saddleback hsm | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts Frequently Asked Questions for Saddleback’s HSM

This week we’re going to take on the top 3 questions that we get when people come to visit our youth ministry. You’ll get mine (Josh) today and Kurt’s tomorrow. Here are 3 very frequently asked questions:

How can I start a youth ministry internship at my church?
We are very blessed to have some really incredible interns at our church and a program that doesn’t cost the church a ton of money that produces some pretty amazing youth workers. If you want to start one, you’ve got to answer some very basic but fundamental questions about the program:

Will we pay the interns?
Where are they going to live/eat/office?
What is the duration of the program?
What are we hoping to accomplish in both them and in our ministry?

If you can answer those basic questions, you are off to a great start! For starters, I would pay the interns a very small stipend, if possible, to help cover gas and a couple meals, and keep the duration short like a summer term. Map out the basics of what they will be doing and how you want to shape them and you’re well on your way.

While I don’t have space for much more, for extra credit here’s a roadmap of where to go next:

Look for margin where you can add managing interns to your regular workweek. The last thing interns need is an absent leader!
Create a required reading list during the internship.
Schedule a few times for them to interact with key leaders in the church.
As you plan their development, consider having them observe, follow then lead an event, youth service and volunteer from application to placement.

How many events do you guys do at your church?
We made a decision long ago that we weren’t going to build a ministry that was event-driven. But to be honest, we have to continually fight the advance of program creep. Program creep is where you continue to add more and more and not take anything away!

With that in mind, we have our weekly youth group on the weekend and small groups that meet in homes during the week, and then just occasional supplemental events from there. A serve project here, a Dodgeball tournament there. We consciously don’t do a ton of events to keep balance on the biblical purposes. Just so you know, in summer we do a TON more events, so things change with the seasons, too!

So do you teach every week at youth group?
I would guess I teach about 50% of the time in our youth ministry—I love giving the platform away for so many reasons:

Students need to hear from different voices
Sometimes the same thing being said by someone else sticks.
Leaders need platforms to develop their speaking skills.
I need a break!

Don’t be afraid to give away your platform a little bit—you might be surprised at how quickly you fall in love with the byproducts of it. Just keep in mind as the point person make sure you are speaking at the key times and visible and supportive when you’re not on stage.

This post was written by Josh Griffin and Kurt Johnston and originally appeared as part of Simply Youth Ministry Today free newsletter. Subscribe to SYM Today right here.

5 View Comments April 16, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Former Youth Worker is Still at Your Church: Part 1

“What do I do when the former youth pastor is still attending our church?”

I get this question from time to time and have actually had to work in this environment in both of the churches I’ve served in over the past 20 years.

Sometimes the former youth pastor takes a promotion and ends up as a worship pastor or the director of a regional campus. Maybe they were a key volunteer holding together the ministry during transition until you stepped into the role. In larger churches, he or she might have been promoted to the Student Ministries Pastor and you take over a junior high or high school ministry. In any case, contending with the former head of a youth ministry you are now charged to lead can be unsettling, challenging or even painful.

I wanted to share a few thoughts today to help you as you process and live in this situation:

If the youth pastor is supportive
I had the privilege of serving under Doug Fields when he was the Student Ministries Pastor at our church. Now I get to carry on his legacy as the high school pastor. People always talk about the “big shoes” I had to fill and the pressure of following him. Doug has an incredible intuition – in just a few minutes he can spot weaknesses and offer ideas on how to come up with creative solutions to them. He is honest with me, he loves me and I know he makes our ministry better. That’s why I hang on every word he says – because of that relationship I know he cares about me as a leader, our high school ministry and wants what’s best for us both. At the same time he wants me to break the rules, challenge the methods of the past and move the ministry forward. He values what I value even if it is different from the way he did it.

A supportive former youth pastor who remains engaged can still be intimidating and challenging but it is one of the best gifts you can be given as a leader. Having a cheerleader and a fresh set of outside eyes is invaluable as you rarely look up from the trenches of day-to-day ministry. Being set up to win by the youth pastor who went before you is affirming and legacy-building. Thank God if you have one of these loving men or women in your church today.

If the youth pastor is not supportive … check back tomorrow for part 2!

Would love to know the situation you serve in and ideas you have to thrive in this environment, too!

JG

1 View Comments April 15, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts Saddleback Student Worship Conference

Pretty excited for our students (and maybe yours if you don’t live too far away) to participate in a 2-day Student Worship Conference here at Saddleback Church. Here’s a little bit from the website that just launched this week:

To be quite honest, this conference is probably similar to other worship conferences, however, this is geared specifically to students– to truly build them and see a bigger picture of what it means to lead people to the throne of GOD. Even more, this Student Worship Conference is intended to help equip students with the basics of what worship is and what it means to be a musician and/or a vocalist in ministry. Many adults volunteers, youth pastors, worship leaders or pastors assume students are to already know what they need to know when it comes to leading worship through music. WRONG!!! No student knows what they are doing. For the most part, most adults do not even know what they are doing. We need to teach all students to become worship pastors and not just worship leaders, because anyone can lead worship (we will explain that more at the conference).

There will be lots of special guests, student bands and fun here at the Refinery at Saddleback. Get more details here, hope you will join us!

JG

1 View Comments April 15, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 209

Weekend Teaching Series: You Own the Weekend: Mission Viejo High School (week 2 of 5)

Sermon in a Sentence: We’re all sinking.
Service Length: 63 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend the students did an incredible job owning the service – every aspect was done by students from that high school and they did an absolutely incredible job. The theme was we’re all sinking and they talked about how we’re sinking in life without Christ and did a great job explaining the plan of salvation to the youth group. These weekends surge in attendance every year, so it was awesome for them to have such a clear, focused message with a clear presentation of the Gospel.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Killer decorations – they took a totally different approach and rather than going all out with their school mascots,logos and colors they themed it very aquatic – super creative and a nice change of pace from the typical You Own the Weekend. My favorite was the entry way with green streamers hanging from the ceiling, made it feel like you were walking through seaweed when you walked into the youth room. Hilarious videos, too!

Music Playlist: Under the Sea [Disney cover remix], The Earth is Yours, Always, 10,000 Reasons

Favorite Moment: After the service was over students pointed to leaders if someone had questions or had made a decision during the service. But more importantly, they offered themselves to talk to others. This is the essence of You Own the Weekend – students take the lead. Love it.

Up next: You Own the Weekend: Capo (week 3 of 5)

Add Comment April 9, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts Mission Owns the Weekend – Punched!

This video made by our students for Mission Viejo’s You Own the Weekend (inspired by a Digital Short, of course). Lots of laughs and fun!

JG

3 View Comments March 18, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts Mission Owns the Weekend Promo Video

Loved this video made by our students to help promote the You Own the Weekend series when Mission Viejo took over. So good!

JG

Add Comment March 9, 2013

Colton HarkerMore Posts Helping Students Serve

We recently just wrapped up a series called “You Are Here” where we explored God’s purpose for our lives. The fifth week of the series was on serving, the why and how. Of course, we wouldn’t be able to finish a weekend on serving without a “call to action.” Normally, that would be us having a ministry fair where students could go and sign up for the different ministry teams that our ministry and our church have to offer. The problem with ministry fairs are that only half the students that write their names down on the sign-up sheets actually take their commitment seriously. There seemed to be something missing. When we reflected on it, we thought it stemmed from a misunderstanding of their SHAPE and a misunderstanding of what serving God means.

Now you can have as many ministry teams and service projects as you want, but if you don’t paint a good portrait of serving, you’re going to have some problems getting students out there. So during the weekend, we talked about how the students were created to serve. That each of us is created to be serving in our own unique ways. Instead of following this up with a ministry fair, we decided to provide our students with the opportunity to have one-on-one time with a staff member to talk about their own personal SHAPE and how they can start serving in their church, school, and community.

So throughout the week, my teammate, Hannah, and I have been meeting with students and had some really awesome conversations. I would really recommend doing something similar to this. It has helped boost some of our ministry teams and it has helped me build new or stronger relationships with students in our ministry. Here are some things that I have learned while doing it:

-The goal is to help students see the big picture of their lives. They have all the pieces, they just need help putting them together. So the first part is just getting them to talk about themselves so you can figure out all of their pieces. Here are a few of the questions that I usually ask:

Are you involved at your school?
Are you in any extra-curricular activities?
Have you ever served before? What was that experience like?
What do you think you are good at?
What do you love to do (anything counts here, even video games!)?
Have you ever thought about what your spiritual gifts might be (this one is always a long shot)?
Is there a particular people group that you have a passion for or a connection to (single mothers, hospitalized children, etc.)?
What’s your story?

-When you start suggesting serving ideas to them, keep in mind that serving doesn’t have to be joining a ministry team or coming to a service project. Serving can be them making better use of the situation that God has put them in. Meaning, serving for them could be being a light on their soccer team or getting involved with their school’s Christian club. But feel free to push the student out of their comfort zone and offer some big things like a weekend serving retreat or even a mission trip!

-You also don’t have to have all of the answers for them during your first meeting. The one-on-ones are opening up a door of communication up with the student where both of you can follow-up with each other later on.

If you’ve never heard of SHAPE or want more information on it, check out Doug Field’s book “Congratulations…You’re Gifted!” It is an awesome book and a really helpful way to look at how God has designed us!

Colton [Email||Twitter]

2 View Comments March 6, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 208

Weekend Teaching Series: You Are Here (What on Earth Am I Here For? church-wide campaign, series premiere, week 6 of 6)

Sermon in a Sentence:
Service Length: 63 minutes

Understandable Message: This week Parker Stech taugh about friendship evangelism.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We wanted to promote our Engage Spring Break mission trip – so brought a student up on stage who went on the trip last year and did a Q&A with her. We also had a couple fun videos. Lots of students involved in the program from the greeting to production as well.

Music Playlist: He Is Alive, Your Love Never Fails, One Thing Remains, We Shine, Here For You

Favorite Moment: After the service a couple of great youth workers were visiting from Indianapolis, IN. They were awesome – had a great time at Red Robin after the service talking about youth ministry, and some thoughts on where they were headed in the next season of ministry. So fun!

Up next: Worship Together Weekend (all-church, no HSM services)