen minutes ago and be aware of what’s cool today. You have to know that you are NOT 16 years old anymore and dress, speak, and style your hair accordingly.
You have to know how to say no, and when you have to say yes even though you really don’t want to. You have to know how to clean up messes (both literally and figuratively), and how to say sorry. You have to learn how to appreciate those who may never appreciate you. You have to learn how to sound smart even though you have no idea what you’re saying. You have to learn how to keep your promises and not make one unless you can.
You have to be willing to learn from other youth workers and realize you’re not on an island. You have to learn how to meet students where they’re at and not expect immediate change. You have to learn how to be the adult even if you feel like one of the kids. You have to learn that confusion doesn’t mean indifference and busyness doesn’t mean progress. You have to learn how to schedule the unscheduled time, and how to be flexible. You have to learn how to delegate, lest your passion fizzles and dies.
You have to learn how to read between the lines and how to say the same thing five different ways. You have to learn how to fill your own cup. You have to know where the Bible says an ass talked to Baalam, and what anthropomorphism means. You have to know how to answer the phone at 3am and how to react to the sobbing brokenhearted. You have to learn that you don’t know everything and you learn twice as much from your students than they do from you. You have to know who your Savior is so that you might be able to share Him when a kid needs it.
You have to know what grace is and be willing to show it even when it’s difficult.

But the thing about all these things, and I could go on for another couple of pages, but the thing about these things is we youth people love it! We get to rock out to pop music and listen to kids talk about their days. We get to play Call of Duty and get our butts kicked by kids 1/3 our age. We get to cheer for every sport we never played and paint our faces just to make our one student feel loved. We get to help kids figure stuff out and be with them when they tell their parents about the trouble they got into.

We get to answer the calls at 3am and spend way too much time on Facebook. We get to have inside jokes with teenagers and buy silly gag gifts just because it’ll make them smile. We get to learn from other people who do the same thing we do, and we get to share ideas. We get to grow deeper in our faith so that we might be able to help kids who struggle in theirs. We get to learn about Jesus and see Him work in the lives of the next generation. None of those things are a “have to”, they are all “get to”‘s and that is what makes youth ministry so great!
Learning is what it is all about- and the willingness to learn is what keeps us going day after day. Today I can learn something about someone that I never knew before.

And maybe, just maybe I can tell them something about their Lord and Savior they never knew before. That’s what this is all about.

I am blessed.

Kory Henkel is the Director of Youth Ministries at Bloomington Living Hope Lutheran Church in MN. Check out his blog for more right over here.

5 View Comments February 7, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts How to Plan a Visit to the Student Ministry at Saddleback Church

One of the most frequently asked questions people ask through the blog is how to visit the Student Ministry at Saddleback Church. It is a great question and one that I’m happy to answer. We have visitors on a regular basis, and if you would follow this process, it would help a ton:

Plan to visit during a weekend
My favorite part of what we do is the weekend service – it is a normal part of most youth ministries and the easiest to see us in action. I would love to show you a small group, but it just isn’t possible. So much of what we do is grassroots or organic – so when you come to “see” something, this is usually the best place. Services are every weekend – 4:30 or 6:30 on Saturday nights, 9 or 11:15 on Sunday mornings. The services are all identical.

Spread yourself around a little
There’s a ton to see and do at Saddleback when you visit – so maybe plan on seeing the junior high ministry at 4:30pm on Saturday night, then HSM at 6:30pm right after. You’ll have lots of questions for when we connect after the services. Maybe try to hit an adult service on Sunday morning, then go detox and chill at the beach Sunday afternoon.

Please let the team know you’re here
There’s nothing worse than getting a thank you afterwards, and we never met! Please let someone know you’re coming, in advance if possible, so we can make sure you questions get answered and you’re taken care of. Part of our calling in youth ministry is to serve you, not just our students.

Know we’ll try to be as accomodating as possible
Usually if it involves buying any one of us a meal, we’ll be even more accomodating. It isn’t always possible for one-on-one interaction of significant length, but we’ll do our best. If you have particular questions or thougths, sometimes it is easier to pair you up with one particular person so you walk away with a few ideas or answers.

Do your best to fit in
When you’re here, do your best to fit in. Be discreet, don’t be “that guy” especially if you’re a camera junkie. Sit in the back, be cool. If you’re bringing students, spread the word.

Please … take everything you want
Anything you see … well, almost everything … is an idea you can steal or a pamphlet you can pick up. Some youth workers in town for a local missions conference this weekend picked up one of every pastoral care brochure and calendar we had – and that’s super cool. I would do the same if I visited your ministry!

Here’s the bottom line – we would be honored and humbled to have you come check out things at Saddleback sometime. Not to mention it IS California and was 80 degrees yesterday in the middle of winter. Just something to think about!

JG