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21 Feb 2018

Billy Graham Passes Away at Age 99

By |2018-02-21T13:20:32-08:00February 21st, 2018|Leadership|0 Comments

From USA Today:

On the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance following the 9/11 attacks, Graham spoke of the “mystery of iniquity and evil,” of “the lesson of our need for each other” and, ultimately, of hope.

“He was so real, he made Christianity come true,” said Susan Harding, an anthropologist at the University of California-Santa Cruz. “He was homespun, historical and newsworthy all at once. He could span the times from Christ to today, from the globe to you, all in one sentence.”

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2 Feb 2018

Favored Leaders

By |2018-02-02T07:08:11-08:00February 2nd, 2018|Leadership, Training, Volunteers|5 Comments

I love my youth ministry’s adult leaders. They’re the backbone of my youth ministry. They’re people I’ve recruited, equipped, and mentored. Some have served with me for almost a decade. I take caring for them seriously.

In my context, adult leaders commit to serving in one specific area of ministry – typically one of our two weekly programs. After that, they’re always welcome, but never obligated to attend our events. Thankfully, because adult leaders feel called to their ministry with students, most willingly commit to serve during extra events.

Because youth ministry is relational and my regular adult leaders already have relationships with our students, they’re the first people I ask to go on major events like our winter retreat and summer mission trip. It’s only when I can’t get enough of our regular adult leaders to serve during these events that we ask other congregational leaders or parents to go.

For some, this approach to leadership is controversial. It looks like favoritism. After all, they wonder, isn’t the goal of ministry to get as many people involved in it as possible?

Sure, I’d say. A congregation’s goal should be for every one of its parishioners to be involved in ministry. But not every one of your congregation’s parishioners are called to serve in youth ministry.

Having good leaders in your youth ministry doesn’t require you to have the largest number of volunteers in your church. It requires you to have the RIGHT leaders: People who love Jesus, adore teenagers, want to grow in their own faith, and are good at working with teens.

Getting the right people to serve in your ministry requires carefully recruiting leaders. It means making it hard for leaders to get in and easy for them to get out. It also means faithfully equipping them to serve in your ministry for the long-haul, not the short-term, so that they can build relationships with teens.

Ephesians 4:11-12 explains how the role of pastors and teachers is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” Equipping the saints for the work of ministry requires intentionality. It requires pouring into a select few who have committed to serve faithfully in your ministry.

So, sure, some may call that favoritism.

But I’m okay with that.

After all, what some call favoritism, Jesus calls discipleship.

 

 

 

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31 Jan 2018

Why We Only Do Events On Wednesday Nights

By |2018-01-31T00:40:31-08:00January 31st, 2018|Leadership, Teaching/Programming, Youth Ministry Hacks|10 Comments

You heard it correct.

Every event we do is attached to a Wednesday Night service. No more Friday night, random event. No more event that a few friends of students who don’t come to service that won’t come to your youth gathering. No more wasted budget.

Truth is, we did this for a long time. This is what I have grown up doing in my own youth group and when I first started almost every event was a stand alone one. We made the switch a few years ago to only doing events that are attached to our Wednesday night program and it has been so fun to see.

**Side note: Is this the only way to do this? No. Do I think you should not do any event outside your service night? Maybe not. I know plenty of ministries who do really well with separate events and in their culture, it works really well with outreach. In our context, we found it did not.

Instead of having an event in hopes students would invite a friend to and then hope that new friend might come check out a service, we have both on the same night. This way, one of our students can invite a friend to an event where they come to a service first and then stay after to be at the event. This way new students are exposed to what a church service is like, they can see our worship, see our culture, our teaching and then have some fun with friends after services.

All events are free for students to attend.

Yes, we budget knowing all events are free, but it’s strategic when we ask for budgets for the year.

We get 100% participation for events so we know we are getting our money’s worth.

Students have something to invite a friend to on top of service. It makes it a little easier for students to gain confidence to ask a friend to come.

Yes, the events are shorter  because we don’t want to go super late (especially during the school year) but if you do them well it won’t matter. There is nothing worse than an event that should have ended 20 minutes ago anyways. End it on a high note…early. Leave them wanting more.

Every friend that gets invited comes to service in hopes to start a relationship with Jesus. They are exposed to the Gospel and a loving church community and we don’t need to worry about if they show up for an event and never seeing them again.

It helps students invite friends to service even when we don’t have an event because it’s now a part of our culture. This is what it’s about.

We don’t do it every week. We have events certain times of the year. Strategically placed, every year so students know when they can invite those friends they know would never step foot on a church campus otherwise.

We (I’m talking about me here too) can get so down when students do not invite friends. We wonder why they don’t but we don’t ask ourselves if they even feel comfortable what they are inviting their friends to. We can’t assume what is happening now is something our students want to invite friends too…especially those who have no idea what church-life is and what to expect. In a culture where more and more students are growing up in homes where their parents are not churched, helping students engaging their friends is up to us.

If you have something your students would want to attend then your students will want their friends to attend as well.

For us, getting rid of stand alone events has been key to developing a culture where students invite their friends to our service.

 

@justinknowles3

 

PS: Have you checked out the new DYM Podcast Network? If not, you need to.

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17 Jan 2018

What Voices Are You Allowing To Speak Into You?

By |2018-01-17T17:21:13-08:00January 17th, 2018|Leadership, Training, Youth Ministry Hacks|2 Comments

If your ministry setting is anything like my ministry setting, you have a lot of people telling you what they need from you and your ministry. There are so many voices speaking into how you should lead, what decisions to make and then when you do make a decision some people get mad at you and then when you decide to not do something other people get mad. Sometimes students think they know how to do your job because they think service should be this way for these people and the elders think it should be this for these people.

Phew!

So who do you listen to? What voices do you allow to speak into you and allow to influence your decisions?

In order to keep on our vision for our ministry and make sure I allow the right people to influence my decision-making I ask myself three questions. Now I will be honest, I heard this somewhere but I cannot remember where I heard this (so if you know, let me know so I can give credit) but it has changed how I lead and move forward.

The three questions are:

  1. Does the person speaking into me love Jesus? Are they actively pursuing a life that honors Jesus? The life they live is characterized as a fully devoted follower of Jesus and it shows. I am trying to follow Jesus and if someone I know is giving me advice and they are better at following Jesus than I am, I would be wise to listen.
  2. Does this person love me? This is not a romantic love, but a respect kind of love. Do they care for my well-being and healthiness in decision-making or are they wanting something out of me to benefit themselves or their own agenda? Are they trying to gain something out of me for them and not for the benefit of me as a person or leader? Lots of people have an opinion on what I should do but they don’t care if it’s going to kill me and cause me to burn out. They have plenty of things they ask me to add because it’s “better” which it might make the ministry better, but it would make me bitter to work there. Does this person care about me as a person?
  3. Do they love my church/ministry as their own? They are not pushing something they need for their ministry or their benefit, but they legitimately want to see your ministry thrive like you want to see it thrive.Do they see the vision I have laid out and they want to see it come to life. Lots of people have their vision and version of the ministry in which you lead and they want to see their vision over your vision.

Now if the answer is “NO” to any of these questions, my response is, “Thank you so much for your input, I’ll for sure think about it.” If it’s something worth it, I’ll really think about it and if not, it’s done.

If the answer is “YES” to all these questions, then I would be wise to allow this person to speak into me and what is happening. It would be a good and beneficial thing.

I know there are a lot of opinions, but not all of them should hold equal weight. I have heard enough youth workers crumble underneath the many voices and people pleasing tendencies and this could be a way to combat some of this.

Hope this is helpful!

 

@justinknowles3

 

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28 Nov 2017

DYMU Spotlight: Remembering Names Pays Off

By |2017-11-27T11:07:23-08:00November 28th, 2017|Leadership, Volunteers|0 Comments

Got this great story in from Bobby about Download Youth Ministry University! Thought you would enjoy it, and maybe consider checking out DYMU for your ministry as well:
We challenged all of our youth workers to complete DYMU 101 by the end of the month. Its been so fun seeing the feedback as veterans and rookies have responded well. We have 10+ year veterans that love it and brand new rookies hungry for more.
One of our NEW 10th grade small group leaders sent my wife this text after our second meeting. Elizabeth, one of our most active sophomores fell in love with her new small group leader because she remembered her name. This leader, by challenging herself to memorize names (from DYMU’s YM101 – Session 3), just communicated that she is already invested and cares for her group on WEEK TWO.
I can’t wait to see what God does with our 10th graders this year because of leaders that have been trained. This is what it is all about!
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16 Nov 2017

My Favorite Things: 12-Weeks of DYM Resources in One Bundle

By |2017-11-16T08:40:09-08:00November 16th, 2017|Leadership, Teaching, Teaching/Programming, Youth Ministry Resources|0 Comments

One of the most difficult choices I make as a youth pastor is the direction of our ministry. The sermons, the games, the events… it’s a huge job. Have you ever thought “It would be so fun to have someone help me in that process!” If you’ve ever felt like this, let me be that partner for you. Let me help you get into my mind and how I put together series in our ministry.
I put together a bundle of resources from the DYM Store to help you with your next 12 weeks of sermons, games, a monthly event, and leader training. Everything you need for the next season of ministry programs!
Now I am not saying that I know it all, but service (and series) programming is one of my favorite things to do. There’s just something about having a blank calendar in front of you and being able to fill it with intentionality and series arcs so you can take your students on a spiritual journey with the hope that they grow closer and closer to Jesus.
Everything we do in our ministry planning is intentional… as I’m sure it is for you, too. We want to make sure that wherever we are going 1) God is there and we want to follow His direction and 2) our students will actually enjoy going through it.
Every year our team get together and prays through where we will go in the coming year and what comes out of that time together is a fully planned out, week-by-week scheduled program.
In our ministry, we follow this pattern when it comes to sermon series:
  • Topical
  • Jesus
  • Book Study
We feel that through this rotation you are able to cover a lot of Scripture, encourage students in different areas of their faith and challenge them to follow Jesus more closely. We also try to match the games with something that is somewhat related to the topic of the night. (This does not work all of the time and if it doesn’t, a fun, funny game could get the same results.) We always say in our meetings, “Fun breaks down walls” and it could be the thing that opens up a student to the Holy Spirit.
If I were to choose the next 12 weeks of ministry programming, straight from the DYM store, this is what I would choose.* (Note: this isn’t my next 12 weeks because I’m recommending resources I have used and loved.)
HOW TO RUIN YOUR LIFE
  • This series is by far one of the best series we have done in the last few years. Not only is it a great and unique take on topics (by giving opposite advice), but each topic was on point for what our students needed to hear. This series hits wisdom on dealing with your cell phone, friendships, and relationships… our students were talking about it every week on social media. (I can usually tell when a message hits hard when students take to social media…)

GAME: Cell Phone Shoot Out – Truth or Dare:

  • For whatever reason, our students are WAY into Jimmy Fallon-type games. They love when just a few students are up-front playing an entertaining game and they can just sit back and watch others make a fool of themselves. That is why Cell Phone Shoot Out is always a hit! This one is great when it comes to a friendship series (or you can even pit a BF and GF against each other.)

LEADER TRAINING: The Power of Encouraging Words

  • One of my favorite times of any season is being able to get together with our leaders and do some training. This video teaching is one of the most important we can do. The truth is we don’t know what voices our students are hearing to and allowing to sink into their lives. What we as leaders can use (for free!) are our encouraging words. Helping your leaders know their words are powerful in students lives is priceless.

MONTH 2 HIGHLIGHTS:

SERIES: THAT’S WHAT HE SAID

  • After a very topical and fun series, challenging students in their everyday lives, I’d suggest jumping into a series that takes a deeper look into Jesus’ teaching. I would even encourage students to invite their friends–this series is a great introduction to the life and ministry of Jesus.

GAME: What Would You Do For A Klondike Bar?

  • Bring up one, two or more participants who are willing to do whatever it takes to get a delicious treat. It could be anything from doing 10 push-ups to drinking clam juice to dancing with no music for 30 seconds. (You’ll need a few additional supplies, including Klondike bars, of course.) The game includes eight rounds (of video) which and the winner gets a free Klondike bar. It is amazing what students will do for free stuff. It was hilarious to watch.

EVENT: Extreme Bingo

  • Who doesn’t love bingo? Well, playing extreme bingo is even better! I can promise you one thing for sure: your students will never be more frustrated with you… and it’s a great thing. Using the BOXES tool in the DYM Games App, you can create “Boxes of Doom”: certain tasks, punishments, or “everyone is out” type consequences if they happen when a specific number that is called. Our students loved it, yelled at me, and completed the tasks. It always kept them on their toes and was by far one of the best games we have ever played.

MONTH 3 HIGHLIGHTS:

SERIES: ROMANS IN 5

•  In a world where students are Biblically illiterate, I think we ought to make it a priority to teach students the importance of scripture. This series is great because the outlines are just that: outlines. They are not manuscripts, but instead some main points to help you dive into Scripture yourself and then help your students understand it as well.

GAME: Impossibler 4 Corners:

• The game prompts students to move around the room to the corners marked A, B, C, or D. When the question is presented, students must move to a respective corner,  but here’s the catch: they’re trying to get the answer WRONG. Whatever corner answers correctly is out. If you want to add even more fun and twists, add a dodgeball element to it. As students are switching corners, have leaders play dodgeball. If a student gets hit by the ball, they are out!

• Reading The Bible With Students: What better way to train your leaders or small group leaders as we go through a book of the Bible than to help your leaders learn how to read their Bibles more effectively with students. This was by far one of the best and most practical trainings we have done. We have had more feedback on this training than any other.
Well, there you have it! Just a little look in to how I would put together 12 full weeks of programming and training within my own ministry. I hope it is helpful to you and your ministry. Thank you for letting me partner with you!
If you’d like to purchase this bundle, which include these 3 series, 14 games, and 3 events, CLICK HERE.
Justin Knowles
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2 Nov 2017

How To Know Whether Or Not You Are Heading In The Right Direction

By |2017-10-27T11:11:08-07:00November 2nd, 2017|Leadership|0 Comments

Youth ministry can feel a lot like a treadmill where no matter how hard you work you never end up where you need to be. Most of us know this we just don’t know how to stop the busyness.

The answer is in taking intentional time to step back, analyze our progress and reflect on our direction. And when we take a step back it’s important to ask: (more…)

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9 Oct 2017

Replace Hype With Hope & Attendance With Engagement

By |2017-10-10T10:39:23-07:00October 9th, 2017|Leadership, Youth Ministry Ideas, Youth Pastor Life|0 Comments

This is not meant to knock anyone, maybe because I’m 31 and it means I am officially getting old but when people over 25 use words like “let’s get hyped” “shook” or “its going to be 100” and things our culture says, my eye twitches a bit. Maybe it’s a context thing but I wont lie I tried to say it and use it and I just felt a little ridiculous. I think we live in a culture today where everything is “hyped”. Should we be hyped about church? I hope so.

I think in our culture, we think church needs to be “cool”. We have to be the cool church in order to effectively reach students. If it’s not cool or hyped, they wont be interested and I think that is just a gross lie. We use hype to drive attendance.

We need hope over hype. Engagement over attendance.

Let me explain. I want my ministry to grow. I’m sure you do to. No one would say, “You know what, I think we are good.” Right?

Attendance used to be THE THING to determine growth and healthiness but I think it should only be A THING and maybe your church still thinks like this. Whether you are the leader of your ministry, or you lead a small group of students, when students don’t show up it’s a downer on the mood. I won’t lie.

There are some Wednesdays where our attendance is booming and I get so pumped and then the next week 70 of the students who were there last week are not there. 70. That’s a true story. Talk about a roller coaster.

I’m still working on this one. In our culture today I think our minds need to shift to a new perspective. I don’t know if it’s just a Southern California thing but our students are so busy. They are busier than I am. I feel bad about my life because I don’t think I’m doing enough because all my students are everywhere doing everything (HA!). I do believe our ministry is twice as big as we see on Wednesdays just because our students don’t come all at the same time and they maybe come twice a month at best (and those are the ones who love our ministry and call it “home”).

Hype will drive attendance, but hype dies out. Students stick around when they are engaged.

So instead of just focusing on attendance focus on how we push our students to engage. Students are so mission minded now. They want to make a difference. They want to be a part of a cause. So how do we engage them?

I’m sure there are a bunch of different ways to do this. This is how we are working to engage our students in different ways:

Small groups – When people ask how many students we have I should say 43%. “What?” 43% of our students are in small groups right now. I know when students are in small groups they are engaged and they are cared for. They have an adult who cares for them and they are studying Scripture. I don’t think we are not doing great at this right now. We are in the middle of working on this way to engage students and I am so excited about the future.

Campus ministry – We try to be on campuses a few times a week. One of the best ways to engage students is to go into their world. We ask them to come to us weekly, so go to them. I think when we can shoot a few texts to students saying we are on campus and they come and say hi and stick around for a while, we are engaging them on their turf. It’s huge.

Serving – You are never more like Jesus than when you serve. When we can push students to serve, they get engaged in your church so much quicker. God grows us when we are stepping out of our comfort-zones. When we can get students involved somewhere, they realize they are a part of something bigger than themselves. In such a cause-driven generation, this is how you engage students. Let me brag on my students for a second (proud pastor moment). We have over 100 students serving in our children’s ministry. THE BEST! I love walking around on Sunday mornings and seeing students engaged and investing into others. They stick around when they are surrounded by people pouring into them and being stretched to serve.

Now I want to clarify, I love the hype. Get me up on stage and I’ll be the most hyped guy out there because I don’t think church should be boring. I think we offer something hype doesn’t…hope. Everything we do and want to engage our students in is to show our students the hope that only Jesus brings and when we engage them in these ways, we show them snippets of Jesus. When “butts in seats” is EVERYTHING and hype is ALL we offer, you will gain a crowd that will go away when the next thing comes. But when we engage our students and offer the hope they are looking for in Jesus, you will see a much healthier ministry.

What do you do to engage students?

 

@justinknowles3

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26 Sep 2017

A chance to preach

By |2017-09-26T05:02:27-07:00September 26th, 2017|Leadership, Teaching|1 Comment

On Sunday, I watched one of my former students, Marcy, preach in my congregation – the congregation where she grew up.  She stood at the pulpit, full of grace, and gave a beautiful message on Exodus 16:2-15.

Among other things, what impressed me about Marcy’s message was what she didn’t do. She didn’t revert to her adolescent self. She didn’t wax poetic about her childhood at Faith. She didn’t share memories.

Instead, Marcy was a pastor, passionately preaching the assigned texts for the day.

This is fitting because next week, Marcy will be ordained as a pastor.

Our congregation is the last place she’ll preach as a lay person.

It’s also the first place she preached as an awkward high school senior as part of our congregation’s long history of Youth Sunday.

As a senior, Marcy stood up and articulated her faith, attempting to weave her story in with the day’s liturgical lessons. She did so in front of her people, in a place that had nurtured her faith since birth.

Her words weren’t eloquent that day. They weren’t philosophical. They weren’t theologically significant. She didn’t exegete the day’s scripture like a Bible scholar because – news flash – she wasn’t. Instead, she made people laugh as she shared parts of her journey. And then she pointed them to God.

Some people might not have called what Marcy did that day a sermon. To some, she spoke, gave a talk, or shared her testimony. But that day, in Marcy’s mind, she preached.

Long before she began to contemplate a call to ministry, Marcy preached.

Long before anyone affirmed her gifts to ministry, Marcy preached.

Her home congregation welcomed, heard, and affirmed her words. In doing so, it affirmed a not-yet-realized calling.

So often, we shy away from putting young people in the pulpit.

We fear what they’ll say (or what they won’t say).  We worry they’ll inadvertently offend someone. Or we shy away from how much work it is to coach someone else in preaching.

But what Sunday reminded me is that giving young people the opportunity to preach is always worth it.

For some, that moment is simply a chance to speak their faith into being; to participate in a significant milestone in their faith formation.

But for others, that moment will be something more. It will become the beginning of a sacred calling – A chance to try out an identity and discover their voice; To recognize they, too, might one day wear the title, Pastor.  

That’s what happened for Marcy seven years ago.

Who knows what young man or woman it will happen for next when you give them the chance to preach.

 

 

 

 

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22 Aug 2017

Questions To Ask Yourself To Level Up As A Leader

By |2017-08-21T23:48:18-07:00August 22nd, 2017|Leadership, Volunteers|0 Comments

As leaders of a ministry we are constantly challenging those we serve and serve with to grow closer and closer in their relationship with Jesus and in their leadership ability. Unless you are intentional about it, it can be really hard to be challenged as a leader to be pushed to grow in your own leadership abilities. If that is you, these questions are what this post is for…

To challenge us in our leadership.

Who am I pouring into? – Do you want to really know if you are doing a good job at explaining and duplicating yourself? Get someone to pour into. This fall we are taking on two interns. Many people think interns will help make things easier and in many ways they do, but taking on an intern and pouring into them takes more work for you as the leader because you are training someone how to do what you do. It also will help you and push you to see if you know how to duplicate your leadership. It’s challenging but worth it.

Are you doing this thing just to do it? – Do you know what kills creativity? Repetition. You want to challenge your leadership, what in your ministry is just something you do just to do it? What in your ministry is not intentional and maybe, just maybe, could be keeping your ministry from moving forward? What do you need to let go of?

Who is doing ministry at the next level in your area? – If you think you are too good to not go learn from someone who is at that next level, you need to humble yourself. One of the best way to open to your eyes to what maybe God has called you to do in your ministry is get in the sight of what your ministry can do in the next level. Now is not just numbers. It could be a ministry who has gained volunteers like crazy, or have great production or creativity within their services, or their small groups are killing it etc. Get out and learn from some other local pastors, take them out to lunch, strike a friendship and learn from them.

What is one big thing to try next year that is going to require God to show up so you don’t look foolish? – This one is the toughest, but maybe the most rewarding. Ask yourself this question to step out in faith. Pray that God reveals something that is going to be uncomfortable and maybe push you into your next level of leadership. Something that if God does not come through, you will look like a fool. Obviously, planning whatever that is very important, don’t just go all in gung-ho without planning, but push yourself to engage in something out of your comfort zone and watch God work because you don’t grow your ministry, God does.

 

@justinknowles3

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