Youth Ministry Blog Network

David CrowderBand – “How He Loves” Music Video

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:04:00 PST

Just for fun. It’s such a great look to make it look like David was just carrying around his laptop filming with his webcam. I also loved the effect of it being sped up, but the singing regular time. Enjoy.

YouTube – David CrowderBand – “How He Loves” OFFICIAL Music Video.

oh, wow.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:57:58 PST

SCL: The Youth Group Rules

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:39:40 PST

Enjoyed this post on Stuff Christians Like about youth group rules. Hilarious! Here’s a clip, lots more goodness if you hit up the link:

1. The youth group bus or van will not be purchased from a dealership named, “Vans that like to catch on fire & buses that break down in the middle of the night on the side of the road on the way to New Hampshire ski retreats.”

2. Only one “dude with an acoustic guitar” will be allowed per youth group.

3. If you go on a retreat and you’re boyfriend/girlfriend doesn’t go, they should expect to get dumped when you return home. Cause that’s happening.

4. All youth group ministers should expect at least one kid to ask for a precise definition of “what it means to be a virgin.”

5. Only tankinis and swim shirts shall be worn on youth group beach trips.

6. All youth group retreats should be held at locations that could double for horror movie backdrops because it adds to the intensity of the weekend.

POLL: Working Hours in The Fall

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:49:30 PST

HSM is coming out of what is maybe the busiest season of the year: Fall. The school year has officially been kicked off, our big campaign is over, small group leaders are trained, small groups have been launched and everything else is really starting to roll. Of course, that meant work … and lots of it. I find the Fall fits into an extra category of busyness, sometimes with serious hours.

How about you? Vote in this week’s poll now!

Kingdom Assignment: Student Edition

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:42:36 PST

T3 is a cool new resource that is new this week at Simply Youth Ministry. If you’ve ever heard of Kingdom Assignment, this is the student version of that awesome adult series. We’ve done some work before with Denni and Leesa at our PDYM Student Leadership Conference this summer, and had a blast seeing what God could do with $1 and an afternoon. Here’s more details about the pack:

What would happen if your students took the Parable of the Talents literally for 9 weeks? What would they do if you put money in their hands and told them to exercise some creative stewardship?

Find out with T3, a 9-week small group curriculum based on the life-changing book Kingdom Assignment. You’ll help your students see that stewardship isn’t just about tithing, but it’s about using all that God has given them — their Talent, Treasure & Time — to make a difference for his kingdom.

Mountain Bikes and Discipleship

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:25:56 PST

Doug Fields has a great new article about mountain bike-riding and discipleship. I like his connection to help students “grow on their own” but walk with them down the path first. Here’s a clip, I think it’ll bring up some interesting conversations in your head today:

As I was riding and wishing for a safe and caring riding partner/coach I began to think about the teenagers in our ministries. What are we doing with all their questions? Do we even know the questions they’re asking? Or do we assume they’ll catch everything about Jesus as they begin their ride with him?

Like I need a riding coach, teenagers need a Jesus coach. While mountain biking is much more complex than “jump on a bike”…so is following Jesus much more complex than a simple “come to church.” For a month I’ve been riding every day, tinkering around at the local bike shop, reading magazines and Web sites to try to find coaching tips, downloading trail guides to my iPhone, and asking a lot of questions… And I’m still confused, frustrated, and wanting someone to coach me. I want someone else to care enough to care about me.

Could it be that our youth ministries have become good at getting teenagers to come to church… but we’re not so good at coaching them on how to walk with Jesus? Then, if they don’t know how to walk with Jesus, they graduate from our ministry and graduate away from church. Do the kids entrusted to your care (as a youth pastor over several or as a volunteer over a few) know that you want to coach them in the ways of Jesus? Do they leave your youth ministry knowing that there is a caring, loving and available adult who wants the best for them? Who won’t laugh at their questions? Who will walk beside them as they struggle and fall? If so…great! Way to go! Those teenagers are blessed. But if not, what might need to change within your youth ministry and your personal leadership style so teenagers will know that they’re not a number to be counted or a seat-filler, but rather a young follower of Jesus who needs a little help with the call of Jesus to “follow me”?

Simply Youth Ministry Podcast: Episode 115

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:21:11 PST

Episode 115 of the Simply Youth Ministry Podcast hit the web this week, we just recorded a really fun Episode 116 live yesterday, too. Just enough youth ministry to say that you’re working!

God runs through it!

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:44:44 PST

Oh I LOVED this comment to my last post. I LOVE LOve LovED it!!! I’ve been thinking about it all week and what a new perspective. A refreshing one at that, it totally makes sense!

I don’t believe that God wants to be “first” on our list of priorities. In fact I think that limits Him a little. He wants to be the center of our everything. He wants everything we do to filter through Him.

So my new list is:

Jeff
Kids
Ministry
Everything Else

Knowing God runs through them all. (I still have to have a list, feels pretty second grade, but I’m learning.)

You guys are so smart!

Turn-off or Turn-on?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:19:41 PST

First Baptist Church in Dallas just announced plans Sunday to build a $130 million state-of-the-art campus in the middle of the downtown Dallas arts district. For more info and to watch a news cast of this, click here.

The reason I’m posting this here is to find out how you think college age people might respond to this. College age people in Dallas might think one way and those living in a different region could think differently. Church culture is vastly different in different parts of the country. And I think this is necessary to some degree.

So, would this be a turn-off for college age people in your area? Or, would this get them excited?

To be clear, I am not interested in your opinions on whether or not you think this is a good idea – that can quickly become a fruitless discussion. I’m only asking what college age people might think. So, what do you think? Potential turn-off or turn-on?

Episode 115: What Happens in Kansas Stays in Kansas

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:56:28 PST

Click to Play

Doug, Matt and Jana are joined by special guest Jim Burns.

The Program Problem

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...

Values Modeled

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:32:33 PST

I recently read an article called, “Nature Refreshes Student Spirituality” that is about a subset of Campus Crusade called Lifelines. I was intrigued, and frankly impressed, with the values their embracing and modeling for all of us. It’s not rocket science, it’s just focused. Their program is described in this way:

“Students are at odds with so many things during this phase of their lives,” three-year Lifelines facilitator Jon Ayers said. “Lifelines is a rope for students to grab onto, a resource to help them navigate these waters.” In another place the article says, “The vision of Lifelines is to raise up spiritual leaders who will meet the pressing needs of the world and offer true hope.” A sophomore in college said this about being involved, “You can allow yourself to be totally vulnerable.”

This is perfect. This is exactly what college ministry ought to be about.

One of the facilitators of the program said, “We want students to learn about themselves…We want them to relate the things we talk about in our programs back to their lives, so each trip we talk about a different virtue … hope, courage, trust, teamwork, communication.”

Interesting how she breaks down what the students are struggling with at home. I’m not sure if this is something the organization has articulated formally or if this was off the top of her head, but it’s interesting for sure. I boil things down to identity, intimacy, meaning, pleasure and truth as the core issues college age people are sifting through. I’m not entirely sure what they mean by the words they use (hope, courage, trust, teamwork, communication), but I like the practicality of the words.

Anyway, the article points out a few other things that stood out to me. And if this article is accurate in regards to the organization, we see the following things modeled for us:

college ministry is specifically about helping people navigate the waters they are in.
college ministry is about helping people discover who they are, uniquely
college ministry is about preparing people for a life of mission – interesting to note that the article states that 80% of the people involved in the program do NOT come from church backgrounds.
college ministry is about allowing people to discover who they are and providing a safe place for them to express what they are finding – good, bad, or ugly

I think if our college ministries could embody these things we’d be successful.

15 Signs a Church is in Trouble

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:39:31 PST

Enjoyed reading the sometimes painful blog 15 Signs a Church is in Trouble by Perry Noble this morning. Good stuff in here, hope it stings us a bit so we fight against it! Here are a couple of them before you head there for the rest:

#2 – When the church becomes content with merely receiving people that come rather than actually going out and finding them…in other words, they lose their passion for evangelism!

#9 – The church is reactive rather than proactive.

#10 – The people in the church lose sight of the next generation and refuse to fund ministry simply because they don’t understand “those young people.”

#11 – The goal of the church is to simply maintain the way things are…to NOT rock the boat and/or upset anyone…especially the big givers!

#15 – When the leaders/staff refuse to go the extra mile in leading and serving because of how “inconvenient” doing so would be.

Looking for the Next Batch of GUEST POSTS!

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:30:32 PST

Every weekend I post a GUEST POST written by … you!

This past weekend was the last one that I had in my ready-to-post archive of articles. The experiment this past couple of months has been fun – would you like to submit an article? I’d love it if it was written specifically for the MTDB audience, but if it played well on your blog or another site and you’d like to get more exposure to it, I’m in!

Shoot me a note and attach your submissions – I need one for this Saturday!

Buy 1, Give 1 Youth Ministry Resources

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:14:16 PST

I really like this drive that Simply Youth Ministry is running this month to help get resources in the hands of some youth workers who can distribute them to churches in need. Buy 1, Give 1 – all this month on selected products. Very cool, I think I’m gonna toss up a banner at the top of the blog for a couple weeks in support. Nice!

Buy 1 Give 1

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:00:46 PST

Times are tough for everyone right now. With budget cuts and money not going quite as far as it used to, it’s refreshing to know you an help others who are in need. We’ve joined with 3 partners around the U.S. who have influence in needy areas.

Buy one of the products listed on our special Buy 1 Give 1 page to see the entire list, but it includes the LIVE curriculum, The $5 Youth Ministry, and Rooted to name a few.

Click here for the entire list: Buy 1 Give 1, and help out some fellow youth workers, while getting some great resources for yourself.

Good until Nov. 20, 2009.

Writing

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:29:21 PST

I’ve been in Atlanta the last couple days, writing a new book – The Slow Fade. It’s set to be out early summer, but will pre-release in late April at The Orange Conference. It walks leaders through principles that need to be embraced if we are going to halt the fade away of college-age people in churches. The thing I love about it is that it’s about solutions and extremely practical. Abbie Smith, Reggie Joiner and I are bringing three perspectives to it that really rounds off the book. Over the last couple days we’ve gotten a ton done and we’re more excited than ever. Can’t wait for it to be in print. Here’s one of the boards we have for the general flow…

How to Get Out of the Message Rut

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:40:10 PST

Really liked this article over on pdymcommunity.com called The Message Rut. It gave some tips for message prep when your talks all start sounding familiar. Good stuff, here’s a clip of it:

Change up your Prep Routine
If you do the same thing week in and week out you get set on a routine for getting everything accomplished on time. My typical routine is 100% on my computer. Sometimes the place it happens changes, the exact day it happens changes, but my laptop is always involved, from beginning to end, no matter what. Last week, instead of starting my message staring at a blank document on the screen, I sat down with a yellow pad, a pen, and my thoughts. It definitely took a little longer to get the end result of a printed outline and finished PowerPoint, but the change in routine was refreshing.

Surprise the Audience
This is similar to mixing up the illustrations, but different. Once people (students and adults) have been attending church for a while, it seems that when someone steps on stage to speak, they check out. They go into the ‘I have heard it all before’ trance and don’t hear anything you say. Your message, no matter how good or creative it is, will have no impact if they don’t hear it. If you do things that they aren’t expecting, they will listen. A few weeks ago, part way through the message I walked off the stage and walked around in the audience. I just kept talking like normal but just walked around. Then I finished the rest of the message from the back of the room. It definitely got their attention.

Junior High Ministry Forum

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...
Obama and McCain Civil Forum The rumors have been confirmed. On August 16th, Saddleback will...
Junior High Ministry 101: The Importance Of ‘The Feel’ A couple of years ago Chap Clark made the following...

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

A Glimpse Into Halo-ween

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:48:59 PST

Had a fun 4-hour niche event this weekend playing “Halo”ween. Here’s a video of the setup taken by one of our volunteers, and we even had a guest appearance of another as Master Chief. So much fun!

HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 72

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:32:54 PST

Weekend Teaching Series: none, between series
Sermon in a Sentence: Biblical leadership requires serving.
Service Length: 77 minutes
Bible: John 13

Understandable Message: This weekend Jason Petty (HSM discipleship pastor) taught the passage about Jesus washing the disciples feet. He asked a strong question: What do you do when you’re the most powerful person in the room? He talked about Jesus’ serving as a model for us to serve, and how so many use their influence for their own gain. He also announced the start of Student Leadership this year, too.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: Students made up the band and ran lights, camera, sound and the control room. We had a volunteer help run one of the games on Sunday morning, and other volunteers positioned themselves as greeters and helped everyone feel welcome.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We had a costume contest on Saturday night that had some good energy (Sunday not so much) - the kids dressed as John and Kate + 8 did very well, I might add. We also played a “throw it on the ground game” called Smashing Pumpkins where we tossed the PumpkinFest decorations toward targets and watched them splatter. Fun shooting a live bit outside of the High School room, too.

Music Playlist: Everything, You’ll Come, Center

Favorite Moment: This weekend was the last weekend for HSM team member Zack Barker. He’s a great music/worship leader and is asking God what is next for him. He’s praying about leading music and letting God lead. Great dude, happy for him heading toward where God is leading, but very sad to see him go.

Up Next: A new 3-week series called “Do Something” starts next weekend!

HSM Halloween JibJab

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:11:14 PST

Silly video for this weekend’s service featuring some of the HSM staff.

Ministry Mind Dump

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...
Systematic Relationships This is a follow up to the post and discussion...
Must….Stop….Thinking…. My mind is spinning! I just wrapped up day four...
Systematic Relationships This is a follow up to the post and discussion...
Junior High Ministry 101: Faith Development As they enter adolescence, young teens go through a ton...

GUEST POST: 8 Reminders When Planning An Outreach

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:02:08 PDT

One of the things I LOVE about our church is that we really try to get out in to our community and do our best to share the love of Jesus. One of the things that is said often around here is that, if our church ever moved … would we be missed? So, it’s just part of our DNA to get out and love on people and share Jesus with people. Loving God can be shown by how we love others.

Anyway, above are a few of the logos from outreach events that we’ve done in the past. Below is just a brief explanation of how we try to think through ways to reach our community:

1. Pray. We are always asking God to give us fresh ideas on how to effectively reach people.

2. Notice the needs. We try our best to be in touch with our community and look for what needs really need to be met.

3. Is it being done already? That’s a question we often ask. Sometimes we’ll notice needs, but find out that something is already in place to try to meet those needs. If so, that’s awesome! We’ll often try to support the things already being done. If not, we move to the next step.

4. Be creative. If a need is not being met, we try to then think of creative ways to meet those needs as a church. We come up with a creative plan.

5. Get others on board. We cast vision. We let our people know about the positive effect this outreach will have on our community, and then we challenge them to get on board.
6. Help our people serve. One of the most fulfilling things for us is to see the Church be the Church. We love seeing our people step up and do the good works God has planned in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).

7. Celebrate. After the outreach, we celebrate. We’ll celebrate with testimonies, pictures, worship. We come back “filled with joy” and we love to talk about it and hear others do the same.

8. Repeat. We repeat the process. Sometimes this means we’ll repeat our outreaches in following years if they are still being effective and other times it means we’ll scrap them all together because they’ve lost their effectiveness. We always want to be fresh and relevant and are constantly asking God to help us to be that.

Rich Yauger is the Youth Pastor at Grace Community Church in Indiana and blogs regularly at www.theyaugblog.blogspot.com.

7 Steps to Survive the Weekend Tornado

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:34:55 PDT

Met this week with the weekend program team to talk through the process of creating a strong service. For us, our main visible program is on the weekend, so here is what we’re now calling The Weekend Tornado. Some weeks it is an F5, others not much more than some whipping wind, but never just a gentle breeze. Here’s how the process works each week:

Collect
This is the brainstorming stage, where ideas are thrown up on a whiteboard and randomly bantered and tossed around. There are no bad ideas. Some of the best ideas each week come from students, who gather every Tuesday in my office to do just this. Don’t worry if they are possible, and don’t worry about the size of the idea. Big ideas are little ideas that no one killed to soon. If we were really good, we could be doing this several weeks in advance, like the -2, 5, 12, 19 meetings.

Compile
This is where we turn the ideas into an order of service called a program sheet. The program sheet gives a framework from which to work for the week, and proposed idea of the emotional arc/tone of the service.

Assign
Using the program sheet as a guide, assign tasks and projects to various volunteers or students. Who is making the bumper video, creating announcement slides, etc. You can also begin asking people to help on stage as well, figuring out who is giving announcements or running the game, too.

Manage
If you’re going to survive the weekend tornado, you have to follow-up on the projects that have been assigned. Talk to the students or volunteers who are owning tasks, help them fight through roadblocks or adjust the idea so that it can be accomplished by the service time. You might have to cut bits at this stage, but it is better than being surprised/dissapointed a few hours before the service starts.

Execute
This is the step of actually holding services. We do 4 student services a weekend, so execute actually takes two days. Making sure each service improves and is as good or better than the last is always a challenge. Execute with excellence is tough, especially when you’ve seen/given the message, songs or game 3 times already.

Debrief
After the first service we gather the main players together and talk through what happened. We make tons of adjustments and tweaks to the next service. Sometimes it is small, sometimes we almost start over with the order (like last week). There is also a weekly debrief focusing on big picture thoughts, major changes, and adding to the list of things we’ll never do again.

Archive
At the end of a series, everything gets archived. MP3s of the talk, outlines, handouts, videos – everything ends up on the team network drive to be stored permanently. We post a ton of elements online as well.

When it’s all done – get ready for the next weekend tornado to hit – it’ll be here in days!

Should I Buy That Gadget?

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:00:48 PDT

Have you ever asked your self that question? I know I have. In fact I keep asking myself about it every time I see a netbook. Here’s a little flow chart to help with the decision:

(Click to see full size.)

Source: Scordit.com

No related posts.

Matt Reynolds Story

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:57:06 PDT

Matt’s amazing testimony from the series finale of the Happy weekend series. Matt is part of the security team on campus, but so much more than that. He’s a great pastor and small group leader, too.

Fix You

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:54:12 PDT

Awesome performance of Coldplay’s Fix You at the end of our Happy series.

Early Bird Deadline for Simply Youth Ministry Conference 2010

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:18:39 PDT

I hope you’ll join us at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference this February in Chicago – it is going to be something else! Jake and I are just finishing up Round 1 of the programming ideas for the event, and here’s a copy of last year’s “I’ve Seen It All” music video we did. Don’t miss out – you can save $40 this week if you hit the early bird deadline. Do it! See you there … and use the promocode EATSTEAK to get a chance to win a steak dinner with the SYM Podcast crew, too!

7 Ways to Create a Great Small Group Environment

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:58:26 PDT

This week we make the big transition into homes from the first 5 weeks of the small group year in The Refinery. Here are a few ideas to help create a great small group environment and work with host homes:

1. Get the host home ground rules
Once you find the perfect host home, schedule a quick visit with the people who will be hosting the group. Many times they will be gone when you and your group are there, but it would be wise to find out their expectations first-hand. What in the house is off limits? Which bathrooms should we use? Where can/can’t they bring food? Ask about parking to make sure students are parking in the right place.

2. Clearly communicate expectations to your students.
What you discover in your meeting with the host home, be sure to share clearly with students. The better you are at setting expectations and honoring the host home ground rules, the stronger your relationship with the host home will become. It will also give you something to hold your students to when the cross the line.

3. Look for potential distractions.
Your first night in the host home, take a good look around. You’ve settled on the perfect place, now make sure your group will be free of distractions. Eliminate what you can – if the house has pets make sure they’re out of the area, unplug any house phones in the area, quarantine random siblings and make sure any fancy “adult” art is off the walls. Trust us, that’s happened before.

4. Clean up your students’ mess.
You had a great night, and left a little too much evidence behind. While we want you to have a great time at small group, make sure you reset the room and clean up whatever mess you’ve created.

5. If anything goes wrong or gets broken, let us know.
HSM is absolutely responsible for what happens in your host home environment during small group time. If you knock over a vase or two students wrestling destroys the coffee table, please let us know so we can swing into action. You may want to have the small group guys pay it back in some way, but either way keep us in the loop. Especially if a student carves their name in the furniture during prayer. Yes, that has happened, too.

6. Continue communicating with the host home.
Get the small group calender for the year and give a copy to the hosts so they know when they have a week off. The more communication and less surprises between you and the hosts, the better.

7. Encourage “thank-yous” and simple gifts.
Encourage your students to thank the host home mom every night, maybe even consider leaving a little card for them. If possible, a small amount gift card might be super meaningful, or even a nice candle to help rid the family room of the “teenage boy” smell would be a super gesture.

Cleaning Up an Event As You Go

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:29:39 PDT

Heard something cool in our team meeting this week – Phil, our intern who has become an event specialist – has this weekend’s PumpkinFest planned out in such a way that over the course of the 3-hour event, parts of the event close down.

During that time, you clean up and lock up that part of the building. Another section finishes an hour later, so that gets cleaned up and locked down. Then when the event ends at midnight, instead of a couple hours of cleaning, you just have a little left to go and you and the volunteers get to bed an hour early … or go out to celebrate for that hour at Dennys with some boneless buffalo wings.

Love the idea … clean up and shut down the event as you go!

Only 50 More Spooky Bundles Left!

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:01:14 PDT

Fun little video of Simply Youth Ministry’s Spooky Bundle sale. $280 worth of stuff for $69 – including 99 Thoughts for Youth Workers. There are still 50 bundles left in the big sale, it all ends Saturday.

New Training Resource

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:54:13 PDT

There is a new training series I did that has just been released through SimplyYouthMinistry.com. It’s a 7 part seminar series that talks through the role of a college ministry, major discipleship areas pertinent in college ministry, teaching/discipleship philosophies that work – and those that don’t, and how to truly connect college-age people to the life of your church. The series is filled with practical examples and illustrations from my ministry and gives an overall vision for college ministry in the local church context. The series is divided into the following sessions:

Session 1 – Role of College Ministry
Session 2 – College-Age Pursuits: Identity
Session 3 – College-Age Pursuits: Intimacy
Session 4 – College-Age Pursuits: Meaning & Pleasure
Session 5 – College-Age Pursuits: Truth
Session 6 – Teaching & Discipleship
Session 7 – Ingraining College Ministry Into the Fabric of Your Church

Each seminar is about 20-25 minutes long, it comes with handouts (PDF and Word doc) as well as additional Q&A sessions for each topic. These are designed to: help you create a healthy college ministry that prepares students for the transition into adulthood; you can show it to new leaders to help them understand your ministry’s focus and potential impact; or maybe even watch it with your senior pastor to share the vision for the ministry.

You can purchase each session individually, or purchase the bundle at a discounted rate. Click here for more info on these, to view a sample, or to purchase and receive 10% off all College Resources from SimplyYouthMinistry.com.

Here is a brief introduction video I did as well:

College Ministry Training by Chuck Bomar from Kristen Giesenschlag on Vimeo.

4 Ways to Pick the Perfect Small Group Host Home

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:56:04 PDT

We’re just about to move from The Refinery into homes – tonight and tomorrow night are the last nights we’re meeting at church and heading back into the preferred homes. Here’s what I’m sharing with our leaders this week about finding the right host home to meet your needs:

The perfect host home has great meeting space to gather
Space is a critical concern of small groups – you want enough space for your style. For some, a kitchen table is the perfect place for a small group to meet. For others, you’ll want a casual living room style and comfort. In some cases, which are less than ideal, you might just have to make due. Know that God will work in your group this year, if you’re in a mansion or a shack, a garage or a family room. If you don’t know “your style” yet, ask people around your table and see what they prefer.

The perfect host home is free of distractions
This is the most important aspect of a small groups meeting place. If you’re meeting in a busy house with kids running around, phones ringing, the game going on the TV and internet just a step away … small groups can tend to be just a little bit distracted. When you’re looking for the perfect small group space, make sure there’s not just enough space, but minimize distractions, too.

The perfect host home isn’t too far away from where the group lives
Proximity is a big deal – if what is inconvenient for you is best for the group, sacrifice your gas tank and take the group to them. We definitely try to put groups together by schools so geography plays to our advantage, but some groups will have a straggler that has to drive or the straggler might be the leader. Either way, choose the perfect host home that is perfect for most, if it can’t be all.

The perfect host home always has amazing snacks
Yup, amazing snacks should factor in which host home you choose. Can Billy’s mom cook? Do they have ample ice to keep the beverages cold?

If we get 2 out of 3 of these (snacks are non-negotiable – ha!), we’re thrilled because that’s a GREAT host home for your small group.

HSM Message Hook Promo Video #2

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:07:47 PDT

Another (here’s the first if you missed it) quick little promo video for our new HSM message hooks.

HAPPY Backgrounds for Phone or Computer

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:01:40 PDT

For the finale of the Happy series, we gave students a simple button of a smiley face to remind them of the 6-week series on the Beatitudes. Our goal is to provide a trigger to help them think about the choices they are making and to remember God’s path to finding lasting happiness. We also sent them a link to download some HAPPY graphics for their phone or computer and hoped they would put them there as another reminder of the series’ teaching.

Things That Make Me Go Hmmm.

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:54:48 PDT

(SO to Tony J.)

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Laptops Required?

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:38:32 PDT

There is a lot of talk around college campuses – from the administration side of things – about the possibility of requiring students to have a laptop or a Netbook. Some of the arguments being thrown around for such a requirement are:

With good wifi on campus, students could do work just about anywhere, not just in dedicated labs. This could save money on repairing library computers, managing the time spent on them (especially on community college campuses where the # of students attending is sky rocketing), and could open up square footage for classes currently designated for computer labs.
If they’re required they would then be covered by financial aid. This then would give lower-income students a more even playing field with their more affluent peers.
It encourages “portable academic study” which these skills will obviously be more and more necessary moving forward.
All books could be purchased in soft-copy format, ultimately saving money for students – potentially a LOT of money.

Some of the questions being posed are:

Netbooks often don’t have enough memory.
What about students that only take one class? Would they have to pay for a laptop (if they don’t have one) and pay more for it than they did the class?

But, for me, I’m wondering if students would pay attention in class. My hunch is their Facebook profile would get much more traction than their Word doc or excel spreadsheet. Aren’t cell phones a distraction enough?

Any thoughts on this? Have you heard of this happening on campuses near you? Is this a good thing?

Happy Series PSA Video #6

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:16:16 PDT

Easily the best of the HAPPY public service announcement videos from the series. Random … and funny! See all of them here.

HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 71

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:07:23 PDT

Weekend Teaching Series: Happy Series Finale (week 6 of 6)
Sermon in a Sentence: True happiness comes from following God’s ways, despite persecution and the challenges that are in the journey ahead.
Service Length: 80 minutes
Bible: Matthew 5:10-13

Understandable Message: This weekend we focused on the last of The Beatitudes – that Jesus calls us to be perscuted for His name’s sake. It was a challenging message, because I was afraid the talk would end on a downer note, and as always we try to think about non-believing students in the audience as well. The message focused on standing alone, and responding correctly to persecution.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: Students made up the band, created one of the videos, did announcements, and ran all of the lights, camera, sound and control room. We’ve been blessed with great volunteers as well, and our new prayer and connect right before eah service is helping bond the team together and maximize their involvement in the services.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We played a great new game called Ninjas4Christ.com, a hilarious game of breaking boards and spinning the Wheel of Destiny. Very clever stuff – and the website is a hilarious if you haven’t checked it out. We had a couple of videos, too, including the best of the HAPPY Public Service Announcements, too.

Music Playlist: Sing Sing Sing, Hosanna, Fix You, Overcome

Favorite Moment: Matt Reynolds, part of the security team in the Refinery on the weekends, shared his amazing story through his teenage years and his heart for students today.It was about how after losing his parent - drugs, and alcohol claimed his group of friends. The 5 friends became 4 … then 3 … then 2 … then he was alone. Powerful message of hope and a challenge to follow God’s ways.

Up Next: 1-off (TBA)

Turn Media into Compelling Video Quickly

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:12:25 PDT

If you are anything like me, every time you go on a camp or retreat, you come back with tons of photos (about ten of which are usually any good) and maybe even some video. Of course you want to do something cool with them, and every once in a while, you take the time to create a video that is a mashup of your pictures, videos, and some recent Christian Music. Most of the time, your schedule rules out doing anything of the sort.

That is where Animoto comes in. This snazzy little web tool allows you to upload photos and video, and then creates a really slick looking video of them.

You start by uploading pictures (no larger than 5MB each) and videos (no larger than 200MB each). You can then set what portion of the videos you uploaded you want to include. Once you have all your files uploaded, it’s time to select your music. You can upload your own track or select from their collection. If you are looking for Christian music, they have 27 selections ranging from Toby Mac to Christ Tomlin (who should be on your playlist). All that’s left at that time is to determine your speed and cover image at which point their servers take over rendering an impressive video with a cool soundtrack.

The finished video is ready for sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, email, and even exporting to YouTube and Smugmug.

Sounds [...] Continue Reading "Turn Media into Compelling Video Quickly"

New 2009 Fall Catalog

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:54:13 PDT

Here’s a sneak peak at our new Fall Catalog, Enjoy!

Get Out…Look Around…Steal.

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.

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Break it down for me fellas…

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:17:32 PDT

This has been a very overwhelming season, as I have mentioned in the past many posts… God has been teaching me a ton: rewiring me, breaking old cycles, learning boundaries, and balance, and the art of saying “no”. So stay tuned, I’m gearing up to share a load!
But this post is a reminder for me on how it all breaks down:
1. God
2. Jeff (probably not Jeff for most of you)
3. Kids
4. Ministry
5. All the other stuff
It’s when I am giving too much of myself to “all the other stuff” that makes me feel that anxious and overwhelmed feeling, and then all the other people that ARE the most important get the scraps. Even when I mix up 2. and 3., or 4. for 1., it seems good and acceptable. I mean, all are important but there is a very basic break down that keeps the balance. I think I am going to post that list somewhere (like next to my calendar) so I can see it daily.

Spooky Awesome Bundle is Only $69

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:30:09 PDT

The Spooky Awesome Bundle is new from Simply Youth Ministry and is a amazing deal for anyone looking to stock up on Youth Ministry resources. It includes 13 resources with a $280 value for only $69, plus when they sell 200 and 400 bundles they will add more resources too it. It has stuff from Doug Fields, Kurt Johnston, Chuck Bomar, Josh Griffin, and Megan Hutchinson.

Here’s what it includes:

The $5 Youth Ministry
ER Handbook for Youth Ministry
Power Play Vol. 4
99 Thoughts about Girls: For Guys’ Eyes Only
99 Thoughts about Guys: For Girls’ Eyes Only
99 Thoughts for Youth Workers
99 Thoughts for College Age People
10 Minute Moments – Red Stuff
10 Minute Moments – God’s Story
Love Out Loud
Who Am I?
Plugged In
Life Hurts God Heals

Hurry, it’s only good until Oct 30, or until they run out, and I bet it will only take a few days, so if you’re interested, I would buy soon.

Spooky Awesome Bundle is Here!

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:49:02 PDT

We may be a little caught in the Halloween Spirit, but today, we are launching the Spooky Awesome Bundle. I know Andy is not going to like this one. It includes 13 resources with a $280 value for only $69, plus when we sell 200 and 400 bundles we’ll add more stuff too it. It’s not lame has been stuff either, it’s from Doug Fields, Kurt Johnston, Chuck Bomar, Josh Griffin, and Megan Hutchinson. It doesn’t get much better.

So what’s in it you ask? Here’s what it includes:

The $5 Youth Ministry
ER Handbook for Youth Ministry
Power Play Vol. 4
99 Thoughts about Girls: For Guys’ Eyes Only
99 Thoughts about Guys: For Girls’ Eyes Only
99 Thoughts for Youth Workers
99 Thoughts for College Age People
10 Minute Moments – Red Stuff
10 Minute Moments – God’s Story
Love Out Loud
Who Am I?
Plugged In
Life Hurts God Heals

Hurry, it’s only good until Oct 30, or until we run out, and I bet it will only take a few days.

Question To Ask

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:42:21 PDT

This past weekend at the CollegeLeader conference I did a seminar called, “One-on-one’s: what to do and questions to ask.” I talked thru some general things we need to make sure we are doing during times of sitting down with college-age people and we talked through 8 questions that are good to ask. The seminar went about an hour and then we had another hour (unplanned) of discussion. It was phenomenal.

So, I thought I’d give you one of the questions I talked about and a bit about why I think it’s good to ask college age people. In college ministry, asking good questions is vital. So, the first question I discussed was:

“What commitments do you want to shape your life?”

This question is good to ask for a number of reasons. It’s good to ask anyone, I think, but for college age people it forces a few processes that are helpful. First, it helps them think through commitment. As I discuss in College Ministry 101, there are 5 stages of identity college-age people walk through. And each of them have commitment aspects in them. Some never commit, some over commit, while others commit without realizing what the implications of that commitment are. So, asking this questions gets the idea of commitment on the front of their mind and hopefully forces them to move from one stage to the next.

Secondly, a key part of the question is the “want.” College-age people are trying to figure out what they want. This can be a dangerous process – being focused on our own desires – but nevertheless it’s where they are in their thinking. This question is helping them figure out what they want to be committed to. Notice I didn’t say what they ARE committed to. This is getting them to the heart of their own desires. Once they figure out what they want to be committed to we can then help them differentiate that with what they ARE committed to presently. At this point, discipleship really begins.

Our desire is to get them to the point where they WANT their commitment to God to shape their life. Getting to that point could take 6-12 months of conversations. But the time is worth it.

Random Randomness

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:49:41 PDT

- Weekend Wrap Up: The weekend started Friday night with “The 3″ which had about 1,600 students, a ferris wheel, a magic show, and tons of other fun. Our weekend program included our 5th lesson in our “Happy” series, a chocolate slip n slide (in honor of Choctober), some fun videos and great music. All in all it was one of our better, but more tiring, weekends in quite a while.

- After Monday Night Football, I actually heard a commentator say that he thinks the Broncos are best team in AFC…better than the Colts. So funny that a couple weeks ago they were just lucky; the worst unbeaten team in history and now they are the BEST team in the AFC?

- Going to Disneyland with the family today. I have managed to navoid the place for several years….today my luck runs out.

- Beginning to work on new book, The Best Practices In Youth Ministry (that’s the working title for now, anyway). I am really excited about what this book will offer youth workers.

- Rode the motocross track for only the second time yesterday. When you have the courage to go faster and jump farther, the track is supposedly much smoother and actually easier to navigate. I say “supposedly” because I have no courage!

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An Encouragement…

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:47:21 PDT

Spend any amount of time on a college campus and you will see/hear and possibly join in all kinds of debates. Philosophy classes thrive on debate over morals, ethics…the seemingly “gray” areas of life. Many campus-based clubs push certain agenda’s and professors certainly push theirs in the classrooms. College is a time of expression, exploration, standing up for and landing on beliefs.

For the last 11 years or so I’ve counseled through countless “gray” areas of life, and walked with people who are struggling through one of these complex issues. That’s a major part of what it means to lead a college ministry. But in my experience there is no issue that is as complex in college ministry as that of homosexuality. College is when this is usually explored and expressed. And now it’s being debated from a doctrinal perspective more and more.

I personally can’t see any way we could affirm this behavior from a scriptural perspective. But some are fighting for another perspective and boldly standing up for it no matter the cost. Watch this video for an example…

Again, theologically, I can’t agree with this. But what about the college student who knows it’s not right or natural, but they don’t remember a time when they chose it either. I’m interested in that person that has cried out to God thousands of times for Him to take it away and He hasn’t. The college student who’s left wondering what happened, why them, and if there’s any hope of freedom. They battle the internal confusion every minute of every day and there are a million tensions they’re trying to process through – and unfortunately doing so alone.

I wonder what will happen if the church doesn’t come out soon and boldly walk with these people I just described. What I’ve seen happen is they gravitate away from scripture just because there’s an avenue (like the video represents) where they feel like they don’t have to reject God if they embrace this issue in their life.

An encouragement to you: pay the price of time with these people – I think it’s worth it.

Windows 7? Don’t Upgrade, Buy A New PC – PC World

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:39:09 PDT

I was reading this article over at PC world: Windows 7? Don’t Upgrade, Buy A New PC – Business Center – PC World:

Here is the very best advice for Windows XP users considering an upgrade to Windows 7: Don’t do it.

Windows 7’s biggest failing is that upgrading from XP requires reinstalling applications and moving personal data around. And who looks forward to doing that?

There are good technical reasons why Microsoft chose this path. However, for average XP users and many businesses, such a difficult upgrade makes Windows 7 a non-starter. Users that are more proficient will make the upgrade at their own peril, just make sure you have application install disks handy.

Yes, you can upgrade from XP to Windows 7, but is it really worth it?

No!

I totally agree that Microsoft really missed the boat by making it so difficult to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. I have an old XP machine I’d love to upgrade, but maybe I should just start looking at netbooks.

Do you plan on upgrading to Windows 7?

A 20-Minute Read

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:10:41 PDT

Here is an article that you simply must read if you work with teenagers (passed on to me by Scott Rubin). In fact, it may be one you will need to read a few times as you process it. Here are a few questions that popped into my head right away…questions I haven’t tried to answer yet.

1) Does the fact that the writer of this article is gay add credibility, hinder credibility?

2) If the writer were not gay, would that add credibility, hinder credibility?

3) A key point the writer makes goes along this line of thinking, “We don’t question 12 year old boys when they say they have started liking girls, why would we question them when they say they have started liking boys.” How valid is that point?

4) Is society’s increasingly openess about GLBT lifestyles helping young people come out of the closet or is it creating a bit of a trend of experimentation within younger circles?

5) Is the junior high ministry I lead in prepared to appropriately respond to a student who decides to come out?

6) What IS the proper response, and can a junior high student REALLY even come out?

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Get Some FREE Resources

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:03:40 PDT

Only a few days left to take advantage of this offer, only good till Oct 20, 2009.

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Self Awareness

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:19:54 PDT

I don’t do it often enough, but every now and then I like to spend some time taking a good, hard look at myself. I don’t have a set routine or a “check list”, so the things I inspect and, as a result, the things I discover vary every time. Here are some things I have become more aware of lately:

- Spiritually, I get “out of sorts” quicker than I used to. I used to be able to go a couple of days without connecting with the Father before I would feel the side effects. Nowadays it seems that if I miss even one day I get grumpy, distracted, selfish etc. Honestly I don’t know what this means…could be good or bad.

- Age has finally set in.This one hurts…literally! My eyes hurt after reading, my muscles hurt after exercising (usually for a couple days!) and if I happen to incur some sort of injury it takes much longer to bounce back than it used to.

- Related to the last one….I am older than many parents of junior highers in my ministry. I don’t feel older, I don’t feel wiser or more mature, but the truth is many parents now look to me not only as the pastor to their child but as a parenting model or coach.

- I bore easily.I’m not a great multi-tasker, but I like to juggle lots and lots of projects at once. I can’t really focus on anything for more than a couple hours so variety is the key to [...] Continue Reading "Self Awareness" Related posts:

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Conference Tips

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:01:01 PDT

With the CollegeLeader Conference coming up tomorrow and the amount of conferences happening this time of year, I thought I’d issue some tips for attending them. I’ve been around ministry-type conferences for about 15 years – attending and speaking. So these tips come from both sides of that fence. Here are 4 quick tips if you’re heading to a conference:

Keep it simple. Usually when you’re at a conference you’ll hear a theme. The theme might not be the theme of the conference – it’s often not. Typically you’ll hear the theme from seminar to seminar or conversation to conversation. All other seminars might not even mention the theme, but it’s clear in the one’s you attend. The theme is God working on you. Stick to that theme, keep it simple, push everything else aside, and go home and implement the theme God’s given you. Not sticking to the theme leaves you with a binder of notes you’ll never implement.
Develop a filter. Every speaker is there for a reason. Most have thought a ton about the subject their teaching on and have experience (hopefully) in that particular area. But, they don’t know your context, the people you work with, or the traditions you live in/with. Therefore, you have to develop a filter that would sift out the things that wouldn’t apply in your context – no matter how epic the thought might be. God’s called you to the context you’re in and you’re at the conference to be more effective in that context. So, the filter is necessary.
Stay humble. Every speaker has something to offer you and your ministry. Sometimes we can get frustrated because the seminar didn’t hit what we thought was important. We might even think we could do it better. This attitude shuts off our ears and inflates our mind. Ultimately we tune out what God was trying to teach us. As simple or basic as a seminar could be the truth is there is always something we can take away from it. Find that one thing and embrace it humbly.
Purchase carefully. Sometimes we go to a conference because we just need some time away, but usually we attend conferences because we’re hungry for some direction, training, and resources. And, oh man, we go into the resource center and everything looks good. We have the budget, so we just go crazy. Getting resources, by the way, isn’t a bad thing. If there are resources you think will be useful in ministry by all means buy them. But, just be careful to buy those that will actually be used. Far too many budgets are spent on resources still in the wrapper 12 months later.

Teen Rage/Violence

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:43:13 PDT

This article is another reminder of the struggles so many teenagers face. While there is simply not excuse for this, there is obviously a plethora of issues in the lives of teenagers that lead to this type of behavior. May God give those of us who work with teenagers the wisdom of Solomon.

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Free Resources from Simply Youth Ministry

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:21:12 PDT

Thought I’d pass this along for anyone needing some resources, a great chance to get some Free stuff, but only till Oct 20, 2009.

LINK: SimplyYouthMinistry.com

Anti-gay Zealot or…?

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:46:02 PDT

I just read the following article by Jane Kendricks called, “If God had wanted me to be accepting of gays, he would have given me the warmth and compassion to do so.”

What do you think of this…? Think she’s really anti-gay or communicating something else…? Here it is:

I don’t question God. The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall put none above Him. Which is why I know that if it were part of God’s plan for me to stop viciously condemning others based solely on their sexual preference, He would have seen fit—in His infinite wisdom and all—to have given me the tiniest bit of human empathy necessary to do so.

It’s a simple matter of logic, really. God made me who I am, and who I am is a cold, anti-gay zealot. Thus, I abhor gay people because God made me that way. Why is that so hard to understand?

Here, let’s start with the basic facts: I hate and fear gay people. The way they feel is different from how I feel, and that causes me a lot of confusion and anger. Everyone knows God is all-powerful. He could easily have given me the capacity to investigate what’s behind those feelings rather than tell strangers in the park they’re going to hell for holding hands. But God clearly has another path for me. And who am I to question His divine will?

Compassion, tolerance, understanding, basic decency, the ability to put myself in another person’s position: God could have endowed me with any of those traits and yet—here is the crucial part—He didn’t. Why? Because the Creator of the Universe wants me to demonize homosexuals in an effort to strip them of their fundamental human rights.

I’m sorry, but you can’t possibly ask me to explain everything God does. He works in mysterious ways, remember?

Try to understand. If I were capable of thinking and acting any other way, then I’m sure I would, but God seems to be quite adamant about this one. He’s just not budging at all. So unless our almighty Lord and Savior decides to change His mind about my ability to empathize on even the most basic level—which I find highly unlikely—then everyone is just going to have to accept the fact that I’m going to keep on hating homosexuals. And I know that He will fill me with the strength to remain mindless and hurtful in the face of adversity.

Which isn’t to say that my faith hasn’t been tested. Believe me, there have been times when I’ve drifted from the bitter and terrified life God has chosen for me. When my younger brother told me he was gay, it shook my faith to its very core. But here I am, 27 years later, still refusing to take his calls. Just the way God intended.

It’s actually pretty astonishing how many complaints to the school board you can make regarding the new band teacher you’ve never met when you are filled with the Light of Christ and devoid of any real kindness or mercy toward His other children.

At the end of the day, I’m just trying to lead a good Christian life. That means going to church on Sunday, following the Ten Commandments, and fighting what I believe to be a sexual abomination through a series of petty actions and bitter comments made under my breath. Sure, I sometimes wish God would just reach into my heart and give me the ability to treat all people with, at the very least, the decency and respect they deserve as human beings. But unfortunately for that new couple who moved in three houses down, He hasn’t yet.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have God’s work to do.

This post was originally here

Amazing, Free Resources: Open by Lifechurch.tv

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:41:02 PDT

I am constantly amazed at the tools that lifechurch.tv produces. This morning I found out about what is quite possibly the most useful of them all: Open. What is it? It’s thousands of top-quality resources for churches available for free download. It’s not just youth resources! Everyone can find something from adults to children and youth to pet ministry (I may have gone a little overboard on the pet ministry).

To begin, you simply sign up for an account and voila, the world of Open resources is at your fingertips. Browse through the files to find videos of messages, background loops, small group curriculum, skits and video illustrations.

Don’t have a great worship band? No problem, you can download worship sets to project on a screen with a band, lyrics, the whole deal. There’s even forms and training. Like I said, it’s awesome! The only problem I could find with the well-designed site is that some of the video files require you to burn them on a dvd to play them which for a novice (especially one using a pc) could get a little hairy.

That being said, it’s all there, and it’s all free. Next time you need help on a message or small group your first stop simply has to be Open.

Break(ing)Point

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:30:36 PDT

A good friend and mentor of mine (Carol Timmons) has been helping me hear God’s voice through my journey of “rewiring”. She is amazing and sent me this great article about doing too much.

Give it a read, its quick and insightful. Click here.

I definitely think its applicable to our lives as well as the students we work with.

My favorite line, “…something’s getting buried. And I think it could be our souls.”

Great stuff to think about.

Episode 113 – Amish Paradise

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:16:18 PDT

Click to Play

It’s that time again. Doug, Matt, Jana, and Josh are back to share their wisdom. Matt has gone Amish and is telling stories that jr high guys would love. The gang would love a fake award if anyone wants to make one. Other topics covered: Gifts from church members, have staff kids in your group, when leadership doesn’t back you, and matt’s new blog.

The Red Stuff!

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:49:19 PDT

I am so excited about two brand new junior high resources. Simply Junior High has teamed up with Scott Rubin to create a 5-lesson video curriculum called “The Red Stuff” along with a new 10-minute moment devotional book with the same title. If you want to help your students take a closer look at the words of Jesus, these brand new resources will help you do just that.

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Want to Replace iTunes?

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:59:08 PDT

First I want to say. I like iTunes, it syncs content great to my iPhone and Apple TV. I also love the genius feature, it creates great playlists. But when it comes to getting content onto my sons PSP, I’m out of luck. That was until doubleTwist.

DoubleTwist gives you an alternative to iTunes (that can still access you iTunes library). It’s still pretty basic, but it does offer some great features that iTunes lacks.

Sync – it syncs with a lot more devices (including PSP, Blackberrys, Android, Kindle and more). See the complete list here.
Amazon mp3 store. You can directly access the Amazon mp3 and all the free content they offer.
Share with others. It gives an easy way to share with your friends.

It’s still early in development, and I’m sure they will fill out the missing features in time. It’s a great start, and I look forward to future releases. And at FREE, it’s worth a try. Right now it’s only Mac, but a PC version is coming.

UPDATE: It looks like the PC version is available for download now.

Check it out: doubleTwist.

God is good all the time…(Period. Or Question mark?)

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:19:43 PDT

Something that my head knows but it’s often hard to believe with my heart.

God is good all the time.

Many times I end this statement with a question mark instead of a period.

My kids are sick, God is good all the time?

We can’t make ends meet this month, God is good all the time?

I feel alone, God is good all the time?

I don’t feel supported at our church, God is good all the time?

Whatever the circumstance I know it end with a period.

Can’t wait for the day when I believe it with all of my heart in all of my circumstances.

I Love DropBox

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:38:20 PDT

I’ve mentioned DropBox before as a replacement for iDisk, but recently I’ve been reminded about what a great service it is.

What is it? Dropbox is an online file storage / sharing service. When you install the software it creates a fold on your computer. Once you put files in that folder it automatically syncs them to their server so you can access your files from their website. If you have it installed on multiple computers it will automatically download those files to the other computers keeping them all in sync. I use this to keep certain files that I want access to where ever I am up to date. It also allows you to share files or folders with others. I use this all the time to share files with co-workers that are too large to email. It’s so much easier than trying to upload files to an FTP server or many of the other services I’ve tried.

Another killer feature is the recently launched iPhone app (link opens iTunes). It gives you a great interface to access all your files, but the killer feature of this app is it allows viewing of pictures and playback of music or video files directly from the app. It works over wifi or 3g. It’s just great, now I have easy access to my files, even away from my computer. And [...] Continue Reading "I Love DropBox"

Andy Needs a New Hobby

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:00:42 PDT

Andy once again has found himself sliding across the ground at high speeds thanks to his love of riding his bike (we think he may need training wheels). We know this isn’t the first time, but maybe it should be the last. We need your help to come up with some new hobby ideas for him. Leave your ideas in the comments and you might win 10 copies of the Emergency Response Handbook for Youth Ministry for your staff (That’s a $150 value).

(All entries must be posted by Oct 5, 2009 to be considered.)

Help us, Help him.

Christmas Time in the Office

Episode 112: Josh’s New Volunteer

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:36:32 PDT

Click to Play

It’s time to announce the winner of the BBQ sauce contest. But that’s not the biggest topic of conversation around the table, Josh got a new volunteer: Doug. Yes, Doug is leaving Saddleback. He talks about his resignation, knowing when it’s time to go, leaving well, and what it means for the podcast (Hint, it doesn’t change anything at Simply Youth Ministry).

Simply Youth Ministry Conference 2010

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:38:04 PDT

I don’t know if you have ever been to a large youth ministry training conference, but they are awesome. I have been to quite a few over the years, and it’s always a great time coming together with a bunch of other people that totally understand what you do, and why you do it. It’s also a great time to grow as a youth worker both spiritually and vocationally through the sessions, seminars, and just spending time with other youth pastors.

If you’re thinking about going to one, I want to recommend the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Feb 2010 in Chicago. I’ll be there and we’ll have a room dedicated to tech seminars and workshops. It will be a great time to hang out with me and a bunch of other geeks. There’s also a Tech Affinity group if you really want to spend time talking about technology and youth ministry. Here’s the brochure for the event:

You can also find out more by visiting: YouthMinistry.com/SYMC. Why I am telling you about this now? Because if you register by 10/31/09 you save some serious money. I hope to see you there.

Love makes you do the CRAZIEST things…

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:01:09 PDT

(probably not her husband)

Post by Destiny

A month ago my husband challenged our teenagers to raise a certain amount of money for missions in one month. If they were successful he promised to do whatever they wished with his hair. Well as of last night my husband now has a bright pink mohawk standing up proudly on his head, which will remain there for the next nine weeks. In which time we have two conferences and a convention to go to plus about a million other things. Needless to say I have stocked up on hats and beanies for when we are out together and not around the teens. Here is my question, What are the craziest things your husbands have done to motivate, challenge, or for no real reason just did because they love the youth?

Episode 111: 5 at the Table

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:26:14 PDT

Click to Play

The team comes together again to discuss life and youth ministry in a way that only they can.

Bible studies….What do you think?

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:48:41 PDT

Corrie asked about Bible studies last night and I would love to hear what you all think.

I (Amanda) have attended bible studies at my church with other women from our congregation as well as a few others with friends that do not go to our church. I do love both. But I have to admit (as a pastor’s wife) I feel like I can be a little more vulnerable and transparent with friends and women that do not go to our church or at least women who know what being a pastor’s wife is like.
What are your feelings? Bible studies at you church only? Does it matter?

Where do you get your soul fed?

Connecting

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:29:56 PDT

I haven’t been feeling “plugged” in to the HS ministry this summer, so to kick off the school year I planned a HS staff appreciation dinner. It was so good to be with the team and their spouses. We really appreciated the wives by showering them with praise and gifts. It was super simple, just a swim party together (no kids). It’s amazing how just a few intentional hours together can make such a difference in connecting. I really love our team. And was reminded that together paid, unpaid, volunteer, spouse (seen or unseen)…we all are pouring into the lives of students and make the team what it is, strong and amazing!

Episode 110: Lots of Questions

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:06:19 PDT

Click to Play

Wow, two weeks in a row.

Spoonfuls of Life

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:15:03 PDT

Jeff spoke about our craziness in “Big Church” this weekend. I will have to say he was amazing . Feel free to give it a listen.

Click here to see Jeff talk about how God has been working… (click on the message called “Spoonfuls of Life” the message itself is about 20 minutes if you fast forward through the rest of the service).

As the World Turns

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:38:06 PDT

So we keep moving right along. As much as I would love to sit in the confusion and the injury of my husband, the kids keep us going like it or not.
My 5 year old started kindergarten today. It was so cute to see him walk up to the line this morning with his huge backpack weighing him down. Last night he giggled himself to sleep, he was so excited for school today.
I am currently watching him sit at the counter and sharpen his pencils. I bought him a pack of 8 pencils and his own pencil sharpener. He is sitting like a little man getting ready to “do his homework”. But really only sharpening over and over again ALL the pencils until they are all little tiny nubs. (He has 2 more to go). It’s all such an ironic sight at the moment. Coming off such a dramatic vacation that God was speaking so clearly to both Jeff and I. I feel as if God is “sharpening” me and yet I am twisted down to a “nub” as well.
I know God is going to take all the shavings and make something a-whole-lot-better. Its kinda painful. And I am noticing it requires more action from me than I think I have the energy for.

A Maguire family vacation

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:11:09 PDT

Here is how our trip went:
*12 hour drive turns into 18 hours…
*Jeff knee swells for unknown reason.
*We stop on Vegas strip to see doctor, exposing our sweet innocent children to awesome nudiness.
*After 2 hours, get back in the car and I get a speeding ticket.
*Make it to Park City, get dropped off at the house. Jeff is in so much pain he goes to the ER.
*2 hours of sleep that night. Wake up take Jeff to the hospital.
*Hospital, schedule SURGERY…3 days in Salt Lake hospital.
*Back to Park City Thursday with a home care nurse, IV antibiotics, suction evacuation back hanging from his body, and a wheelchair.
*Saturday more doctors
*Sunday pack up bags and car.
*Monday a 13 hour drive home.

My brain is mush, I am overwhelmed and exhausted. I have no words for this trip. It was so horrible, yet God worked in some miraculous ways through our brokenness.
I will tell about it when I get my brain cells back.