Seasons

I haven't been in full time ministry for a super long time. But, I have noticed that ministry is one of those things where you always hit the ground running. Either you are the one ahead sprinting with everyone else behind you, or you are in the back sprinting to catch up with everyone else. What I mean is that we are either giving all we have to lead our churches in the direction God is showing us, or we are behind trying to catch up and learn exactly how our churches have handled certain situations in the past. Now, I know the latter really only applies to us who serve in established congregations but I've really been thinking about that for a while.
When I began to serve where I am now it didn't take long for me to figure out that there are certain events and practices that our church does every year, no matter what. That is a good thing! It is wonderful to be called into a church where fellowship and ties run deep. As I've looked back over the last year I can see that our church operates in definite seasons. If you think about it, I'm sure your churches and ministries operate the same way.
Right now we are in what I like to call the Harvest season at our church. It is a super busy and exciting season for us actually. We have a Harvest Day celebration, a High Attendance Sunday, an annual church-wide Hayride, and a huge community outreach event that we call Operation Pumpkin Outreach. All of that is packed in two 2 months and doesn't even include our normal activities.
For whatever reason, our students love Harvest season at church. Attendance is always up and the students all seem glad to be here. So, I capitalize on that. I make sure that I plan extra fun events and intense Bible study during this season. I give an extra effort to make sure that everything our student ministry does during this season is over the top. We're a small church with a small budget but I use a large portion of it during this season. It's when I promote big events that will happen later on in the year. It's when I plan extra events that are sure to draw non-churched kids in. I make sure our Bible study time is clear and focused. I make sure they understand everything I'm trying to get across because I may not see some of these students again until next fall.
What are the seasons at your church? Do you know? What season seem to be more successful than others? I encourage you to look at the big picture and figure out where to concentrate your efforts. This may sound small and insignificant but it will help you plan your year out in advance and it prepares you for that season when things are fast and furious. Pay attention, make observations, and focus on the season where God is obviously moving within your ministry!

He Said, She Said

Alright, this is sort of an impromptu informational/humorous post. Sometimes we start worship a little early on Wednesday nights. That means we finish early sometimes too. Last night we finished with a little time left so we played a very simple game. He said She said. If you've never tried this game with your group before then you should. If you have a large group, I'd say more than 12 even, it works best to split your group up into smaller teams of 6 or so. Give each person a piece of paper and pen and ask them to write the beginning sentence of a story. They get to choose the sentence but that's all they can write. Once everyone has written something down make them pass their papers to the left or right. That person gets to write the next sentence and so on. So by then end of the game you have several stories that everyone has contributed to and they get pretty funny. This is a great simple time filling game to try because all the supplies you need are pen and paper.

All that to say, we played this game last night and I told our kids I would pick what I thought was the best story and post it here in the blog. So, here goes. By the way, this should be read in a British accent. 

One day, I got a new pet llama.

His name was Mr. Nibbles.

He had 6 legs and 4 eyes.

And he had giant wings and laser vision.

One day, Mr Nibbles got lost in the dark and ran into a trap. 

Mr Nibbles got up and ran into the woods and got attacked.

He was attacked by a giant, scary, very funny, mean beast of a basketball star named Bob.

Mr. Nibbles kicked Bob and got out of the woods.

He was very clumsy because he had 6 legs so he wasn't running very fast.

He died,,,,,

The end.

So you can see how crazy this can get, the students love it and it is a ton of fun. Anyone else ever used this activity? If you have, I would love to hear some of your funny stories!

It Worked!!

Ok, I know what you're thinking. What a slacker, this guy promised a follow up post and it's been over 2 weeks! I know, and I apologize. But you guys know how ministry is. It's busy and many times things come up that we have no control over. My encouragement to you is to keep on trucking and make ministering to your people the main goal of your ministry. Even when you need to blog.....

I'm sure by this point the suspense is killing you so bad that you can't take it. You want to know how our worship kick off went. It went great! And 2 weeks in to doing worship with our students it's only getting better. Here's how we introduced it:

I knew I had to start off in a neutral location. I had to create a new environment for my students to step in to. Trying to introduce worship without changing anything at all could have been a bust. Our current youth space is a large room with plenty of space for us. But when I first came to serve here, I created a monster. Because the students had never had anyone take time to help them take identity of their room, I came in and tried to spruce it up a bit without much thought. What we ended up with was a large room with a ton of activity space and small bible study area crammed in a corner. We had game tables and a futon, and a large open area for games. This atmosphere was just not conducive to worship. So, the first week we took it outside. We created an intimate environment with candles and tiki torches. We led them to this area blindfolded and then revealed to them the new way we were doing Wednesday nights. We sang just 2 familiar songs and I delivered a lesson reminding them of why we gather together each week. To experience God and grow closer to God. I also reminded them that this wasn't the end of fellowship and fun. I wanted them to realize that we need a balance of true worship and authentic fellowship. Numbers were low that week and I was tempted to be discouraged, but I knew God had brought the students there that he wanted there.

The following week I knew I had to change our youth space in order for this to continue down a helpful path. Things have changed and our environment needed to be inviting and also helpful for our new direction with worship. So I simply rearranged our room. Instead of lots of space for games and a little for bible study it became a large worship area with a little room for activity. It completely changed the attitudes of our students as they walked in the door. We lowered lights and lit candles again. We took distracting things out of the room such as game tables and food. And more students showed up and they sang even louder. It really went great! This did not cost much money. We didn't have to paint or build a stage. We simply changed the focus of our room and it made all of the difference.

I'm thankful that God laid all of this out before me. I had no idea how to introduce worship and God made it work. I give Him all of the credit for this and most importantly I am glad tat our students are finally experiencing what it means to worship Jesus for what he has done for them. Week in and week out we will worship Christ because He deserves every bit of it!

How to do a Fall Retreat for Cheap (I hope).

Its Tuesday. I sit in my extremely cluttered office, trying to decide whether I should continue to work on my lesson for tomorrow night, clean my desk, or do some planning for my upcoming fall retreat.  Strangely, posting a blog won out.  So in order to justify blog posting I am going to write about my fall retreat planning thus far.
As I mentioned before, my background is in larger church ministry.  When we planned retreats we often spent as much money on one retreat for a couple hundred students as my entire youth budget for the year.  So trying to provide what I know a fall retreat can be for my students now, on the small amount of money that I have alloted to me is a daunting task.
(Let me note here that I have only been in my current position for a few months.  This being said, I did not plan this year's budget, and so no monies have been previously set aside for this retreat. . . )
The first thing I had to do in planning this retreat was to decide what I felt like God was showing me the purpose should be.  Fellowship, yes. Awesomeness, yes. Food, yes. Worship, yes.  All of those things are a giving.  But what would the driving force be? What would my students walk away with? I felt like it needed to be so much more than just fun memories and full bellies.  They needed to walk away with life change and knowledge.
And so, after much prayer, I have decided that this retreat will focus on Biblical manhood and womanhood.  I made this decision because I know that it would be nearly impossible for me to cover these topics in our weekly worship setting, and I also know that I want my students to have a good concept of what the Bible teaches about being a man of God and woman of God. I think its essential actually. 
The Girly Burly Retreat has been born! 
The next step was finding lodging.  Do I want to have a retreat out of town (a town where there is a whole lot of nothing to do)? Do I want to host in at the church lock-in style? (I will post later about my passionate dislike of lock-ins). Do guys and girls stay co-ed? Should they be in completely different locations? How can I give my students a place to sleep for cheap? Here is what I came up with:
        1. Girls like sleepovers. Girls like showers.
        2. Guys don't really care.
In our area we are blessed to have a Baptist District Office that has lodging available for missionaries.  By lodging I mean a giant room where people could crash on air mattresses, a kitchen, and a few showers.  Best of all, to churches who want to use it, this space is free.  That's right, FREE! So decision made, my ladies will be staying sleepover style in the district office, for free.
In our area we are blessed to have farmers.  With farmers comes a lot of land. With land comes camping.  Guys love camping! So decision made, my gentlemen will be camping out in one of our church member's field.  And we can borrow tents, air mattresses, sleeping bags, and firewood from other church members (our church member LOVE our students. HUGE BLESSING). Again, FREE.
I have a speaker lined up to come in and lead talks with our girls.  She is friend from college who is passionate about seeing girls come to recognize themselves as a creation of God and what that means.  And since she is friend, I will pay her gas and a little $ and be good to go.  
I still need to figure out a speaker for my guys. And I need to plan some activities and meals.  But that is where I stand in the planning process as of this morning. 
This retreat may not be the biggest and best retreat to ever hit student ministry. In fact in may fail terribly.  But my prayer is that my students will love it, that they will be challenged to take a deeper ownership of their walks with God as young men and women, and that they will be excited about it again next year. 
What are some things that you have done to plan retreats for cheap? I would love some of your pointers!

Prayers and Ideas..

I have been serving at the church where I am currently at for a little over a year now. The whole time here I have been fighting a specific mindset amongst our students. That attitude is: “We have always been and will always be a small church.” Our students honestly have no idea what student ministry looks like in most other churches. Here is an example of this. This year in February we had a Disciple Now Weekend. I know, not the latest or hottest idea to his student ministry. I even recall DNOW’s being lame when I was still in high school. But our kids had never heard of it. They had no idea what I was talking about when I started promoting the event. All they have ever known is one youth conference per year and short 15 minute devotions on Wednesday nights. They honestly have no clue that other churches do more than this. And if they do by chance know that, they assume we are too small of a church to do anything different.

Well, I have decided to put an end to this way of thinking amongst our students. I’ve been doing this gradually throughout the past year by adding events and making our Bible study times more intense and focused. But this week I am taking the plunge. We are starting worship on Wednesday nights. WHOA!!! Do you feel the gravity that statement carries? Seriously, I am going to ask all 15-20 of them to stand and sing along before we enter our study time this week.

I know many of you have been doing this forever but this is a brand new concept for our students. We are adding a brand new element that is hopefully going to enhance our Wednesday night gathering. I know I can’t rush into this. We are going to start out slow. And as a good friend once told me “when you’re in the bush you’ve got to use what you have.” So I am going to lead worship. It’s not ideal and my goal was to wait until we found someone to step up and take this role whether they be student or adult leader. But the fact is, it’s time. And God hasn’t revealed that person to us yet. I already lead worship on Sunday mornings at church so it is a context our students are familiar seeing me in. I know this sounds like we are way behind the times but this is seriously a huge step for our student ministry.

So, this Wednesday I covet your prayers! Pray that it isn’t awkward and pray that our students understand that they are getting the opportunity to worship their heavenly Father. I want to hear your ideas on this too? Have you introduced worship to a student group before? How did it go? What worked and what didn’t? I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on how to make this successful and meaningful. I’ll be posting a debrief blog on Thursday to let all of our faithful readers know how it went!