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25 Jul 2017

Why You Need Students To Share Regularly In Your Service

By |2017-07-25T00:38:33-07:00July 25th, 2017|Leadership, Youth Pastor Life|1 Comment

Last week we had a our summer camp reunion service. Basically, we come back from summer camp and do all the things we did at camp and do them in our service. We sing the camp songs, play camp games, and we share camp stories.

Usually at service I will get up and teach a little bit. I do love teaching. Especially after camp because energy is super high and they are tuning in because they just spent a whole week doing this. Of course I want to teach in that moment.

But I don’t.

We let students share. We had 7 students be the sermon at service and had them share what God did at summer camp and it was super powerful. Let me share why I think we need to let students teach and share regularly:

Students teach students better – The selfish side of me wishes this was not true. But it is. the human side of gets bummed out when I know for a fact that all of the time and effort I put into a sermon only to have it not remembered by students over the years. “Not my sermons, mine are rememberable” says the first year youth ministry guy. What did your senior pastor teach 7 weeks ago? Did you look it up without looking on Planning Center? Students listen to students better. Students teach better to their peers. We have students write out their whole testimonies and they read it straight from the paper and it’s way more powerful and engaging than if I were to memorize and give to most epic sermon ever. When they see someone like them on stage, they are bought in and God can grab their attention in a way that you as an adult cannot.

When students say “me too” it’s powerful – When students have the opportunity to share, they can hear the story of one of their own and have the opportunity to say “me too”, and that is powerful. When a student can hear another student’s story and hear about the sin, addictions, struggles of those students and say “me too” it’s memorable. Then they God hear what God does when lives are fully given to Him and then they can say, “I want that too”. It gives hope that God can move in their lives too.

I’m not saying we should have students share all of the time, but I am saying we can be more intentional about them sharing more. Especially when it comes to summer camp. My challenge to youth workers is to give up the stage every now and then and yield it to an unpolished, nervous to be on stage student who tells the story about how God has worked in their life and watch God work.

It’s pretty incredible.

 

@justinknowles3

 

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29 Jun 2017

The Youth’s Pastor

By |2017-06-29T05:42:25-07:00June 29th, 2017|Leadership, Youth Pastor Life|0 Comments

After three years without an associate pastor, my church finally hired a new one. He’s a former intern from my congregation that I genuinely respect and enjoy working with. He’s also young, cute, and far cooler than I am (or ever hope to be).

Part of our new associate pastor’s job description, as presented to our congregation at the meeting in which we voted on him, is “youth”. As the person who serves as my church’s youth worker, this struck me as odd. Isn’t that my job?

Because of this (and a few other things), our associate’s first few weeks in his role were rough for me – especially since he kept showing up at my youth ministry events. (Mind you, he always asked first but nevertheless, despite being in youth ministry for 15 years – 9 in my current context – his constant presence still made me feel insecure.) I wondered, “The next time our congregation has a budget shortfall, will my job be eliminated because people will think our new associate pastor can do it?”

My insecurities grew until they finally reached a boiling point.

For about a week in late April, I seriously contemplated quitting.

But then early in May, our associate pastor asked to meet with me. He was doing one-on-one’s with each of our staff members and my turn had come. So I sat down with him.

He asked me good questions – about what I need from him; how he can be supportive of me and my ministry; where our congregation is at; and my worries and concerns about the future of our congregation.

As I listened to his questions, I realized our associate pastor had no idea how much I was struggling – not because he’s oblivious (he’s a pysch major who’s actually really aware of other people’s emotions) – but because I’d carefully hidden my frustrations from him.

In that moment, I made a choice. I shared (rather vulnerably) about how hard his transition had been for me. I named my fears and told him that I feared his presence would ultimately cost me my job.

After a moment of stunned silence, he said this: “I don’t want to be the youth pastor, Jen. I want to be the youth’s pastor.”

That one comment has made all the difference for me, helping me to realize that our new associate is not after my job; He’s simply trying to be the best pastor he can be.

What a gift it is to have a pastor who wants to pastor not just the adults in our congregation, but the youth as well.

What a gift it is to have a pastor who’s supportive of the work I do in our youth ministry and who wants to participate in it  simply to build relationships with the teens and show his support of me.

Years ago, I interviewed youth ministry expert Chap Clark for a Youth Worker Journal Roundtable. I no longer remember what we were even talking about, but I do remember this. Chap talked about the importance of reversing the 5:1 youth ministry ratio. Rather than have one adult for every five students, Chap urged youth workers to find five adults to invest in every teenager in your congregation.

This comment deeply resonated with me and ever since then, I’ve been trying to achieve it.

What a gift it now is to have an associate pastor who I can count among the five adults pouring into the teens in our congregation, who knows more about our teens than their names, who’s listening to their stories, sharing in their doubts, and investing in them and our youth ministry.

Our teens, our congregation, and our community will all reap the benefits of this.

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20 Jun 2017

Who Are You Really Trying To Reach?

By |2017-06-20T04:32:50-07:00June 20th, 2017|Leadership|0 Comments

Who are you trying to reach as a ministry? Are you just going after the teens who are already there? You know the ones who have bought in? How are you going after the kids who don’t see your ministry as an option?

Planning over the top events and working hard on an efficient ministry structure is crucial, but to reach the teens that need to be in your ministry requires: (more…)

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13 Jun 2017

How To Set A Solid Calendar For The Year

By |2018-02-22T15:31:28-08:00June 13th, 2017|Leadership, Uncategorized|2 Comments

CALENDAR MEETINGS. Even the name sounds like something out of a medieval torture chamber. Are they even necessary? Why do we even have them?

Many times they are filled with people arguing over their own events, convincing others that what they do is more important than what you do. When the dust settles and a calendar is finally decided there can be left over resentment that could have been prevented.

In order to plan a successful calendar there needs to be: (more…)

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8 Jun 2017

5 Things Students NEED To Know From Their Leaders

By |2017-06-08T07:58:28-07:00June 8th, 2017|Leadership, Small Groups|1 Comment

When it comes down to it, most of what we do is about relationships with students. In order to help students from one step of their faith to another, students need to know certain things about their leaders. Now when I say leader it can be many things: Pastor, mentor, small group leader etc.

They need to know that:

They Are Loved – Obvious right? But you would be surprised at how many students genuinely do not feel any sort of love from anybody. We as leaders need to make sure the students we minister go out of our way to make sure our students are feeling loved, not only by the staff and volunteers, but to help them understand they are loved by an incredible God.

They Are Known – One of the most important things a teenager has is their name. The fact that they can be greeted by their name is already a huge win. I am awful with names of new students. Awful. So I have to try really hard. (The Course 101 Training from DYM University is great on this BTW) But when I remember a name of a student who I met the week before you can see it in their face that they are happy that they are known. For guys in my small group, they are known. I know about things going on in their lives and I am intentional with making sure I ask questions about what is happening.

They Are Safe – Students need to know they are safe. Chances are if students are not able to talk to you because they do not feel safe they are not talking to anyone else about it either. You might say it from the stage, “Hey, we are here for you all, come talk to us.” But if they do not really KNOW they can, they probably wont. Going out of your way to ask them eye-to-eye, “Hey, how are you. Really” Let’s them know you really do care and that you can be trusted to talk to.

You Are Consistent – Because where students are developmentally, they cannot handle and process change really well. That is why meeting every week during the year is such a comforting thing for students. The fact that we are consistent in a constantly changing (they are changing, their world is changing, developmentally they are changing, etc.) life and world is huge to students. They need to know that you are going to be consistent.

You Are Not Judgmental – How we react to students when they tell us something because they trusted us… is huge. If they believe you are judgmental, good luck in having them come to you again with something they are struggling with. We are not to judge them but be there for them. Listen to them, ask them a ton of questions, speak truth in to their life but do it with grace. We have all messed up in our lives as well.

 

@justinknowles3

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5 Jun 2017

4 Questions To Ask About Your Ministry Program

By |2017-06-05T08:44:45-07:00June 5th, 2017|Leadership, Youth Pastor Life|0 Comments

This Sunday we said goodbye to a Sunday program that for the longest time served a great purpose and was a needed thing at one time, but as we gear for the future this program was not going to be needed anymore. For some, it was not a popular choice. But as leaders we need to get used to knowing that every decision you make isn’t going to please everyone… and that’s ok. You’re the leader, lead through it.

But as we have been planning, here are some great questions we had to answer in order for us to move forward effectively:

Why are we doing this? – We don’t want to do something just to do it. As tempting or cool as something might be, we want to have a purpose or reason why we are doing a certain series or event. When we answer this, we then can help get everyone on board, get our volunteers excited and everyone knows what the goal is. When you know where you are going, you can actually get there.

Is this the best we can do? – When we decide what we want to do and why, the question is, “Is this the best way possible to do it?” Am I able to give this my best? Is the best use of our resources? Can we do something else that is more effective? I stole this event process from Josh Griffin and it’s “best idea wins”. What is the best way to pull this off to make it awesome.

What are we doing that is not working? – This one is a little tougher. This is going to have you and the team look at what your ministry is doing right now and evaluate it. We might have started something a while ago but it has lost its touch, effectiveness, and spark. This will lead you to the last question, which is…

What needs to die? – When something needs to die, it needs to die. I know that everything you do in your ministry right now at one time solved a problem at one time. The question is, “Is that problem already solved and are we still doing that thing?” If the answer is “yes” then it is time to look at that thing and kill it. It points you back to the first question of “Why are we doing this?” If you can’t answer it, kill it. If the answer to “Is this the best we can do?” is “No”, then kill it. If you determine it’s not working as well as it once used to, then kill it. You will see how much more momentum you will gain when you don’t have that dead weight.

I know these questions have helped our team move forward, and maybe it can help you and your ministry move forward as well.

 

@justinknowles3

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30 May 2017

Make Your Students Remember What It’s Like To Be New

By |2017-05-29T07:44:59-07:00May 30th, 2017|Leadership, Teaching/Programming, Youth Ministry Ideas|0 Comments

I think one of my favorite things I took on this year was our student leadership team. A group of 20 all-in-core students in our ministry who have major leadership potential and working with them all year-long to help develop some of those skills (Check out a little more on our student leadership team HERE). These are the students whom I run ideas and events by so I know we are doing things students actually want to do. These are the student who run and plan our You Own The Night student led series. They are also the students who serve on Wednesday nights and reach out to peers who come for the first time.

A few months back, one of the things we talked about as a group was how they did no think they have done a good job of seeking out new students who come out on Wednesday nights. So I had a great idea. These are the students who have been heavily involved in our ministry for years nows. They know the leaders and the regulars… they have forgotten what it is like to be new.

So…

We became new students for a weekend at a friends church and got to experience what it was to be a new student again. I had talked to Alex Beaverson, High School Pastor at Mariners Church, and we arranged for my group to come down for a weekend service. I let my students know they are to partner up and go be involved for the service and notice:

  • How do you feel?
  • Do you know where to go?
  • Do leaders come up to you and say hi?
  • Do students come up and say hi?
  • Fill out all the things they have you fill out and see how they follow-up.
  • Did the service itself make you feel welcomed as a new person?
  • Did you know where the bathrooms were?
  • How did you feel before service as we all were waiting to go in?
  • How about after service was over?

I told them to be involved. Worship. Volunteer for games. Talk to leaders. Ask questions.

After they got to experience this, we all went to lunch at In-N-Out (sorry East Coast people, we pray for you daily) to debrief. If you have a good relationship with the pastor, invite them. Alex and his team came and joined us and got to sit down with our student leaders and get feedback as well in order to help improve their experience for new people.

It’s such a simple thing but powerful. I believe our students got to remember what it was like to be new again and their eyes were opened in hopes on Wednesday nights they are more willing and challenged to go find new students to make them feel welcomed. Their feedback was super interesting and helpful.

And…

This was towards the end of the year so we made this a fun outing as a group to wind down this season as a student leadership team. It was so fun for all and super helpful as well.

I highly suggest it for your group as well.

 

@justinknowles3

 

If you want quality student leadership material, DYM has a ton and some of the best. Check it out HERE.

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15 May 2017

How To Have Tough Conversations Where Students Still Want To Come Back

By |2017-05-15T12:12:05-07:00May 15th, 2017|Leadership, Training, Volunteers, Youth Ministry Ideas|1 Comment

How well do you want to be known by the students in your area for having tough but needed conversations?

I think where a lot of ministries (not just youth ministries) who struggle with having having deep, real, raw, confrontational conversations about things of this culture, beliefs that are different from what we believe and people whom are different from us. I tend to hear from students who don’t “do church” I meet at schools that church handles things one of two ways (broad generalization I know) of:

  • Don’t talk about it
  • Talk about it, but way too harsh

It’s our goal as leaders to have the tough conversations, speak truth in love and graciousness, and still have those students feel like they want to come back after that conversation is done; to make them want to come back and have them still invite us into their lives to pursue Jesus.

If that is not our goal, what are we doing? If we speak the truth with no love we are just jerks and it’s not the Gospel. We we speak just love and no truth, we are just nice people and it’s not the Gospel.

I don’t think we in our ministry have this down yet but we are working our way towards it. I want our ministry to be a place where any student feels like this is “home” to them but they know what we believe, why we believe it and will challenge them on what they believe as well. Does every student we have agree with what we believe and teach? Heck no. Do they feel like they can have open and hard conversations about it? I think they can because it’s happened.

I know because I have talked to the gay students in our ministry. I have talked to students who are transgender and trying to figure this whole Jesus thing out. I have talked to the students who are doing things in relationships and don’t see anything wrong with it. I have talked to students who were invited by a friend who practice another religion at home or on the weekends. The last thing I want to do (and believe Jesus modeled this) would run them off with aggressiveness of what He believed or not challenge them to follow Him and leave their life of sin. He entered into conversations.

So as I have been processing all of this, here are thoughts in my hope to either challenge how we all have tough conversations about tough things or it is just a good reminder and refresher for you and your team:

You can’t change anyone. You don’t have that power. I don’t have that power. The Holy Spirit has that power. I think we just need to remember that before we even enter into any conversation. “Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God — truly righteous and holy.” (Ephesians 4:21-24 NLT)

Blankets are great for sleeping, not for statements. Don’t use blanket statements. It is really hard to make general statements about a topic or people group when you talk to an individual. I think we are first and foremost called to love and everything else is a conversation. Each student has a story. Their story is not like the others who believe or think the same way as them. We should know and think through tough conversations and have a certain thought process to respond with, but… when you are staring at a student knee-to-knee eye-to-eye you might think about your approach differently. So have that conversation and keep it to that person.

Listen more than you speak. Every student has a story, we need to listen to it. I have experienced many a times where people are not listening to me because they are just thinking of what to say next. In order to have students who believe different, or behave different, we want to make them feel like they belong. How do you do that? By listening. Make them feel like a person, not a project. Students, regardless of who they are, want to know they can be heard and known and listening to their stories and getting to know them personally will then give you the ability and permission to speak into their lives.

Challenge them to know why they believe what they believe. We know what we believe and why we believe it. Most students know what they believe but don’t know why. Most students base belief on what they feel, not what they know what is truth. I tell students who don’t believe what I believe, “We can disagree, that is great, but I won’t let you not know why. If you are a Jesus follower, why do you believe _______ is okay and true?” It just creates more great conversations and allows you t listen more and engage in more great, real, open conversations.

You can disagree and still like each other. We live in a culture where people think where if we disagree with certain beliefs, we cannot be friends. I hate that. We need to teach our students we can agree to disagree, challenge them on their beliefs and actions and it does not detour them from knowing they are loved and welcomed in our group in order to keep on pursuing Jesus. I love what Andy Stanley says about Jesus. “People who were nothing like Jesus liked Jesus.” Do people who are nothing like you, believe like you, like you? Can you be friends?

If your ministry is anything like mine, you don’t want to shy away from the questions students are asking and talking about the things they want to know. I think it’s our responsibility to address those things but address them in a way where the students who do not believe, or even disagree with what we teach to… actually want to come back when we teach because they know they are known and loved by the people their first who want to help them follow Jesus and be there for them when they have questions when Jesus contradicts what they believe themselves.

Let our ministries be one of the safest places for students to have real, honest, raw, spiritual conversations about Jesus.

 

@justinknowles3

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10 May 2017

7 Reasons Why You Need To Do A Student Lead Series

By |2017-05-10T00:08:47-07:00May 10th, 2017|Leadership, Youth Ministry Ideas|2 Comments

We are getting ready to close out one of my favorite things we do all year.

YOU OWN THE NIGHT.

This is a series where we allow 5 high schools take over our services and the students on our student leadership team run and organize students from their school to put on a Gospel driven service for their friends… who they invite to come see service.

There are no adults on stage for weeks. They do everything. They plan, organize, sing, lead games, announcements and even teach and it’s 100% peer lead. It’s so fun to watch students take ownership of the ministry they are involved in.

I love/hate when people say, “Oh, so you get 4 weeks off then.” HAHAHAHAHA…. no.

It’s actually 10 times more work as you meet with students and their friends to help them organize, take them shopping for supplies and read through message content to make sure there is no heresy (learned from experience on that one… oops), but it is so worth it.

Here are reasons why you should do it:

  1. Your students take ownership and pride in their ministry. Schools have rallies and big rivalries for sports and students own it all. They make posters, sport their colors and logos and go nuts for school. Why? Because they own it. Allowing students to take over, does the same thing. I don’t mind a little competition because as students are planning out services, they want to be the best, so the bar has been raised year after year. Students come in a decorate the entire campus in their school colors, they have borrowed their mascot costumes and have them during service, they have had their cheer leaders and drum line come and open up service…. they own it and take pride in their school but more importantly, the ministry they are a part of and feel like they belong too. It’s fun to watch.
  2. Your students reach is far greater than yours. I can go around campus and interact with the students I know and meet a few of their friends in the process. When students take ownership for a service, they want to invite friends and have them be a part of the service in some way and their friends come to see. We have had students who would have never stepped foot on a church campus come, hear the Gospel, accepted Jesus and now are some of our core students. All because students owned the night.
  3. It could be the antidote to the spring time lull. I’m not saying it will be the case for every ministry but we do our series in the spring. If you are in ministry for any length of time, you know the spring is a lower time (typically) for attendance. For us, it actually has boosted everything. Not only our attendance but our exposure to new students about summer camps, small groups and overall momentum going into the summer because students are excited to own a night and invite their friends.
  4. It allows your leaders to connect with brand new students…. who don’t go to church. During this time, I remind our leaders: “Look for students who look like deer in head lights and don’t know where to go. Be welcoming, introduce yourself, help them find their friends and if they are not looking, get to know them.” Also, “Remember, some students tonight, may not know how to church.” Meaning, students are coming who don’t know what church culture and etiquette is. Nights like this, leaders get to be strictly relational and meet brand new students. They get to be cheer leaders to the students they know and are involved with the service. They get to have fun and support what the students have had planned for that night.
  5. Students pay WAY more attention to their peers than you. I hate that this is true but I watch every single time a student is up on stage giving a message… they pay attention. As good as a speaker as you are, as much as you are honing your craft, a student can get up there and read their entire message from their notes and students will not take their eyes off of them and they are fully engaged. I makes me jealous. When students see their peers up on stage from their school, they have their attention. It’s one of them. Every week, the Gospel of Jesus is presented. Each week, students come to know Jesus…. from their peers.
  6. You get to see how creative your students are. I am amazed every year we do this. They are so creative. From the themes, to the games, to the messages and message illustrations, service elements and events after…. they are capable of a ton. It has made me realize I can include our students in much more planning and execution of future events. For example, our student leadership team (now that this series is over) are planning our “New 7th Grader Welcome Party” for the new 7th grader students coming up from kids ministry. They are so creative and a series like this gets to showcase their talents and gifts.
  7. It’s so fun. It’s so much work, but it’s so fun. I love the time and planning I have been able to spend with the students organizing services. I love the time spent in prayer with them about reaching their campuses. I love the new students and stories that have come out of students seeing what church is about and who Jesus is for the first time. I think it’s one of the best things we do all year.

IF you want to get a full run down of how this can get started, DYM has a great resource you should own. Click HERE to access it.

If you want to see our student lead services and what they were like, you can click HERE.

I think all ministries should at least try. I know it may not be the best fit for your ministry or in this season, but from I have seen I recommend you give it a shot here in your next ministry calendar.

 

@justinknowles3

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