YouthMin.org

Editors picks 5.17.13

Ben Read — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:24:43 +0000

As we discussed our favorite things this week, we realized a lot of our contributors had a great week, full of blessings. We hope your week was one of success, that you got plenty done, learned a ton, and had a bunch of wins. If not, we’d love to pray with you and for you, just connect with us on Facebook.

Here’s a look back at some of the things we posted this week:

Ben Read and Jeremy Smith Debated whether or not Youth Groups should let students use cell phones.

Two new games were added: Who’s the Hero and Say the Same thing.

A reader submitted a great post to share with your volunteers about connecting with students.

And Keith Parker continued his series on Planning a Mission Trip.

Here were the posts we read elsewhere that we think you should check out:

Social Media Resources for Parents by Austin McCann

Why you should stay in your ministry by Michael Bayne

What does it mean to disciple others by Matt McGill

New Brain research about young teens and identity formation by Marko

Free E-book “Helping Teens answer tough questions” by Tim Schmoyer

How to value and empower your volunteers by Jill Harris

John Piper and Mark Driscoll talked me off the bridge by Jared C. Wilson

Extraordinarily Ordinary by Aaron Armstrong

http://geoguessr.com - This is the best use of google street view ever. You play a game where it loads you in streetview in a random place, and you have to guess where in the world you are, getting points for how close you come.

bibleminded app - a great app to help memorize scripture, great for students, volunteers, and ourselves

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Planning a Mission Trip: After the Trip

Keith Parker — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:36:26 +0000

I think every youth minister has wrestled with this at one point or another. So much effort and energy goes into planning and executing the mission trip that we neglect what happens AFTER the bus heads for home.

I am becoming more and more convinced that what happens at the end of the trip and the follow up after the trip are as important as the trip itself. Having a solid plan after the trip can help you to harness the incredible spiritual momentum that the trip creates.

I will be honest and confess that I don’t always do a great job of following up after the trip. Busy schedules, family, and the “next event mentality” always make this a difficult strategy to execute. But I see the value in a post-trip plan, and want to share some ideas that might help you to follow up after your next mission trip.

1. The trip home is important
As we are returning home after a great mission trip, I always instruct my students to be ready for mom and dad. Parents will always ask, “How was the trip?” I want my students to be ready to answer that question, and to answer it well. I tell them to be ready with spiritual answers, not the funny thing that happened on the bus on the way home. By having your students prepare in this way, you will help parents see the value of your trips, and you will help your students think through all that God has done on the trip.

2. Personal devotions after the trip
I think most of us probably prepare devotional thoughts or booklets for the trip itself. Something I have started doing is including a reading plan or devotion ideas for after the trip. Often, we instruct students to “stay in the Word” or “read your Bible daily,” but we rarely provide them with a game plan or resource to help them accomplish this. Late this summer, we are taking a small group of college students to Honduras. As part of their cost, we are purchasing the book Disrupted, a 52-week devotional designed for those who have experienced a cross-cultural mission trip. Either find or provide a resource to help your students stay in the Word.”

3. Get your whole church family involved
Studies like Sticky Faith have shown that one of the best ways to keep students plugged in to the church is to connect them with the larger church Body as a whole. When we return from a mission trip, we almost always play a slideshow in the main worship service, highlight the trip, and wear our mission trip T-shirts together on the same Sunday. I also instruct the congregation to seek out the students wearing the mission trip T-shirts and ask them about their trip. Sometimes, depending on the trip, we may devote a Sunday night or a Wednesday night to highlighting the trip, and allowing students to speak about their experience. Be creative, but involve the whole church in spiritual growth after the trip.

4. Use technology to stay in touch
We usually create a texting group for all the students that are on our mission trips. After the trip, this texting group is a great resource for spiritual encouragement. By occasionally sharing a scripture, a word of encouragement, or a challenging question, you can help extend the trip in the mind of the student. This can also be a powerful tool to help you connect with the parents of those students. The sky is the limit!

5. Plan a reunion
One final idea that may help encourage your students to continue growing spiritually is to plan a mission trip reunion. Get together with the group, reminisce about the trip, and ask challenging questions about how their life is different because of it.

I know following up after a mission trip can be hard work, but it can also be very beneficial to your ministry and the students you love. I’m curious, what are some great post-trip things you have done to encourage your students?

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Youth Group Game: Say the Same thing

Ben Read — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:50:26 +0000

Yesterday, I stumbled into a game on my iPhone that was both the dumbest thing I had ever played, and yet also the best thing I had played in a while. A conversation came up on the Youthmin.org facebook group for Youth Pastor’s today that made me realize, this app would be super easy to convert into a great Youth Group game.

So simple, we could play it tonight without needing too much time to set it up.

The game is called Say the Same thing, and the app was created by members of the band OkGo. They do a great job of explaining how the game works in this video, which will be great to play for the students to set up the game before we play.

If you didn’t catch it from the video, essentially, two people say a word they are thinking of. Using those two words, they try and find a word related to the combination, using the original two words as clues to figure out what the other is thinking. The object of the game is for them to finally get to where they can say the same thing.

So tonight, we’ll get two volunteers to play, and we’ll have them play the game. We’ll have them on opposite sides of the stage with stacks of a paper and a marker, so they can write the words down and reveal at the same time. We’ll keep track of how many rounds it takes for them to say the same thing, and possibly have a few other sets of volunteers compete against the top score tonight, if we have time, or in future weeks.

I’ve been having a blast on the iphone app version of the game, and would love to play a round with you. Add me on Facebook and find me in the game!

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Engaging students you have nothing in common with

Ben Read — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:03:51 +0000

Confession time: I like to talk to people who are like me. You probably do the same thing as well. You naturally gravitate to someone in a room who you feel you have a connection with. On Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, the people I’m around that I have the most in common with are the adults in the room. They have kids. They have jobs. They have bills and schedules and other “adult” things going on.

The students in the room? They have homework. And soccer practice. And girlfriends. And video games.
OK, so I at least have video games in common with students.

The next time you’re in a room with adults and students, make an effort to have conversation with multiple students before you seek out your adult friends. As a volunteer, you came for the students. They are the ones you’re ministering to.

If it helps, decide to have three conversations with students before talking with an adult about their week. The conversations don’t have to end in a Gospel presentation (though you never know!), but should be longer than “Hey! How was your week?”

Ask them how their extra curricular programs are going. Ask them what their plans are for the next holiday. Ask them about their jobs, their boyfriends, their school, their home, their math test, even their video games. Show students that you came for them by engaging them as they walk into the room. It can make a huge difference later on as they reflect on their experience in the youth group.

Seek out students first, you never know what you’ll find!

This was submitted to the site by Ronald Long using the Submit button near the top of the site. We didn’t ask for enough information from him to give him a bio, so Ronald, if you see this, message me so we can fix it.

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Youth Group Game: Who’s the Hero?

Ben Read — Tue, 14 May 2013 21:57:34 +0000

Here’s a fun Youth Group game we played this past weekend with our middle schoolers that only needs a life saver and some string. Have your group get into a circle (or more, depending on how large your group is) with one person in the middle. Now, the only part that could be tough is that you need a piece of string long enough for one person to hold onto both ends while everyone else in the circle is able to hold onto the string with both their hands. Now, place one (or, again, if you have more in your group and are one group, you could do multiple) lifesavers on the string, so it can slide across the string without falling. Tie the two ends together so it creates a perfect circle, and your ready to go.

We called it “Who’s the Hero?” Simply because someone is going to end up with a lifesaver, and the person in the middle has to guess who.

There’s two ways to play this game, and thats up to you to decide.

The first way is to have the person in the middle close their eyes and count to 30. While they are counting, the students holding the string will pass the lifesaver around, in any direction, but trying to stay quiet. When the 30 seconds are up, whoever has the lifesaver simply covers it up with hishand, while the person in the middle has 3 guesses to guess who is holding it. They guess wrong, they sit down, they guess right, they rejoin the circle and whoever had the lifesaver is now in the middle.

The second way of playing it lets the person in the middle keep their eyes open and watch. The group will still pass the lifesaver around, but they will have to be more sneaky about it as to not get caught. Depending on your group size, the person in the middle has 3-5 guesses before they are out. This version would almost be similar to the winking murder game a lot of Youth Groups play.

So there ya go. We have several other games we played recently with lifesavers we’ll be posting, but we’d love to know your thoughts on this one, if you play it, what we could change to make the game better, that sort of stuff. And as always, we’d love for you to submit a game to the site using the big blue submit box near the top of the page.

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Should Youth Groups allow students to use their phones?

Ben Read — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:10:03 +0000

This is a topic that seems to get asked about quite a bit by Youth Pastors, especially in our Facebook Group (of nearly 700+). So we decided to have two of our contributors who use technology quite a bit to weigh in on why your students should or shouldn’t use their phones, and tried to steer clear of some of the typical answers.

Read Jeremy Smith’s thoughts on why Youth Groups should absolutely let their students use their cell phones.

Read Ben Read’s thoughts on why Youth Groups are better off not allowing students to have their cell phones.

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Why Your Students Shouldn’t Have Their Cell Phones During Youth Group

Ben Read — Mon, 13 May 2013 23:00:40 +0000

Jeremy and I decided to write articles today about the two options Youth Groups face when it comes to cell phones at church. I loved writing my article after his so that I could read what he said and formulate my argument based on his post. I count myself as one who loves phones; my iPhone’s charge never lasts a full day because I use my phone just that much. I’m borderline-addicted to my phone: to taking and editing pictures, to reading tweets, to just holding it in my hand and staring at it.

So when my volunteers and I had the discussion of getting rid of phones during Middle School Ministry, I had a tough time because I knew that meant I had to get rid of mine during that time as well. But I’m a big fan of it. I think cell phones are a great thing; I love technology, and if I could leverage the phones that my students possess during Youth Group to further the kingdom of God, I would. I would love to have our students on their phones at Youth Group doing good. But right now, we’re not there. We’re in a place where we don’t allow phones, and I love this season, too.

What led us to this decision was one clear thought: that of course phones could be leveraged for good; and of course, if students are mature and trustworthy and we know they aren’t being distracted by their phones, we’d have no problem with them having them. We’d love to know that our students were Instagramming spiritual quotes from the message and not “running with friends.” But our students aren’t at that place, especially in Middle School.

So, although our students having phones during youth group is something we want to work at, if your students aren’t ready, then the inverse is true: it is too easy for phones to distract students.

We also noticed that only about 10% of our students were bringing their Bible with them to middle school services. And although I’m a huge fan of Youversion and their reading plans, we want to build into students the commitment to their physical Bibles.

We realized that with students (and us as adults): There’s just something about holding a physical Bible in your hands.

Beyond literally holding it, it takes a certain level of commitment to remember to bring your Bible every week. And though we don’t equate bringing your Bible every week with spiritual maturity, it is a small victory for our Student Ministry to see a 7th grader go from never bringing their Bible to bringing it every week; it shows it’s becoming more important to them.

The third thing that helped us start this rule and enforce the no cell phone policy at Youth Group was that it alienated many in our group. We have a few students that come from very blessed families and love technology, so they come in with their iPhone 5′s and iPad mini’s. I, as a tech geek, love that. I know that a few of these students totally would be ready to take over the Youth group Instagram account if I asked them, and on a lesser scale, could totally do a lot of the sweet stuff Jeremy talked about in his post.

However, we also have a whole crop of 6th graders that aren’t allowed to have phones, or even iPod’s yet, and many students that, rightfully so, would never get an iPhone for their first phone that they are going to lose or damage.

So although it would be great to have the few who could handle technology at Youth Group and excel with it, it would also create two distinct groups within our group and alienate those without.

And so that is why, for our Middle School Ministry in this season, we don’t allow cell phones, iPods, or iPads. We have a volunteer collect them all at the beginning and students can get them back at the end. Should every Youth Group get rid of cell phones? I don’t believe so. But at the same time, I do believe more Youth Groups could set a few more realistic goals with their students’ cell phone use. We’d like to believe the best in all of our students, but they can’t all be “Jarrid Wilson-ing” it at Youth Group.

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Leave The Cell Phones On At Youth Group

Jeremy Smith — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:03:41 +0000

The church seems to have this unspoken war on cell phones within the church walls. We always ask people to silence them, and most youth groups I know state that teenagers need to completely turn them off or leave them at home. But I want to actually push back on this and state that teenagers should leave their cell phones on at youth groups.

Below, we have a list of great ideas that would require teenagers to have their cell phones not only on, but out and used for youth group games and activities. Before we get to that, what is it that drives our need to turn off cell phones?

You could give the shallow “it’ll distract them from the service” excuse, but that treats teenagers as kids. Didn’t you just say that you expect them to share the Gospel as adults would? That you want to empower them to make huge decisions in youth group, or push for the youth group to be taken seriously by the congregation as a big part of the church body? Maybe we should stop treating them like kids too.

Let’s take a quick self-assessment while we are in the pulpit. Do we need to have eyes on us at all times, and that’s why we put away the cell phones? Are we ignorant to the community of people currently not attending church that may be reached via phone? Do we know how powerful images are of youth group that probably will only come from these teenagers’ cell phones? Can’t we let teenagers use phones to follow along in the Bible, take notes, and even go further with daily devotionals?

Tweet To Play

So many teenagers have smartphones that can connect to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media accounts. Have one of your fun nights require that a teenager send out a photo tweet, Facebook image with friends and the ministry tagged, or an Instagram photo and using a hashtag or specific Facebook page wall to volunteer to join a game. You can then randomly select a couple of students to play any game, even an Instagram game we shared before.

Evangelize In The Youth Room

Maybe the best communication teenagers could do is post a youth ministry sermon quote, Bible verse, or some other shareable post while at youth group on Sunday or Wednesday night. If you go to camp in the summer, have students send out an invite right before the message to ask people to join them and reach an audience that is not even in your church. Can you imagine the possibilities of engaging with a whole community of non-church goers?

Use YouVersion

YouVersion has given churches the ability to come up with their own Reading Plans for devotionals. On top of that, you can now take notes via mobile devices. If you put together a 9 month curriculum and parallel it with 294 days of devotionals that the teenagers can read, you’ll go deeper than your ministry has ever gone before.

Phones have a possiblity of distraction, but they have as much of a possibility to communicate to a huge audience you aren’t reaching. What other ways have you seen cell phones be utilized well in youth group?

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Open Letter to Volunteers

Frank Gil — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:57:10 +0000

Dear Volunteer,

If you are reading this, it does not mean that you are in trouble; nor does it mean the youth pastor who sent you this to you is upset with you. This is a list of things on their heart that they may just want to reiterate; or perhaps they have never talked over any of this with you.

I am sure that you are the perfect volunteer and that you follow everything I am about to share with you. If this is true, then just smile and send a quick text to your youth pastor and tell them that they are awesome for reminding you.

However, we all fall short of the glory of God and do occasionally mess up. So, let this be a point of reference, a reminder of what we should be doing as we take on the great task of serving students every week.

Listen to us in meetings. We are not holding leader meetings because we are trying to waste your time. We are doing it for your benefit and because we care about the students we have collectively been entrusted with.
Support us in front of students. Don’t let students make fun of or belittle us in front of you. Even if you may agree with the student, defend us; later, bring us any concerns that you may have.
We do care about your ideas and thoughts, so share them with us! But don’t try to do things on your own to undermine us.
Communicate. We may not be the greatest at communicating either, but please communicate with us anyway. If you are going to be late, text us. If you are going to miss something, email us in advance. Give us a call.
Commit. Please don’t be fickle. We care about our students, so your lack of commitment tells them that you don’t care about them. If you decide to be a volunteer in the ministry, mark it on your calendar. Students will appreciate your consistence.
If you are worn-out, let us know so we can give you a break. The last thing we want is a bitter, worn-out volunteer. We will not only pray for you, but still be there for you as you take a break from the ministry.
Get fed. Don’t serve in the ministry and not seek to serve your personal walk. If you feel stagnant in your walk, let us know. We are as much your pastor as we are the students’ pastor. Let us get you books or suggest audio sermons. If you have questions, ask us. Many of us went to Bible college or have seminary degrees and can hold deep conversations of faith with adults.
If you are struggling with sin, please tell us. We are a pastor. We know how to keep things confidential. We all sin; we as pastors know this for sure. Let us help you get to repentance and freedom.
Help us promote the ministry. If you see us post something online regarding the ministry, share it. Retweet it. Take a screen shot and post it on your Instagram. Kids are following you online as much as they are following us. Your help with promoting an event or helping remind students to get their deposits in means a lot to us.
Tell us how our message was. We rarely get feedback on our messages from the students. Occasionally our spouses will mention something, but they can be the most critical. (No offense Cori. ☺) It is important to us to hear feedback from our volunteers. Let us know if one of our points went over the students’ heads, or if I talked too fast, or if you thought that maybe one of my jokes was awkward. That is fine. We need to know because most of the time, I am the only one evaluating myself…and I am very generous.
Don’t use your phones during the message. If you have your Bible app open, then cool. But don’t check your email or text anyone during the message. We don’t want students to do it, so please be an example.
Be with the students. Please don’t just stand in a huddle and talk to each other like 5th year seniors. Interact with the students, and seek out students who are alone. We are here to serve them.
Take the gender differences seriously. We are looking out for your safety and the students. If you are a guy, don’t be alone with a female student. And if you are a lady, don’t be alone with a male student. Just trust me on this. It is for your safety.
Read our emails and texts. Please. Respond to our emails and texts.
If you are a parent, don’t come to the ministry to spy on your kids. Come to serve the entire ministry. Your kids will be cooler with you there if you are not hovering over them.
If you are in college, let us know your schedule. We know you have midterms and finals and we want to respect that. We may even buy your Starbucks to help you study.
If you are in Bible College, learn that nothing is greater than actual ministry experience. You may have the Westminster Confessions fresh in your head from a paper you just wrote, but being face-to-face with students in real life is worth more than any paper you have to write.
Don’t forsake Sunday morning worship in “Big Church.”
Spend time with your family.
Have fun. Enjoy the fact that you can play video games with 16-year-old students and no one can judge you for that.

There may be more that I forgot to mention. You can read the comments. I am sure other youth pastors can help fill in what may have slipped my mind. We love you guys. Seriously! We appreciate what you are doing. This ministry can only go as far as you help us in it.

Thanks,

Every Youth Pastor Everywhere