I am constantly watching the Netflix New Arrivals list for films that are streaming that have good overall watchability as a youth ministry movie and that also may have a specific scene that can be useful as part of a youth group lesson. One recent addition that is worth noting

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Dodgeball is one of the staple games of a lot of youth ministries.  It is a great game for burning off energy, creating some shared memories and having some fun. One of the issues with the game is that sometimes it can quickly turn into a spectator sport if you

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Whatever the time of year it is in youth ministry there is always a need to have some youth group games you can pull out at a moments notice. One of my all time favorite youth group games is one I call “Identity Crisis”. You can pull this out in

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Looking for a no set up youth devotion that quite possibly will be the hardest devotion ever? This is for you then.

The Wesleyan movement that became Methodism / Wesleyanism and other faith expressions of today, had a few key practices that helped to facilitate the revival led by John

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Have been working through old files on the computer. Ran across these photos of some of the prayer station ideas that Lilly Lewin set up for a worship we were doing together (with a few others) at the Festival of Homiletics circa 2006. My only ‘do over’ here would be

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With the itinerant system we in the UMC have become pretty good at dealing with pastor change. And we have screwed up a bunch as well. So why not share a few ideas on making pastor change work well.

Don’t Compare

The new pastor is not the old pastor. Give the incoming pastor some grace as they move into the leadership of the church. Do not assume that they are or are not going to be a something or do something. When a pastor moves they often adapt and recreate portions of themselves. Extend grace in holding back comparisons of the pastors past & present.

Reach Out

Be the person who takes the initiative to reach out to the new pastor. Do not sit in your office and expect them to come find you in all circumstances. Give them a phone call to introduce yourself. Reach out in social media (if they do that). Schedule a time to meet the new pastor in a one on one opportunity. From there you can become a person whom the pastor can lean on to help in their transition. They appreciate those people who help make the transition easier.

Fanboy (Fangirl) the Fam

In most circumstances a new pastor brings with them a new family to the life of the church. Unlike new families who come to church they have a whole other set of unique circumstances that brings them to church. Give as much time to getting to know their family and being a hospitable member than you would to the pastor. Trust me, they will love you for loving on their family.

Discuss Visions & Values

Once the new pastor has started to get settled in have some initial and then in depth conversations about their vision and values for the youth ministry. In the same light, share your vision and values for the youth ministry. Note the things that you are in agreement with and those things that you differ. Make some plans to be collaborative in ministry.

Schedule Catch Up Dates

Put on your calendar for those first few weeks, months of transition to meet regularly with the new pastor. They want to be ‘in the know’ about the happenings at the church. Don’t worry so much about what is too trivial to share. You are opening up the lines of dialogue and establishing a working relationship that strength is in communication. Let them discern what actually was trivial.

Put Together a Youth Photobook

Want to get the new pastor to know your youth? Put together a photo book of the youth they are going to see a lot of and those who less active. It is a great tool to match faces to names, and helping the pastor establish some relationship cred with the teens only produces good things. (If you haven’t done this with your current pastor and they could use help knowing the youth in the church, go ahead and do this as well. Also a good idea if you are getting a new youth leader.)

Be Available

If you are a paid staff person, but you work outside the church on a regular basis (like me), then make arrangements to be around the church when the new pastor moves in. Be available to help with the copy machine, give a tour of the church, directions to the hospital, or tell them what the best lunch spots. Helping with those little things gets them up to speed quickly and gets you all back into the normal stream of ministry faster.

Don’t Overwhelm Them Trying to be Impressive Cool

When you get together do not occupy those initial times talking about yourself. They will ask, they always do, but you need not share with them all the cool things you have done as a youth worker. Don’t go on and on about how awesome you are. After a short time working together they will come to see the complete and total awesomeness that you are.

If you are able to help out in some of these ways it helps build a lot of social clout with the new pastor. Doing a few of these will also give quite a few moments of time to get to know each other & glimpse into the future ministry of the church.

Our buddy Eric over at Mt. Hebron UMC in Columbia South Carolina put together a “Duck Dynasty” themed youth night. The fun of it is was to jump onto the fan rave of Duck Dynasty and their colorful cast of folks by dressing up and doing a few silly games.

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CHRISTLIKE is a new series focusing on exploring the distinct experiences of Jesus as both a divine entity and a human being. Divided into three units, it will rotate through 4 stories from Jesus’ life 3 times. The first unit explores what Jesus would have encountered as a regular guy,

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CHRISTLIKE is a new series focusing on exploring the distinct experiences of Jesus as both a divine entity and a human being. Divided into three units, it will rotate through 4 stories from Jesus’ life 3 times. The first unit explores what Jesus would have encountered as a regular

The post CHRISTLIKE: Unit 2, Session 4 appeared first on Youthworker Circuit.

Have been cleaning up my house and office in preparation for a hopeful move. In doing this I ran across some notes from a conference I attended quite a while back that stirred a number of thoughts.

One of the speakers was Donald Miller. This was the first time I

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