• One of our youth leads goes live with a 5-10 minute message from home, and allows students to interact and have a Q & A afterward.

• Twitch is a live streaming service where people can log on and watch others play video games and chat. We have a Sandals Church Youth Twitch profile where one of our youth leads can go on and play and interact with students while they play some popular games.

• Our youth worship leader leads a 15-20-minute set of worship songs and encourages students to join and worship together.

• This is where we go live on Sandals Church .tv putting on a youth service online and having small groups afterward digitally.

• This is similar to the IG Live, but on a different platform. I think this one could be more fun and interactive. It also can be a time for a devotional or recap of the message from the night before and allow for some funny bits.

• Our youth worship leader leads a 15-20-minute set of worship songs and encourages students to join and worship together.

• We release one of the new videos we will be making over the next few weeks.

It’s pretty simple, and I am sure we will make adjustments as we go, but I think this will accomplish the goal of reaching and engaging students while they are at home. The cool thing is that we have the opportunity to have students to invite friends by simply pressing a button. That is awesome. We are excited to really execute this week.

What are you doing? Comment below.

For most of us, the thought of transitioning brings a certain level of anxiety. If we’re honest, most of us would rather get a root canal that we don’t need than go through the process of interviewing, moving, and starting over. But for many of us, that is where we find ourselves. The fact that we find ourselves there in the midst of a worldwide pandemic – well, that’s a whole other level.

So if today you find yourself at any point in the transition process, here are just three quick thoughts that I pray will encourage you.

Keep your focus
On my best day, it is hard for me to stay focused. Being surrounded by so many different distractions makes it easy for me to get lost in my thoughts, worries, or the latest show on Netflix.

If you are at a church, but due to circumstances you are looking at other opportunities, resist the temptation to check out. Your students and their parents need you now more than ever. Besides, you need to finish strong. So let those creative juices flow again, re-imagine how you’re doing youth ministry during this time, and do your absolute best. You will be remembered for what you did during this time, and you will always be remembered for how you left.

If you are between churches, keep your focus. Whether you resigned a few months ago – by choice or by request – or were let go because your church couldn’t afford to keep you, keep focus. Focus more on what God has called you to be and less on what He has called you to do. Focus on how He has used you. Focus on the fact that He is always faithful. Let me say that again. He. Is. Always. Faithful! So stay focused on Him and use this time to reset and allow your relationship with Him to flourish.

Keep looking
If you’ve said, “this is not the best time to look for a job,” you’re probably right. But don’t stop looking. I assume there will be fewer postings on the job sites and fewer calls to set up interviews, but don’t give up. Just keep looking. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus said:

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew‬ ‭7:7-8‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

So keep asking, keep knocking, and keep seeking. It will be given to you. The door will open. You will find it – the problem is He doesn’t say when. So just keep looking.

Keep guard of your heart
No matter what stage of transition we are in, we need to always be careful not to let anger and bitterness take root.

Proverbs 4:23 tells us to “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

No doubt this is the most difficult of the three. It is so easy to be mad and stay mad. It’s too easy to let “the hurt” hurt our relationships with others and with God. It’s too easy to allow our hearts to grow hard. Please don’t let that happen.

You need to process. You need to grieve. You probably need to vent, blow off steam, cry, scream – and yes, you need to heal. So take this time to heal.

During this time you may struggle with anxiety and depression – I know I did. How am I going to provide for my family where are we going to live, where is our next meal going to come from? Those aren’t hypothetical questions; those are the questions that kept me up at night. And here’s what I know: God met every need in his perfect timing. I believe He will do the same for you.

Final thought
Even the best transitions are difficult, so don’t try to navigate this alone. Invite some trusted friends to walk with you. Share your story with others and let us encourage you, bless you, and pray for you.

No matter where you are on this journey, remember to keep your focus, keep looking, and above all keep guard of your heart.

Todd is a 20-year Student Ministry veteran. He and his wife Lynda have been married for 22 years and have three children – Brianna, Caleb, and Addyson. They both graduated from Cairn University. Todd is a huge fan of Apple products, chocolate chip cookies, and the Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates.

DYM Resources from this author

Welp, just like everyone else and their moms, we had our first service all online, and it was really fun and exciting and exhausting and hard and amazing and… well, you get it.

I will for sure tell you it was a learning experience on all fronts, and I will tell you that I work with an amazing team of youth pastors and we have a killer tech and production team at Sandals Church backing us 100%.

I wanted to write a blog post immediately following the first service so it was fresh in my head, and I could remember what went well and what we can work on. I’m hoping I can 1) decompress and process for myself, and 2) maybe help others think through their online services right now.

Show Format:

This was a live broadcast, and I wanted (and it did feel like) to run it like a TV show. We went for an hour, and we had a host who walked through all the segments. We went for a talk show/YouTube show that you would see online. We had a few segments of games and fun with a few videos we used as commercials so we could switch between the segments. Then we had a sermon, then dismissed all of our groups which met digitally. (Click HERE to see the game plan we sent out to our leaders on how to do this.)

Things I loved about our service:

• The streaming worked online. That’s a win.
• I thought the flow of the service and transitions between the different segments went really, really well. We had a lot of great feedback from students immediately after saying this was really well done.
• We got to highlight most of our youth leads from each campus. We thought it was important to make sure our students got to see their lead from their campus.
• I thought our two segments were great for the first online service. Lots of questions and get-to-know-you type things. Our campuses get together only a few times a year, so it was cool for everyone to see everyone.
• I thought the energy was really high and engaging.
• It looked awesome. We had two ladies on our team own the set. The tech crew at our church is legit and it looked SOOOOO good on camera.
• I loved the format, and I think we are going to keep it for the most part.
  • Welcome
  • 1st bit
  • Commercial
  • 2nd Bit
  • Commercial
  • Message
  • Dismiss

Things I would like to work on for next week:

• The audio for the first part of the message was weird. That was my mic, but it was an easy fix.
• The left side of the background needed more light. Felt like there was a missing spot.
• Maybe too many people on camera at once? I think we can spread it out. As we move forward with the online approach, it’s okay if we don’t have everyone on stage at one time. We can spread it out a little bit and get people every other week.
• We can plan out the live bits better. I liked it, but I think we can be a little cleaner and tighter on time to keep engagement super high.
• I want to create commercials that fit specifically for the night, not using older clips we have previously made. We filmed a whole bunch today, so that should be fixed for next week’s service.
• A bot or moderators (or both) for the online chat. It got a little spammy and nuts during the message. Even online there is “that kid.”
• Better lighting for our faces. Felt a little dark, and you can see the shadows of glasses on my face during the message.
• I should have preached from a bar table and not a stand. I think it would have looked better for the camera.
• We talked about our social media, but we did not have the handles on the screen.

Overall, I give us a B+. Not bad for pulling off this whole thing in 36 hours. It just gets me excited to see what our team can do with a whole week of planning.

Drop a comment of tips and tricks you have learned this week by moving online? I would love to steal… I mean learn from you.

@justinknowles3

Recently I did a parenting workshop called Smart Parents & Smart Phones. It helped many families launch engaging discussions with their teenagers about the use of technology. This is the third year in a row that I have done a parenting workshop on technology because of the rising smartphone and social media issues that are happening in the home and at school.

In the process, I have discovered that most parents don’t know how to use most of the features and apps on smartphones or really know enough about social media, so these workshops have been very informative and life-changing because parents want to make changes but don’t know how.

Below are a few of the things I shared with my parents.

It’s a Heart Issue, Not a Tech Issue

The first thing that they have to realize is that it’s a heart issue, not a tech issue. They have to get to the heart of the problem with their student using a smartphone. In Romans 13:8-14, Paul explains that we cannot live in the dark with immoral lifestyles but must live in the light of following Jesus. Even though Paul was not talking about smartphones, the connection can be made to the temptation technology presents in a personalized all-access digital reality. It has never been easier to privately access pornography and explicit graphic content thanks to a smartphone in our pocket. Additionally, it is so simple to have secret conversations about all kinds of topics that are inappropriate and can lead to unfortunate circumstances.

It is pivotal to understand the addictive nature that smartphones instinctually have in their design. The smartphone has done nothing wrong, but the user is the one who is either abusing or misusing the technology. Therefore, it is essential to be a smart parent and add some level of encryption with parental filters.

Smart Parents Do Smart Things

The first question that resonated with parents was based on control issues.

I asked them, “Do you control your technology, or does technology control you?”

As Christians, we should not be dominated by anything (1 Corinthians 6:12), but that doesn’t mean you need to take phones away. Parents need to teach their students how to use technology before they receive it. Parents need to know that that engagement is better than an argument. They need to understand it is better to be interactive versus being passive. They need to be an example and model usage instead of dictating usage. Hence, smart parents do five smart things:

• They are prepared for tech use.
• They educate their kids on technology.
• They learn from the experts.
• They set healthy and realistic boundaries.
• They interact with their kids’ culture.

Host a Parenting Workshop

It is so important to provide some form of parent training as a youth worker. We should always ask ourselves if technology is taking valuable time away from being a godly family. If the answer is yes, then these parenting hacks will definitely help. And if all else fails, just unplug the WiFi in your home or the youth room to get their attention to have engaging discussions about the use of technology!

What a ton of things that are happening these days with this shut down. I know we are scrambling and figuring out how we can be the church that does not meet in a building. What a concept right?

I know people are adjusting to shifting towards online and I have been asked by a bunch of people about what we are doing in this season of uncertainty and ministry. I finally was able to sit down and plan something out with our team and leadership and have a good plan in place.

I figured I would just share what email we sent out to our volunteers because it lays out what are planning on doing and practical ways to make it happen. So in the spirit of not having to write something again, here it is. I hope it can be helpful as you communicate with your teams.

___________________________________

Hey all! First, please watch this video from me to you!

https://youtu.be/eYW8Iin3YZw

(I have to note, my friend Derry Prenkert posted the 5 things for leaders in a group text and I 100% stole it because it was perfect for what we were doing. Got to give credit where credit is due)

Lots of things happening since we are not meeting in person for a bit so this is a longer email with details so we would love for you to read through it as it talks through Wednesday night online service and small groups after.

In a nutshell, Sandals Church Youth is still happening but it’s all online. We want to have a service and small groups with discussion. We want you and your small groups to tune into sandalschurch.tv as we will be broadcasting live with a special service for our students and then breaking out into digital small groups for discussion. Basically a “normal” Wednesday night format but from the comfort of your own homes.

This is the plan for this Wednesday and on until further notice.

Like I mentioned in the video attached to this email, you are more crucial in the ministry than ever before. How we engage and interact with our youth to make sure that even though we are in isolation, they are not alone but loved, seen and known.

So what does that look like?

• This Wednesday night we want you to get your small group to log onto sandalschurch.tv to watch the service.
• Get you and your group to be live in the group chat because during service we will be interacting with who is watching online. Get interactive!
• Watch the sermon and encourage your group to take notes.
• When the service is over, this is where group times would happen digitally.
  • With technology, there are multiple ways for you to all see each other and have conversations about the message you just heard.
  • We want you to check out the following ways to meet digitally and pick one that works best for you and your group and then meet accordingly.
    • Apps to check out:
    • Zoom. Its an app or a website. Video conferencing.
    • Google hangouts
    • FaceTime on iPhone. It holds up to 32 people.
    • House Party App
    • Again, check them out, pick one and make sure all your group is one it.
• You will be getting small group questions to go through with your groups to continue the discussion and community. We want you to run the groups like you normally would on a Wednesday.
• Plan on meeting and having groups for 40-60 minutes, just like you normally would.
• On the weekend, we will be doing some Instagram Live content, so we want you to drive your youth (and you) to watch there and then connect with them about the content we just went through. We will be doing devotional type things on the weekend to keep students engaged all week.
• If you or your students don’t follow your youth lead on social media or Sandals Church Youth, this would be the best time and way to get a bunch of info out about what is happening in our ministry.
  • @sandalsyouth on IG
  • Sandals Church Youth on Youtube. 

I know this is a lot but there is a lot we can do as leaders to lead out and engage our students in a very unique (and potentially scary) time for many. This is a time for us to be more relational than we ever have been in order to make sure our students know and feel the love of God through us.

Let us make this Wednesday night the biggest attended youth event Sandals Church Youth has ever seen!

If you have any specific questions about this Wednesday or how groups should roll, please reach out to your youth lead at your campus.

Thank you for all you do and I am excited to see how God will continue to work in the lives of our students at this time.

@justinknowles3

Simple question.

Do your leaders know what it means to “win” in your ministry? Meaning if I were to ask them how do they know if they are being a successful leader in your context, would they know what to say?

One of the things that I have discovered is the most successful, most effective ministries have leaders that know if they are “winning” or not. What do I mean by “winning”? If they know if they are carrying out the vision that you as the leader laid out for them.

When leaders know the target they can hit it easier and more frequently.

Things to keep in mind:

• Simple, clear, concise goals.
• 1-4 most important goals
• Communicate with them every single week as a reminder. Vision leaks and everyone needs to be reminded of how they can win. 
• Follow up in one-on-ones if leaders are not meeting them. You are the keeper of the vision and part of being the leader is working with leaders who are not “winning”. 
• This is how you upkeep your leader culture. As the leader, you have to keep people accountable to the “wins” and vision. You are the keeper of your culture.

Do your leaders know what a win is in your ministry?

For me, this is how I can see if our leaders are “winning”:

They have a conversation about Jesus – All leaders are small group leaders. Did they have a conversation about Jesus? They should be. 

Follow up – When a new student came and was placed into their small group, did they follow up before the next service?

Wednesday + – Did you interact in some way outside of Wednesday night throughout the week?

Simple. 3 wins. People can remember them and recite them back. Measurable.

Every good leader wants to know if they are winning and it’s our jobs to define what those wins are and communicate it to our teams.

@justinknowles3

This is part 2 from our series of videos of our male youth leads from our campuses getting their armpits waxed because we passed our registration incentive from our Youth Winter Conference from last month. A few more videos will be coming out.

This was fun-ish. Students loved it and that’s why we do it right?

Check out and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to keep up with all the things happening in our ministry.

As a Student Pastor, one of my desires for my students is that they would have ample opportunity to discover their gifts, exercise their talents, and grow to know their value in the Church as a whole. One of the best ways I have found to dig deeper and expand those opportunities is through our Student Leadership Team.

Now, I know that there are plenty of structures that are rolling around for how to plan and implement student leadership in youth ministry. But, for me a team that is formed at the beginning of each semester and runs through the school year is the vehicle that I have found to be best for our context. But how we got there is what I found to be the secret sauce.

After years of trying to figure out what was going to work for raising up leaders, we dedicated to three shared things that would aim to help form and forge our student leadership team. I’m pretty confident that these three elements, contoured for your context will help you start a Student Leadership Team of your own.

1. A Shared Experience

For us, this was Student Leadership Conference in Granger, IN. For the last two Summers, we have taken a group to this experience and it has helped to set us for the school year. We took around 10 each year and it provided a core of our students who had been thinking about goals, plans, and dreams that we had for the year. If you can make it to SLC, I highly recommend it.

However, the reality is that while the content was awesome and the environment of the conference positioned us very well, the bigger factor was the shared experience. It was an experience where each of us on the trip were focused on asking the question: “What is our leadership supposed to look like in this next year?” Eating together, having fun together, and hearing each other’s hearts were critical to this experience being the benefit that it was.

What we discovered was this little truth that is true in any context or culture: A shared experience gives us mutual language, common goals, and synergistic momentum that no team meeting can conjure up. I can’t overstate the value of a shared experience to get your team on the same page.

Logistically, we didn’t broadcast this event the first year. We personally invited students who we saw as leaders and as people who were already serving in dynamic ways or students who displayed a propensity toward leadership and serving their peers. This has become a major launching point for us at this point.

2. A Shared Culture

One of the best things we did for our student leadership team was collectively develop shared cultural expectations. We determined the things that would hold us back from truly accomplishing all that God wanted to put in front of our group and we decided to press into those things. Together, we came up with these obstacles and collectively we came up with the culture we wanted to have on the leadership team.

The reality was that most of this came out of our cultural desires for the entire student movement, but the student leaders recognized that if that was going to be a reality in our group, it had to be a reality in our leadership group. This has made accountability simple and more peer-to-peer. They want to accomplish the things in front of us, together.

It has been clear that this approach has given a level of responsibility over to the students. They own it because they helped create it. You create more space for more ownership when you create culture, collectively. Sure, there need to be some guardrails that come from the leader, but giving freedom on the execution part gives more opportunity for expressing the gifts and knowledge of a generation to needs to be believed in.

3. A Shared Ministry Goal

Out of our shared experience and our shared culture, student leaders got to get a better glimpse of the WHY behind the WHAT we are doing in our gatherings and in our discipleship process. Once they began to see all that goes into accomplishing that overall goal, they began to see how the parts equal the whole and the part that they can play to see that end goal come to fruition.

Did it happen overnight? Well of course it did, because leadership development is a formulaic plan that produces the same results every time, regardless of who is leading it and who is being led through it, and clearly I have all the answers. No, I would actually argue that we haven’t fully achieved all that we want to see in student leadership. We still have some steps to take to get to where I would have originally desired us to get.

However, rather than just give up because we haven’t gotten there yet, we are playing the long game. This next Summer will be three years of attending SLC and having that concentrated time together, and a third school year to refine our process and evaluate what we are doing. Do I feel like we are starting to hit our stride, sure. But the fact is that it is hard to grow things, and that’s especially true in leadership development. Developing leaders is a long game that requires patience and evaluation to be most effective and to produce long-lasting fruit.

What are your thoughts? What have you done with student leadership in your context? What are you nailing right now? What do you wish you were doing better? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

Geoff Cocanower is a husband, a son, and the Associate Pastor of Student Ministries at Hope Missionary Church in Bluffton, IN where he leads the team of adults who minister to high school students as well as young adults. In addition to contributing to the DYM blog, Geoff co-hosts a podcast focused on the issues, questions, and blessings of leaders who aren’t in the driver seat of the organization called The Backseat Leadership Podcast. Interesting fact about Geoff is that he is a high school football and volleyball referee in his spare time and is a legacy member and loves all things DYM. You can find Geoff online here!