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5 Feb 2020

Programming: Simple, Fun Service Opener Video

By |2020-02-05T20:59:32-08:00February 5th, 2020|Games, Teaching/Programming, Uncategorized, Youth Ministry Hacks, Youth Ministry Resources|3 Comments

This last week we had our Youth Winter Conference. I will have to post about it later because I am still trying to process how awesome it was because it surpassed all expectations. It was the first time we ran something like this but in a nutshell:

3 nights in a row we put on a service and then an event. We had all our campuses together, bussed them every night in and basically put on an in-house winter camp or DNow. Students went home every night and we charged $59. More to come later. Go check out @sandalsyouth if you want to see more.

I wanted to share how we opened each night to the conference. I made videos where Siri was instructing students what to do. It acted as a host for the night that went straight into worship. It is truly amazing that students will do anything that a screen tells them to do.

The videos itself is simple and relatively easy to make. It is just time-consuming. I use Premiere Pro but you can probably make it on iMovie or something similar.

It really is a great way to open for a summer camp or winter retreat in a fun, different way. Side note: when the music fades out is when the worship band would start to play underneath the video. Created a smooth transition between the video and worship.

Side note: I have a few of them for sale on the DYM store. CLICK HERE to see. More to come.

Here is our night one video. The view of what it looked like at the conference is below it. Go check out the other nights HERE:

Because I know people will ask. Click here for the light foam sticks.

17 Jan 2020

YouthWorks + DYM = Awesome Summer Work Camp Experience

By |2020-01-16T16:11:24-08:00January 17th, 2020|Youth Ministry Ideas, Youth Ministry Resources, youth mission trips|0 Comments

Both DYM and YouthWorks share a long history of helping youth workers like you with the time-consuming aspects of ministry, so that you are free to focus on the stuff that really matters in the lives of your teenagers, volunteers, and parents. That’s why this partnership is an incredible opportunity for our DYM Members to add a life-changing mission trip experience to the scope of your ministry this summer.

Use code DYM to save $20 per person: https://youthworks.com/dym/

9 Dec 2019

What if more education didn’t look like more education?

By |2019-12-09T12:03:54-08:00December 9th, 2019|Youth Ministry Resources|0 Comments

Someone told me I could get a seminary education without leaving my current ministry and I asked to know more.

Ok, I get it. You’ve done the college thing (or not) and now all you want to do is love on students. Never mind that the phrase sounds a little weird, I understand. I’m a life-long youth ministry guy myself, serving in some capacity of volunteer or paid position since the last millennium.

If you’re like me, while I was working a paid youth ministry gig, then you have a lot of rehearsed reasons why now is not the right time to continue your training. You just finished college, you’re still paying for college, youth ministry is more than full time, plus you have a family, on and on and on. This isn’t even including all the extra responsibilities you take on, with or without pay. Who knew the same guy that can fix the wifi for the church secretary is also best suited to clean the church bathrooms?

Beyond all those reasons, who wants to say goodbye to a church position so they can move their family across the country and spend a few more years taking classes and hoping for some experience in a church nearby?

Pursue Mastery without Pausing Ministry
No one is arguing against the need for more ministry training. It’s why you attend seminars, purchase books, get together with local pastors, or even take the time to read this blog.

We have a need to stay up-to-date on what’s going on in youth and ministry culture. But we also desire to stay grounded and lead our teens and their families deep into the Word of God.

Some ministry-minded people got together, at Grace College in Indiana of all places, and started asking the right questions, all about possibility. Assuming the high value of seminary, they asked how it could be accessible to everyone.

Their answer was Deploy.

What if?
What if you didn’t have to move? I’m not talking about your senior pastor’s online college program. Deploy is competency-based theological education that is delivered online and onsite.

What if you didn’t need to waste time in a classroom discussing concepts you’ve been practicing for years? Deploy is a program that moves at your speed. Have you mastered a skill? Move on to the next!

What if you still had time for your ministry and your family? Because Deploy happens where you are, it works around your schedule. The most important schedule in this program is the one you create!

What if you didn’t have to do this alone? Deploy provides you with a team of mentors to guide you through every step of the process.

No Excuses, No Need to Wait
When Jesus gave the Great Commission, it was to disciples who were called to be witnesses wherever they went, as they were going. Deploy follows that model, allowing you to train wherever you are, as you are already leading.

Click here to learn more

31 May 2019

Four Weeks of Programming Done For You!

By |2019-06-01T00:50:54-07:00May 31st, 2019|Help Me With..., Membership, Teaching, Teaching/Programming, Uncategorized, Youth Ministry Ideas, Youth Ministry Resources|2 Comments

Every season of Youth Ministry includes programs and events, but none is quite as busy (and, often, crazy!) as Summer. The end of a school year leads right into a new routine/rhythm of events, camps, and (hopefully somewhere in there) a week to breathe before Fall planning begins.

Often, weekly programming can falter because of the influx of tasks in your head.

We get it. We’ve been there. And we’re here to help!

On the first of the month, every month, DYM Members receive a digital delivery of new, top-of-the-line programming elements. Gold Members get a new video, game, Sidekick file, Student Leadership resource, and Mystery Item every month. That’s about $25 of free resources every month, not to mention an additional $20 Store Credit they receive every month, and the discount of 35% OFF store prices every day! (Not yet a Gold Member, try it free for 30 days–no credit card required–and you’ll get access to all of these resources, discounts, and $5 Store Credit!)

A handful of new resources can feel a little overwhelming if you’re not sure quite how to plug them into your weekly program. So, this month, we’re helping shoulder some of the heavy lifting with a curated month of suggested programming combining the June 2019 Member Items with some of our favorite resources in the DYM Store.

**Already have your series for this month? No problem! Download the member items now and use this programming plan another time!

Let’s start with the Series:
Blood & Guts by Sabrina Hadro.
(FREE to DYM Members this month as the Member Mystery Item! Log in now to download this free resource.)

Building around this series…

WEEK 1:

Message: Blood and Guts Week 1: Jesus’ Divinity and Humanity // Bottom Line: Jesus was fully God and fully man

Welcome Video: we suggest Service Welcome Video OR grab this WELCOME VIDEO 4-Pack and use a new one each week of the series!

Icebreaker/Mixer: we suggest Extreme Row Makeover Volume 2 (Or check out Volume 1 rated 4.5-stars!)

Game: Hot Hands (FREE to DYM Members this month as the Member Game! Log in now to download this free resource.)

 

WEEK 2:

Message: Blood and Guts Week 2: The Old Testament Sacrificial System // Bottom Line: Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament law

Icebreaker/Mixer: we suggest Find 2 (DYM Members got this video pack for FREE in February 2019. Try DYM Gold Membership FREE!)

Video Illustration: we suggest supporting the bottom line of this week’s message with Magic Illustration: Jesus Took Our Place

Game: we suggest Will It Burn: Summer Edition

 

WEEK 3:

Message: Blood and Guts Week 3: The Hall of Faith // Bottom Line: It takes guts to change the world

Icebreaker/Mixer: we suggest One-Question Interview

Video: We suggest you kick-off your service with the finest bad jokes around: Bad Joke of the Day or Vol 2 or Vol 3

Game: we suggest Blender of Doom (included in the 45 file starter kit that comes with Sidekick!) 

Response Element: we suggest challenging your students to serve their family and community with Wheel of Service

 

WEEK 4:

Message: Blood and Guts Week 4: Perseverance & Hope // Bottom Line: Don’t quit—hope has come and will come again

Sidekick: we suggest adding a little flavor to your announcements with Announcement Roulette (included in the 45-file starter kit that comes with Sidekick!) 

Game: we suggest Nailed It or Failed It: Pool Party Edition (or Cat Edition Vol 1 or Vol 2, or Marriage Proposals… Honestly, you can’t lose with any Edition.)

Creative Programming Element: we suggest Ultimate Escape Room. A tangible lesson in perseverance and not giving up!

Video: we suggest this Countdown Video Ft. Party Llama (Hilarious and FREE in the DYM Store!)

 

Looking for a little more to round out the month of programming?

• Add The Retro Animation Transition Videos each week to create continuity in your program throughout this series. (FREE to DYM Members this month as the Member Video! Log in now to download this free resource.)

• Grab this Countdown Video 3-pack and kick-off each program with energy! (DYM Members got this video pack for FREE in June 2018. Try DYM Gold Membership FREE!)

• Use these summer-themed Instagram images. Giving new meaning to ‘insta-content’.

 

If you’re using this plan in June, add a top-rated Father’s Day to Week 3: Dad Texts Real or Fake, My Dad is Smarter Than Your Dad, Who’s Your Daddy?

Planning ahead? Here are some 4th of July games loved by the DYM Community: Crowd Charades: United States EditionUnited States Citizenship Test, ‘Merica Trivia Volume 2, (or Vol 1)

28 Jan 2019

Sidekick Version 1.0.4

By |2019-02-01T06:38:24-08:00January 28th, 2019|Membership, Sidekick, Teaching/Programming, Youth Ministry Resources|0 Comments

Sidekick just keeps getting better!

The newest update to Sidekick was just pushed live and it includes a TON of things you’re gonna like!

? Drag and Drop reordering is here

You can now reorder and organize any file manually! Change up the order of your Trivia questions, adjust the layout of items in Boxes or the Wheel of Destiny, and order your teams in Leaderboard to make it easier to update the points and announce who’s in the lead!

? Hide Next Winner

We heard you! Seeing the next winner isn’t always what you want. Sometimes you just want the computer to decide and you not know the winner. So now, in all of our ‘picker’ builders (Boxes, PickMe, PhotoFury, Wheel of Destiny) you can now hide the next winner from view.

 

☕️ Improved Performance

  • fixed a bug where popups would appear too low, making scrolling difficult.
  • fixed a bug in Advanced Crop that would sometimes make it unusable.
  • fixed a bug in Trivia where it would appear dark and moody.
  • fixed a plethora of other bugs!

Updating Sidekick is easy!

Find more details about the fixes and features AND upgrade to the newest version* by clicking the Gift icon in the top right-hand menu. 

Screen Shot 2018-12-28 at 4.13.10 PM 

When you’re ready, click Update and Restart. The update will happen automatically and you’ll be ready to go in no time! *Be sure you’re connected to the internet before you begin the update! 

We hope you enjoy Sidekick as much as we do! As always, if you have any questions, reach out to other users in the DYM Facebook Community OR email us anytime at [email protected].

30 Dec 2018

Sidekick Version 1.0.3 is here!

By |2018-12-30T11:34:20-08:00December 30th, 2018|Membership, Sidekick, Teaching/Programming, Youth Ministry Resources|1 Comment

GREAT NEWS!

We just released a Sidekick update: bug fixes, improved performance, and an ‘Add Bulk Image’ feature in PhotoFury and Pixelate.

NEW! Now, instead of adding images one-by-one, you can select a group of images to add to your Pixelate or PhotoFury files!

To do this:

1) Click [+Bulk] on the Edit Tab. 

Screen Shot 2018-12-28 at 4.16.22 PM

 

2) Drag and drop the images you’d like to add to your file and click Add. 

Screen Shot 2018-12-28 at 4.15.12 PM 

It’s that easy! Just a few clicks and you have a full set of images ready to go… imagine the possibilities: add photos of your students and leaders as they walk into the room. Forgot to shop for prizes? No problem! Load photos of whatever you have laying around and make it look that this was the plan all along!

Find more details about the fixes and features AND upgrade to the newest version* by clicking the Gift icon in the top righthand menu. 

Screen Shot 2018-12-28 at 4.13.10 PM 

Screen Shot 2018-12-28 at 4.13.25 PM

 

When you’re ready, click Update and Restart. The update will happen automatically and you’ll be ready to go in no time! *Be sure you’re connected to the internet before you begin the update! 

We hope you enjoy Sidekick as much as we do! As always, if you have any questions, reach out to other users in the DYM Facebook Community OR email us anytime at [email protected].

6 Aug 2018

My Fall Programming Picks Bundle

By |2018-08-06T15:59:07-07:00August 6th, 2018|Games, Help Me With..., Teaching, Teaching/Programming, Uncategorized, Youth Ministry Ideas, Youth Ministry Resources|5 Comments

Hey friend!

I’ve done Fall planning in youth ministry for more than 20 years. Summer is over and I even managed to sneak in a few days of “staycation” – it’s time for Target “back to school” sales and Old Navy’s endless ads. I’m excited about what God did at summer camp and watched students grow, and I’m now asking God’s Spirit to guide me as I set the course for the Fall.

There’s a lot to process heading into this season—and a lot of opportunities and obstacles to be aware of. Here’s what I feel like learned over the years about heading into Fall:

Back to school means back to Jesus
Many students take off in the summer months or their schedule is just so random with vacations, sports camps and beach days that they can’t always be counted on to be a part of our youth ministry. My own kids experienced summer school, a first job and intense sports camps the past few months making for a crazy, always-running house. But going back to school is the grounding force that brings everyone back and the more formal schedule allows church to be dropped into the mix and a priority once again.

Momentum for the whole year starts in the fall
Momentum is a fickle thing, so the start of the school year with a big Fall Kickoff or Back to School bash feels like a good chance to rally students together and encourage them to make the right friends and participate in the right community. So I carry over any momentum from summer (a great camp, baptisms, etc.) and go right into a big Kickoff event and felt-need series to get everyone back in the groove. I want to launch small groups or mentoring around this time to keep the momentum rolling through Christmas to get to the New Year.

Familiar themes work great in the fall
I like to focus on some familiar themes in the Fall. They’re timeless… Honestly, I can get tired of teaching the same things every year, but they are too important to pass up – so I find a way to “reskin” these themes every year: purpose/identity, relationships and spiritual growth.

So having done this more than 20 times, I thought it might be fun to show you a plan for what the fall could look like, and wrap it up in one sweet bundle if you want to a) get a great deal and b) let me do the planning for you.

FALL KICKOFF

  • Weirdo (1-wk series)
  • T-shirt Frenzy (Sidekick file)
  • Locked Up for What (Game)

FIRST SERIES OF THE SCHOOL YEAR

  • Swipe Right (a completely revamped version of Facebook Official: a 5-wk series from me and Doug Fields)

Pair it with these games with an easy connection to a biblical truth from a purity/relationships series.

  • Maybe Baby Game
  • Ice Cream or Nail Polish
  • Who’s the Baby Daddy?
  • Birds Bees and Other Animals

SPIRITUAL GROWTH SERIES

  • Charged (2-wk series)
  • Week 1 game FAIL GUESS 2 (Sometimes we start a spiritual habit and fail. Enjoy some other failures!)
  • Fun countdown video Simon Says False Facts (The Bible is always true, when things all around us aren’t!)

A FEW ADDITIONAL TOOLS:

  • Instagram Story Icons (to help take your social media to a new level for Fall)
  • Parent Texts (Helping bridge the connection between your ministry and parents)

All of these resources have been written and created by youth pastors and trench-tested. That’s what DYM is all about! This is a great deal–$97 worth of resources for just $50–BUT if you become a yearly DYM Gold Member, you’ll get this bundle for FREE. We already call the Gold Membership ‘The Greatest Deal in the History of Youth Ministry’: (a new game, video, student leadership lesson, and mystery item on the first of the month every month, PLUS monthly store credit and DAILY discounts) but adding an additional $97 of free resources? That’s just too good to pass up! Click here to find out more about becoming a Gold Member.

Praying for an incredible fall!
Josh Griffin

20+ years youth pastor

Co-founder, Download Youth Ministry

P.S. – ADDED BONUS: Fall is also THE key time to train your volunteers, so I’m tossing in a $25 off code to unlimited, on-demand video training courses for you and your team on Download Youth Ministry University. It’ll revolutionize the way you train your leaders! https://www.dymuniversity.com/ (Psst! If you go Gold, you’ll save $50 on DYMU!)

24 May 2018

FREE DYMUniversity Course: Suicide Prevention

By |2018-05-24T09:30:44-07:00May 24th, 2018|Youth Ministry Resources|0 Comments

It’s been a great night at small group: someone laughed so hard, soda shot out of his nose, the discussion was focused, and prayer requests were deep. On your way out to the car, Jack, who’s been surprisingly quiet all night, stops you and starts to tell you about how awful the last few weeks have been…

His grades have been slipping since the start of the school year.

Over the last few weeks, he’s been fighting with his parents a ton.

He sighs and says, “I just don’t think this will ever get better. I’ve disappointed everyone. I give up.”

What do you ask to determine if he’s just going through a hard time or showing signs of depression; to determine if this is a “text him in a few days” or a “call his parents on the way home” situation?


As youth workers, we have a front row seat to the lives of the teenagers in our ministries. This is a privilege: we get to celebrate alongside them in joyful times. It’s also a big responsibility: we’re in a unique position to see warning signs that others may not.

Even if you’ve been working with students for decades, it’s likely you have more questions than answers when it comes to caring for a student showing signs of depression. At what point does depression lead to thoughts of self-harm? What if a student alludes to thoughts of suicide? Being sad and anxious is part of regular life, but at what point is it considered a mental illness? Why the need for labels like that anyway?

Thankfully there are people out there with tools to help us navigate these delicate situations.


This morning, we added two bonus extended sessions to the DYM University catalog: Understanding Mental Illness and Suicide Detection and Prevention from Suicide Prevention Specialist, Craig Lomax with introductions by Kay Warren, Co-founder of Saddleback Church.

This is, by no means, a complete education on mental health, but it’s a great starting point to help your ministry team feel even more equipped as you care for students.

We’d like to give you and your leaders one of these sessions completely free.

After their son Matthew died by suicide a few years ago, Kay has dedicated much of her life to educating church leaders about mental health and suicide prevention. Listen to her heart and how she believes these sessions could shape the way you and your team care for students and families in your community:

These are such important topics for those of us working with teenagers these days. It’s surprising how FEW tools on the subject are currently available for youth workers.


CLICK HERE to get the Suicide Detection and Prevention session for free!

We want to help equip your leaders to identify the warning signs of suicide and be prepared with helpful action steps if or when a student shares that he or she is thinking about suicide.

To share this training through DYMU, click above and redeem access to this session for yourself and follow the simple steps to enter the email addresses of your leaders. They’ll receive an email with a link to the session and the PDF outline.


Here’s more information on the new sessions in DYM University course 201.

Session 7: Understanding Mental Illness
Did you know 1 in 5 teenagers have a mental health challenge each year? And on average, mental illness begins at the age of 14. This means it’s likely that there are students in your ministry who are already struggling with or will begin to struggle with a mental illness.

The good news is: mental illness is treatable! Let us help equip you and your leaders to recognize early signs of mental illness and have tools at your disposal to care for and support them in an appropriate way.

Session 8: Suicide Detection and Prevention (with DYMU co-founder, Josh Griffin)
Suicide is the second leading cause of death for 15-24-year-olds. This means that it’s not a matter of if there are students in your ministry struggling with suicidal thoughts, but a question of which ones.

Suicide is largely preventable. We want nothing more than to help the caring adults in the lives of your students identify the warning signs of suicide and be prepared with helpful action steps if a student shares that he or she is thinking about suicide.


We hope you are able to use these training videos to care for your students even more effectively.

Blessings,
Doug Fields and Josh Griffin
DYMU Co-founders

P.S. If you want to share more from the YM201 DYMU course with your leaders–to give them access to these sessions and more, the best option is to purchase the YM 101-401 bundle site license.

20 Apr 2018

The Michiana Meet Up by Allison Williams

By |2018-04-20T12:01:46-07:00April 20th, 2018|Leadership, Training, Youth Ministry Resources, Youth Pastor Life|0 Comments

A couple of weeks back, 50ish of us gathered for the DYM Michiana Meet Up.  It was the brainchild of Derry Prenkert, John Keim, and Jeff Selph.  Those guys did an incredible job organizing, advertising, and structuring the day.  Any good event needs people at the helm and we had some of the best running this one.

We started the day out with coffee, bagels, and introductions.  There were people there with their team, others that drove in with pieces of their network, and some that came solo.  Regardless of your situation, every minister needs friends outside of their context that understand the pressures and joys of church work.  As we were going around the room introducing ourselves, you could almost feel everyone breathe deeper — it was obvious early on that we were surrounded by our tribe.

There were six DYM Ambassadors present for this gathering.  That might not feel like a lot, but I think there are only 15ish nationally, so it was a pretty large representation.  Peppered through our time together, the ambassadors all spoke briefly to the group about the piece of DYM that we love the most: Membership, resources, DYMU, the Student Leadership Conference, Podcast Network, and Facebook community group.  The underlying current of those mini commercials was trying to convey how DYM wants to be behind us, prompting and encouraging the kingdom work in our context.

We also spent time in open-source sharing.  If you’ve never experienced that before, those are facilitated conversations that hopefully everyone in the group contributes to.  We had two timeslots with six conversations going at tables around the room covering a gambit of topics.  Seriously, there was something for everyone.  I wish I could have pulled up a chair to all 12 conversations throughout our time together.  There were practical ministry ideas, new strategies, and an emphasis on rest, balance, and self-care.  Our time together was both personally restorative, fostered new networking connections, and gave us some ideas to roll around in our brains.

We ended the meeting portion of the event with Doug Fields.  If you’ve never had the opportunity to spend time with Doug, just know that his heartbeat in ministry is encouraging and edifying youth workers.  That’s what he did as he spoke for a few minutes to close out our time together and continued to do at the lunch we headed to after.  I actually had to send the waitress after his order because he was wandering around the restaurant making sure every youth worker felt known and valued.  He’s a class act (blogmaster, don’t let DF delete this paragraph).

I can’t speak for the room because we were at random tables, but lunch was my favorite part of the day.  I got to sit with old and newer friends and talk about life and ministry.  We even dreamed up a few ideas for ministry and future DYM resources.  On a personal note, I got some very wise counsel from people that know youth ministry and understand how I think.  Moments like that can be rare, so when they come around, we should pay close attention.

It was such a valuable day.  Whether it’s a DYM Meet Up or another kind of network gathering, prioritize getting connected to the larger youth worker community.  You are not alone (and this is coming from a female youth pastor with a church next to cornfields)!  Meet our tribe.  Jump into our Facebook community.  Grab coffee with the person at the next church over.  Organize an event.  People that stay in our profession for the long haul prioritize a youth worker family mentality.  Your future tribe might just be waiting on you to invite them to a conversation.

[Just as a note, Doug didn’t fly in for our morning network meeting.  We timed it around an event that he was already in town for that evening.  If you are looking to host a DYM Meet Up, the DYM team will happily try to help you where they can, but will not be able to be present unless the schedule lines up perfectly.]

7 Dec 2017

Best of 2017: Youth Ministry Freebies

By |2017-12-07T08:54:47-08:00December 7th, 2017|Youth Ministry Resources|0 Comments

The Best of 2017 is a collection of lists – best-selling resources, most buzzed about blog posts or products that moved the #youthministry needle this past year. In this edition we carve out the top membership items that are now in the DYM Store. Out of tons of freebie items this year, these rose to the very top. Again, these are all completely free, so roll on over to the free section of DYM and grab these sure-fire winners:

Best of 2017: Most Popular Membership Item

Best of 2017: Youth Ministry Freebies

  1. Extreme Bingo
  2. Whip or Nae Nae Game
  3. Solar Eclipse Game
  4. Family Graphic Pack and Discussion Guide
  5. Noise Video

HONORABLE MENTION: Legacy

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