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Josh GriffinMore Posts New Youth Ministry Teaching Series: The End

Excited about the release of a new resource this week at Simply Youth Ministry – a 2-week sermon series about Heaven and Hell called The End. You can read more of the details about each of the weekend services here on my blog (week 1 and week 2) and if the actual sermon outlines and graphics would be helpful to you, go ahead and pick it up.

JG

Add Comment November 8, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts 20% Off Resources Today and Tomorrow at Simply Youth Ministry

Quick heads up on an opportunity to pick up some great youth ministry resources for a discount: Simply Youth Ministry is giving you 20% off of just about everything in their store. The only catch is that you have to do it quick – the promo code scareandy is only good for today and tomorrow. What would I pick up? Easy:

Emergency Response Handbook for Youth Ministry ($14.99, now $3.99)
iLife Super Series by Doug Fields ($50.00, now $12.79)
Thriving Youth Groups by Jeanne Mayo ($13.99, now about $7.00)
Through the Bible in 12 Weeks ($14.99, now $7.99)
The Landing: Celebrate Recovery for Students ($199.99, now $159)
Case of 1-Minute Bibles by Doug Fields ($449, now $239)

JG

Add Comment October 26, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts 2 Frequently Asked Questions – Small Groups and Youth Ministry Internships

There are a couple of questions I get quite often from youth workers thinking about making some shifts in their specific youth ministry context. I thought it might be good to share my typical answers to them in case you were wondering the same thing or looking for someone to dialogue about them right about now. Here you go!

I need help with small groups! Happy to help – start with a search on the blog for the term “life groups” or “small groups” and browse through a bunch of the stuff I’ve written about them for the past couple of years. Hopefully something in there is what you’re looking for. You can also contact Jessica Torres, the HSM small groups coordinator here at Saddleback. She’ll work to answer specific questions you may have and let you in on the trends we’re seeing and stuff that is and isn’t working that might be helpful. You might also want to consider picking up the great book Small Groups from Start to Finish, by Doug Fields and Matt McGill. It is a great tool that can help you navigate launching groups in your youth ministry, too!

I’m thinking about starting a youth ministry internship at my church! That’s awesome – we need more churches helping the next generation of youth workers to get their hands dirty and serve in the local church. Check out everything we do here at Saddleback for internships – you can get most all of the info on what we hope and plan for our interns to experience by clicking here. You could definitely send your best and brightest our way – we’ve been blessed to really help a bunch of youth workers get their start with 2-years of jam-packed experience. And you can also email Jamie McNeff who can walk you through other specific questions you may have, too.

JG

Add Comment October 22, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Cage Fight for 99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders

Got the best email today – a youth worker name Jerry tried to get enough of 99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders for his volunteers but couldn’t because it was temporarily sold out (!!) at Simply Youth Ministry and Amazon. Died laughing:

Hey Team!

Take a look at this picture. Study it well. When you’re ready, scroll down and keep reading.

Let me point out a few things here. First of all, let’s start with the most obvious. The book.

This is a book I want to give you as a gift. You’re on my team and I can’t tell you how much I esteem and appreciate that fact. I wish like anything that this book came along with an expensive surf-n-turf dinner but believe me, once you open the book, you’ll find that the feast is for your soul, your spirit, your mind, and your heart as a small group leader.

Next, I’d like to point out the guy on the computer screen to the far right of the picture. That’s Josh Griffin. Josh, along with Doug Fields (but mostly Josh) wrote the book. Josh is the high school ministry pastor at Saddleback Church and he wrote this book for you. His face there is on his www.morethandodgeball.com blog site. Subscribe to it.

And the email on the left of the picture above that you can’t read unless you have bionic squinting ability, is an email from Josh Griffin himself to yours truly. I had written Josh to congratulate him on the success of the book—a book that has become quite difficult to find due to high demands. Squint hard enough and you’ll see that Josh called me “friend” in his email. So, it’s official.

Which brings me to something that you can’t see in the picture above—well, not directly. In the picture, my hot hand is holding one copy of the book I want to give to all of you. Just out of camera range are 9 other copies. I have 10 total. I ordered more than that, but 10 was all the distributor had, so that’s all they sent. Here’s the snag: The phenomenally gifted team of small group leaders I lead has 23 people on it of which you are one. Those of you good at math have already figured out that 10 is less than 23. So, how do I decide which 10 leaders get the first round of books?

Do I give it to the 10 best-looking leaders? That would make for an awkward situation at our leader meeting this Sunday, wouldn’t it?

Do I give it to the leaders who have been around the longest? Maybe, but we’ve got 2 MORE new leaders joining our ranks THIS Sunday, and they’re phenomenal too!

Do I toss a coin? That wouldn’t help in this situation!

Do I take bribes? Yes, I do.

Do I have an essay contest? I think that’s far too collegiate for us.

How about a cage match to the death, until only 10 leaders remain? Yes, that’s it. That’s the answer. We will fight tooth and nail over 10 copies of Josh Griffin’s book.

Hope to see you Sunday at 1 p.m. in The Warehouse. We will wrap up around 3 p.m….well, 10 of you will.

Also, this week we unveil our new Student Leader team for the 2010-2011 year! Come gawk at them!

See you soon, my friends! You are so loved by God its beyond description, and so loved and appreciated by me.

I want to serve in this guy’s youth group. Awesome.

JG

1 View Comments October 14, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Use Promo Code MTDB to Save 10%

Here’s a cool deal running this week on Doug Fields’ and I new book, 99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders. It is already in it’s second printing! Now to be honest, the publisher had small dreams for this book, so it isn’t quite as glorious as it sounds. Ha!

So to celebrate, here’s an exclusive for readers of the More Than Dodgeball blog (share it, Twitter it, whatever is fine). You can get 10% off each copy when you add 99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders to your cart over at Simply Youth Ministry. Just use the promo Code mtdb when you check out!

I hope it is a tool that benefits you and your volunteers!

JG

Add Comment October 3, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Rites of Passage Project

Really interested in this new (and totally free) resource site called Rites of Passage. It was designed by youth workers and caring adults at New Vision Church to help parents celebrate and make memorable the rites of physical and spiritual passage of their children. Love it!

Topics include driving, money and purity – a total of 7 round out the list. Good stuff, might be a resource you want to at least point parents to in the coming weeks. Thanks to Jeremy for the link!

JG

1 View Comments September 15, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Don’t Be Original Just Adapt

Each summer I examine what we are going to teach the students. Not sure what your ministry does but we deliver most of our teachings through message series in our worship and small group programs. I’ve tried creating my own stuff, only to find that I’ve wasted months writing something that’s not useful.

When it comes to curriculum or resources there are millions of options out there, some from reputable publishers, others we aren’t so sure about. There seems to be a definite challenge to find something that perfectly fits the way we do ministry, while staying true to our faith. That’s why I’m constantly looking at what I can adapt. So instead of trying to create my own I spend more of my time and energy on adapting what’s out there. So, why should we adapt?

It’s easier, it’s saves us stress, time and energy. When it comes to writing curriculum we need a jumping off point, a good resource is an excellent foundation to creating something that will fit your ministry. I think we feel as if we have to have something original, because original means new and new means hype. But adapting something, putting your twist on it will make it fresh and produce the same results with less work.

Now I know the pushback might be we don’t want to plagiarize and there is the pressure of being original. So some of you might wonder, “How do we borrow without stealing?”

Look for the resources that give you permission. Believe it or not there are a lot of publishers and authors that encourage adapting. Next look at taking pieces of the resource instead of changing around the whole thing. Many publishers will encourage taking pieces of what they produce and using it in the context of your program. There have been many times I’ve used a video but not the discussion questions, or I’ve taken an exercise but not the teaching. As long as you are borrowing and not stealing it’s fine. A lot of the resources I use are from out of my denomination (Roman Catholic); however, I’ve found a positive response by taking pieces here and there and adapting it to the context of my faith.

It’s hard being original all the time, some of us don’t have the time, some of us aren’t shaped to design, create and write resources, but that’s okay. The great thing about being a youth minister is being a part of a community that shares with one another and offers resources.

Blogs like this are a perfect place for sharing ideas, so I would encourage all of you who read this to share something that you’ve used and adapted for your ministry.

Chris Wesley is the Director of Student Ministry at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, MD. You can read more about his blog Marathon Youth Ministry (link to http://blog.youthnativity.org)