Josh GriffinMore PostsGoogle Searches That Lead Here: Volume 38

As usual, some amazing searches people put into Google this week that landed them here on the blog. And in related news, there was a new record of different searches – over 300 phrases/words brought over 1,000 people here the past 7 days. Here’s some of the more notable ones I pulled from the list:

  • myspace, read bulletin, im sorry
  • youth minister salaries
  • biggest snickers ever
  • halo 3 believe commercial
  • ministry of joshua god
  • nfl predicted standings
  • questions to ask before accepting a job
  • tall ship festival, dana point, sucks
  • benefits of being a pastor
  • chris sligh drunk
  • jordan sparks tattoo free mp3 download
  • lightsaber birthday cake
  • myths people believe
  • send it to my screen
  • the book your church doesn’t want you to read
  • 2007 monday night football commentators
  • 8 things a pastor musical smith, singspiration publishing
  • americans and vacations
  • are unicorns real creatures?
  • audible bible studies by david griffin
  • austin survivor saddleback testimony
  • cars for youth pastors
  • chocolate milk video
  • chucky cheeses in foothill ranch
  • church websites by snapshotweb
  • crystal skull discovered
  • deadliest catchd
  • wayne jarrett tauting michigan
  • email contacts of country who buy gold dust
  • how to measure cheetos crunchy and puff in a volume of 12 cheetos
  • jawa costumes for sale!
  • most powerful men jordan, trump, jesus christ by tom brady
  • northpoint church surviving the bear market date
  • over 70 percent of pastors are bivocational
  • polamalu tackled by hair clip
  • questions you should ask before excepting job
  • reason everything purpose driven
  • set of movie shooter
  • steve witt spread the fire
  • the most satisfying job in the world
  • the office british version
  • well done awards at coast hills church
  • why some believe in christ and others don’t
  • xbox halo christian discernment
  • youth group games around the ten commandments
  • bill daily saddleback church

JG

TagsComments Add Comment September 15, 2007

Josh GriffinMore PostsYouVersion Alpha Review

Been playing around with YouVersion on and off the past few days, and absolutely loving it.

Honestly, this is going to be a great tool. Perhaps one of the most significant innovations in our niche in a long time. Basically it is a community version of the Bible, allowing you to post comments, insight, learnings, video and more to the website. You also get your journal for personal thoughts you want to keep private. On it’s own it is essentially an online Bible – with the community and the tools they are providing it is far more than that. It will become a massive pool for youth workers to collaborate share and take their ministries far beyond their current state.

YouVersion isn’t quite ready for primetime, the search function has a ways to go yet and honestly there’s just not enough versions of the Bible for it to be universally accepted/used. Having said that, I’m confident they will add more versions of the Bible and the search feature, just in the time I’ve been checking it out, has improved drastically.

There is one word I want to use to describe the potential of this site: remarkable.

Honestly, imagine a place where you search for verses or topics, grab maps, illustrations, a testimony and a video as you prepare your talk. Imagine a place where youth workers congregate to share outlines, slides and MP3s with each other – all centered around the Bible. I love it – and can’t wait until everyone sees in in the Beta in the coming weeks. Brilliant work, gang.

JG



TagsComments Add Comment September 12, 2007

Josh GriffinMore PostsImpact 2007: Opening Session Schedule

OK, we just locked the opening session for Impact tonight – we roll at 9PM. Fun!

JG

TagsComments Add Comment March 2, 2007

Josh GriffinMore PostsAIDS Weekend in HSM

This weekend marks one of the first times we had a service solely dedicated to a message on AIDS. It was a powerful night, a “inbetween-series” message that coincided with World AIDS Day next weekend and Saddleback’s upcoming conference Race Against Time. The underlying theme was on care and compassion from the life of Jesus, but the application was directly to the AIDS community.

We didn’t go for the typical night – we marked hands with a red, blue or black “X” when students entered, didn’t play any games and even had a live testimony of someone living with AIDS. Kind of random on Saturday night and way too long, so we’ve made some significant tweaks to the service so Sunday should be strong.

  • The Red X represents someone with AIDS
  • The Blue X represents someone with AIDS who doesn’t know it yet
  • The Black X represents someone who is safe … for now

The students responded to the message by coming forward and writing their names on a burlap banner that was stung along the front. Many wrote messages, like “I care” or “I will become informed” and I think it’s something that we will hang somewhere as a reminder of what our student ministry is doing for the sick in our world.

Here’s the order of service this week:

Countdown video
Welcome from HS Pastor – preview next series
Cover Song – U2′s Where the Streets Have No Names – video in background from recent trip to Africa
Jared – Welcome, preview of service
8,000 die a day AIDS Video (student-made … and it’s better then the adult-made ones)
Josh – Obstacles that keep you from Making a Difference and Point #1
AIDS Myths Video
Jared – AIDS quiz
Josh – Point #2
Testimony Introduction (live and video)
Testimony – Living with AIDS
Josh – Point #3
Worship Leader – Song “Comfortable” + 2 worship songs
During song … students come forward and sign burlap banner
Jared – Practical action steps to take this week and finish Point #3
Prayer
U2 reprise

This marks the first time I’ve ever talked to students about AIDS. My heart has a lot of growing to do in this area for sure. My prayer is this is something we can turn into some kind of “service in a box” so other student ministries can talk about compassion and AIDS as well.

JG

TagsComments Add Comment November 25, 2006

Josh GriffinMore PostsResources for Parents

Just noticed on The Student Ministry some great resources that you could give out to parents at your next parents meeting. If you’re don’t have some form of communication going out to parents, you’re missing a critical element of student ministry. Here’s some additional thoughts from Fields, too:

One area of youth ministry where I frequently mess up is in communicating to parents. I can’t count the number of times parents have asked me questions that should have been answered with simple communication. I’ve got some smart parents but none who are mind-readers. If you want to win with parents, you MUST communicate. Here are some tips I’ve learned over the years.

Communication to parents should be…

1. Consistent: every month parents should get a brief top ten (or five) list of announcements. This type of communication should be something they grow to count on each month. It will take the worry and stress from their lives when they’re informed. Your communication piece doesn’t need to be fancy, but it does need to be consistent. Try hard to get it in their hands before the month begins. An April parents’ letter should arrive the last week of March, not the second week of April.

2. Concise: parents don’t have a lot of time to read and, to be honest, they really don’t care about the youth ministry as much as we want to write about. They don’t want all the stories and the things we think are funny, cute, and inspirational…they want the details. They want a menu… not the recipe (save the cute-stuff for parent meetings and use live testimony there). The majority of parents can’t keep up with all their reading; mail, school reports, newspaper, magazines, etc… They need dates and major details to put on their family calendar. Here’s a good, general youth ministry rule: leave them wanting more-this applies to students within a small group and it applies to communicating to parents.

JG

TagsComments Add Comment November 8, 2006

Josh GriffinMore PostsMaking a Meeting Great

Just had a few thoughts today about how to make a meeting great. Thought I would toss it out to the blog world to get some feedback and additional ideas.

It’s a hard sell since typically we view staff/volunteer/team meetings as a free or low cost method of training, and I’m not sure that’s the best course of action. More importantly it also requires leadership to give out the freedom and trust to give away controlof the event to create a fun atmosphere and support the presenter’s great content.

Staff meetings CAN work, I totally believe in them, they are valuable and can be memorable. Decision makers need to think of these meeting times as an investment to help encourage the staff and deepen the important trainings and message given that day.

  • A giveaway at each meeting — must be present to win/receive
  • Updates from select directors/team leaders
  • Vision casting — updates on building projects, new projects
  • Behind the scenes stories
  • “I saw you” spontaneous reports from attendees
  • Donuts, OJ and Fruit
  • Funny Top 10 List … i.e., Top 10 ways to ditch your small group this week, Top 10 ways to get a free lunch
  • Staff member of the month award — w/parking spot, traveling trophy, etc
  • Update on the office move / administrative tasks
  • Apologies as necessary for dropped balls and frustrations as necessary
  • Christians/Church in the News, a quick review of what comes up in Google or blogs this week
  • What are people saying? Read or discuss emails, phone messages and personal conversations.
  • Amazing ministry story/opportunity
  • Small group brainstorming on various timely topics
  • New staff recognition with pictures on screen or handout
  • Intern or staff highlight
  • Preaching/Teaching calendar (all – adults, students, children)
  • Testimony illustration for a point of the training
  • Upcoming mission trips with map
  • Time for prayer
  • Things we should be promoting this week to our members
  • Staff spouse spotlight — bring them in to the meeting, give them flowers and gifts for their children (if applicable, male spouses might not appreciate flowers)
  • Communion
  • Random book review by staff member
  • A response time to the challenge given
  • Worship songs
  • Funny video clips
  • Table game of some sort of insider topic (like how many parking places are in the lot)
  • Members give a testimony on video to encourage staff
  • Email follow-up to meeting with links to what was talked about and more information
  • Who can text the most during the staff meeting AWARD
  • Relational icebreakers
  • Recommended reading list
  • iTunes gift cards as prizes, etc

JG

TagsComments Add Comment September 20, 2006

Josh GriffinMore PostsPassion Service This Weekend

Had a really fun Passion venue weekend at Saddleback, we’ve got some donuts and coffee greeting people as they enter, it’s starting to turn the tent into a somewhat welcoming environment. Pastor Tom spoke this weekend on Psalm 23 – a great challenge to get rest from our busy lives and go deeper in our walk with God. Good stuff – had a testimony from the Celebrate Recovery Summit, too, and I managed to work in my “Shrimp Grits” story in the introduction. Fun!

In the middle of the message, they had scheduled a song and we instead opted for some background music while everyone rewrote Psalm 23 in their own words, shaped by the context of their personal lives. I think the temptation with Scripture is to always read it in the general, and never see it intersecting with real life. This particular idea was one I experienced at Granger back in 2004. A powerful exercise …

Getting ready for the big SHAPE series this Fall. Look out!

JG

TagsComments Add Comment August 20, 2006
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