routine | More Than Dodgeball

Chris WesleyMore Posts Switch It Up

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut in youth ministry and, it’s also very frustrating. When ministry is moving slow it feels like no one is engaged and everything is happening below your standards. There will be seasons in your ministry when you feel like your calling has just become a job.

If you feel like your ministry needs a pick me up, then look at switching things up. Change what you do, try something new and give your ministry new life. To get out of your rut you don’t need a major overhaul, just a few teaks. To change and shake things up in your ministry try giving:

Someone Else The Reigns: If you are constantly making the decisions, choosing and leading activities you’ll find your ministry limited. When you are limited you feel trapped and stuck. By delegating leadership and creative responsibilities to other volunteers you enable them to take the ministry where you could not. This does not mean they are better leaders than you it’s just giving it a different approach.

Groups Permission To Play: Your small group leaders need to know that they have ownership of their groups. This means allowing them to once in a while deviate from the plan by just sharing life, playing a game or addressing a different issue. Giving permission to play means allowing the group to grow organically.

Yourself A Break: The reason your ministry might feel tired is because you feel tired too. Give yourself a break by taking a vacation, building in more margin and working on your Sabbath. When your mind and soul are at rest they are more equipped to think outside the box. A creative mind is a rested one.

Switch it up by giving away the burdens and responsibilities that might wear you down. Give yourself room to breathe so that that you can think clearly on where you need to go. Your ministry needs you for the long haul which means tweaking and adjusting your routine from time to time. Don’t be afraid to switch it up.

How do you switch it up?

Chris Wesley (@chrisrwesley)

Add Comment April 16, 2013

Geoff StewartMore Posts Changing Things Up: 7 NIGHT

The summer this year flew by and I can’t believe we are going to kick off our new school year of Journey in just a few days. Over the summer, I spent a lot of time praying and thinking about what we needed to change this year and set out a few goals and one of them being:

We need to break up the year so that our youth gather wouldn’t continue to be a replacement for Church.

The reality was that with worship, preaching, small groups and community, it ticks off most of the boxes as far as what life in the Church is like. There is huge value in all of those things, but we discerned that we needed to make some adjustments to break up our year to help students connect more on Sundays and from that came 7 Night

We have Journey (our youth group) Thursday nights with Jr High from 6:30 to 8:30 and Sr High from 7:30 to 9:30 with them overlapping for worship. It has been a great model for us, but we have been finding that especially in the long stretch after Christmas, we would lose momentum, as the program was similar week in and week out. Not only that, but few students are attending on Sunday services but since we are not “Church” we are free to rejig to help alleviate these challenges we have noticed.

So this year we have decided to work in 6-week teaching modules with the 7^th week being something totally different called 7 Night. The start time for 7 Night is 30 mins later for the Jr High and 30 mins earlier for Sr High. If we do an event that night, we are committing to the cost being only $7

7 Night happens every 7^th Week @ 7:00pm and cost $7

The first 7 Night is the week of Halloween, the second is 2 weeks out from Christmas, the third is Valentines day, the fourth right after March break and the last on is near the May long weekend (Canada). So far we are planning a student run talent show, 5 minute film festival, Inner-city missions night, and are working on finding a youth group to crash one night.

Our student leaders and volunteers are pumped about it. Ask me in June if it was a success but with buy-in like we have, I think its going to be a huge success.

-Geoff (Twitter)

2 View Comments September 12, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts I’m Not a Morning Person Video

Played this video as an illustration of how I feel about morning people during the talk about our daily routines with God. Students loved it – not sure of the source, but enjoy it if it fits with your talk sometime soon.

JG