life groups | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts Celebrate Recovery for Students

I’m excited to announce that in January we’re starting a new program to help the hurting students at Saddleback. It is called The Landing and it is a year-long version of Celebrate Recovery program. Our church leadership has been wanting to run a parallel program to Celebrate Recovery for adults and children. This is it! Life Hurts, God Heals is still a great option as well – you can check that out right here as well. Either way, stop for a minute today and think about the hurting kids in your ministry and what you can do to serve them.

The Landing is an all-new, year-long program that helps teenagers travel the path to freedom, healing, and wholeness. This dynamic resource mirrors the content presented in the successful Celebrate Recovery program. The lessons deliver hope-filled truths and real-life strategies for giving young people the tools for making wise choices and developing healthy patterns for living.

Use The Landing as a way to minister to teenagers in your church and community who are struggling with life-controlling hurts, hang-ups, and habits. Or simply implement the curriculum in your small groups, Sunday school classes, or midweek program to give all of your students insights on following the path to freedom. This resource will complement your efforts if you church is using the Celebrate Recovery ministry for adults and the Celebration Station content for kids–but it also flourishes as a stand alone option!

JG

4 View Comments August 10, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Small Groups = Life Groups

Well, we made the change from calling them small groups to calling them life groups – it only took me a year since I first blogged about the idea – ha! It is a bit of a semantic thing, but I’m a big fan of the switch. Rather then focus on their size (which remains important) the name focuses on what happens (sharing life, which is more important). Here’s some of the frequently asked questions we answer as people register:

What are High School Ministry Life Groups?
Life Groups are small groups for high school students. These groups are made up of 10 – 12 students (same grade and gender) that meet weekly with a caring adult leader.

Life Groups are a perfect place for you to form great friendships with other students your age, build relationships with adult leaders and learn more about God and grow closer to Him. Your group will be encouraged to establish accountability with each other, have consistent personal quiet times, get involved in ministry, and participate in service projects.

When and where do they meet?
Life Groups meet in host homes on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings from 7:00 – 9:00pm. Meeting in homes creates a warm, friendly atmosphere for sharing life together.

What does a typical night look like?
Each Life Group will look different, but a typical night will look something like this: welcome / snacks / hang out / Bible study / discussion / prayer.

Being involved in a Life Group will be an awesome time to grow closer to God; what better way to do that than by reading and studying the Bible? Every Life Group will choose their study topic from the provided LIVE Curriculum. Studies include: prayer, following Jesus, making good decisions, purity, having healthy relationships, studying the Bible, dealing with temptation, living in godly community and more.

What about my leader?
HSM has incredible, screened, and trained adult volunteers who are ready to serve and teach high school students. Our HSM leaders are there to encourage, teach, guide, and help strengthen your walk with Christ. It may turn out to be the most significant relationship of your high school years.

What is the Life Group Commitment?
Being part of a Life Group is a privilege. We expect each Life Group member to commit to the following:

Come to group prepared, equipped with a Bible, a pen, a notebook and a good attitude.

Respect your Life Group leader. They are giving you their time because they WANT to minister to you.

Respect and be kind to others in your group.

Respect your Host Home. Help clean-up your host home at the end of every night.

JG

4 View Comments August 5, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Winner of the LIVE Curriculum

What a tough decision … the stories you submitted in the LIVE Curriculum contest were amazing and heart-stirring. The nominations, the effort, the heart of youth ministry in all of them – wow. So hard to choose! So … I didn’t, exactly. I took my 5 favorite, and then picked one at random. Here’s the winning story, congratulations to Bree Klemme:

We desperately need the LIVE Curriculum. In order for you to understand why, I will start at the beginning of our crazy journey.My husband and I moved to a rural community about a year ago (so he could farm). We looked non-stop for a church, and not until 3 months ago did we find one that was Bible based and preaching the Word. The church body is a wonderful group who loves the Lord and wants to do what is right and immediately we felt at ‘home.’ Two months ago (right before we were going to become members) the pastor was released from his duties because of serious moral and spiritual issues; the biggest wasn’t even that he spent most of his days at the church looking at porn online. Recognizing that a church is more than just a pastor and that this was where we felt led to be and serve, we stayed and became members.

We jumped in with both feet and have been looking for ministry opportunities…I was going to help lead worship and be on the music committee, Brian was going to help on the work committee and start a program for new visitors and we thought we might be helpers in the youth group …when, last month the husband of the couple who were going to take on the Sr. High Youth Group was struck down with migraines that caused him to have a multiple strokes from which he is not even close to recovering from. There isn’t anyone else that either wants to do it or isn’t already committed to the Awana Children Program, so after much prayer and thoughtful consideration we are going to do it.

This is not something that we are taking lightly; I had awesome youth group leaders that set a wonderful example for me. The leaders were there for usually at least 4 year stretches, they were very involved in the schools and in the kids’ lives including extra-curricular activities. Brian didn’t have that…in fact he was the youth group; his pastor would taking him golfing for youth group because it was just him. Brian is wary of what is going to happen because he hasn’t ever seen what a youth group is like. He isn’t concerned about teaching the Bible, he is a very wise godly man and has led other Bible studies, but isn’t quite sure what subjects we need to cover or what to do with the rest of the time that makes up a youth group meeting.

Part of our problem is that there isn’t a program already in place. There have been 3 different youth group leaders over the last 3 years! And, last year the leaders wouldn’t show up and the kids were left hanging (which is a crappy thing to do to them!) None of the last youth leaders had any materials or any kind of structure. We are going to have to rebuild the Sr. High Youth Group from scratch.

We are desperately trying to follow God’s leading, and we are going to do that whether we get the LIVE Curriculum or not. But, I do know that it would help us to be better youth leaders and help us reach out and draw more youth in and have an impact in the community with the program. I know this might sound made-up, but our story is true and clearly explains why we need this program.

Check out the LIVE small group curriculum at Simply Youth Ministry today!

JG

Add Comment August 1, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Great Small Group Questions

Thought Matt and Doug had a great series of questions for small group leaders to ask their students – getting to know your kids or getting to know them better. Head there for the whole list and some tips on how to use them, and if you’re not getting the daily email from YouthMinistry.com - sign up for it (it is FREE and awesome) right here.

35 trigger questions to spark conversation:
1. How are you involved at your school? (Clubs, cheer, band, sports?)
2. What was a highlight of your week?
3. What is something you did this summer that was fun?
4. What is your absolute favorite thing to do?
5. If you could have free tickets to any concert, where/who would it be?
6. What is your favorite subject at school?
7. Who is your favorite teacher and what do you like about him/her?
8. Are you the type who gets things done early or waits till the last minute?
9. What do you normally do when you have free time?
10. Where’s your favorite place to eat?
11. What’s the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received?
12. What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you?

JG

1 View Comments July 29, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts CONTEST: Giving LIVE Small Groups Curriculum Away ($499 value!)

OK, you’ve read about HSM’s 4-year teaching plan strategy and how we’re going “all in” using the LIVE curriculum for our small groups. Simply put, we needed a way to centralize and formalize the teaching plan for all of our small groups. Without a structure and good communication, groups would be headed all over the place and in different directions. When someone graduates, what are we confident they’ve learned?

That’s why we’re using LIVE – 4 years of discipleship and web-based community of our volunteer leaders. Now, I realize the $499 price point is shocking until you investigate it and see how it works. The stuff is pretty slick – an all-in-one solution for small groups in your church.

Youth leaders will experience a bountiful abundance of benefits. (Wasn’t that the name of an old hymn?) Because you’ll have your long-range plans locked down, you can devote more time to equipping your volunteers and building excitement in students about upcoming topics through creative promotions. And of course, you’ll save yourself countless hours of planning.

But wait! There’s more! You know what your small groups will be discussing six months from now, so parents will gain more confidence in your ministry, and along the way, you’ll provide them with resources to spark conversation and dialogue in the home. And if we’re serious about getting families involved in our youth ministries, how can you go wrong with that?

So, check it out if you want, but here’s the deal: I’m giving one away this week! All you have to do is tell me why you (or another youth worker you know) needs LIVE, and we’ll pick the best story and give it to them. Why should we give LIVE to you?! May the best comment win!

JG

51 View Comments July 27, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts How to Divide Up Small Groups

It won’t be long before we start back full-force into small groups during the school year. We’re about to start registration asking students to be a part of an HSM Life Group and on the form we ask for basic information as well as do our best to divide up groups by these 4 main categories. Here are the breakdown of how we divide up groups:

GENDER (always)
HSM divides our small groups by gender – no exceptions to this rule. If you are a guy, you’ll be in a guy group. Girls = girls group. From time to time groups meet together and we do allow groups of different genders in the same home, but our groups are always divided by gender.

GRADE (as much as possible)
So now you’ve got 2 groups of students, guys and girls. Now what? There are four natural divisions in high school, so we try to put underclassmen together and upperclassmen together. That way, students can journey through similar life-stages together as well as be together longer through high school. The larger your ministry grows, the more specific groups you can have.

GEOGRAPHY (if we can)
Groups are split by gender and by grade, and now if possible, we group them together by geography. Often times this works naturally because students share the same high school, but sometimes geography is the one that has to give. To be in a gender and grade specific group, you might have to drive or be dropped off.

GUIDE (we try our best)
I should write “leader” here, but I wanted another “G” word. Lame, I know. Anyhow, we also ask students if they have a particular leader whose group they want to be a part of. We can’t always fulfill the request, but we try our hardest to make it happen. Problems come up with too many students ask for the same popular leader.

JG

6 View Comments July 25, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts The HSM Staff

From time to time people ask who are the paid staff behind HSM – and to be honest, we’ve been in some transition over the past seasons of ministry so the answer would vary from year to year. But in case you were wondering who did what and how we’re structured, here’s some insight:

High School Pastor (full-time) – that’s my job! I cast vision, handle conflict, lead the team, teach and direct the ministry. The buck stops with me, so if something goes wrong – it’s on me. It might be the best job in the world, I sure love it, despite the massive challenges. The rest of the team is organzationally flat, and I report to Kurt, the Student Ministries Pastor.

My assistant/team admin Associate (29 hrs/wk) – Alaina just came on the team last week and functions primarily in a support role to my job as well as helping the team with admin tasks.

Volunteer Coordinator (full-time) – Ryanne is an incredible minister to our adults who serve students. She works diligently interviewing, training, encouragement and care. She is our first impression to adults, and pastors them well.

Service/Ministry Coordinator (full-time) - AC is also brand new to the team – he’ll be responsible for all of our service projects in the community and helping get students into ministry. He’ll also work with our guys small groups to help make sure they are cared for.

Events/Missions Coordinator (full-time) - Phil cranks out any event we have planned. The dude is a administrative genius, and his top speed blasts by most people. He plans Summer Camp, missions trips, events and activities.

Life Groups Coordinator (full-time) – Jessica has been with us just over a year and has a huge heart for our small groups effort. She works hard to make sure volunteers are the right fit, helps manage curriculum and makes sure things move smoothy in the puzzle that is small groups.

We also currently have 2 open full-time spots on the team – we just lost Jake (program, 2nd in command) to be the campus pastor at Saddleback Irvine, and in September we’re losing Robby (pastoral care) to be another campus pastor. In addition to this paid team, we’ve also got 3 amazing 2-year interns and 3 summer interns that function as full-on staff people as well – all of them are brilliant and work 40-50 hours a week and own significant parts of our high school ministry.

JG

Josh GriffinMore Posts Alaina Hart — Newest Member of the HSM Team

Pleased to announce that Alaina Hart has officially joined the HSM team here at Saddleback – she’s my new assistant and the team admin. We promoted from within yet again, Alaina is a great small group leader and now on staff helping us pull of great stuff behind the scenes. If you ever call HSM, you’re probably talk to her – at least, when she returns from Paris on a mission trip she’s on this week. So glad to have her on the team!

JG