Youth Ministry

Use Facebook For Better Connection in Your Youth Ministry

Steve — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:02:11 +0000

In my new youth ministry position I’m finding that I can know more about my students simply by using Facebook.

Matter of fact, I’m now using Facebook to connect with adults and students in my youth ministry and it works very well. Here’s some tips on how to integrate Facebook into your youth ministry:

First things first – you need to get a FB account. If you don’t have one you are really missing out on the online social interaction between you and your youth and of course your friends.
Search for your students – you may be surprised that you find quite a few already on there. Do your best to add them as friends – more than likely they won’t reject your request unless they hate you or something. Don’t expect them to find and add you – you go after them!
Create a FB Group for your youth group – It’s not hard to do, click on the groups icon and then create a new group and make sure that you name it the same as your youth’s name or whatever you normally call your group. Along with this make sure that you now go through your list of students as friends and invite them to join the group.
Promote your group – Mention it in your youth meetings, encourage parents to join or start a parent FB group.
Keep it updated – Nothing sucks more then when a group page has outdated info or it seems that it hasn’t been used in awhile. I update mine now about 3 – 4 times a week if possible. But minimally you need to do it at least once a week or don’t start it.
Encourage Participation – You can have students upload their own pics of an event that you did. You can play games having them guess the correct answer to a question or riddle or picture.
Go Mobile – Encourage students to set up their cell phones and subscribe to your SMS status updates so that they can know what you are up to and you can subscribe to theirs too. Just look up how to do Facebook Mobile and get your phone set up and teach them to do the same.

If you have other tips or ideas for using Facebook in your youth ministry please leave them as a comment for others to see.

Games With Pumkins Night

Steve — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:58:34 +0000

Here are some games with Pumkins that you can use for your youth ministry game time:

Pumpkin Bowling: Use 2 liter pops and the pumpkins as bowling balls. Make sure you have some back up pumpkins because they tend to break after a few go arounds.

Pumpkin Golfing: Simply cut out holes on the pumpkins big enough for a golf ball to be able to enter and then line them up and have a putting contest to see who can get the golf ball into the pumpkin cut out.

Put Out the Candle: Set up your pumpkins so that you have a candle burning in each one and then have students use squirt guns and try and get the candles put out from a certain distance.

Pumpkin Design Contest: For those with artistic ability, see who can design the coolest looking pumpkin cut out.

Ring Around The Pumpkin: Have a few large pumpkins and have some hoola hoops and see who can throw and ring around the pumpkin/s. Try different various ways like behind your back throw, flip throw, roll throw.

Pumpkin Bocce: Buy a large pumpkin and some tiny pumpkins. The object is to have each player roll the small pumpkin to see who can get the closest to the large pumpkin. Closest roll wins.

Have fun, be creative, and use the pumpkin night however you wish for your youth ministry. If you have other pumpkin game ideas, let everyone know about it by leaving a comment below.

8 Steps To Creating Great Youth Group T-Shirts

Steve — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 13:45:28 +0000

1. Plan from the beginning and much of the work could be done for you. Are you guilty of trying to pull off a last minute T-Shirt Miracle? Plan ahead and you can actually save yourself time and money while making the whole project more effective. Why not begin planning and designing your T-Shirts right along with your event promotions. Many T-Shirt shops will “give” you the design they have created for your shirts as long as you are printing the shirts through them. Why not use this free resource to your advantage? This way you can expand on the T-Shirt design, use it in multiple applications and multiply the effect of your message!
2. Don’t just make a T-shirt, Make a Point What is the purpose of the T-Shirt? Is it to communicate the theme, a scriptual concept, create curiosity, promote an event or just display your group identity? Its a simple question, but many people don’t take the time to ask. Make a short list of the mandatory wording and another of optional wording. Evaluate every word and try and make it as effective as possible. This is a great time to get feedback from your team and the students.
3. Know your audience? We all know how fast youth culture changes, so Instead of gravitating to what you think they will like take some time to do some recon. Scope out some stores or popular websites like Pac Sun, American Eagle, Old Navy or whatever stores your students shop at. These places spend millions to find out what will sell, so use them as a recourse when it comes to designing your T-Shirts.
4. Wanna Date? No you don’t. Generally, including a date on your shirts will just make them obsolete faster, so unless you have a specific reason for including a date its best to leave it off.
5. Use the right designer Usually it pays to go to a professional designer. They will have more dynamic design solutions and a better understanding of all the variable that make a design connect with the audience. Most good T-Shirt shops will be able to provide a designer or even free designs as long as you print your shirts with them. There may even be pre-made templates, if you don’t need to recreate the wheel, it’s best not to.
6. Use a quality printer A good printer can be your best friend. Ask around for referrals from people who are happy with their printer. If you are using someone for the first time make sure they have a money back guarantee, I hear too many stories of people who end up paying for shirts that they can’t use because they arrived late or were printed wrong. Once you find a good printer, stick with them, as the relationship grows and a true friendship develops communication gets better and the end product improves.
7. Get the Quantities Right Prices for printed apparel are based on quantity of each print run, so take your time and do your best to order your quantities accurately. You don’t want to end up needing to do a costly re-order later or end up with too many shirts, so it pays to be accuarate. Order just a few extra just to be safe.
8. Hype the new shirts! Create an unveiling, let the staff wear the shirts before they are available to the students or even use them as incentive for early event registration. Whatever you do, make sure it’s a BIG DEAL! Make sure all the presentations like posters, slides, videos, and web all reinforce the theme. The more the design is seen and the message is repeated the stronger it becomes and the more sought after the event and the shirts will become generating the excitement and enthusiasm your looking for!

If you are ready to take a look at a great T-Shirt company that can help you because of their experience – then visit MinistryGear.com today.

This Year’s Best Youth Ministry Conference Meet Me There

Steve — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:30:32 +0000

I’m excited to share with you about a new Youth Ministry Conference called Scribble Sessions.

I will be going to Scribble Sessions so I’m looking forward to meeting any that may also be attending this event. I believe it will be one of the best youth ministry conferences this year!

I spoke with Chris Ball who is helping to coordinate Scribble Sessions and I wanted to share with you about what it will be about. I want to apologize first because I wanted to write about this last month, but I have been swamped trying to move to my new position in Poteau, Oklahoma so I’m just now getting to it.

This is straight from Chris Ball:

I have been doing youth ministry for ten years now. Over the past ten years, I have been to plenty of the big youth ministry shows. I have seen the crowds, the lights, and I have heard the redneck jokes. All great stuff, but it’s a new day. Please let me explain why we are doing Scribble:

1. We are living in a recession and many churches are cutting back on their conference budgets. We want to offer a quality affordable one day experience for youth ministers.

2. Scribble is about Jesus and great ideas. Students are processing information at an alarming rate. Much of it is done through networking and a more concentrated focus on information. Look at Myspace vs. Facebook vs. Twitter. It’s getting smaller and faster not fatter and louder. Scribble is about deflating the four day conference and getting down to the nuts and bolts of key youth ministry ideas. Scribble will offer 8 great ideas from 8 great youth ministry minds in one day.

3. We have an unbelievable speaking lineup. We have been really blessed to have guys jump in who want to speak into the lives of youth ministers. They all come from different arenas of life and they may even disagree on certain issues but we know they all have something important to say and a deep passion to see students connect deeply to Jesus.

4. Louisville is a perfect location. It is less than three hours from Cincinnati, Nashville, and Indianapolis. Afterwards you can stop by 4th Street and have a look around, hang at Waterfront park, catch a Bats game, or check out the Louisville Slugger Museum.

5. Ultimately we love Jesus and want to serve the church. Over the years I have been honored to link arms with other guys whose blood, sweat, and tears go into youth ministry. It is a world few people understand. For one day, we don’t want to link arms with you, we want to lift your arms up and pour into you. We appreciate you and are praying for you. We are also looking forward to scribbling with you.

See you in October,

Chris Ball

The Event is coming very quickly (again apologize on the lateness, but it’s not too late to register) October 9th is the day of the event and it’s held at Northside Christian Church Louisville, Kentucky. The cost of the conference is $129.

See you there!

Here are the 8 Youth Ministry Minds:


		Duffy Robbins is a twenty-seven year veteran of youth ministry, having gained extensive experience as a youth minister in both para-church and local parish positions. He currently is an associate staff member at Youth Specialities, speaking across the country at many gatherings for youth. Duffy is the author of numerous books, as well as curriculum for youth ministers around the world.


		Steve Argue is the Life Development Director at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI. His role involves thinking through formation development children and student ministries. In addition, he also teaches youth ministry at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary; and is the co-founder of Intersect, a non-profit dedicated to innovative training and consulting for emerging leaders.


		Joe Myers is a multiprenuer, interventionist, conversationalist, author, and thinker. He has spent the last several years in study and research discovering how language influences community development. His consulting firm, FrontPorch, specializes in creating conversations that promote and develop community. He is a founding partner of a communication arts group, settingPace; and the President of the Board for BLOC Ministries.


		Michael Novelli has invested more than 15 years leading youth ministries and serving youth workers. Michael develops interactive curriculum and events to help students, educators and youth workers learn in new ways. Michael has written numerous resources, including the book, “Shaped by the Story: Helping Students Encouter God in a New Way”, recently released by Youth Specialties/Zondervan.


		Braun Brown and Rob Thomas created the characters, Johnny and Chachi, for their church family camp and have continued to create videos and perform live with the characters. Rob (Johnny) is the president of RT Productions, Inc. This company includes Igniter Media, WorshipHouse Media, COLLIDE Magazine, and the ECHO Conference. Braun (Chachi) is the Student Ministry Director at Watermark Community Church in Dallas, Texas.


		Bob Russell is an accomplished author and retired pastor. At just twenty-two years of age, Bob became the pastor of Southeast Christian Church. Today that small congregation of 120 members has become one of the largest churches in America, with 18,000 people attending the three worship services every weekend. Bob retired from Southeast in June 2006.


		Matt Reagan is the Student Ministry Pastor at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY. He’s been in youth ministry for over 10 years, with the passion to “awaken a generation to the glory of God.” He’s a creative visionary and thinker. He’s been involved in leadership and spoken at several CIY (Christ in Youth) conferences.


		Jon McCallon is on the student ministry team at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY. For the last 10 years Jon has been grabbing hold of “light bulb” moments in student ministry: the moments where students, parents and/or volunteers may finally say “aha” to an idea or action God is calling them to. He primarily works with programming and pastoring junior high students.


		Chad Rehnberg is on the student ministry team at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY. He’s passionate about reaching urban communities, and continually learning how to develop urban and suburban partnerships that will change and benefit both communities. A husband and father of 4, his family is located in the west end of Louisville–a very unreached area of the city. His mission field is with his neighbors, as well as the east end, where he desires to show others that money doesn’t negate your need for God.

I Moved To Poteau, OK as an Associate Pastor

Steve — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:09:57 +0000

Hey,

Just wanted to update my readers that I haven’t updated for awhile because I have now moved to Poteau, OK as an associate pastor for First Christian Church.

I started the journey last week and got into Poteau on Friday afternoon, unloaded our 26 foot U-Haul with my towed on the back Saturday and this week I have been meeting people, trying to get our boxes unpacked and begin full steam ahead next week.

I’m excited to be here and serve in the church.

What does my Associate Pastor position involve?

I’m about 80% Youth Ministry and 20% other stuff like preaching, children’s ministry, and other things. The people here have been so wonderful and embracing!

Please for me and my family as we seek to do God’s will here! Also pray for God to give us a great deal on a home to either purchase or rent. More to come…

Here’s a video: (if you are trying to watch from facebook you will need to visit www.youthministryideas.net)