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Josh GriffinMore Posts IceBreaker Questions iPhone App + Giveaway

Last year I let you know about Group Games, an iPhone App that Calum Henderson developed for youth workers. Well, he just created a new iPhone app called IceBreaker Questions that fits perfectly for youth ministry, too! It came out this week and I think it has lots of potential:

Check it out on iTunes today – and leave a comment on this post to win 1 of 5 copies he’s giving away here on the blog. Nice!

JG

34 View Comments February 27, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Better Discussions For Small Groups

What makes a great small group discussion for you? Is it the teens consistently talking? Is it about controversial debates? Is it one teen opening up about a huge issue in their life? What makes a great small group discussion will differ from person to person; however, if what you are talking about isn’t bringing the group closer together and to Christ you might want to rethink structure and content.

While you can’t force deep and engaging conversation there are things you can do to create a framework that will make them possible.

Some of those factors are:

Preparing Your Team In Advance – Not that conversations need to be orchestrated; however, if you want teens to go deeper in certain areas of their faith you need to create a path to lead them down. This means preparing your small group ministers to lead them. Get them the questions out early enough, make sure they don’t have any questions and give them resources to widen their knowledge of the subject.

Setting Up The Right Environment – If teens are uncomfortable they’ll be distracted from engaging in conversation. Make sure the room is clean, comfortable and set up for engaging conversation.

Embracing Silence – If it’s a heavy subject give them the time to process the question. The tendency is to blow through the questions because silence is awkward; however, you might be cutting off a thought, question or idea that will move the discussion to a deeper level.

Gauging The Mood – It might not be the right night to talk about certain subjects; therefore, don’t force it. If there is pushback on a subject ask the teens, “Why?” if they aren’t ready to talk about it, then have the conversation move to something they want to discuss. By gauging the mood you are showing them that you care about what’s on their heart and mind.

Great discussions are ones that move us into a deeper relationship with one another. However, don’t get frustrated if every small group isn’t profound and deep. There are going to be times when you are amazed by what comes forth and others when you feel like a failure. Small groups need to be organic, which means growth. But a small group that grows through discussion is one that will strengthen and last.

What else can create great discussion in small group?

Chris Wesley is the Director of Student Ministry at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, MD. You can read more great youth ministry articles and thoughts on his exceptional blog Marathon Youth Ministry.

Add Comment June 9, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Weigh In – Volume 10: Senior Pastor Making Changes to Youth Group

From time to time I post a question that comes into the blog for YOU to answer. What advice would you give this youth pastor’s wife in this time of crisis:

We’ve been at this church for a year – already longer than the last 2 youth workers! We started with about a dozen kids and now we have almost triple that on Sunday mornings (more evangelistic) and a solid 15 or so during a midweek program (more discipleship). Here’s the problem: our senior pastor just cancelled the Sunday program so we are basically back where we started. We’ve literally cried about this, and was wondering if you had an insight on where we should go from here. Help!

So … your turn. What should they do?

JG

13 View Comments July 14, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Weigh In – Volume 9: Death in the Youth Group

Occasionally I pose a question that was directed to me over to you for an answer. Its called Weigh In and here’s a great question I received from a youth worker on Twitter last night. Here’s the ask, MTDB community, to respond:

One of my students had her brother die yesterday. What are some ways our youth group can respond to her and the family?

Can you offer some ideas or help? Please do in the comments!

JG

3 View Comments June 16, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Questions from HSM’s Parent Panel

A couple weeks ago we hosted a parent panel as part of HSM’s How to Raise Your Parents series. We had students text in their questions and they are a goldmine. Here is a selection of the questions that students texted in over that weekend. Some pretty insightful stuff in here, I think. If you’re wondering what your teenagers are asking, here you go:

why do parents pick favorites with their kids?
how do you tell your parents your tired of them fighting?
how do I tell my parents how to let go?????? Seriously
what do you do when your parents dont give you a reason for not being able to do something besides saying” because i said so”
views on sexting?
how do you help a parent who refuses to live by christ and accept him?
If parents were hurt by the way their parents raised them, why would they raise their own kids like that?
my mom is very hypocritical to me and how i treat her. how do i handle that?
if you were born a guy but then changed yourself to a girl, then became a christian, would you change yourself back?
When parents r extreamly stressed out and it feels like they take it out on you wat do u do?
is it ok to not like your parents
how can i say back off without actually saying back off
my parents are in a bad financial situation and are always stressed and its taking away from the time that we can be bonding with our family what do I do
my dad is extremely lenient with me and sometimes I feel like he doesn’t pay attention to me or doesn’t want to…how do I get him to see me?
“Why do parents always punish their children for negative actions but seldom even notice the positive or beneficial actions?”
If your son/daughter came out as gay how would you react?
how do I still be a kid in a household where I’m fulfilling a parent’s role?
if i messed up sexualy or with drugs or drinking should i tell my parents even if they will never find out
why do parents get mad when we don’t listen but when you don’t listen to us it’s ok?
im super close to my dad but i dont really get along with my mom. Is it ok to talk to my dad about how to deal with the relationship with my mom?
do you think its okay for parents to read your texts?
How can we as son/daughters make the sex talk less ackward when mom and dad aren’t great at it?
why do we always have to keep our rooms clean?
should my parents be friends with me on facebook
what would you do if your child said they did not believe in god?
Do you have sex?
my parents won’t let me go to parties after dances. I want to go and i’m strong in my faith what should i do to show them i’m ready
How do you tell parents who are closer to parole officers than parents to let you have more freedom?
my parent smokes marijuana he doesnt know i know but they incourage me not too..how can i confront them?
if my dad is a football worshipper and lives for football but i want to quit, how do i tell him?
how do parents feel about us having friends that do drugs/drink if i dont do it.
I like a guy he’s a mormon…he has not tried to convert me…is it ok if I start dating him?
I’m so close to graduating, but still have so many rules like I’m a kid. Why not let me grow up a bit?\
I did something really bad, how do i start regaining the trust of my parents back… can u give me some action steps?

JG

3 View Comments June 8, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 128

Weekend Teaching Series: Q with Sean McDowell (series premiere, week 1 of 3)
Sermon in a Sentence: Truth is critically important in our lives and our faith – learn the difference between objective and subjective truth and you can better understand what the Bible and Jesus claims.
Service Length: 91 minutes

Understandable Message: Sean did a super job introducing this series on apologetics by challenging students to understand truth. He talked about the Correspondence Theory of Truth – walking them through both subjective and objective sides of truth. His talk led him to huge topics like abortion, slavery, homosexuality and more. A very heady message but spoken as plainly as possible. It was an incredible kickoff to the series.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: The service was too long as it was at the 4:30pm, so we cut most all of the programming to make room for content the rest of the weekend. Sean’s talk was so strong and well-balanced between humor and insight, so the pacing of the service still felt right without anything more or less. Students served everywhere – including a new freshman girl as producer in the control room – she knocked it out of the park (way to go Nikki!).

Music Playlist: Look to You, Forever Reign, Beautiful Lord, Love Came Down

Favorite Moment: When Sean led students through a discussion on abortion, many students suggested it was a matter of preference or personal choice. Sean helped them see that the logical conclusion, and the objective truth of the Bible, says otherwise. Great eye-opening moment in his message. Loved it.

Up Next: “Q” with Sean McDowell (week 2 of 3) [see the whole series arc here]

3 View Comments February 1, 2011

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.