Our Summer Mission Trip

I'm super-excited today because I received my group leader packet for our summer mission trip!

This year we're going to PowerPlant, a church planting mission camp, in Cleveland, Ohio.  I've never worked with PowerPlant before, but I love trying new experiences.  Our Youth Ministry Team selected PowerPlant because it sounded like an exciting and unique opportunity to expose our students to church planting.  You can learn more about PowerPlant by clicking right here.

What are you doing with your students this summer?

ARTICLE - "Fertilizer"

This is a repost of an article I wrote YEARS ago called "Fertilizer".  Enjoy!
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“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.  Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.  Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.  Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.  Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven…” - Luke 6:20-23

“… the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” – Romans 8:26

Frustration.  Burn-out.  Depression.  Loneliness.

If you are in youth ministry, it’s not a matter of if these happen to you:  it’s when.  Anyone who has been in ministry (or in faith, for that matter) for a reasonable amount of time realizes that we spend far more time in valleys and deserts than we do on mountains and meadows.

The source of our pain is always different – a difficult senior pastor, an angry parent, volunteers that hurt more than help, a crushing critic – but the results are always the same.  We, who were so passionate and so ready to plunge into this generation of students with the good news of the Kingdom find ourselves sitting alone in our offices feeling defeated, angry, and alone.

How did it come to this?  Didn’t God promise us it would be easy?  Didn’t He promise us success and growth, parents that love us and students that want to learn from us?  Didn’t He give us His cross so that we could hook black lights and speakers up to it and wave it around on a Wednesday night so that we could teach students to do the same?

Sometimes I catch a glimpse of how far we’ve come from what the Kingdom looks like.  Blessed are the poor.  Blessed are the hungry.  The weeping.  The hated, excluded, insulted.  Theirs is the Kingdom, and they are rejoicing.

How do I do that?  How do I rejoice in my frustration?  How do I leap for joy in my bitterness?  How do I dance when there is no one to dance with?

I’ve discovered that I’m not praying right.  I’m asking for ways out of my struggles.  I’m seeking spiritual backdoors to escape conflict and confusion.  The Spirit in me is groaning that to be a citizen in God’s Kingdom I’m going to have to become like those who are already there – the poor, the oppressed, the hurt, and the dying.  I’ve got to stop asking God to take away what I struggle with and instead teach me to rejoice in it.  The solutions to my problems are not really solutions at all – they are changes in mind.  Changes in heart.  Changes in soul.

As I’m learning that the Kingdom is a seed in me, desperate to grow up and out, I’m also realizing that my life is the soil.  Every piece of broken heart and every drop of wounded ego that falls to the ground makes this soil richer, fuller, and more able to sustain life.  In ground like this is where the Kingdom is taking root and growing, where its branches are reaching out, and where its blossoms are bringing beauty – all because the soil was rich with my pain.

So I am trying.  Trying to stop praying for an end to my weaknesses.  Trying to understand that God is made stronger in them.

And maybe, just maybe, I’m beginning to understand what it means to rejoice.

Series: I Heart You

I'm currently going through a 3-week series with our students called "i <3 u" (I Heart You).  Through the series, which I created, we're dealing with love, sex, and dating.

Here's a quick overview:

Week 1 - Love.
The focus this night is asking the age-old question, "What is love?"  Ultimately we will learn that God is love (1 John 4:16) and His love is most clearly seen in the life and death of Jesus (1 John 3:16).  Making God your reference point for what love is will impact every relationship in your life as you seek to live and love like Jesus did!

Week 2 - Sex.
This night we'll be splitting the guys and the girls up after worship to tackle the tough topic of sex.  The girls have a special guest speaker (our local FCA area director, Rebecca Pierce) and will talk about purity, while I'll be taking the guys and looking at what the Bible has to say about sex (is sex really bad?).

Week 3 - Dating.
We'll talk about what dating is, what it isn't, and what it should be.  Ultimately, however you define the word "dating" and whatever your dating life looks like, it should bring glory to God (1 Cor. 10:31).  We'll also talk about establishing boundaries and making sure that you don't give away too much of yourself in dating so that one day you can give your best to your spouse.

That's it - I'm super-excited about this series and LOVE talking to students about these issues.

Do you talk about love, sex, and dating with your students?  How often?

If you're married, watch this!

No matter what you think about Mark Driscoll, this is GOOD stuff!

Question of the Day

LINK: Youth Leader Stash

My good friend Greg pointed me to a fantastic website today.  I had never heard of Youth Leader Stash, but it is awesome!  They have a growing collection of games, talks, and other ideas for you to use RIGHT NOW in your group.

What are you waiting for - check out YLS by clicking right here!

GAME: Group Hug

Group Hug is a great no prep, no prop game that's super fun to play with your group!  The only thing you need is a medium-to-large-sized group.  (Works best with 20+ people.)

Set-Up:  Have everyone stand up and start "milling" around.  Just tell them they have to keep moving.  If they aren't actually doing this, make a rule that they have to walk from one side or corner of the room to the other.  Sometimes it helps to play music during the "milling" phase to get them moving around.

Play:  As they are moving around, call out a random number (usually 2-6, depending on how many you have playing).  Everyone must rush to get into a group hug of that number of people.  If anyone finds themselves alone or in a group of the wrong number after the mad rush, they are out (have them sit down or stand against the wall).  Keep playing until there are just a few kids left.  You can paper-rock-scissors if you want a winner, but I usually just get everyone back in when it gets down to 5-6 people.  Do a few rounds, and then call it before it gets boring!

Tips:  There's not much to this game really.  It's really simple!  Make sure to keep kids moving so they don't just clump up together and keep getting into the same hug, and also make sure you do different numbers each round, otherwise it will get repetitive (and pointless!).

Have fun!

VIDEO: Sit Ski Flip

I got this video in my e-mail today from the awesome people over at The Youth Cartel.  Watching a story like this is so amazing, and reminds me to encourage my students that no matter what they think their limitations are, God is so much bigger and can use them to do ANYTHING!


So rad!

Question of the Day

Share your thoughts in the comments!

GAME: Celebrity Spotlight

Here's a no-prep, no-props, quick and easy game you can pull out of your back pocket anytime at youth group.

SET-UP:  None really.  You just need a group of people and a room/area where you can send someone off where they can't hear you.

PLAY:  At the beginning of each round, you send someone out of the room.  After they are out of earshot, you decide as a group what famous person/character the person outside the room will be (let's use Shrek as an example).  You then call the person back in the room.  They stand up front, and then everyone else in the room begins to raise their hands, and as they are called on by the person up front, asks them questions that hint (SUBTLY) to who the character is.  For example - "Is it easy being green?", "Do you really have layers like an onion?", "How's the princess doing?", or "Why are you so mean to that donkey?"  Keep playing until the person up front guesses who they are or makes it clear that they are not going to get it (at that point, have a funny way to tell them time's up, like a loud sound effect or something).

TIPS:  Make sure to make it VERY CLEAR to the big group - the question askers - to keep their questions subtle, and only hint towards the celebrity/character.  In the above example, you don't want someone to ask, "Did you know your name rhymes with Shmek?"  Sort of defeats the fun... Also, when you're choosing the celebrity/character, keep them fairly well-known.  If you pull out some obscure person/character, the game isn't fun because no one will know what questions to ask and the up-front person won't know who they are.

Have fun!

Published! (sort of...)

I had a few little blurbs published in the January/February issue of Group Magazine (an awesome resource for youth workers!) as part of an article called "The Secret Dreams of Teenagers".  I love Group and the ministry they have going - I've made a lot of connections with some brilliant youth workers through the organization and I know that they LOVE those of us in the trenches in youth ministry.  I would definitely recommend you check out their website and subscribe to the magazine!

You can check out the article I'm quoted in online by clicking right here.

Let me know what you think!

ARTICLE: Congregations Gone Wild

I stumbled on a great article from the New York Times called "Congregations Gone Wild" about emerging expectations churches place on their pastors (and subsequently, I believe, their youth pastors).  It's super-relevant to those of us in YM.  Check out this excerpt:

"The pastoral vocation is to help people grow spiritually, resist their lowest impulses and adopt higher, more compassionate ways. But churchgoers increasingly want pastors to soothe and entertain them. It’s apparent in the theater-style seating and giant projection screens in churches and in mission trips that involve more sightseeing than listening to the local people."

Click right here to check out the whole article, and see if you, like me, resonate with the environment we so often find ourselves in in YM.

VIDEO: Dangers of a Youth Ministry Sub-Culture

What do you think of Voddie's comments?  This video is relevant and challenging for me especially as I begin to take on some college ministry responsibilities at FBCCS and my title is possibly being changed from Youth/Worship Minister to Student Minister.  Post comments!

WORSHIP: Open Mic

Do you ever include an "open mic" time in your youth ministry?  I've been doing them for a while in student gatherings, but recently we've settled on making it a regular part of our IMPACT services.  We don't have musical worship every week, just once or twice a month, and so as a break between songs, we'll have open mic time.  During that time we give students (and adult leaders) an opportunity to share their "God sightings" or things they're learning/reading/whatever.  There are some great benefits to doing this sort of unplanned sharing:

- New voices.  Chances are that your youth only get to hear one or two voices on a regular basis - yours and maybe one other leader.  Doing open mic sharing gives students a chance to hear from their peers and other adults who don't necessarily feel called to teach/preach/speak on a bigger scale.

- Fresh insight.  Your students will share perspectives and thoughts that may surprise you (in a good way!).  I've actually learned a lot about where our students are at spiritually and what the "temperature" of our group is as I listen to them share during open mics.  Often "themes" or similar thoughts/experiences will be echoed by several kids.

- Encouragement.  I can't think of  a single time we've done open mic where several, if not all, of those sharing were encouraging towards our overall ministry and what we were doing.  Win!  I can stand up front talking about how great IMPACT is all day, but when youth hear their peers echo that, it does something different!

Here's a few pointers for you before you do an open mic sharing time in your group:

1. Remind them to respect each other.  No laughing at, teasing, or tearing down others in any way.

2. Remind them to be brief.  You might even want to have a cue to help them know when they've gone over whatever time limit you want to set (I usually think around 3-4 minutes is plenty).  I'm good at interjecting and moving them along, but you might want a sign to hold up in the back or a wrist tap from you or something.

3. Tell students this is a chance to point the spotlight on God and what He's doing in their lives or around them.  Keep that spotlight aimed on Him and you'll hear great things come out of these times.

I hope this is helpful to you - I know doing sharing times like these can seem rough around the edges and not as polished or planned as your usual message or study, but they can be such encouraging and uplifting times for your group and for you!

Do you do open mic times?  How do yours go?

Question of the Day

Share in the comments!

GAME: Shuffle Your Buns

So this game is actually an old youth group standard, but believe it or not, I'd never played it with my youth before!  All that changed last night...  And it was hilarious!  They loved it!  Here's how to play:

SET UP: You'll need a circle of chairs, with one chair for every person in the group (I usually have them grab a chair, then stand behind it until we're in a good circle shape, then have them sit down).  Pick one person to stand in the middle, so you should have one empty chair.

PLAY:  The goal is for the person in the middle to sit in the empty chair.  BUT, everyone in the circle is going to try to prevent this, and the way they do it is by shuffling their buns to the empty chair.  When the person finally does sit in the empty chair, the person to their left is the new person in the middle (and they have to move all the way to middle and wait for you to say go to move toward the empty chair).

TIPS:  Remind your students that this isn't a full contact UFC match.  They're just trying to sit down, not take someone out!  Also, make sure your chairs are close enough together so that kids are able to shuffle to the one next to them, but not too close together (it can get crazy).

Have fun!