the end of the {current} blog

after a brief email conversation with chris, we’ve decided that this blog isn’t doing it:

• there isn’t much of a dialogue here (there is more dialogue on our personal blogs)
• much of what we write here could easily be transfered to our personal blogs
• i would much rather contribute my time to comment onstudent ministry blogs that already exist (thus growing the dialogue, just not on this space).

so yeah.

love ya.

bye bye.

you can read chris’ blog here

and you can follow mine (adam’s) here

The Shaky Ethics of American High School Students

Read this article about ethics (or lack of) in american high school students

http://www.ypulse.com/the-shaky-ethics-of-american-high-school-students/

most important things: numbers

this is the third of 7 posts on the most important things in student ministry.

starting with numbers will lead you to ineffective and insignificant ministry

there is a temptation (especially when you’re starting out) to “grow” your numbers. this turns into a crazy balance. yes you want to reach out to those who aren’t connected to a church or to a youth minsitry, but is that the sole reason you exist? if it you simply want students to connect to your ministry, then you could just host crazy sweet concerts and do whatever is the most entertaining to them.

however, if you want to connect them to Christ or the body or to God or to whatever, you can’t simply aim at doing whatever you want, you’ve got to revolve your ministry around your goal. you’ve got to aim for something.

there are ministries (i’m going to get in trouble for writing this stuff) that sit around their weekly meetings and report the number of students that attend. sure, great things happen at these ministries, but over time, you aim for whatever you measure. if you measure butts in seats, then you’re going to aim for more butts in seats. if you measure leader to students ration, then your going to aim for that.

so numbers are important, cuz numbers represent people (jesus fed 5000. how do we know that? someone counted) but numbers for the sake of numbers are empty, ineffective, and meaningless.

most important things:control

this is the second in 7 consecutive posts on the most important things in student ministry.

you can only control the things you can control

i was voicing some of my frustrations to two veteran youth pastors and they responded: “adam, you can only control what you can control.”

here is a list of things I can’t control:

• which students make youth group a priority
• the types of friendships my students have
• student’s desire to know God
• student’s excitement for small groups, bible study, programs, or reaching out to their friends
• basically, i can’t control student’s heart

here is a list of the things i can control:

• the amount of time i spend in the word
• the way i approach students
• the way i talk about our programs, studies, and lessons
• the amount of time i spend on various aspects of student ministry

you can only control the things you can control

most important things: significance

this is the first in 7 consecutive posts on the most important things in student ministry.

thing number 1 is you must not find your significance in ministry

if you allow ministry to be the place where you derive significance, you’ll begin opperating out of your own need, your own ego, and your own pride. you’ll begin to see relationships with students as something that makes you feel good. you’ll worry more about fulfilling your needs and you’ll care less about students. you’ll operate out of selfishness when you should be operating out of service and generosity and love.

you would tell your students that they are important to God. you must first tell yourself.

God wants ministry “success” more than you do. God is in control. You merely get to play a part. Get over youself and see that your significance doesn’t come from what you “do.”

you must not derive your significance from your ministry

the most important things (intro)

in the last 24 hours, i’ve talked with three guys about student ministry. they’re have all been involved in ministry for more than ten years. they shared with me some important things about ministry. over the next several days i’ll write about each point

• you must not find your significance in ministry.
• you can only have control over the things that you have control over
• starting with numbers will lead you to ineffective and insignificant ministry
• you’ve got to work with your relationship with your spouse
• there is no ministry but relational ministry
• relationships aren’t tools of ministry
• everything is spiritual

different voices. one message.

Last night was the first time in my long career (6 months) that i’ve had a different person lead the teaching portion of the evening. usually i lead or i try to engage the students in discussion, but last night i had one of my lady leaders talk. i was able to introduce her to the students and set up her talk in light of what we try to be all about but then she talked.

she connected wth some of the students that i wouldn’t have.

let me encourage this: let your student hear different voices, you’re not the best person to connect with everyone. you’re probably not even the best person you know who is available to talk with your students.

lots of different voices. same message. good.

It’s sad that it takes a tragedy to remind people how much we truly need one another!

read the story at the PDYM Community blog

they’ve been coming for months and I don’t know thier names

We have a problem in our youth group. It’s called being a little big for our britches. On Sunday nights, our middle school numbers are close to twice what they were last year at this time and our high school is averaging about 25 more students than last year at this time. And its not always the same students.

This has happened a couple of times:

“Hi, I’m Chris, its good to see you here. What’s your name?”
“Josephina Student,” she replies courteously but with a hint of sass.
“Have I already asked you your name?” I ask like a sad puppy.
“Yeah, twice. But its ok.” Dangit. And then a 9-square ball hits me in the face offering an escape to the akwardity.

How do you make sure that each student is getting to know someone and finding thier place when you physically can’t meet them all and remember who they are?

We have come up with a couple of solutions:
1) use a sign-in sheet and have new students that we make on Youth Track, a ministry management software.  Have student and adult volunteers work the sign-in table and greet people.

2) go over the sign in sheet in our student leader and volunteer meetings to make sure that someone knows who the students are and is making an effort to connect with them.  Every couple of weeks our student leaders write notes to people who have been coming or that have faded away.

3) try to keep consistency in the break-out groups by having our student leaders and adults meet with the same students each week if possible.

4) We are going to try name tags for a few weeks – for everyone.  Our adults might get some semi-permanent tags.

5) We are going to have our volunteers take turns introducing themselves “on stage” so that new students will feel more comfortable approaching them.

My idea is to take pictures and have a  large mug shot mural up in our office, but it seems a little creeper to the new students…

What do you do to keep up ?

honest evaluation

so after finishing up a weekend retreat (which seemed perfect and awesome and god-filled), i asked my adult leaders for some critical evaluation of everything that happened. they responded with some generally nice comments.

i was looking for honest evaluation. i was looking for someone to tell me (us) that our retreat wasn’t as good as it could have been. sure, i’ll label it a success, but i’m really looking for someone to say, “Hey, this could have been better….”

seek honest, critical evaluation and reward those who are bold enough to share it with you