outreach | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: 5 Trends in Growing Student Ministries

Here at Vanderbloemen Search Group, we are often asked, “What is everybody else doing out there?” Since we work with many churches and student pastors throughout the country, we have the honor of seeing what some of the most growing churches are doing in their student ministries. Every student ministry is unique, but here are a few trends we’re seeing in growing churches:

1. Small Groups – Generation Y craves relationships. Student pastors often share with us that the best discussion and discipleship happens in the context of small groups. Some churches have their small groups on Sundays, and some have them throughout the week. Some have them at the church facility and others have them in homes. Regardless of the approach, we are seeing that small groups are a pivotal part of healthy student ministries.

2. Leadership Development – We find that the healthiest student ministries are equipping their high schoolers with leadership skills to lead Bible Studies, outreach events, and mentor programs to the middle schoolers. We also see churches involving the youth in the Sunday service, training them with responsibilities of sound, lights, worship, etc… Developing an effective leadership program may be time consuming at first, but the long-term benefits are worth it. Many youth pastors we talk to bring on a few of their high school leaders as interns over the summer. These students often pursue ministry after high school.

3. Volunteer Training – Recruiting volunteers can be one of the most challenging aspects of ministry for student pastors. It’s difficult to find dedicated volunteers who also have the “cool factor” that high school kids are looking for. We find that youth pastors who succeed in finding great volunteers invest in their training and development. Bring in a leadership coach and be sure that your volunteers have the resources they need to invest in your students.

4. Separating Jr & Sr High – Some of the most growing ministries are separating the Jr and Sr high worship services to provide a more tailored message to the age groups. Jr highers are concerned about different topics than Sr highers, and the way you approach topics with each group should be different. We’re noticing that growing churches are developing separate teams over Jr and Sr high with a director leading the vision of both ministries.

5. Outreach – We see students craving purpose and meaning. Student pastors are getting students out in the community to serve under-resourced communities. Students like being given significant challenges and responsibilities. Effective student pastors are also networking with local schools to identify the scope of their ministry responsibilities beyond the walls of the church.

Depending on the unique needs of your students, these strategies may or may not be effective in the context of your ministry. If you’re using these strategies in your ministry, we’d love to hear your thoughts! If not, what strategies have you found to be effective for your students?

Thanks to VSG for this guest post! They are currently searching for Student Pastors who are dynamic leaders in a few churches like this one in NV and this one in GA.

3 View Comments November 29, 2012

Geoff StewartMore Posts Encourage Them Often

My students will tell you, one of my love languages is words of affirmation. I love encouraging them, whether by dropping by their work or school, sending an unexpected text message, a facebook message or just pulling them asisde at youth to point out an area where you see God working in them. Its powerful, meaningful and a core part of youth ministry. So when I get a chance to send a note to all our students, you better believe I am going to take it. For some context all summer we spend 2 hours every Wednesday hanging out at McDonalds and for a few weeks this fall, met in the “upper room” at the same location for one our high school prayer groups while waiting for a room at the school. This morning I posted this comment in our Journey Facebook group.

Some Encouragement for all of you this morning.

I was having breakfast with Mitchell today and the lady who worked at McDonalds leaned forward and said, “you guys are with that Church group right?” to which I replied yes. She then said “you guys used to meet for a prayer group here right?” and I said yes. She said, “okay, then do you mind praying for my friend? He is going in for cancer treatment, he is a teacher and his name is Mr Hunter”. Of course we will, I told her.

Journey, the consistency that you guys show in being Jesus to the people in our community is staggering. When we do uptown Wednesday or prayer group there, people notice, they watch and they see the way that you guys live your lives and they are compelled by it.

God is doing something in South Surrey and we get to be part of it. Much Love -Pastor Geoff

Take the time to encourage your students, show them how God is working in their lives in ways they might not even realize.

-Geoff (Twitter)

Add Comment November 8, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Tailgate Parties

Last Friday, our ministry tailgated two of the biggest games of the season. I got to admit, we were a little nervous about how well this was going to go over. We tried to do tailgates about 5 years ago but they just weren’t working so we cut them. But, with our huge focus on campus outreach this year, we thought it was worth another try.

We decided to learn from our past and completely reinvent how we did tailgate parties. The first big difference was our location. This year, we held our parties at parks that were near the schools. We did this for a few reasons… well one reason, the schools said no. It was a frustrating thing to hear because there are so many people that tailgate on campus anyway, but we would rather call and get a “no,” than to go and hurt the reputation of our ministry. Because of that, we ended up doing out parties at the parks, and we loved it! Having it at a park let us do more activities (ultimate Frisbee, Football, Spikeball, etc.) that kept students at the event, giving us more relational opportunity. While having the tailgate in the campus parking lot would have given us a more convenient location, I feel like students would have grabbed food and left, giving us little face time with students.

As far as the event itself, we kept it simple and fun. The games that we tailgated for were the big rival games so we made sure to capitalize on their school spirit. We decorated everything in school colors! We had the balloons, tablecloths, streamers… the whole bit. We even set up a “War Paint” booth, where students could get their face painted for the game that night! Once students started coming over, we handed out some Frisbees, footballs, volleyballs, set up a game of Spikeball, and threw a dance party in the parking lot. We fueled them up for the big night by giving them pizza, cupcakes, cookies, chips, soda, and anything else that we found cheap. The event as a whole was super fun and super easy.

I am so happy with how it all turned out. We got to meet so many new students and got to make some awesome memories with our regulars! Tailgates can be a great outreach opportunity and can work for a ton of ministries out there because there are so many different ways to do them. I’m already thinking of ways to take ours to the next level!

Has your ministry tailgated a game before? How did you do it?

Colton Harker is the Student Leadership Director at Saddleback HSM. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact him at coltonharker@gmail.com or on twitter at @ColtonHarker.

1 View Comments October 21, 2012

Geoff StewartMore Posts Our Role In High School Transitions

Yikes! The summer is nearly over and that means that students are getting ready to go back. They are filling the malls buying skinny jeans, fresh new Toms, loading up on Axe body spray and Hollister perfume.

For some students, there is the excitement and anticipation of seeing friends and being back at school. But for others, it might be a new school, or their first time in high school and that can be really scary. Students for the most part have a deep desire to be accepted and the first few weeks at a new school are pivotal as kids will often make friends with the first person who is willing to befriend them regardless of who they are. The role that friends play in the life of young person is huge, and falling into the wrong crowd early can have disastrous consequences, so that is where we come in.

Here is how it plays out at Journey: We have grades 6-12 meeting on the same night but somewhat separately, but the students do mingle and older students often know many of the younger ones. When the school year starts in a few weeks, we know that our students will likely know some people at their new school and that is where we get involved. During the first week of school we will be visiting every high school in the area at lunch time, visiting, encouraging and most importantly connecting our students. We can do so much to help make the transition into a new school, healthy, fun and life giving as we help to connect students in a new environment.

There is obvious value for us, to connect and shepherd our students, but this is one of the biggest reasons that the schools around us let us visit all the time. The administration at the schools see the value in us helping students make a smooth and healthy transition into their new school.

-Geoff (Twitter)

Add Comment August 22, 2012

Geoff StewartMore Posts Guest Post: Throw A Show

When I first came on staff with Mars Hill | Ballard we didn’t have a whole lot of students coming to the youth group. Most of the people at our church were 20-somethings or young families which meant there simply weren’t a lot of teenagers around. So, I had to go out and bring them in.

We already had a rhythm of throwing an outreach-type event every month, so I kept that going. But to be honest, for me, it wasn’t big enough. We would have a few new people at the most and, if we were lucky, one would come back for our Wednesday night gathering. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing small about a few new students showing up. But, I felt that God wanted me to cast the net out a little further.

So, I quit inviting them to our events and started inviting them to their own show.

I got the idea from a ministry Mars Hill did years before I got there called the Paradox theater. Basically, they ran a music venue in order to create a presence within the community.

All I did was go to the high school down the street about 15 minutes before the end of the day and handed out half sheets of paper that said, “If you’re in a band and want to play a show, email me.” I made these flyers on Microsoft Word. They were not impressive. But, for the students in my area, the message on them was more exciting than a college scholarship.

My email box filled up. If I remember right, I booked three bands before 48 hours had passed.

In no way were these Christian bands, but that was cool with me because I wasn’t trying to reach Christian kids. In fact, all I was trying to do, my entire goal, was just to get 100 people to show up and shake all of their hands. I wanted them to know that we were actually nice people, and we had a safe place for them to go.

So, I started planning the show. And started freaking out. I found out there are a lot of things to think of when throwing a show!

Two things in particular are sound and security.

Somehow show-sound is different than worship-sound, especially in the multipurpose room we were using. I didn’t get the sound stuff figured out until the night before the show when, by a miracle of God, the sound volunteer showed up at the same time Mars Hill was packing a van with audio equipment. The van and the volunteer mixed for the weekend, and we had a good, quality sound. Lesson learned: Don’t plan on a miracle happening for this one, plan ahead, and make sure you’re set up for good sound.

The bands that were coming were metal bands. Metal means moshing. Moshing means liability. Top that off with pot, alcohol, and kids sneaking off into other parts of the church. So, I had to get some extra eyes on the situation. I got three guys to do security. Their job was to foresee dangerous situations and keep them from happening and to create a presence of authority so that kids knew it wasn’t a consequence-free zone. In addition, I had every door besides the door to the actual room locked and barricaded. I included the rules on the Facebook event, including the fact that we’d kick out anyone at the sight of drugs, alcohol, or violence. We had to ask a few students to leave because of intoxication, but by God’s grace, there was no violence.

Besides this, there were all the other logistics that go into any event.

Well, when it came time for the actual show, I was shocked. We had about 150 kids show up. What was weird was that only about nine of them were actually from our church. The rest of them were brand new.

Of course, I had about 70% of my volunteer team there. As the place started to pack we made sure to say hi to everyone that we could. I had several good, fun conversations with students, inviting all of them to check out our Facebook page and come to youth group.

The show was great. The bands were actually pretty good for high school bands. I made friends with all the band kids and their friends by giving them a back stage area packed with energy drinks and food. Before the night was up, the band kids and I made plans to do dinner and talk about the Seattle music scene.

After everyone went home, it was time to clean up and follow up. Both of which took some time and effort.

I went on Facebook and started looking around. I saw a ton of students posting positive comments about the event. The news hit the rest of the school. In fact, it was mentioned in the school paper that goes out to all the students and parents.

The best part of all, I got to develop deep relationships with four of the kids I met at the show. By God’s grace I led all four them to Christ and baptized one of them myself.

Also, whenever I went to the high school a ton of kids knew my name, came up and talked to me, and I became a lot more well known than I was before the show.

We ended up throwing a second show at the end of the summer and had great success there as well. It truly was a great way for us to meet students, grow our influence and share the gospel. I hope you’ll consider it and if its appropriate for your ministry, give it a shot.

Mitch Miller is a youth and young adult speaker based out of Seattle. Feel free to contact him through twitter, facebook or email. You can find all his info at www.mitchmiller.me

2 View Comments July 10, 2012

Geoff StewartMore Posts The Best Event We Do All Summer

I love summer in Youth Ministry for so many reasons, its the change of gears, its the relational time, its students dropping by the office, I just love it. For our youth group, its high time for events. We have lots going on because after all,there are students around and many have little to do, so lets harness that energy. Between 5 major events, beach hangout days and other small activities our summer calendar has much to offer for students looking for something to do, but there is one weekly event that has taken on a life of its own.

In the city I work in there are three major high schools and right near all of them in an area commonly know as “uptown” sits a McDonalds location that is always filled with students. Seeing that they are there anyway, we decided two summers ago to launch “Uptown Wednesdays”. From 1-3pm every Wednesday of the summer we meet at McDonalds and if you come we will buy you and ANYONE you bring a soda. Here is what is awesome about that:

Drinks are $1 ($1.12 including tax) – Last week 31 students showed up and the whole event cost $34.72. I can not think of a better way to spend $34 for a two hour youth event.

Outreach: This events is one that so many students bring their friends to in fact last summer multiple students I met in the summer that were guests of our students came to youth and got plugged in because they knew myself and some of our leaders. Building trust and relationships with new students before september is helpful for them to act on the invitation to the group in the fall. This safe off-site space is their territory and thus much more conducive for students to invite their friends to.

Discipleship- Its so great to check in with our students and have some real one on one conversations, ask about their life, how we can pray for them and encourage them. Our regular gather might be off for the summer, but pastoring our students happens every week and happens at McD’s

I fall in love with Youth Ministry again – In the midst of a really busy year and working with adult volunteers and attending staff meetings, I often find myself longing to connect with students and with the size of our group that isn’t always possible. Small relational events remind me of what God has called me to do. It’s those conversations that help me see the world through their eyes, and understand for a moment what its like to be in high school in 2012 and hopefully be a better pastor to them.

-Geoff

Add Comment July 8, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Value in Consistency

Youth Ministry is such a dynamic thing, change is common and needed, the group dynamics can shift week to week based on who is there and who is not. The temptation can be that sometimes we can be as dynamic with our approach week to week, changing style, flow and structure to a youth night. What I have noticing more and more is that a steadfast commitment to keeping a reliable and consistent structure can and will have more value and dare I say more fruit than a go with the flow style and here are two reasons why.

It Makes Outreach Easier: In the past year we have adopted a much more standardized format to our youth services, they are not the same week in and week out, but will always incorporate: a message of some kind, Worship and small group time for all students. What I have noticed as a result of this change is that students don’t ask, “what is happening at youth this week, I want to bring my friend out”. This was a question that as a small group leader several years ago I would get often. Students now know what to expect , and as a result are inviting their non-churched friends in droves. Consistency is many ways is safety, and creating a safe place for students to grow in their faith is of the upmost importance.

It is helpful to your leaders: I remember vividly, being a small group leader, and having one of those “God is moving huge nights” with my small group guys and just knowing that the next week we would take it further, challenging them more, sharing more. But then we got to youth the next week and its now crazy games night instead. The lack of consistency meant a loss of momentum and in some respects missed opportunities to build on what was already happening. Having consistency makes being one of your small group leaders so much better because you know that you are going to have time next week to answer those tough questions that you had to park, or for students to share how they implemented what was God put on their heart the week before. I am not saying not to have fun games night, but have the scheduled in a way that they are not counterproductive the the purpose of your ministry.

This might not be for everyone, its challenging to do, to set a vision, purpose and objective and stick with it. But from what I have seen, the impact it is having on students spiritual growth is worth all the hard work and discipline we have put in. Your students and leader will appreciate it, I know ours have.

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 MTDB. You can, too! See how right here.