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| 25. How to disciple families for a multi-generational impact |
| From Life in Student Ministry on Monday, May 13, 2013 @ 5:00 AM PST in the "Blog" Category. Family discipleship is hard enough, but discipling them for a multi-generational impact? That sounds like a big vision, but here's how to do it. Read More... |
| 26. PROTECT YOURSELF |
| From YouthMinistry.com on Sunday, May 12, 2013 @ 8:34 PM PST in the "Blog" Category. This week we're excited to have an interview with Craig Gross, founder of the incredible XXXChurch Ministry and creator of the X3 accountability software. He's an author and speaker and a powerful voice to both church leaders and church members worldwide. As youth workers we are all concerned about our student's need to create safe-guards in their lives, but we need to do the same thing! Here are a few simple thoughts...just in case you haven't thought about this stuff in a while: Protect Your Eyes A strong faith isn't built on a weak foundation – and pornography chips away at the foundation of your marriage, your spiritual depth and your faith. We challenge students regularly to protect their eyes and run from evil, yet sometimes as speakers and leaders we feel exempt from this basic truth. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Pure Sex: Helping Students Pursue God-Honoring Sexuality ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ No one is above failing, and if you think you are, you've already failed. Got the computer thing figured out? What steps are you taking to protect your eyes concerning movies, television shows, magazines, etc.? Protect Your Computer Get your computer, phones and iPads protected – don't just buy a case to protect the screen – make sure you protect what comes on the screen as well. There are tons of great options for your devices, they all have different strengths and weaknesses but use one of them to make sure you're covered. If you don't know where to start, check out K9 filtering tool which is free and. The X3 accountability isn't a filter, but does send a report of your internet surfing to a partner, which is a powerful way to protect your computer, too. read more Read More... |
| 27. Can Instagram affect #selfimage #selfworth and #identity? |
| From Building Leaders of Tomorrow on Friday, May 10, 2013 @ 12:07 PM PST in the "Blog" Category. Here is a great article about what Instagram (and Facebook for that matter) provide a quantifiable scale of popularity and self-worth. Is it time to panic? No. But these are some good points and reason for us to continue to emphasize identity in Christ and see ourselves like God sees us. (Click the camera, get [...] Read More... |
| 28. Flashback Friday (May 10): This Week's Links From The Youth Ministry Blogosphere |
| From youthministry360 on Friday, May 10, 2013 @ 9:08 AM PST in the "Resources" Category. One of the things we are committed to at ym360 is Networking. Our vision for networking is connecting you to people and organizations doing awesome youth ministry.Flashback Friday is a feature where we give you the run down of some of the awesome posts from the past week across youth ministry blogs. Consider it our way of keeping you connected with what is going on. This week's posts from the ym360 BlogTeaching Your Teenagers The Basics Of Their Faith by Andy Blanks Building A Team Of Volunteers (Who Aren't Just Like You) by Benjer McVeighYouth Worker BOOST: Rental Faith by Richard ParkerThe Biggest Barrier To Students Living Out Their Faith? by Andy Blanks Posts From Other Awesome PeopleWe search the Internet to bring you relevant information to help you be a better youth worker. Here are some links from posts we thought were pretty great.Are you inviting burnout into your ministry right now? by Aaron HelmanOn Cultural Faith Shifts by Allen Jackson4 Things Student Pastors Must Learn To Do Well by Austin McCannThree ideas to help you call young people to do big things by Brad GriffinHealthy Habits For A Leader by Christopher WesleyWhy Leadership Goes Bad by Doug FranklinThe Hyperconnected Teenager [infographic] by Kolby MintonTrending by Youth Specialties That's all the links for this week. As always, have an awesome weekend . . . And THANK YOU for the chance to serve you as part of the ym360 community. Read More... |
| 29. Dare 2 Share's tribute to (and ripoff of) "The Office" |
| From Dare 2 Share Ministries International on Friday, May 10, 2013 @ 7:29 AM PST in the "Blog" Category. On May 16th the series called "The Office" will officially end. It had a good run. In honor of it's kookiness those of us at Dare 2 Share did our own version a few years back. Enjoy. Read More... |
| 30. Funny Friday #16 |
| From Youth Ministry Ideas on Friday, May 10, 2013 @ 5:03 AM PST in the "Blog" Category. Saw this happy Mother's day video about 7 years ago and still makes me laugh. Ahhh brothers growing up! Read More... |
| 31. Dear Youth Leader, |
| From Dare 2 Share Ministries International on Thursday, May 9, 2013 @ 8:37 AM PST in the "Blog" Category. Dear Youth Leader, As you read this letter perhaps it's 9:25pm on a Wednesday night. The last teenager and adult volunteer have left the building and you're stuck folding the metal chairs and doing your best to clean the youth room so the church custodian doesn't get mad at you...again. To add insult to spilt Coke, tonight may have been one of "those" nights for you. Your jokes fell flat and that group of arrogant churchy kids (who always sit in the back left corner) were mocking you with whispers from their giggling Pharisee paradise. The preacher's kid glared at you, daring you to call out daddy's dearest in public. You took his dare and was met with rolling eyes and heavy sighs by him and his sarcastic posse. Down deep inside you may be wondering if you're making a difference at all. You're scrolling through your weekly to do list and it may seem more like meetings than mission. You're tired of the stress youth ministry triggers at home, at church and, most of all, down deep inside your own heart. You may be thinking about giving up. You may be wondering if it's worth the small paychecks and big headaches. You may be considering hanging up your paintball gun and canceling your subscription to Group Magazine. Don't. It is worth it. It's worth every late night text from every frantic teen girl who just got dumped. It's worth every angry phone call from a can't-understand-why-you-let-those-kids-in-youth-group parent. Think about Jenna who put her trust in Jesus last summer at camp. She was a cutter and suicidal. But your talk on Friday night made her run to the front of the auditorium and collapse in your arms sobbing. But she wasn't really running to you. She was running to Jesus and he was hugging her through you. And you can't forget about Jake, the tough kid who Jeremy brought out to youth group last month. Not only did he believe in Jesus as a result of Jake sharing the gospel with him, but now he's leading the charge for evangelism at Jefferson High School. And it all started when you taught Jeremy to share his faith and then challenged him to do it. Degree by degree your teens are changing. Every talk you give, every mission trip you coordinate and every prayer you utter are nudging most of your teens closer to Jesus in often imperceptible but deeply undeniable ways. Don't let the left corner kids discourage you. Don't let that nemesis elder dissuade you. Don't let the politics of puberty rob you of your calling. Keep praying, teaching and discipling. Keep energizing to evangelize. Keep loving teens relentlessly with the love of Jesus. And one day, when you collapse in his arms after a job well done, you'll hear "Well done" whispered in your ear. In a flash he'll show you the kingdom impact you made in the form of changed lives and saved souls. He'll show you how he used all the youth ministry trials you endured to make you more dependent on him and, as a result, more effective in your ministry. He'll show you the full extent of your investment. That will be the real payday. That will be the ultimate pay off. On that day you'll realize in full that it was all worth it. So, until that day, stand your post and embrace your calling. You are a youth leader. Read More... |
| 32. YM Essentials: Building A Team Of Volunteers (Who Aren't Just Like You) |
| From youthministry360 on Thursday, May 9, 2013 @ 7:39 AM PST in the "Resources" Category. One afternoon, our youth ministry organized a service day for our teenagers at a local food bank. Mark, a sophomore in high school, was one of the students who had been assigned to ride with me. As we walked to the parking lot together, he asked if John, a youth leader on our team, was coming. When I told him John wasn't able to make it to that event, Mark replied, "That's too bad. He has a lot cooler music in his car than you do." While some in that situation might have been offended, I wasn't. I was grateful. Mark was a pretty unique teenager, and while I enjoyed hanging out with him, no one on our team could connect with him like John.You probably have a similar story in your youth ministry: There's a student you've never really been able to connect with, but who really has a great relationship with another leader. If you think your students, you'll likely notice that certain students tend to gravitate towards certain leaders because of their personality, background, or age. If students tend to connect with leaders they can identify with, what does that say about the kind of team of leaders we should be building? As you build and lead your team, do you put much thought into the fact that a more diverse team will be able to serve a more diverse group of teenagers? In case it's not something you've every considered before, here are three things to keep in mind as you build your team:Make an effort to recruit leaders who are unlike you.You probably already know that the best way to recruit leaders is to invite them personally. The problem is that our default mode is to invite leaders who tend to be like us. If we only recruit leaders to our team who are like us, then we're in danger of building teams who can connect only to teenagers who are like us. Get the picture? To serve a diverse team of teenagers, we need to invite people who are not like us to be on our team; people who might have different tastes in music, different personalities, different experiences, and so on.Think about the kinds of teenagers God might be calling you to reach.Chances are, your goal as a youth pastor is to reach teenagers. But have you ever stopped to think about what kind of teenagers God is asking you to reach? Maybe God is asking you to start focusing more on the teenagers in your church's neighborhood—and those teenagers might not think, act, and look just like you. How can you add members to your team that can connect with those teenagers and their families? It might be as simple as adding some leaders who can help you reach those kids who skateboard in your church parking lot after school. Or the changes to your team might be deeper (and more difficult), such as looking at the racial diversity of your neighborhood as compared with the racial diversity of your leadership team. It could be that God is asking you to reach teenagers near your church that you have ignored for far too long. Does the diversity of your team reflect your desire to reach those teenagers?Pray for (and invite) leaders who are better at youth ministry than you.This might be hard to hear, so I'll say it quickly and be grateful that I won't be in the same room as you read this: You aren't the best small group leader, or Bible study teacher in your church. In fact, depending on your church, you may not even be in the top five. I recently sat in on one of our high school small groups. One of the adult leaders masterfully led a thirty-minute discussion about "tough questions" for a group of mostly freshman boys who rarely sit still the other six days of the week. By the end, I had a realization: This guy is far better at this than I'll ever be. Thankfully, my church didn't hire me to be the best small group leader on our team. It's not in my job description, as far as I can remember. And it's probably not in yours, either. Our job as youth pastors is to create an environment where high school students can meet Jesus and grow in their relationship with Him. A big part of that is building a team of youth leaders who may actually be better at relational ministry, or leading a Bible study that we are. ?Certainly there are more factors that determine how you build a diverse team. Which factors do you focus on? Read More... |
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