1. OVER COMMUNICATE
Life is busy in the home! Teenagers have a lot going on in their life and parents have an incredible task attempting to balance all the different demands on their time. Make the commitment to help your families and clearly communicate with your parents. Make it a goal to try to over communicate. Let them know about upcoming events (which doesn’t mean the week of the event), content that’ll you’ll teaching on, ministry successes, changes, costs, activities, etc. Your communication doesn’t have to be long, but it should be consistent and clear and speaks to the parents’ world. Learning how to plan well will make this much easier.

2. SPEAK HIGHLY OF PARENTS
We’re on the “same side” with parents, so make sure to take every opportunity to speak highly of them when you’re around teenagers. Resist the urge to join in when a teenager is verbally bashing his/her parents. Rookie youth workers may try to “build a bridge” with a teenager by trashing parents (i.e. “parents just don’t understand”)…but it doesn’t work long-term. Keep your integrity and speak highly of parents.

3. SPEAK HIGHLY OF THEIR KIDS
Affirmation is a great gift to a parent! Each time you see a parent, try to pass on some time of verbal encouragement about their son/daughter. Parents love to hear great things about their kids and when it comes from someone who knows them and really cares about them, the affirmation is even more powerful. Returning home from camp this summer is a great opportunity to brag to parents about their kids and set a positive tone for post-camp family conversations. There are few things more rewarding to parents than hearing good words about their kids. This is a powerful gift that doesn’t cost you anything.

More ideas coming later this week.

When it comes to being family-friendly, what are your intentional actions? Share them here.

We’re not selling a program for leaders to “buy-into”… rather we’re talking about what it might look like for a church to better help families. We are looking at the values of…

STRONG marriages
CONFIDENT parents
EMPOWERED kids
HEALTHY leaders

We are asking these types of questions:
1. What would a church “look like” if its leaders cared deeply about these values?

2. What if the church could make a 1% change in the divorce rate? Imagine if that single 1% change became a reality–that one change would impact millions of kids.

3. What role is the church supposed to play in the life of the family?

Question: What are the questions you’d be asking? Share them here.

As you may know, I’m a big fan of FREE… a fan of organizations that resource youth workers, and a fan of teenagers being resourced to win with their friends.

For those reasons, I’ve become a big fan and promoter of what my friends at The Life Book are doing for teens when it comes to peer-to-peer evangelism. Here’s the concept in a nutshell: The Life Book contains a short summary of the Old Testament – including creation, the Fall, and God’s redemptive plan–to help unchurched teenagers understand the need for a Savior. It also includes the entire Gospel of John (ESV), interactive student comments and questions, and a challenge to put their trust in Jesus as their Savior (it can be viewed online at: www.thelifebook.com/read).

Student’s love it and love to hand it out. In fact, students have handed out over 7 million Life Books so far! Plus, the Life Book is given only by students, so it fosters personal, ongoing relationships between those giving and those receiving God’s Word.

As a youth worker, this could be an easy “win” for you as it helps you equip your students as missionaries to reach their classmates & encourage them to develop habits that will give them confidence to share the Gospel. Let your students see God’s power to work through His Word. They don’t have to memorize any speeches or know everything about apologetics. They simply give The Life Book as a gift and watch God use His Word. Upon request, you will receive 1,000 FREE LIFE BOOKS for your students to give to their classmates. Life Book is 100% funded and no longer ask for a love offering or anything in return for your FREE 500, 1000, or 1500 Life Books… “No love offering, no strings attached, TOTALLY FREE.”

This could be a great way to kick off the school year or for the week of See You At the Pole, but order now to make sure you get your Life Books in time. They go fast every school year!

How It Works: Your students give the gift of the Gospel and then watch God work…

1. Register at thelifebook.com/register to get your FREE Life Books.
2. Show your students the free, short training videos.
3. Your students hand out 100% of The Life Books. You can do it during a short-term “mission trip” to their school. IMPORTANT OPPORTUNITY: They also highly encourages you to have your students hand out one or two Life Books a week throughout the school year as an ongoing evangelistic effort.

Get your FREE Life Books today!

When I saw this particular one on logos it made me think of the amount of time that I’ve worked in two churches–11 years in one and 18 in another. My experience has been that when you’re in one location for a long time that you’re able to observe a lot of change. There are times when it feels as if a certain decision is so important that you’ve got to get it right. I’m guessing that’s the case of these original logos–they probably felt like each logo was a “done deal.”

Here’s where my mind went–instead of getting paralyzed by indecision… pull the trigger. Make the decision. It’s probably not a decision that will last forever… chances are good you change it soon. Most of your leadership decisions are not final.

An illustration by the team at The Logo Company

[ht: logo people.net via www.churchm.ag]

Question: what typically keeps you from making important decisions? Share it here.


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I can hear my mom’s voice saying, “Oh Douglas… I can’t believe you’re going to show that in church.”

“I know mom… I’m sorry. Talk to Jesus about it. I’m going to talk highly of you this weekend when I speak on ‘Everything I needed to know about Jesus I learned from my mom’… you left me great memories and a great example.”


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Enjoy!


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Too many leaders don’t even slow down enough to be faithful to God’s call for a Sabbath rest.

When I was a young leader I received great advice from a mentor who urged me to faithfully guard and protect a weekly day of rest. I’m so grateful for that advice and encouragement! Without intentional action, it’s simply too easy for a leader to slip into justifying non-Sabbath actions like, “I’m just going to pop into the office,” or “I’m so far behind, I just need to catch up” or “They need to spend time with me and I don’t think I can say ‘no’.”

I fully understand that the Sabbath doesn’t come in a one-size-fits-all experience, but for what it’s worth, here’s how I try to approach my day of rest:

I want to experience as many of the following as possible:

• Relaxation. I take it easy. I sleep in. I don’t fill the day with a lot of activities. I try to maintain an attitude of rest throughout the day.

• Recreation. I usually feel better and accelerate my rest after some form of exercise. It may be at the gym, but it’s usually a long walk or hike with my wife, Cathy.

• Relationships. Any time I choose to spend time with someone on my Sabbath, I make sure it’s a relationship that inspires me, breathes into me, and is rewarding for me. No work, just friendship.

• Reading. Throughout the week, much of my reading focuses on speaking or sermon preparation, so on my day of rest I usually choose light and fun reading.

• Reflection/Restoration. Reflection describes my extended time with God. I’ll usually reflect on the past week, look through my calendar, and think about what I might have missed that God had laid out for me. A busy week usually doesn’t allow me the time for reflection that I want or need. Restoration describes personal soul-care. It’s my time for worship, prayer, silence, Bible, and journaling.

There is no usual order to these areas… I simply try to experience all these throughout the day.

For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy. Exodus 20:11

Question: What about you? What do you normally do on your Sabbath? Share it here. 


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Remember that one time you went to art school to be a graphic designer? Oh wait, you didn’t? It sometimes seems that an inordinate amount of time is spent trying to figure out how to make youth group graphics. You’re already wearing a ton of hats – speaker, volunteer coordinator, event planner, janitor, caterer, counselor – here’s the perfect app to help take off the “graphics pro” hat off for a while.

Badgify creates super slick ministry name badges on your Mac or PC. You can create name tags for you staff, volunteers, student leaders, summer camp counselor, greeters, parents – even that guy who graduated last year but keeps showing up! You wouldn’t believe how simple it is – the guys over at Pesign Studio developed it so a volunteer with no training could knock out badges in no time and make you look like a graphics guru. All you do is type in a name, event/church, and position, then click “Apply”. Badgify will do the rest. It will automatically fit everything into the badge and make it look like you spent more than half your budget hiring someone to do it. Just print them on a label or and slide them into a lanyard! They currently have six incredible badge templates to choose from, but they said they have plans to release updates with even more!

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This app is a game changer! One of my values is relational ministry so I love anything that helps youth workers spend time with students and get out from behind the Macbook. Stop fiddling around on Photoshop and let Badgify do everything for you! Give it to a volunteer (make sure you print a badge for them first) and go to the junior high girls basketball game! OK, bad example.

Badgify is available exclusively at Download Youth Ministry! For on $12… make as many professional looking name tags as you want (after a few days, they’re raising the price).

Question: where do you currently use name tags? Share it here.

Team work part 2… ideas #1-5

6. “I’ve got your back!” A team player is someone who is willing to confront those who take verbal shots at the primary leader (the person in charge). I know students and other adults will occasionally talk negatively behind my back. But a committed volunteer, someone who is a team player, won’t listen to that verbal abuse. They’ll confront the person or they’ll walk away if they need to. You want to be a team leader? Support your leader.

7. Regular affirmation. Whether the primary leader hits a home run or strikes out, they need affirmation (especially when they’ve struggled). When you affirm others on your team, you’re a valuable team player.

8. Take initiative. Teamwork is about taking ownership and jumping in when needs arise. Don’t wait to be asked in order to serve. Any volunteer who takes initiative on my team is a blessed leader in our ministry.

9. Learn some new skills. Become a student. A team player will seek to learn and develop new skills that will make them more valuable and the team stronger.

10. Don’t compare yourself to other volunteers. You don’t have to be like others on your team. That’s one of the keys of a good team—variety. God loves variety, and he uses variety in His body to do great things. Allow God to strengthen the person He’s created you to be and don’t worry about being like someone else.

The Message paraphrase says, “A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. A body is all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together.” (1 Corinthians 12)

Teamwork isn’t easy. It’s not easy on the sport’s field, and it’s not easy in the church. It takes work on everyone’s part to create a healthy youth ministry. God will get the glory for the living example of love your youth ministry team becomes.


Question: what’s missing from this list of 10 actions of a team-player? What do you want your team to express as part of your team. Share your thoughts here.



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Here’s the first 5 ideas:

1. Positive attitude. I’d much rather have an emotionally positive volunteer than a skilled volunteer with a negative attitude. Youth ministry is fairly easy to teach. A negative person is difficult to change.

2. Flexibility. Youth ministry is hard to predict. I like for volunteers to not act stressed-out when things don’t go as planned—because they rarely do.

3. The ability to laugh off mistakes. Similar to flexible, but this is quality is more directed at mistakes or failure that are sure to happen within ministry. I appreciate hearing a volunteer say, “It was no big deal. I actually thought it was funny when the students showed up and no one thought thru transportation. No big deal.”

4. Speaking positive in front of students about tough situations. Every youth group has kids who complain… some actually are Varsity-type complainers. When an adult hears a kid complaining, it’s fairly easy to jump-in and join the chorus of complaints. But, a team-player will instead say, “This is nothing to complain about… we’re going to get there. So what? The van broke down. No big deal. We’re all alive.”

5. Servanthood. A team-player regularly asks the point person, “Can I do anything for you?” Or, “How can I help you right now?” Or, “Put me to work… allow me to relieve some of your stress.” This attitude of servanthood and willingness to lighten the load of others is a major factor in being a strong team player.

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll give you the opportunity to add to my list of 10, but today I’m curious how you (as a primary leader) get this type of specific information into the mind/hearts of the leaders who follow you.

Question: how do you currently “paint a picture” of what team work looks like? Share your thoughts here.

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The goal of the game is to knock “the king” off the hill so you become the “new king.” The few times I’d manage to do that, I’d feel great … for about 2 seconds. Then I realized everyone was now gunning for me!

That is a similar feeling to what it’s like leading a ministry. You’re on the top of the hill, and for a few seconds you’re feeling great, but then you realize you have a dozen problems hurtling straight toward you: angry parents, events to plan, tough conversations with a student, explaining to the senior pastor just how someone created burn marks on the carpet of his office… you name it, something is coming at you to knock you off.

As a ministry leader for over 30 years, I can tell you that I have felt lonely many times. I have felt like I’m running behind in planning. I’ve lacked time. I’ve been attacked by criticism. I’ve felt unworthy, sometimes afraid, out of control, under-appreciated, and inadequate. I don’t have it all together, and I’ve never met a good leader who claimed he/she did.

I write that preface as a way of saying, if God has given someone the mantle of leadership in your ministry, then you need to support their leadership. You may not like all of his/her decisions, but that’s part of being a team player. The leader isn’t perfect. Good leaders make decisions for the best of the ministry, and often those decisions make others angry. But, as a long-time leader, I can tell you that the best gift you can give your leader is the assurance that you’re on his/her side.

This support doesn’t mean withdrawing feedback that might sting… many times my volunteers have gently and lovingly confronted me and helped me see areas within my leadership that weren’t healthy. And because we operate as a team, they confronted me with specific truth and a lot of grace. The grace part communicated, “Doug, we love you,” and the truth part was, “We need to talk about an area of your leadership that appears to be trouble (or struggling or failing).”

Encouraging and supporting your leader will make you a healthy and more effective team player. In the next two blog posts, I’ll share with you 10 ways you can deepen your ministry by deepening your team work.

Question: What do you think are some signs of a good team player? Share your input here.

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