SimplyKurt.com

Cleaning Up The Clutter

Kurt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:24:56 PST

In Tuesday’s post, I mentioned that I have asked our JH and HS teams to begin to brainstorm what a cleaner, more streamlined ministry plan might look like. There was only one comment left in the comments section, but I thought it was a powerful one:

“Perhaps a bigger “what if” for most of us is what if we were allowed to try that.”

I really don’t know of many churches that give the leaders and pastors more freedom to try new stuff than Saddleback. Throughout the years, Pastor Rick has encouraged us to think differently, try new things, make changes, and make mistakes…and he has led by example. But, with that being said, change is ALWAYS tough and it will be tough for us to make significant changes to our ministry, but we simply have to try. And I think that would be my response to the comment above. You may not be allowed to try to make changes, but as a leader, you have to try to try!

In our setting, ministry has simply become too cluttered. Our calendar of events and programs is cluttered, our infrastructure is cluttered, our team is cluttered (and I’m not talking about my office!), and our work days are cluttered. There’s lots and lots of really good stuff happening, but much of it has been overrun by all the clutter.

It won’t be easy, and I’m sure we will hit some obstacles along the way (both internal and external). But God is doing something special in our ministry and [...] Continue Reading "Cleaning Up The Clutter" Related posts:

Weekend Wrap Up Etc. - The weekend was a pretty good one! It was...
Weekend Wrap Up Attendance: AverageLesson Topic: One Hit Wonder: WORSHIP‘Fun Factor’: AverageVolunteer Involvement:...
The Program Problem I would love to hear your thoughts on this. My...

Cheap Books!

Kurt — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:12:24 PST

Simply Youth Ministry is having a huge sale as they prepare to move their warehouse to a new location. Tons of books are on sale for $3.99 and shipping is free if you spend over $99 (use the promo code: COLDOUTSIDE).

You Got To Move It, Move It We are finally moving our student ministries team into our...
Two New Books! The next two books in the Middle School Survival...
5 Super Cheap Summer Ideas Okay, Summer is just around the corner and finances are...

You Got To Move It, Move It We are finally moving our student ministries team into our...
Two New Books! The next two books in the Middle School Survival...
5 Super Cheap Summer Ideas Okay, Summer is just around the corner and finances are...

Weekend Wrap Up Etc.

Kurt — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:29:03 PST

- The weekend was a pretty good one! It was week 2 of our “Piece Of My Mind” series where we ask a different volunteer each week to teach on any subject they would like. This past weekend we bent the rules a little bit and allowed one of our full time JH team members to speak. Jaime spends most of his days “producing stuff” for our ministry. He is in charge of most of the weekend programming, our blog, our promo, our graphics, our videos etc. He is a talented guy who has never taught our students so we thought it was a good time to give him his first shot. He was excellent! Since he spent so much time preparing the lesson, the rest of the weekend was a little more “bare bones” than usual, but sometimes less can actually be more.

- Last week I spent a full day with 5 other JH/Middle School pastors beginning a project that I’m really excited about! I will share more about it in the near future.

- Our JH team is in the middle of a project that you may want to consider (if you work with JH students….). We are conducting a “what if” scenario. What if we decided to cut our programs and “stuff” by 25-50%? What would we keep? What would get cut? What new stuff would we create? My hope is that we will create a fairly fresh looking ministry plan that is less cluttered and leaves much [...] Continue Reading "Weekend Wrap Up Etc." Related posts:

Weekend Wrap Up I wasn’t at church this weekend so I don’t know...
Weekend Wrap Up Because it was Easter, we didn’t have junior high services...
Weekend Wrap Up I wasn’t at church this weekend due to our...

Back Slappers

Kurt — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:34:22 PST

Rick Warren posted this tweet this morning that has me thinking: “Be as much troubled by unjust praise, as by unjust slander.” – Philip Henry

Some of my thoughts:

- Everybody loves, and to a certain degree needs, a “good job, buddy” now and then. So encouragement is valuable.

- As a leader, a whole lot of the “good job, buddy” comments you hear are really because of what somebody on your team did…you just happen to get the praise.

- The “higher up” you are, the more “back slaps” you have had along the way and the more you need to dish out to others on their way up.

- It’s interesting how many back slaps and “good job buddy”statements are at the expense of somebody else: “you are doing a much better job than our previous youth pastor”, says a parent. Or “You’re way nicer than our last small group leader, says a student”.

- The source of the praise is usually a pretty good indicator of how valid it is. Do they have something to gain by slapping your back or is it because they have your best interest in mind?

- As for the quote itself…OUCH! I’m embarrassed by how bothered I get by unjust criticism while unjust praise serves to feed my ego.

The Parent Puzzle Utilizing parents in your middle school ministry can be a...
What Does A Leader Do?
My life the past year has been a blur [...] Continue Reading "Back Slappers" Related posts:
1. The Parent Puzzle Utilizing parents in your middle school ministry can be a...
2. What Does A Leader Do? My life the past year has been a blur of...
3. Meet N Greet In a previous post, I mentioned that last night was...

Random Randomness

Kurt — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:43:35 PST

- Mark Oestreicheris back to blogging! His blog has been a longtime favorite of mine, and I’m glad he’s back at it.

- Weekend Update: This past weekend we kicked off week one of “Piece of My Mind” where we ask one of our volunteers to speak each weekend on any subject they want. Our first week was amazing.

- Since I’m not teaching for three weeks, I am ditching Sunday services at the Lake Forest campus and visiting one of our regional campus youth ministries each week. On Sunday I visited our original regional campus in San Clemente.

- Speaking of regional campuses….my heart is torn on this new trend (”trend” may not be the right word as I think they may be here to stay). I love the ability for successful churches to expand their reach by expanding into regionals, but I also wonder why these same churches don’t just send a pastor they trust to the same community and let him/her plant a church of their own? That being said, I am super impressed at the way Saddleback has approached our regional strategy. Our regional campuses are much more autonomous than many I have seen.

- Saw “The Box” a couple nights ago. I can’t decide if I absolutely loved it or absolutely hated it. It had some really good spiritual themes and I think it could have been a great flick but there was a whole layer of unnecessary plot, in my opinion. Is it a remake?

- I feel [...] Continue Reading "Random Randomness" Related posts:

Beach Camping It was an exciting weekend at church. We launched two...
Random Randomness Missions Trip:Our missions trip to the reservation in AZ was...
Random Randomness - Our youth ministry at our regional campus in Irvine...

The Program Problem

Kurt — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:04:13 PST

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

My working definition of youth ministry “programs” has always simply been: The stuff you do.

It seems as if there is a fairly strong resistance to programs in many circles of youth ministry today. Yet, by my definition this means they are against doing stuff, which I know isn’t true.

So….is my working definition wrong?

Are youth pastors really against “doing stuff”?

If youth pastors aren’t against “doing stuff”, but they are against “programs”, what then are they doing, and what do they call it?

Is what they call it, just another word for “programs” or is it really something different, better, etc.?

Twitter Dee, Twitter Dumb? Okay, I’m not so sure about this but I got...
Kicking Off A New Program In an effort to bolster some of the in-roads into...
A Plot Of Dirt About 10 months ago, our student ministry department moved into...

Twitter Dee, Twitter Dumb? Okay, I’m not so sure about this but I got...
Kicking Off A New Program In an effort to bolster some of the in-roads into...
A Plot Of Dirt About 10 months ago, our student ministry department moved into...

Junior High Ministry Forum

Kurt — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:35:33 PST

You may not know, but Simply Junior High has an online discussion forum dedicated to junior high ministry. If interested in talking shop, you can check it out right here.

Junior High Ministry 101: SHOWING UP I’m typing this from the backseat as we head to...
Junior High Ministry 101: The Importance Of ‘The Feel’ A couple of years ago Chap Clark made the following...
Obama and McCain Civil Forum The rumors have been confirmed. On August 16th, Saddleback will...

Junior High Ministry 101: SHOWING UP I’m typing this from the backseat as we head to...
Junior High Ministry 101: The Importance Of ‘The Feel’ A couple of years ago Chap Clark made the following...
Obama and McCain Civil Forum The rumors have been confirmed. On August 16th, Saddleback will...

Ministry Mind Dump

Kurt — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:01:39 PST

Have had lots of ministry related thoughts running through my mind in the past 24 hours or so. No answers, just observations and ponderings:

- Should Christian businesses be more “christian” or “business”? Why do business decisions often seem so un-christian? Is it fair to expect a christian owned business to act like a ministry….obviously there is a difference, but there are also similarities.

- Got a phone call from my friend Gary Hunt, a junior high Pastor in Florida who just celebrated his 60th birthday! Can I still be an effective junior high pastor at that age? He certainly is, but surely he is an exceptional case.

- Highly relational youth ministries don’t seem to grow much and growing youth ministries don’t seem to be highly relational….do the systems and structures that help contribute to, and organize,growth also serve to hinder relational approaches? Of course, this all depends on how one defines “relational”.

- When and how did the term “fundamentalist” get hi-jacked? It hasn’t always had such strongly negative connotations.

- The verdict is in: Francis Chan is my favorite author and speaker. He is both simple and brilliant.

- We had 10 students at our Saturday night (Halloween) JH service….it is usually our largest gathering. We knew we would take a hit, but nobody suspected something like that.

Must….Stop….Thinking…. My mind is spinning! I just wrapped up day four...
Junior High Ministry 101: Faith Development
As they enter adolescence, young [...] Continue Reading "Ministry Mind Dump" Related posts:
1. Must….Stop….Thinking…. My mind is spinning! I just wrapped up day four...
2. Junior High Ministry 101: Faith Development As they enter adolescence, young teens go through a ton...
3. Systematic Relationships This is a follow up to the post and discussion...

Things That Make Me Go Hmmm.

Kurt — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:54:48 PDT

(SO to Tony J.)

No related posts.

Get Out…Look Around…Steal.

Kurt — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:23:25 PDT

In just about every profession/industry there is a tendency to get caught in ruts (even good ruts), to get so bogged down in the day to day busyness that creativity falters, fresh thinking disappears etc. Youth ministry is no different. Yesterday, I was reminded of the importance of getting out, looking around and being willing to “steal” ideas from other ministries when I visited my friend who is the junior high pastor of a church about an 30 minutes to my north.

GET OUT: Every now and then you need to get out of the four walls of your church, out of your community and out of your usual circle of colleagues.

LOOK AROUND: Once out and about, look around and notice all the stuff that is different, new, fresh, uncomfortable, stretching etc. My friend’s church is much older and much more traditional than mine, yet his junior high room is WAY more creative and forward thinking! His theming, his decor, his floor plan….the overall atmosphere forced me to evaluate the atmosphere in my youth ministry space.

STEAL: When you see ideas that you like, when you hear a conversation that pricks your interest, when you experience something in a different setting that you think will translate to yours….STEAL IT! Simply ask permission to take that new “something” and use it in your context. Chances are you will need to tweak it a bit because no two settings are exactly the same.

I’ve learned that if I go through seasons when I don’t get out, [...] Continue Reading "Get Out…Look Around…Steal." Related posts:

R&D, Vortexes and Fringes A large portion of our time at this year’s Junior High Summit...
The Office Season 3 There have been very few shows that my wife and...
Too…Much…Stuff… The following is probably more therapeutic for me than it...