Josh GriffinMore PostsSmall Group Statistics 2010-2011

You might remember back in November when I posted our small group statistics for the year – it proved to be a post that got a ton of views and interest. Here’s our percentages so far as we get ready to launch the Life Group year in our youth ministry:

  • Girls: 57%
  • Guys: 43%
  • Freshman: 26%
  • Sophomores: 27%
  • Juniors: 25%
  • Seniors: 22%
  • Largest percentage from a single school: 21%

What do the numbers mean? Well … here are a few thoughts:

  • There are more girls in small groups than guys. This is typical for us the past few years that we have data.
  • We have work to do to reach more guys and help them become spiritual leaders.
  • I’m pumped about the percentages across the classes. The nearly even spread was surprising!
  • Holding on to a high percentage of seniors is really important. This is a significant increase from last year!

JG

TagsComments 3 View Comments September 23, 2010

Josh GriffinMore PostsHow to Choose the Perfect Small Group Curriculum

As we head into the Life Group season full-swing, one of the big questions we have to answer is about curriculum for our small groups. Our answer is the LIVE curriculum from Simply Youth Ministry, with it’s 4-year teaching plan and great technology behind it. Whatever you choose for your ministry, you would be served well by following the criteria Youth Ministry 360 lays out – here’s 3 of the 9 principles they shared on their site today:

Teachability
How “teachable” is the resource? There some great looking resources out there that are written or laid-out in such a way that makes them difficult for a teacher to actually teach. So, lesson teachability is a huge factor. The Internet has made purchasing curriculum a breeze. These days, I can’t imagine buying a resource without viewing a sample lesson. Any reputable (and some who aren’t) resource provider will offer a downloadable sample of the resource. Take the time to download and really check it out. Read for theological accuracy, teaching style, and overall comfort. It’s like trying on clothes: you know when it fits.

Free Is Great, But . . .Lots and lots of folks offer free lessons.
We do it (and you can check our free stuff out here). And most of the major curriculum providers do, too. Free lessons are great for individual use, or to get a feel for a specific provider’s overall curriculum strategy. But, you’ll never be effective if your youth ministry relies on free lessons for the majority of your teaching time. It’s a shotgun approach that is tough to be very strategic with. Here’s one thing I have learned: there are a million people offering free lessons online. All you need is a blog, and Microsoft Word, and you can create and distribute resources. Not all of it is good, accurate, reliable, or usable. By all means, take advantage of free resources. Take advantage of ours and the many other great ones available. But, don’t become too dependent on them. Honestly, you are better off writing your own curriculum than having a steady diet of free lessons where you can’t control the direction.

There Is No Perfect Curriculum
The best curriculum in the world is still just a starting point. You know your students better than the men and women who create the curriculum. It’s a good idea to know that you will always have to make tweaks to lessons to make sure they fit your students’ personalities and level of spiritual development. You know you’ve chosen the right curriculum when you find that the tweaks are relatively minor, and that for the most part, you are not having to make them week-in, and week-out.

JG

TagsComments Add Comment September 22, 2010

Josh GriffinMore PostsChris Wohlers — Newest Member of the HSM Team

Chris Wohlers was added to the HSM team this week – we’ve been praying for the right new addition to the team and he’s the man! Chris grew up in the church, Saddleback’s High School Ministry, and was a small group leader already. He will be helping out primarily developing the weekend entry-level service and continuing to grow the area of spiritual growth. Yeah!

JG

TagsComments Add Comment September 21, 2010

Josh GriffinMore PostsThe Importance of Worship to Youth Ministry Volunteers

Matt and Steven have been doing a good series of posts from the youth ministry volunteer perspective over on Volunteer Youth Ministry. Here’s the 2nd one in their series of 10 upcoming posts, this one focusing on the importance of volunteers attending an adult service. Good stuff from a rookie and veteran volunteer. Here’s a clip, head there for it all:

I really love serving in Student Ministry. I love the feeling I get when I interact with students, and I love being able to talk a student through a problem. I love seeing a student who came in with a sad face and something heavy on his heart, leave the service with a smile on his face because God worked through me to help a student work out his problem. I’d love to be able to serve at all four of our high school services each week, but I also know I can’t serve and really worship at the same time. I can pray, I can get students excited about worshiping, I can praise God, I can sing Hosanna with the best of them, but it’s not the same as attending a worship service where I am totally focused on God.

Attending worship service can make even my worst day a good one. I feel re-energized and revived and ready to serve God because I strengthened my connection to Him. I’ll pick up tidbits from worship that I’ll use in next week’s high school small group lesson. I can feel a difference when I connect with God through worship every week. Here’s the other thing….parents of my small group students often see me in worship each week.

JG

TagsComments Add Comment September 20, 2010

Josh GriffinMore PostsGROW ON THE GO: Mobile Discipleship for Small Group Leaders

I couldn’t be more excited to launch a new non-program for discipleship in our ministry we’re calling Grow on the Go (actually we’re revising and bringing this back from HSM past). We’re taking some simple small plastic bins from Target and dropping in some great biblical resources to help our small group leaders challenge students to take a spiritual step. To get a fuller understanding of how small groups are connected to spiritual growth and discipleship, maybe check out 5 Parts to a Typical Small Group Night or 6 Ways to Help Small Group Students Take a Spiritual Step.

So when a Life Group leader recognizes an opportunity to challenge a student to grow on their own, they have some tools right there (or in the trunk of their car) at their disposal. So what’s inside the bins? Glad you asked! We put 1 or 2 of the following resources in the mobile version of our Grow Booth:

I’m convinced that including a little bit of training on these tools at the beginning of the year and putting them in leader’s hands will make a big difference!

JG

TagsComments 3 View Comments September 20, 2010

Josh GriffinMore PostsBook Review: 99 Thoughts on Leading Well

99 Thoughts on Leading Well is the first book by Reza Zadeh and seventh in Group Publishing’s line of 99 Thoughts (I’ve written 99 Thoughts for Youth Workers and 99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders). Reza’s little book of leadership wisdom is a collection of his learnings in his experience as a college pastor, as well as a collection of principles gleans from a host of other sources. If you’re an avid reader of leadership books (like me), the book may feel familiar in parts and only take stride near the middle and through the end. If you’re not overloading on leadership books from everyone and their mother, this assortment of experience and acumen will help guide you as you serve students and your volunteer team.

JG

SIDE NOTE: The cover looks an AWFUL lot like it has a fried egg on it, right?

TagsComments 1 View Comments September 19, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts4 Goals for Our Youth Ministry High School Campus Pastors

Today was a huge step in a more recent dream for our high school ministry – we are in the preparation and launch phase of a new care system. Simply put, we have some incredible volunteers that are willing to pray and be available to the students at a specific high school in the area. Like many youth ministries, we serve multiple schools – so there will be two campus pastors for each (of the phase one) local high school. There will be one guy and one girl – we figured the team approach works best and liked having both genders represented as well as those types of specific needs arise.

This is a non-program, just caring adults who want to engage with the students on campus. Here’s the thinking behind the challenge I asked them to take on this morning:

Be available for contact
We’re going to publish this list of volunteers and their contact information in a ton of places – the announcements during the countdown, at our student leader meetings, etc. We want them to get some attention! This is not a program, so it is all about students organically contacting their campus pastor when they have a need. When a new student comes to our ministry from one of these high schools, we’ll immediately get them the contact person of their campus pastor to help follow-up. A girl named Bethany visited this weekend – how awesome would it have been for me to give her the text number of a caring adult who will pray for her and grab coffee with her after her first couple of days of school?

Be ready to care/counsel
I posted a couple weeks ago about Caring for Students, and I think I’m ready to add this new layer to that drawing. These campus pastors will be available, trained and eager to jump in and listen to students needs and pastorally care for them. They aren’t meant to replace a small group leader or The Landing, but be a bridge to a next step.

Show up on campus
Be visible at sporting events and fine arts stuff. Walk the campus occasionally and pray for the students. Use your relationships with core students to meet their friends and expand the reach of care. When there is a need or crisis in their life or at the school, our prayer is that their first thought is to turn to you for help.

Speak occasionally in clubs
From time to time speak in the high school Bible club, FCA or Cookies for Christ. Identify and encourage teachers who are representing Jesus in the public schools. Take advantage of the club platform to help students grow into campus pastors themselves.

Each school will look different – none of them are programs, just opportunities for relationships with students right in the school. Excited about this idea! Just a thought that might trigger something for you – maybe pray about 3-4 volunteers to step up in your context and take on a similar role.

JG

TagsComments 2 View Comments September 15, 2010

Josh GriffinMore PostsBook Review: The Slow Fade

Over the weekend I read The Slow Fade: Why You Matter in the Story of Twentysomethings by Reggie Joyner, Chuck Bomar and Abbie Smith. Despite the fact that I don’t work with college-age students, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. The different perspectives are interesting (Reggie observing the slow fade from afar, Chuck addressing it as a pastor, Abbie living it out) and there were a couple of really exceptional learnings from the book.

The actual “answer” in the book is deceptively simple. To combat the Slow Fade of college-age people leaving the church, they must be connected to a caring adult. That inter-generational ministry is the answer to this problem. Each of the authors go after the “older should teach the younger” Scripture in Titus 2 and I Timothy 5. The other thought that engaged my mind the most was the discussion of the youth ministry finish line. That we take students to the end of their senior year then set them free. The challenge in part of the book was to extend the finish line through college – that small group leaders, mentors and adult figures should continue on through this most crucial time in a young person’s life.

Some good stuff to think about – the book isn’t quite as long as it appears at first, there’s quite a bit of filler appendixes and a chapter of another book in the back. Good read if you work with upperclassmen and/or college Twentysomethings.

JG

TagsComments 2 View Comments September 15, 2010

Josh GriffinMore PostsLAUNCH Announcements Video

This weekend one of our amazing small group leaders and geeks put together an incredible announcement video. It was the perfect end to our LAUNCH series back-to-school kickoff and a much-needed change of pace from talking head announcements. So fun!

JG

TagsComments Add Comment September 15, 2010

Josh GriffinMore PostsGUEST 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)

TagsComments Add Comment September 12, 2010
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