I’ve noticed over the past 2 years a growing desire to train up young youth pastors. I spent a year as an interim youth pastor under the mentorship of a guy named Doug. That experience was crucial in the development of my skills as an effective student ministries pastor. That was nearly 10 years ago, and I feel like it’s time to pay it forward.

Our student ministry has seen strong growth over the past 5 years and in order to keep up with the increasing demands of the ministry, it was time to get some extra help. This provides a great chance to train someone up in youth ministry and give them in-the-trenches experience. I made a proposal to our Leadership Team and they’ve decided to go for it. It’s a big step for us as a youth group and the church as a whole, and I can’t express how grateful I am to our leadership for taking a chance on this new program. It’s a big committment, and that demonstrates the tremdnous support out student ministry has from church leadership. It’s hard to understate how encouraging it is to have the leadership on board.

So, who are we looking for? The ideal candidate would be a recent youth minsitry grad, or someone going into vocational ministry that’s finished an intense disicpleship program (YWAM, Young Life, etc.) There are a few things that really excite me about the intersnhip:

15 Months
In choosing the appropriate length for an internship, we looked at all kinds of models. We condluded that, for us, the best scenario would be a 15 month internship. This provides an opportunity to experience every season of the ministry year. The internships will overlap, so next summer we will have 2 interns during the summer months (one just starting and one preparing to finish). I’m excited by that as well.

Host Families
Our interns will live with families from the church for one month at a time. This provides an opportunity to experience many different family dynamics. When most of us think of family, we usually just think of the one we grew up in. By living with different families, interns will broaden their understanding of family dynamics. Hopefully, when they are running their own ministries and meet a family, they will think back to a family they stayed with and recognize some patterns or parenting styles they may not have otherwise noticed. It’s education through exposure.

Stipend
It’s not much, but it is something. We will be offering our interns a $400/month stipend in addition to the housing and a budget for ministry expenses (taking a student out for coffee, etc.)

Bi-Vocational Experience
The internship will be 50+ hours/week during the summer, but during the school year it will drop to 25 hours/week and we will encourage the intern to get a part time job. The reality is that many youth pastors must decide if they are willing to work part-time, or if they need to have a full-time position to function well as a youth pastor. Our internship gives them a chance to try part-time / bi-vocational ministry before they are signing on to their first real job.

There are many other reasons I’m excited for this new chapter in our ministry. Not the least of which is that I love what happens in our group and I’m excited for a young youth worker to get experience the things we do well, and help us improve in the areas we can work on. I’m excited for fresh ideas and bigger dreams, and I’m excited that our church is doing what it can to build the kingdom… the world needs more good youth workers.

So, do you know somebody that would be a good fit? Have them download the information/application packet below and get in touch with me, I can’t wait to meet them.

Download The Youth Ministry Internship Application

Imagine you have as much money as Macklemore has in the song “Thrift Shop.” You decide to purchase a gross of tags. Each tag costs 10 cents. How much money do you have left over?

That was my favorite question from a Parents Vs. Teens Trivia game we played at a recent family night event. Last week I shared how we used text messaging as a buzzer system for a trivia game. I got a few questions about how we actually presented the questions. It was actually pretty slick and really simple, here’s what we did:

I stumbled across a site called JeopardyLabs that lets you build simple flash Jeopardy style games. You simply go through and assign a question and answer to each square and you’re all set. The site generates a link to visit to play the game, including a little scorekeeper at the bottom. We just hooked up a laptop to the television and mirrored the screens. That way I could run the game from the computer but everyone was able to see the questions.

If you’d like to see it in action, check out our Parents vs. Teens trivia game from one of our family nights. (Feel free to use that too!) I was afraid I’d have to find a way to build the game in PowerPoint. It was fantastic to find a simple-to-use site that did exactly what we needed.

How about you? What website have you found to solve a specific challenge in your ministry?

We’ve struggled to come up with a good system to run the game, and accept answers. Raising hands gets contentious and relies on whoever was seen first. Buzzer systems are expensive and limit the number of players. So what to do?

Turns out we’ve had the answer in our pockets all along. We simply used my cell phone as the buzzer. I put my number up on the screen and then when each question was asked they would text in their answer. It worked for both multiple choice and short form questions, and it was easy to see who was first so there were no less arguments about who “buzzed in” first. (A word of caution, it can get a little tricky to scroll check who came in first as the phone bombards you with notifications.) 

A few notes about using this method:

• You should have an unlimited texting plan.
• It can get a little tricky to scroll check who came in first as the phone bombards you with notifications
• If you didn’t want to give away your number to the whole room of people, you could enlist a service like Pinger to get a separate phone number to use.
• It’s a great way to collect cell number you might not already have.

It might be a little rudimentary, but it got the job done and didn’t require any equipment or services we didn’t already have. I can’t believe it took us a couple years to have this “a-ha” moment!

In medicine there is a theory known as the Hygiene Hypothesis. Simply stated, the hygiene hypothesis is that the lack of exposure to infectious agents as a child results in a sub-par immune system as they grow older. Basically, we protect kids from germs so much that they don’t build a defense against them.

What a cruel paradox, the great lengths to which parents go to Lysol and sanitize their homes in hopes of preventing their child from catching the sniffles is the very thing that increases the likelihood of medical problems later in life.

There is a temptation to do the same thing in student ministry. We want to create safe, unoffensive, sanitized settings for students to explore the story of a savior that entered into a dangerous, offensive, dirty world. Is it any wonder, then, that students’ spiritual health suffers when they graduate and leave the bubble? They weren’t given the chance to develop a healthy immune system for their soul.

Student ministry should be the workshop where students experience the Romans 5 progression of trials > endurance > character > hope. When we deny students the opportunity to experience true trials above the safety net of a committed spiritual community, we rob them of a chance to develop the character and hope that will protect them when they are on their own. We should encourage struggle, and failure, and risk-taking. Jesus let the disciples fight the storm on the sea for a while, he let them go up against demonic forces they weren’t prepared for, heck, he let Lazarus die! Meanwhile, most Sunday School teachers get uncomfortable if a kid reads Song of Solomon.

The point is that we do a  disservice to teenagers and their families when we embrace the idea that youth group (or church) should be a safe and sanitized place. Student ministry is the perfect place to come into contact with “infectious” things, we are a mechanism of immunization for the next generation. Here are a few things you can do to help your students develop their spiritual immune system.

Cover tough topics

There are many subjects that should be talked about in churches but are never talked about in churches because we don’t talk about such things in churches (tip o’ the hat to Steve Case). Go ahead, do the lesson on the Good Samaritan or the Armor of God, but don’t neglect to cover things like pornography, cutting, anger, abuse, depression, sexuality, or family dynamics too. Dive into the hard stuff and let them wrestle with it while you’re there to help instead of struggling with it when they’ve graduated.

Go tough places

Just as it is unhealthy for a child to remain only in the confines of their home until adulthood, it’s unwise to keep students exclusively in the bubble of the youth room or church building. Make a regular practice of going into the community, especially the places that might feel a bit scary. Serve at the soup kitchen, but try and spend less time in the kitchen and more time hearing the stories of the people you’re serving.

Invite tough speakers

You can also burst the bubble from the inside. By inviting outside voices into your meetings, you can generate exposure to topics and ideas not usually covered in student ministry. Invite a refugee to talk about religious persecution, invite someone in the gay community to talk about their experience with Christians, invite a victim of bullying or a suicide survivor to discuss how those things impact their life, invite a former prostitue or drug user to explain the path their life took.

Your students need a healthy spiritual immune system. That’s best achieved by controlled exposure to the “germs” of life. Don’t run from the dirty or messy things, embrace them, and teach your teens that you can encounter the sickness of the world without getting infected.

One of my favorite parts of the day was when I was told that I was a hindrance to the Holy Spirit, interfering with the work of God, and a hateful and judgmental person.

I was walking a group of my junior high students down the main street of the festival and showing them some of the sights and sounds. A 50-something year old white man came up and started giving the standard spiel asking us if we knew where we would go if we died. Sigh… ok, fine… he can evangelize, even if he chooses what I consider to be outdated methods. I explained that we were a church group there volunteering for the day. To most folks, that would be obvious based on the fact that we were the only group of white people walking down the street, and that we all had matching shirts on that said, “Event Staff.” Normally street evangelists leave you with a good “God bless” or ask to pray when we explain that we are a church group. Apparently this guy decided we weren’t saved enough.

He kept asking the students if they knew where they would go when they die. (I can never get past how morbid a conversation starter that is.) “On a scale of 1-10” he said, “how certain are you that you would go to heaven?” One of the girls said, “8.7” I was proud of her for using decimals. Most of the students ranged from 8-10 in their answers. I answered an unequivocal 10. The man rattled off some Bible verses and pointed to his cross necklace a few times. I resisted the urge to ask him why using the Bible is supposed to convince people if they don’t believe there is a God, but since we already told him we were a church group, I decided to leave that for another day. He continued to ramble on about how Jesus can forgive of us of our sins, and I continued to laugh out loud at how hard he was trying to save this group of young Christians. Eventually he said, “let’s be sure, let’s get you all to a 10. I’m going to have you repeat a prayer with me.”

I stopped him. “Now hold on just a minute,” I said. “You’re going to have them pray a prayer they’ve already prayed?” The man seemed taken aback. “What’s the point in that?” I asked.

“It’s so they can know they are going to heaven.” he answered.

“But, they’re already saved. We told you that, they are all Christians. They believe in God, the Bible and have asked Jesus to forgive them through his death on the cross.”

“But they aren’t sure. Some of them were 8s and 9s.”

“That’s because it was a dumb question.” I said. “Where in the Bible do you see Jesus asking people to pick a numerical value for their faith?”

The man turned toward me, got closer, and spoke in down to me. “You’re interfering with what the Holy Spirit is trying to do here.”

“I don’t think I am.” I responded. “I’m concerned that you’re telling these kids they aren’t saved enough. If your idea of salvation is reduced to parroting a prayer without taking time to explain it, then you’re doing it wrong.”

He tried to change the subject. “What’s the problem with praying the prayer again.” He asked.

“They’re already saved, why would they pray it again?” I reiterated.

“But what’s the harm in it?”

“It’s bad theology.” I said.

“But we’re not talking about theology,” he replied, “it’s salvation.”

“Well then you and I have very different ideas of what ‘theology’ means, I guess.”

He was noticeably agitated at this point. He said, “I don’t know why you’re being so hateful. You’re judging me, and that’s not your job. You are a hindrance to the Holy Spirit.”

“I’m not judging you, and you’re right that it’s not my job. But these kids are my job, I am responsible for them. You are trying to push something on them without explaining it. You seem angry that I’m asking questions back.”

“I’m not angry.” he snapped.

“Well, ok… you’re agitated. If you want to have a conversation, I am happy to. But if you just wanted to preach at my kids unchecked, I’m afraid you picked the wrong group.”

At this point he turned to my students and said, “He (pointing at me) is getting in the way of God trying to bring you salvation. Do you any of you want to pray a prayer of salvation right now with me?”

I decided to stay quiet for a minute. Heck, if a kid wants to get saved right then and there, I’m game. My students just kind of looked at him. Eventually I said, “How many of you have already prayed for salvation?” They all raised their hands.

“That’s my point,” I said, “What is it that makes you doubt their salvation? That they didn’t say ‘10’ when you asked them how sure they were?”

“God bless you.”

“So you don’t want to have a conversation about this?” I asked in disbelief, “You’re only going to talk to people who mindlessly repeat the prayer you tell them?”

“We can have a conversation.”

“Ok, I just want to know why out of all the people here you are trying to convert a church group. Why are you telling them that they maybe aren’t going to heaven because they didn’t say ‘10’?”

“God bless you. Have a nice day.”

I was confused now, “… so you don’t want to talk about it.”

“It’s obvious you are a hateful person, so what’s the point.” he said.

“Alright, well… I don’t know what to say to that. I truly hope you help people meet Jesus today, but I’m sorry you’re not willing to talk with people about him.”

And then we parted ways. Him, angry at me for “stifling the spirit” and me, chuckling to myself about the ridiculousness of what had just happened.

I had a few good conversations with the teens after that, and we talked about how dangerous it can be to approach salvation like that. I appreciated the man’s boldness, and I want my students to be more bold… but I also want them to do it with more love, and more preparation so they don’t have to turn tail and run the moment they run into someone who wants to have an intelligent conversation about it. For all I know, God brought that man across our path just so I could have a teaching illustration. It was a strange experience.

One cold Sunday morning, Theo was riding with his mother to her church, regretting his decision more and more as they drove on. Finally, with the prospect of another insufferable sermon looming on his horizon, he finally told his mom how much he disliked going to church, and how there was nobody his age there, and that he didn’t want to go. He asked if she would drop him off at the community center where he could wait at the Teen Center until church was over and she could pick him up. She obliged, and let him out at the front door.

Theo made his way down the hall and into the special room designed just for teenagers. It had pool tables and a full arcade, but none of the machines were turned on. He had underestimated how early it was, and was now realizing the group of friends he expected to find there wouldn’t arrive for a few more hours.

That’s where I found him, sitting in one of the booths in the back corner of the Teen Center. He had found a few people he vaguely knew from the neighborhood, they were milling around and listening to their iPods. It wasn’t uncommon for some teens to show up early to the center, probably once a month of so there would be someone there when I arrived. I always made a point to introduce myself, even though I was usually greeted with a very suspicious stare and a barely audible mumble.

“Hi, I’m Luke.” I said to Theo, who was unsurprisingly surprised that I was addressing him. Other teenagers were starting to file into the room behind me. “There’s a church that meets here on Sundays, and the youth group is going to be meeting here for the next hour or so. I just wanted to let you know so you weren’t confused when all these show up. You’re welcome to come and hang out with us if you want, we’ve always got room. Anyway, I’m pleased to meet you.”

The three teens behind Theo shrugged and went back to their playlists. This was the common response. In 5 years of asking teens if they’d like to join us, I’d learned the answer was always no.

“Yeah, okay.” said Theo.

“Huh?” I asked, surprised that I had received two whole words in response.

“Yeah, I’ll come check out the youth group.” Theo said with surprising confidence. “You guys wanna come?” he asked his group of Teen Center acquaintances. Shrugs and shaking heads conveyed the typical response. “Ok. Well I’m going.” Theo responded unphased.

The rest of the junior high had gathered, so they were already seated when I walked over with Theo. “Hey everyone, this is Theo, he’s going to hangout with us today.”

“Hi Theo!” said a group of authentically smiling faces. I love how welcoming my students are.

Theo found a spot next to Cassidy, a girl from his grade that he shared a couple of classes with. That proved to be enough of a social security blanket for him to open up a little and enjoy himself. He participated in the lesson, and didn’t seem to unsettled until we prayed at the end. He would later tell me that he didn’t have a problem with praying, it was that our group has a tradition of all clapping in unison when we go to prayer. That would catch nearly anyone off guard, I suppose.

Afterwards I told Theo it was great to meet him and I hoped he’d come back. He assured me he would. Another student said, “You should come to Wednesday nights.” And he said, “One day isn’t enough? You guys do church two times a week?”

“Sometimes more.” another student replied, “but you should come, you’d probably really like it.”

Theo has been a part of our group for over 2 years now. The story of his first Wednesday night is a great one too, I’ll have to remember to tell it another time.

God is very good at chess.

I love that in Theo’s attempt to ditch church, he accidentally ended up in our youth group. God saw the whole board, every piece, and made the moves that it took to connect to a faith community he found meaningful. This year Theo started bringing half his football team along with him (we’ve had to double the amount of food we prepare for our Wednesday night meals). Every time I see that hoard of gargantuan boys walking up the steps of our church house I’m reminded of the amazing ways God works. The God who transformed Theo from a boy trying to avoid church into a youth group’s number one recruiter in just 3 or 4 moves. Check.

The knights were my favorite, followed by the rook. Probably because they most closely resembled the real-world versions of themselves. I liked to have my horses ride from my castle to go explore the Coffee Table Kingdom, meeting interesting characters, bishops and royalty and other travelers) along the way. The pawns were used as trees, creating a short and stubby forest for my knights to ride through. I loved “playing chess.”

My father took notice of my affinity for the chess pieces, and began teaching me how to play the game. I struggled with remembering how the pieces moved, especially the knights. They had galloped freely throughout the kingdom, and I could not conceive why they would limit themselves to just moving in the shape of a small “L.” There were rules and strategy where there once was only exploration and adventure. I didn’t realize there were wrong moves that could prove disastrous. I didn’t realize there were set sides and a defined competition (although to be fair, I had waged some fairly epic battles atop the coffee table as well).

Learning to play chess was bittersweet. The innocence of my Coffee Table Kingdom was eroded by the re-introduction of the game board, with its rules and clearly defined paths of movement. I struggled to imagine the pawns as trees, I restricted to moving the pieces only in the ways they were “allowed.” My mind became a slave to the rules of the game, and my ability to see the pieces as anything else slowly faded. In this way, learning to play chess taught me that obsessing over rules greatly impacts how one sees their world.

But, my father was also a brilliant strategist. As he taught me how to play chess, I was often equal parts frustrated and amazed at the way he would set traps, or how his pieces would come seemingly from nowhere, striking from across the board. To my elementary school mind, he was a wizard. His masterful use of the varied abilities each piece posessed would culminate in a beautifully orchestrated series of moves I never saw coming. He would even tell me when he had made a particularly threatening move, giving me time to examine the entire board to mount a defense. Even then I often had no idea what was coming. I could see maybe two or three moves ahead, and that was rarely enough time. And this is the other thing I learned from playing chess, that just because I can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

God is very good at chess.

I have often struggled with those who view God as the intergalactic puppet-master, pulling the strings that make everything happen. In the face of tragedy you will often hear “God has a plan” tossed around as a cliche phrase of comfort, which is odd because the insinuation is that God’s plan was for the tragedy to take place. I can’t pretend I have it all figured it out, but I find it hard to imagine that if everything were going according to God’s plan the world would look anything like this. So, I cannot view God has divinely controlling every little detail of what happens, there are just too many times I feel like I’ve gotten in the way of what he wants.

Instead, God is a chess-master; a brilliant strategist with a commanding knowledge of every strength and weakness each piece possesses. He sees the whole board, and every possible move, and so is able to adjust during play to effect the game towards his desired outcome.

Photo courtesy of Mariano Kamp

1) Greet them personally

This is something you should be doing anyway. It makes sense that every student is greeted by a friendly face when they arrive. Part of creating a welcoming culture is being sure that whoever is doing the greeting knows to give special attention to a new person. Ask them their name, if this is their first church experience, and thank them for coming. Be sure to let them know they are free to ask any questions at all.

2) Provide a form

It’s helpful to have a form for people to fill out. Most students don’t mind taking a little time to tell you about themselves. The form also allows you to ask questions that would be weird or awkward in a first conversation. “Hi, welcome to our youth group. What’s your name? Awesome. What’s your home address?” Creepy.

We use a form that asks three main things. How do we contact you? What is your life like (grade, school, family situation, etc.)? And what are your favorites? This allows us to personally connect with a new student, and proves to be helpful information later on. For instance, we make sure to provide their favorite drink when they come back the next week. It’s a simple way to say, “We notice you” in a large group.

If the new teen is a friend of one of our students (which is the most common scenario) I ask the current student to give them the form. It’s a lot less weird for your friend to say, “Hey, fill one of these out. They’ll pick up a soda for you next week!” than it is for “some old person” to hand it to you.

If you need a form, you can download the one we use right here.

3) Follow Up!

If you don’t use the info, it’s worthless! It’s important to have a plan for what to do when you receive a filled out form. For us, that means getting them a gift when they return. When possible, I also send a postcard. Getting mail is rare these days, and a handwritten note is a phenomenal way to demonstrate that a student is worth your time.

That’s how we collect information from new students. What other tips do you have?

Gripping in both its hope and sorrow, this could be a wonderful illustration for a lesson on bullying, and a great way to segue into talking about the identity we find in our creator.

Below you can download the “Who R U?” form we give to the new folks that show up to our meetings. It asks for basic contact info and things like birthdays and how they heard about our group. It also asks things like “Who do you live with?” that can provide a nice window into their life. On the back we ask about all kinds of favorites. That proves to be a really helpful as we try and better connect with the new student, plus it gives us a chance to give them a little treat when they come back.

The form is designed to be printed on legal size paper (8.5″ x 14″). Getting two forms per piece of paper saves us money, plus the slightly odd size makes it stand out from all those other piles of paper on your desk. Hopefully this form helps you better connect with the new faces in your ministry. Be sure to follow up!

*Edit: repaired broken download link