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26 Sep 2022

3 Things I Would Tell Myself as a Newer Youth Worker

By |2022-09-26T08:45:23-07:00September 26th, 2022|Leadership, Uncategorized|3 Comments

I just started my 15th year of student ministry. For the last 13, I have been ministering to kids who had parents older than I was. I’m just now starting to minister to students whose parents are the same age as I am. My own daughter has been in the youth group for two years.

I started really young at 22. And in the last 15 years, there are definitely some things I would have done differently if given the chance!

Here are three things I would tell myself as a newer youth worker.

1. Seek out a spiritual mentor.

I went from a Bible college where I got a degree in youth ministry, straight into seminary. I had read a lot of books and was around a lot of smart people. And because of that, I thought that I had my spiritual walk taken care of.

I wish I had sought out an older mentor in the early stage of my ministry. I might’ve been reading a lot of books, but I would have greatly benefited from having someone who had lived a lot of life and faithfully followed Jesus during it.

I have two or three people now who are further down the road than I am and are speaking into my life. I am a better person and pastor because of it. If I had started this process sooner, I know I would’ve greatly benefited.

Try to find someone older than you to be a mentor. And not just 10 years older. Maybe 20 or 30 years older. Someone who is a few life stages ahead of you and can speak to the issues you’re dealing with. Don’t try to make it forever or even a weekly thing. Ask if they’d be willing to meet once a month for three months and then see where it goes from there!

2. Don’t do ministry alone.

The first place I served as a student pastor was in a small church in a small county in Tennessee. In the entire county, there was only one other full-time Youth Pastor. We got along well, but they moved away after too short a time.

It was tough to meet with other youth pastors in the area. Many of them were either bi-vocational or volunteers and were super busy. I was the one with all the time to try to meet people. And I used that as an excuse. I wish I would have found another pastor in the area to meet with regularly and talk church and life with.

Even if it means you must put some miles on your car, don’t do ministry alone! Find other pastors who get it. Talk to other people from other churches to understand the quirks and oddities of pastoring.

The people in your church are fantastic. Definitely have a team of volunteers and leaders who can serve alongside you.

But also seek out other pastors in your area, even if they are in roles different than yours. Encourage one another. Lift one another up. Do some events together! Whatever it takes, don’t do ministry alone.

3. You’re replaceable at church

You hate to think that it’s true, but after I spent six years at my church in Tennessee, my replacement was ready to go the next week. Granted, he was an intern who had served with me for the last three years, but still.

If you suddenly cannot do the job, your church will find someone to do it. It might be weird for a season. It might even be sad for some. But you can be replaced at church.

There are some places where you can’t be replaced. Within your family, it’s a whole lot harder to hire a replacement.

Your church is going to ask a lot of you. It’s going to say that you’re doing higher work for a greater purpose. Don’t lose sight of the fact that being present with your spouse or your kids is also admirable. Say no to things if you have to.

In fact, say no to things because you have to.

Your church can find another Youth Pastor.

Your family can’t find another you.

 

Those are just three. To be completely honest, there are a TON more I can think of. What’s something you would tell your younger self just starting out in ministry? Have you learned some hard lessons along the way? I’d love to hear about them in the commons!

I still have a lot to learn in this next season. I will never learn it all! Grateful to be on the journey with you.

Ronald

Hey! Need some encouragement as you’re starting out in your first few years of ministry? Check out the DYM First Few Years Conference below OR grab some of these LIFE saving resources to help you along your youth ministry journey!

19 Sep 2022

Student Leadership – Breaking Down Two Fundamental Lies

By |2022-09-21T10:58:26-07:00September 19th, 2022|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Student Leadership Teams

Student Leadership Conference

Student Serve Teams

Summer of Service

Kingdom Worker Wednesdays

Doulos Teams

Ambassadors for Christ

These are just a few names of student leadership-focused programs/trips I’ve coordinated or led in my 25 years of being a youth pastor (obviously, the last two were in the late 90s). Each had unique aspects, but the goal was basically the same – equipping and unleashing students to serve Jesus. I believe it is an essential discipleship step that can often make the difference in a student walking with Jesus and staying connected to the church beyond their youth group years (maybe more on that in a different blog post down the road).

Getting students to buy in takes work. There can be a lot of practical hurdles to this (travel sports, anyone?), but there I think we often underestimate the philosophical hurdles.  In my experience, I’ve seen two big lies that students, parents, and sometimes even we believe that will, in turn, hold them back from jumping into whatever student leadership opportunities we are offering (and while I have you, I’ll go ahead and offer the truth to combat those lies).

LIE #1: Leadership = I get to (or have to) be on stage

This can be a source of bad motivation for some who hunger for the spotlight over the opportunity to serve and a deterrent for other students who have no interest in or a deep fear of the stage. Is there opportunity inside student leadership for students to take to the stage to lead, share, teach, sing, etc? Absolutely! In fact, you’re probably missing some great discipleship opportunities if it’s not present. BUT, it should not be the first step, and it should be emphasized that it doesn’t have to be a part of it at all.

TRUTH: Leadership = Serving

As Jesus said, “The greatest among you must be a servant.” (Matthew 23:11) Emphasizing this truth from the outset will help the poorly motivated, and empower the purely motivated with stage fright.

LIE #2: I don’t have what it takes.

As you present the opportunity for students to take on leadership through servanthood, there will be several who say, “I can’t do that.” They may fear screwing up or looking dumb.  They may feel they have nothing to offer. This is an exciting opportunity to understand the grace of God in balance with the absolute gold inside them.

TRUTH: God has what it takes, and He’s called you to serve.

I love to tell students, “Your salvation was not just meant for yourself.” The idea is that, as Paul said in Ephesians 2:10 (after emphasizing our salvation is by grace and not works), “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,” and the goal in those good works is to serve Him and others. For the ones who feel unequipped, we can invite them on a journey of being trained. For those who feel unqualified, we can invite them to join a ton of other Christian heroes who had some pretty messy stories (Moses the murderer, Rahab the prostitute, Peter the denier, and Paul the persecutor, just to name a few).

As we combat these lies, may we see and value our responsibility to equip and empower students to be the church as they step up and “do the works” of the ministry.

Ephesians 4:11-13

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Derry Prenkert is a 25+ year youth ministry veteran providing coaching, consulting, care, and content to starting, stuck, and struggling ministry leaders (primarily youth pastors).

 

 

Need some resources for developing your own student leadership team? DYM’s got your back!

 

29 Aug 2022

Setting Up Small Groups to Win!

By |2022-09-02T07:00:54-07:00August 29th, 2022|Small Groups, Uncategorized, Youth Ministry Hacks, Youth Ministry Ideas|22 Comments

It’s the kick-off season for ministry! You’ve spent the summer assembling your team, ensuring each group has the right leader, and now it’s time to get these leaders with their new students. Here are some quick tips for making sure your leaders have what they need to be the best small group leaders they can be!

Get Leaders Curriculum Quickly!

If the main thing you want leaders to do is telling their students the truths about Jesus, then make sure they have the curriculum in their hands as soon as possible!

Remember that you have recruited teachers and engineers and stay-at-home moms, and other busy adults. Make sure you aren’t getting them things at the last minute so that they can be totally prepared when they walk into a small group!

Communication is Key!

Have a rhythm of communicating with your small group leaders. Whether that means you email them once a week or have an ongoing text message thread, make sure your leaders know you are thinking about them and are available!

Practical Tips help leaders win!

It may be old hat to you, but All of the tips and tricks that you have learned over the years as a youth pastor are golden nuggets to share with your small group leaders!

Make a list of five or seven and send them out one at a time in your regular communication. Think of small bite-size tips like “Make a note on your phone about each student, where they go to school, and their favorite candy.”

Putting practical tips in your volunteers’ hands can help them win!

Small Group Your Small Group Leaders!

We want our small group leaders to be in the lives of their students. We want them to take them out for coffee and to go to their sporting events, and text them throughout the week to let them know they are praying for them.

What if you did that for your small group leaders? What if you invited them out to coffee regularly and sent them a text every so often just to let them know that you are grateful they were on the team and that you are praying for them specifically?

If you treat your volunteers like your own personal small group, they will see what it’s like to lead. Your example will show them how they can in turn minister to their own students. And the biggest win of all is your small group leaders feel loved and ministered to!

What else?

If you were going to add one more tip to this list, what would it be? How would you help your small group leaders win? We’re always looking for great ideas!

22 Aug 2022

Ministering to Parents in the Fall

By |2022-08-22T06:01:46-07:00August 22nd, 2022|Uncategorized|2 Comments

Part of working with students is working with their parents. It is not just a good idea; it is a must do practice in order to have a wholistic and effective ministry to students. Love them or hate them, we must partner with parents to disciple and lead our students to love and live for Jesus long term. If we can connect church and home life, we will see our students grow even more in their faith.

When it comes to new parents, they can be a handful at times. We can either get frustrated with them or we can lead in such a way that has them falling in love with your ministry. It doesn’t just happen and takes some proactive things on your part to successfully transition a new group of parents into your ministry.  Here are three keys to successfully partnering with new parents.

Connect with your kid’s ministry staff and talk specifically about kids and parents moving up

There is a difference in being prepared and gossiping. Do you best to talk openly with your team about new students coming into your ministry so that you have a heads up about potential issues or boundaries you may need to create. Whatever intel you get on these students and parents, do your best to keep an open mind with them in this transition. Just because your kids ministry staff had issues with a student doesn’t mean you will and just because the kids ministry staff loved a certain group of parents, doesn’t mean you will. If you foresee potential issues, move in their direction, make a phone call or set up a meeting. Don’t just sit back and see what happens. In my experiences, parents appreciate you wanting to proactively partner with them. This can also be a great tool for recruiting volunteers. The more by in you get from parents the more volunteers you can recruit.

Extend the transition

Find ways to make the transition into student ministry longer for those new students. Do your best to not let the first time they meet you or your space be on promotion Sunday. Plan some crossover events, go on retreats with the kids’ team, and have parent meetings just for them the summer before you come up. Find creative ways to extend the transition for these students and parents so that when its go time, they can’t wait to be in your ministry. So, drop into their Sunday morning classes or spend some time with the incoming group outside the normal scheduled events. Again, parents see you and they will appreciate you being proactive.

Understand that your parents are emotional

Your parents will get upset from time to time and it rarely is a personal attack on you. When it comes to anything my kids do, I am more emotionally invested. I am emotionally connected in wanting my kids to have great experiences and when this is not the case I am emotional. When you get the phone calls, emails or text messages do your very best to keep this in mind. They are emotional because it’s their kids. Sometimes their emotions will cause them to say and do things that are terrible. This doesn’t give them a pass; it just confirms to you that parenting is an emotional sport. So, next time you get the call or email, do your best to not blow it off or get frustrated. My advice to all leaders dealing with emotional parents, is to give at least 24 hours before you respond to an upset parent. Also, never email or text a negative reply. If you have to respond, do it over the phone or in person.

Communicate often and more than you think you need to

Lastly, over-communicate with these new parents. Send more emails, texts and social media reminders about events and trips. Everything is new to them and they will need some grace as they are figuring out student ministry for the first time like their kids. Walk slowly with them and they will be your biggest fans and supporters for years to come.

Bobby Cooley is a Discipleship Pastor in Katy, TX. He loves pouring into the next generation and their parents to build lifelong followers of Jesus.

He loves his wife and three blue-eyed kids, great BBQ, and the outdoors.

“I love being a part of DYM and helping youth workers win!” – BC

 

15 Aug 2022

Programming from Street to Seat in Your Ministry

By |2022-08-15T10:29:16-07:00August 15th, 2022|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Where do you start when putting youth services together?

I think most of us tend to begin by asking ourselves, “Where can I find great games, funny videos, and line it up all in a way that makes sense?” Although that isn’t necessarily wrong, I think we actually need to go back to the beginning. Like way back. Not to a countdown video or the opening song, even further back than that. Great programming is amplified when all of the jumbled pieces work together from the very start.

The first key to effective programming is setting up a great environment. Make sure the experience your students are having from the street to their seat is one that communicates care and intentionality!

You see, a great program starts in the parking lot. A student’s first impression from the parking lot to your youth room can be important. Being thoughtful about your meeting environment sets the tone for the rest of the service. Before you ever get to a countdown video or a person standing up front, your signage, or lack thereof, is communicating.

As you prepare to kick off a new school year, I want to challenge you to first simply walk through your youth ministry environment, wherever it is that you meet regularly for service. Walk through it with fresh, outside or visitor eyes as though you’ve never seen it before. 

Think like a visitor might and ask questions about the room that has probably become common to you. 

  • Is the signage clear?
  • Do I know where I’m supposed to go if I’m new?
  • How is the lighting?
  • Is it accessible for all?
  • Are there any signs or posters or media graphics that ask a question or paint a picture of what the teaching series or the program is going to be about?
  • Could a student walk from the car to the youth room and get a bit excited, thinking to themselves, “Wow! They’ve really thought through tonight! This looks like it will be fun.” 

Part of the environment is how they feel right when they walk in the door. Is there a warm, welcoming experience awaiting them? What’s the first message they “feel” when they walk in? Are they met with a smile? A welcoming handshake, fist-pump, high five, Baptist side hug—whatever you’re into, are they greeted? 

Does your environment have volunteers or student leaders on the lookout for newcomers/people sitting alone?

Here’s a pro tip: if a kid feels alone, it doesn’t matter how magical your games and videos are or how great of a speaker you are—that kid will be thinking about how uncomfortable they are rather than your message.

Teenagers need to feel welcomed and connected in order for all of that other stuff on stage to stick.

Are you prepared? Or do you find yourself scrambling to track down supplies for the game? If your program starts at 7:00 pm, at 6:45pm when students start to show up, is everything dialed-in, so you’re available to connect with students?

Are the right amount of chairs or tables set up? Whatever your room situation is, and trust me, I’ve been to a ton of different youth rooms, your room setup matters—it’s either welcoming and inviting, or it looks like a school classroom that they want to avoid. Are there too many places to sit? Not enough? Is there any insider language being used that’s confusing to new students? All of these are great questions to ask, again, before we even GET to the actual program.

Is the youth room clean and well lit? Are their funny or informative slides on the screen? Does it look warm and friendly or cold and insider-y? Is there something for them to do while they wait for the service to begin? Simple stuff like Cornhole or some friends playing Jenga could be easy wins to think about. Standing around alone isn’t warm and inviting.

Is there music playing? Is it at a comfortable volume so people can have a conversation? 

Everything about your space is sending a message, so before you get to the flow of the service itself, make sure the place is ready for people. Thinking through the actual room environment is a great opportunity to set the table before we get to serving the main course: the program itself.

I encourage you to take a walk through your youth space like you’re visiting the church for the very first time. Take notes and compare thoughts with your volunteer youth ministry team. Plan some action steps to take this week, next week, and ongoing as you seek to set the table to share God’s Word. Sit in your youth room seats and pray together about the students that will then sit in those seats during your next service.

Josh Griffin is a 25 year youth pastor veteran and co-founder of DYM. He’s the Junior High Pastor at Mariner’s Church and always 10 minutes late.

8 Aug 2022

A Great Volunteer Process = Great Leaders

By |2022-08-08T09:49:58-07:00August 8th, 2022|Uncategorized|1 Comment

Any good leader within the church knows that volunteers play a huge part when it comes to executing the vision and strategy. But some leaders don’t see the value of volunteers. They get stuck in the mindset of “I get paid for this, so I should do it.” In reality, most great volunteers want more, but we just say “no” for them, OR we give volunteers more, but they don’t know how to “win” or be successful. 

Part of our job as leaders is to set up our volunteers well, beginning when they first join our team. 

We are getting ready for another volunteer push. In this new year, we have challenged our leaders to each recruit one person themselves to join our student team to either serve alongside them during service or to help them co-lead their small group. 

But we also know with an influx of leaders, the volunteer process needs to be solid. The last thing we need is just warm bodies to say we have “enough” volunteers but great adults who have been trained well to know what they are doing. As the leader, we are responsible for the success of our leaders. If they walk into a service not knowing what exactly they should be doing, we have failed them. 

The onboarding process should be where they are trained on how your ministry runs and operates, what their “wins” should be, ensuring that they know what wins they should go for, and communicating what leadership wants for them.

A solid volunteer process results in solid volunteers.

We have worked hard to create a great onboarding system for our leaders, and I thought we would share our process with you. I hope that it is helpful. 

This is taken out of our volunteer application. The leader knows what they are getting into from the start, and they have the whole process laid out in front of them. You can take this process, or you can adjust it. The most important thing is that you have one. The last thing our students deserve is a leader who thrown into the fire without any direction. They deserve better.

When leaders are interested, this is what they get:

HOW TO JOIN THE TEAM:

STEP 1: FILL OUT THE STUDENT MINISTRY LEADER APPLICATION PACKET

This can be printed out, or it can be filled out online, and a PDF version will be sent to the potential leader. It gives an overview of our ministry and highlights the expectations we have of leaders. This application was developed to gain information from you in order to enhance our ability to set you up for success in serving. It is lengthy, but we take our responsibility seriously to put together an effective team. Be sure to turn in a signed application, Student Ministry Code of Conduct and Standards of Behavior form, as well as a signed Background Check Authorization form. We require a new one if a volunteer has already signed one from a previous serving opportunity in the past. 

STEP 2: CONTACT BY STUDENTS STAFF

Once we have your application turned in, we will set up a time to meet with you. This is an opportunity for us to meet with you in order to connect and hear your story and desire to be involved in Student Ministries. It is also a time for you to ask questions about this packet, about the ministry, and anything you want to know about our ministry. We will also give you a more detailed overview of the ministry and help you choose a time to visit and observe one of our services.

STEP 3: SIGN IN AND COMPLETE SCY ONLINE TRAINING

We are all about relational ministry. In order for volunteers to understand the best possible way we can practically do this on Wednesday nights, we want to make sure all of our leaders are operating off of the same standard. This is why we made an in-house training of our WINS for leaders via video, so that way our leaders can all be trained by the same system. 

You could go CLICK HERE if you yourself wanted to go through it and check it out. It’s free. 

DYM’s online training program is another great way to get your volunteers all trained and on the same page. Check out Youth Ministry University here!

STEP 4: PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER YOUR COMMITMENT

We want volunteers to take the time to pray and think through this commitment. We also encourage them to seek the counsel of family and friends regarding their serving commitment.

STEP 5: OBSERVE SERVICES

This is a good opportunity to get a better feel for the ministry. A volunteer will shadow one of our core volunteers for three weeks. This will give them the chance to meet students and other leaders, see our services, as well as formulate questions for future meetings. We aim to ensure volunteers know exactly what they need to do when their “shadowing time” is done.

STEP 6: SECOND SIT DOWN

After volunteers complete their shadowing, we will sit down and chat through what they experienced over the three weeks. We are always excited to hear what God has shown them through this process. We will determine where exactly they want to serve. 

STEP 7: GET YOUR LEADER SHIRT AND NAME TAG & BECOME AN OFFICIAL LEADER

WOO! They did it! They are now official. We wear t-shirts because we are on the same team! When you go to any sporting event, you wear the things of that team, in the same way, we do this with our leaders. We are all on the same team and support each other, pray together, have fun, and point students to Jesus. 

If you want to get your hands on the FULL version of Justin’s leader onboarding process, you can get it HERE on DYM.

Director of Kids & Youth at Sandals Church. Host of Youth Ministry Hacks Podcast.

@justinknowles3

 

25 Jul 2022

Let’s Make Promotion a Big Deal

By |2022-07-25T11:06:58-07:00July 25th, 2022|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Summer is an excellent time for students and student ministers! One of the most exciting times in a student ministry is when everyone promotes up to the next grade. This usually means the Seniors in high school get a big celebration, but what happens to the other students who go from one to the next?

Let’s talk promotion in student ministry!

Who had them before? Who gets them now?

Whether your youth group starts with 6th or 7th grade, moving from the children’s ministry into the youth ministry is a big deal!

How can you communicate with your children’s ministry to ensure the promotion is a big deal?

The upcoming 6th grader students at our church do a five-week series where they combine like they will be in youth ministry instead of being separated between boys and girls. During this series, they discuss what they had learned in children’s ministry, possible fears of joining the student ministry, and the youth ministry’s purpose statement.

Our Seniors have a unique series of their own as well, where they talk about life skills, what they’ve learned from their time in youth ministry, and how they can choose a new church home if they’re moving or stay connected at our church if they are staying close by.

Throw a party!

Moving up grades requires a big celebration!

Promotion is a significant change for students, so make it a big deal for them! Have all the seniors come with you on a road trip to get milkshakes and talk about their life plans. Invite all the incoming middle school students for a swim party and pizza.

Have something where they can look back and remember that the student ministry made a big deal out of their promotion into or out of the youth ministry! Make plans ahead of time. If the season has passed by this year, put it on the calendar for next year!

Over Communicate to Parents

The older my kids get, the more I appreciate when their various schools and activities communicate often and over-explain what will happen.

Even if you’re unsure if parents read your emails, check social media, or frequently log onto the website, make sure the communication is written everywhere about what the promotion season will look like!

Let them know when the first day of everyone in their new grade will be. Blast when the incoming middle school party will be and what the last day seniors can attend youth ministry will be.

If you have a regularly scheduled parent meeting, have all the info ready and know what normal questions will get asked. The more you communicate to parents, the more they’ll trust the student ministry and the process!

Remember the 8th to 9th Grade Students

We usually think of promotion as when the middle school students move in and the seniors in high school move out, but what about that middle school to high school transition?

That’s a life-changing promotion as well!

Remember when you went from 8th grade to freshman year? Didn’t you have questions, concerns, fears, and struggles?

Find a way to acknowledge this upcoming shift for them as well! Have their small group leader take them out for ice cream and give them a chance to ask as many questions as possible. Have a prayer night for their parents to think about how they can minister to their changing and maturing student. Present them a devotional, so they can begin making their faith their own in this new season.

Promotion is a WIN for Student Ministry!

Whatever you do, make the time of promotion in your student ministry a celebration of maturing and growing students. Offer seasons of preparation for the next phase of life and milestones students can look back on with a smile on their faces.

We get an excellent opportunity to help guide students on their spiritual journey. Let’s take advantage of these times of promotion to help them take the next step, whatever that may be!

Ronald

7 Apr 2022

Being Hospitable in an Inhospitable World

By |2022-04-07T14:03:34-07:00April 7th, 2022|Uncategorized|8 Comments

I am reading a memoir of Eugene Peterson called “The Pastor,” and I love it. In a chapter titled Eucharistic Hospitality, he describes his desire and struggles to be hospitable in an inhospitable world. He asks this rhetorical question with the answer being YES. But the thing is, he is asking this question in the 1960s, and honestly, it is still a question that we are asking ourselves today.

Here is the question: “Is it possible to live in this increasingly inhospitable world in a hospitable way? Is it possible to do something focused and intentional about what is wrong in our society without turning the wrongdoers into the enemy?”

While we know we’ll face this outside of the church, we can see it inside the church too. We may meet students who may be hostile to the message of Jesus. We may face parents who are hostile to how we want to teach. We may face volunteers who disagree with our leadership or church members who think youth ministry is a waste of time.

Can we be hospitable to them?

The answer is yes. It is possible. But the question Peterson is asking isn’t the question he is asking on paper. The real question he is asking is “HOW?” How do we do something focused and intentional about what is wrong in our society without turning the wrongdoers into the enemy?

What follows is my attempt to answer the question. I’m not so naïve to believe that this will be a cut a dry, cookie-cutter, “follow these steps to get it right” type answer. People are far more complex than that. Real-life is often much messier than this. You could do everything right, and people will still reject you. You could do everything wrong, and God will still use you. I’ve just found these to be helpful in my journey of pointing people to Jesus.

First, we need to stop thinking of the wrongdoers as our enemy. This isn’t the first Shrek movie. We need to put down our pitchforks. Our enemy is not flesh and blood. And those wrongdoers, however misguided or deceived, are image-bearers of God, worthy of honor.

Next, we invite them into our lives with no agenda. We need to get to know them. Eat dinner with them. Allow them to see Jesus in our day-to-day lives.

My wife has been mentoring a young lady for several years now, and when they first began spending time with each other, she told her that she didn’t believe the love that my wife and I shared was real. This young lady felt that eventually, she would see the real us. Five years later, I think she may believe us now. There is something about inviting someone into your world and living out the love of Jesus with no agenda and no strings attached that draw people in.

After you have earned the right to speak into this person’s life and when the time is right, do so as Jesus did to the woman caught in adultery. With a perfect balance of GRACE and TRUTH, inspired by LOVE and led by the HOLY SPIRIT, walk with people, and point them to Jesus. Remind them that His ways are perfect and good and right.

Lastly, with no agenda, continue walking with the person, whether a student, a parent, or a volunteer. While maintaining healthy boundaries, please don’t give up on them.

In a world that is falling more and more away from Jesus, I believe that now more than ever is the time where we need to live out Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:13-16.

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

David Wood is a wizard.

Before I lived in Modesto, my wife, my three daughters, and I lived in Belize as missionaries. Before that, we lived in Southern California where I had an awesome opportunity to travel the U.S. performing at colleges and churches sharing the gospel through my illusions for about 3 years. I’ve experienced a whole lot in my life, and I love to share God’s story through my life as often as I can.

7 Jan 2022

3 Easy Ways to Keep Momentum Going in the New Year (+ a freebie)

By |2022-01-07T16:54:05-08:00January 7th, 2022|Uncategorized|3 Comments

I love the start of something new! A new year, the first day of school, a new home… the ability to start with a clean slate is so inviting and filled with hope and expectation!

This love of new is also reflected in my ministry. I find that I am at my best when launching new programs at the start of the school year, maybe you are too. I plan my whole year around launching our small groups in September, I have mastered leader onboarding in August, and our weekly services are always extra creative and inviting in the fall. The new is energizing and allows me to leave the missteps from the past behind me, making everything feel lighter and exciting.

Fast forward to now… it’s usually at this point in the year (around January) when I need the extra push to remain just as committed to providing each program in my ministry the intentionality I give it in the fall. We aren’t in the new anymore, we are in the less shiny part of the year. When our programs are up and running it can be easy to go into maintenance-mode, rather than continue to be creative and intentional. Yet this is exactly when it matters most that we stay the course. It’s at this point in the school year where you begin to build on the foundation laid in the fall, where you can dig even deeper into relationships, and start to challenge yourself, students, and leaders in meaningful ways. This is when ministry starts to get really good!

So here’s my question, what can we do at the start of 2022 to keep our ministry momentum going?

Here are a few suggestions…

1. Throw predictability out the window.

By this point in the school year, your students are super familiar with your weekly programs. They know exactly where the prayer wall is located in your meeting room, they can tell you the basic order of service without even looking at your run sheet, and they even know that you always end the night with pizza from Little Caesar’s. Surprise them this week! Move things around your meeting space (if you normally sit in rows, sit around tables for a week), change your typical order of service, or play an out of the box game that is a full on experience. Change can be good, embrace it!

Here are a few creative game experiences that will have your students wondering “how did they come up with this?!”

You can get Unlock the Box Winter Edition for FREE on Download Youth Ministry until January 21 with code: HAPPYNEWYEAR

2. Keep investing in volunteers.

Like you, volunteers need some extra motivation at the halfway mark of the school year, our job is to load them up on encouragement and helpful tools! Keep appreciating them with a text or notecard, check in on them to see how they are doing personally and as ministry leaders, send them a devotional you think they would be blessed by, or send them a tool or resource that they can use with students at their next gathering. Bottom line, keep investing in your leaders all year long, your ministry will feel it!

Here are a few resources that make investing in leaders super easy this month!

3. Encourage spiritual next steps.

The new year is a great time to challenge students in their faith, especially if they’ve been attending youth group since the fall. This can be as simple as giving them a guided devotional as a first step to reading the Bible on their own, inviting them to serve or lead in a ministry, or challenging them to invite their friends to church. Use discernment, pray, and then help students say yes to Jesus’ invitations for their life.

Here are a few resources that make next steps practical and doable for students:

Although we, in the youth ministry world, traditionally structure our ministry launch and program kick offs around the school year, the new calendar year brings fresh perspective as we prepare to tackle the second half of the school year. And I am finding that using the start of a new calendar year as a time to refocus and reorient myself always proves to pay off in the long run.

What are some things you’re doing this month to keep your ministry’s momentum going?

 

Jessica Sanchez

Jessica has been serving the local church for over 18 years. She loves youth ministry because students are hilarious, loving, and teach her so much about following Jesus. She’s currently on the DYM team, is a spiritual director to church leaders, and is a volunteer small group leader to high school girls.

1 Nov 2021

Chaos or Catalyst?

By |2021-11-01T12:27:28-07:00November 1st, 2021|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Covid plunged our world into chaos in 2020, but it proved to be a catalyst for incredible growth in our students and change in our student ministry. One blessing amid the chaos was the freedom from expectations of how things had always been done.  Like most ministries, our immediate response was to move online. We bolstered our presence on Facebook to reach parents and began tinkering on Instagram.  After weeks of zoom lessons and online games, our students were mourning.  Transitioning to a hybrid of small home groups for those who felt comfortable and continuing with zoom as an alternative allowed us to continue ministering to our families.  Special events slowly emerged outdoors, as socially-distanced as possible.  We didn’t realize it at the time, but providing these outlets for discipleship and fellowship were bolstering our students’ physical and mental health as much as their spiritual health.  A deep sense of community was developing and continues to grow still.

Bethesda’s student ministry team really had a moment to pause and pray about what God’s will for our ministry could be.  Here is what He laid on our hearts:  Student ministry should be a bridge, not a destination.  This shift in our philosophy of ministry away from being program-driven meant more integration of teens into the church body through worship and serving that would give them ownership in the church now, and leadership in the church later.  As we moved back onto campus, we gathered for student services in the main worship building so we could more easily social distance.  God was opening doors for our students to have more access to equipment and training.  We believe that teenagers are capable and willing when given opportunity, and also significantly shaped by our expectations of them.  So we began turning more responsibility over to them and connecting them to adult leaders who could provide guidance without restricting creativity.

We already had a student-led praise and tech team, so the next natural place for them to take over was media and communications, especially considering gathering limitations during the pandemic.  Using Canva, a few students began making graphics for our ministry.  Before long, we also had students gifted in photography and videography willing to share their talents.  Soon, we had a student crushing it on Instagram (@bethesdastudents)  using stories, reels, and hashtags to build connections in the online community.  That student made it her own with adult oversight and encouragement.  Other students stepped into roles within our Connect team welcoming guests, our special needs ministry as buddies to our friends with special needs, and our kids ministry as worship leaders and classroom assistants. They are continuing to grow their skills and are contributing church-wide.  

Our students are doing amazing work and looking for even more areas to be influencers.  Typically our adult team opens lessons with a stage game, video clip, or some other hook, but this fall two of our seniors pitched the idea of creating videos to coordinate with the lessons each week.  They wanted to use our students to film lesson intros with an underlying plot line, so we give them access to the lessons in advance, and they meet to plan and write several at a time.  During our hang time before worship, they do all the shooting for the next week’s video.  After they edit, it gets reviewed and finalized.  Because there is a common plot thread woven through the weeks, it wasn’t long before students were  asking for a way to review or catch up on ones that were missed.  Having identified another opportunity, with an already established audience, they chose YouTube as the best way to share their content.  We hope you will check out  Bethesda Students on YouTube!

None of us were given a formula for how to thrive in ministry during a pandemic. By staying focused on the functions we wanted to achieve, namely worship, fellowship, discipleship, and outreach, we built a new strategy to achieve those outcomes.  Our goal has remained the same:  Teens who exit student ministry will have the ability to confidently defend a Biblical worldview and launch out as leaders on mission for Christ in their local churches and to the ends of the earth. But God is using our students right now to stretch His influence in our community, encourage our adults, and inspire our elementary students. We have 5th graders already planning where they want to serve when they move up to student ministry! Your story may be completely different than ours.  In fact, it probably should be.  Wherever you are, don’t be afraid to step back and give your ministry an honest evaluation.  It shouldn’t take a pandemic to take risks and make adjustments, but sometimes God uses what at first appears to be chaos as a catalyst that forces us out of our comfortable routine. For Bethesda, He guided us into something where our students are leading and growing in their boldness to serve the body of Christ and share Jesus in ways we never thought possible.

Brigitte Creech is the Student Ministry Director at Bethesda Baptist Church in Clayton, NC. She loves boat trips with her husband, Larkin, and fire pits with friends to re-charge from homeschooling her five, amazing kids.

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