I couldn’t be more excited – my latest book with Doug Fields is here!

99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders is now available for pre-order from Simply Youth Ministry. Super proud of this one – we took some serious time creating what we hope is an insightful, helpful and practical book for you and your volunteers. I’ve included close to 150 thoughts in the book, and some additional content from voices in our small group community. Good discounts if you order 10+ – ships September 29th. Yeah!

JG

A little promo video for our new Shake It! student greeting ministry. Silly fun.

JG

Poll question for the full-time youth workers out there – how many days do you take off a week? In my ministry context, we get Mondays. Curious about your schedule.

JG

Weekend Teaching Series: LAUNCH: Ready for Re-Entry (week 4 of 5)
Sermon in a Sentence: Launching into a successful school year requires dedication, investment and using the gifts God has given you for Him.
Service Length: 79 minutes
Main passage: Luke 5:1-11

Understandable Message: This week we had the final summer guest speaker teach our entry-level program. David Hughes grew up in the ministry and has become a long-time volunteer and most recently a seminary student. He did a great job introducing himself to our students and challenging them to follow Jesus’ call on their life.  He focused on Jesus calling the disciples, causes their boats to overflow with fish and them leaving everything to follow Him. In some ways our lives become a cycle of faithfulness – God entrusts us with more, and we find joy when we use everything in our lives for God.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We had a text poll from polleverywhere.com as well as a simple Race This! game featuring Spaceships – we divided up the crowd into 3 sections and the winning section got a candy shower. We haven’t used Race This! much in high school, but it definitely worked with the crowd and tied in nicely to the theme. We sprinkled in a few announcements and a fun video promoting the Shake It! greeting ministry, too.

Music Playlist: My Heart (Paramore cover), Awesome God, The Stand

Favorite Moment: This was a bittersweet weekend – we said goodbye to a couple of great members of our HSM team. Becka finished up her 2-year internship this week and has been an absolute star the whole time. Robby was asked by Pastor Rick to head up a new campus in Huntington Beach that will launch this Christmas. VERY proud of both of them, and VERY hard to see them go. Shoot.

Up Next: LAUNCH series finale [Fall Back to School Kickoff]

Just finished up reading Kurt Johnston and Tim Levert’s new book, The 9 Best Practices for Youth Ministry. This is the first book that Kurt (full disclosure – he’s my boss at Saddleback!) has written for youth ministry in general, not just something junior high specific. The best practices are based on the Exemplary Youth Ministry Study and made practical by the authors from their 30 years of youth ministry experience and observations of youth workers and churches across the country.

The book was good – ranged in content from familiar to very fresh – my favorites were Chapter 5 (Increase the Congregation’s Appreciation of Students) and Chapter 7 (Develop Confident, Competent and Committed Leaders). I learned some great principles to help communicate the wins to the church as a whole and was reminded to intertwine the youth ministry as part of the entire church. I also really appreciated the chapter on the TILT model of volunteer placement within a specific area of ministry.

Good stuff on a whole lot of fronts – probably one of the must-read youth ministry books of 2010.

JG

Don’t be afraid to change the calendar
I wrote 6 Ways to Stretch Your Youth Ministry Budget, and when there’s little or no money left that’s when those principles have to be put into practice. Just because something is already on the calendar doesn’t mean it gets a free pass in the new day. Go low cost. Go free. Don’t subsidize it. Cut it. Change up the youth ministry calendar to reflect your revised financial state.

Make every event break-even
I’ve posted in the past 4 Rules to Make Sure Break-Even Events Break Even, and with no budget left to spend this is more critical then ever. Be extremely conservative in your estimates. Set and promote registration deadlines and stick to them so you’re not stuck with the bill. Charge a couple bucks extra, even if it means taking a few less students.

Wait for super deals on resources
With little or no budget left, you might have to put the brakes on significant purchases for your youth ministry. And while some dreams may have to go on hold – good deals on youth ministry resources pop up from time to time so take action when they do. Look for bundle deals, or products that you can purchase one time that keep giving all year (specifically subscription stuff, like the LIVE small group curriculum, or Simply All Access).

Find ways to get more funding
Asking for more budget due to mismanagement will be a tough ask. But growth in your youth ministry is totally a viable reason to look into getting more funds. If you’ve grown 15% halfway through the year, consider going to your leadership and asking for ways to fund the growth – that’s the best kind of “blowing your budget.” Consider making your need visible to the church body and look at other fundraising options if your church allows.

If you’re on a tight budget 1) be thankful you’re fortunate to have one at all, and 2) you may want to consider picking up $5 Youth Ministry which … ironically … costs $9.99.

JG

I’ve seen Hasbro’s Cuponk for a while now – a simple game of bouncing a ping pong ball into a cup, with ever-increasingly difficult challenges.  Then it hit me – how fun would this be as a fun little ice breaker with the teenagers in your small group? I love the idea that this could become an insider tradition where the group start out each night playing a little Cuponk then diving into Bible study and sharing life together.

Random idea, I know – I never said every post would be brilliant. Either way, I bought a couple of them at Target today to give away as prizes at our upcoming Life Group Leader Training Night. Thought I would share at least an illustration of small group fun with them.

Just as an aside, if you like the idea, I would spring for the actual official Cuponk game for $15. At first it seemed like a lot to pay for what a ping pong ball and red plastic party cup could do, but I realized there may be comparisons to beer games if you take the cheaper route.

JG

No matter their background, Dean says committed Christian teens share four traits: They have a personal story about God they can share, a deep connection to a faith community, a sense of purpose and a sense of hope about their future.

“There are countless studies that show that religious teenagers do better in school, have better relationships with their parents and engage in less high-risk behavior,” she says. “They do a lot of things that parents pray for.”

Dean, a United Methodist Church minister who says parents are the most important influence on their children’s faith, places the ultimate blame for teens’ religious apathy on adults.

Some adults don’t expect much from youth pastors. They simply want them to keep their children off drugs and away from premarital sex.

Others practice a “gospel of niceness,” where faith is simply doing good and not ruffling feathers. The Christian call to take risks, witness and sacrifice for others is muted, she says.

JG

Pain is part of the youth pastor job description.  Does experiencing pain and exhaustion season a youth pastor? One of the biggest negative aspects of being a youth pastor is that working with students stunts our emotional and life growth.

Many youth pastors try so hard to dodge the “burn out” bullet.

We try to take more days off, vacations, see a psycho-therapist, take a monthly spiritual retreat, and pursue spiritual formation but it seems like we are only left with more exposed pain, exhaustion, and burn out.  There is this belief that if you burn out, you are a bad youth pastor because apparently you didn’t take enough days off or establish healthy boundaries.  I think the exact opposite is true.

America’s best youth pastors are the youth workers who have learned and persevered through their many painful and hurtful church experiences.  The youth pastors that persevere make it, but the youth pastors that live in the past and become jaded don’t make it.

My point – the best youth pastors are the youth pastors who burn out or get burned because very early on they learn to forgive and to let go.

JG

• The Only Way We Communicate to Students
• the #1 Search on MTDB this Summer
• 4 Questions about Fall Kickoff and Resources to Help Answer Them
• Books That Have Shaped Me the Most in Youth Ministry
• Saddleback HSM’s Fall Youth Ministry Calendar
• POLL: Do you have a youth ministry education?
• 3 Ways to Fight the Urge to Quit Youth Ministry
• Self-Service Pastoral Care Brochures for Students
• How to Really Connect with Teenagers
• Weigh In: Connecting with Local Schools

JG

So the official website just went live for the 2011 Simply Youth Ministry Conference. It lists amazing speakers and great workshops, along with plenty of other reasons to plunk down your hard-earned money (or youth ministry budget if you’re lucky enough to have one) to register and attend. But I might have a way for you to skip out on the whole “paying for it” part.

I’m giving away 2 registrations to the Simply Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago March 4-7, 2011. All you have to do is leave a comment with one thing you love (or would love) about attending a conference with 3,000 other youth workers!

Enter now – and I’ll select one at random next Tuesday!

JG

Summer camp moved to the beginning of the summer
This was the biggest game-changer for us – for years we’ve let camp be the “end of summer event” that catapulted us into Fall Kickoff and the new school year. I blogged about the Benefits of Early Summer Camp, not in an effort to justify the move but to make sure we took advantage of the strategy behind the move. Camp now kicks off the summer, and gives us momentum in a typical downtime for youth groups. COST: $299

Midweek Bible Study replaces small groups
For the longest time our small groups (now Life Groups) have met only during the school year. But this year we decided to have a discipleship/worship/fellowship gathering call WE(MID)EK all summer long. The consistency was a win – students knew that every Tuesday night we gathered to sing, pray, learn and connect. And yes, I realize that Tuesday isn’t midweek but it was the last day available. Cost: FREE

Bible study just for girls
This year one of the ideas was to have a Bible study just for girls – not necessarily on girl’s issues (it was actually an Old Testament character study) but so girls could learn together away from the distractions of the boys. Bagels & Bibles was a great 8-week success – and the guys want one next summer, too! Donuts & Dudes, here we come! Cost: FREE

Fun and relational time every Friday
Every Friday we spent 2 hours at the park, and 2 hours at The Refinery hanging out and playing games. Athletic kids loved the outdoor games, and everyone loved the cold Cokes at lunch. Great opportunity to bring friends or have a surprisingly deep conversation. Cost: FREE

Lots of guest speakers over the summer at the weekend worship service
This summer I did a significant amount of teaching when our freshman we’re incoming, then turned it over to other voices in our youth ministry team. This past weekend, two volunteers spoke, which was incredible. It gave me a chance to go on vacation and for our students to hear from different personalities, styles and backgrounds. COST: FREE

Two service projects, no mission trips
This summer we didn’t go on any mission trips – saving that for our Spring trips to Kenya and Spring Break trip to New Mexico. But our students were involved in service projects in the community, we did a Pancake Breakfast for a needy area and helped pull off Operation: Backpack. COST: FREE

JG

• …| What happened during the summer that was great? What do we want to be sure to repeat in the future?
• …| Where did God show up? What victories could we celebrate?
• …| Where was I surprised? What last minute “audible” or changes was I forced to make?
• …| What went wrong? What could have been better?

JG

The official site of SYMC 2011 is live – SO excited to be there with so many of you, too! Killer speakers, great full-day and half-day concentrated learning tracks, total access to speakers, teachers and authors, a live Simply Youth Ministry Podcast and so much more. Be there!

JG

A fantastic testimony shared during the Life Groups weekend of the LAUNCH series. Parker finished his story live on stage – talking about God changing his heart and encouraging students to join small group as well.

JG

I’ve been looking for ways to connect with our local school districts that are appropriate as a church worker and not offensive, ways to let them know we care about the students and are willing to help in any way that we can. Any suggestions you have in this area would be greatly appreciated.

Now – weigh in!

JG

A strong testimony using during the LAUNCH series to help encourage student to see the importance of joining and HSM Life Group this fall.

JG

This week’s question – have you had formal education in youth ministry? I’ve had a ton of on the job experience with 15 years and through a jillion events and conferences. You?

JG

Weekend Teaching Series: LAUNCH: Ready for Re-Entry (week 3 of 5)
Sermon in a Sentence: Launching into a successful school year includes getting accountability and community by being a part of an HSM Life Group.
Service Length: 73 minutes

Understandable Message: This week was all about Life Groups. Our small group year starts in just a few weeks, and registration for the big launch ends in 14 days. This weekend was taught by Life Group volunteers (Matt and Mel – Team M&M) and they hit on the importance reasons to be in one using an acrostic (L-I-F-E-G-R-O-U-P-S) and testimonies both live and on video. If a student wasn’t in a small group, they would sure want to be at the end of the hour.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Matt did a good job of bringing humor into his talk – he made references to Justin Bieber and Batman and made comparisons to the pop stars and comic books of his day. There was a very positive environment to the weekend – you could tell the community that they were teaching on was genuine in their group and a goal for all of HSM’s Life Groups.

Music Playlist: Rise and Sing, Beautiful Things, How He Loves, Burning Ones, With Everything

Favorite Moment: The power of story is always amazing to me – when a student gets up to speak the students listen intently to what they have to say. And it totally works both live or on video. I’m also so impressed by the strength of the students who got up to share their story this week. Epic stuff.

Up Next: LAUNCH week 4

JG

Awesome opening video made by one of our HSM volunteers (Nathan is one of the tech arts dudes for our adult services) for the Launch series this weekend. The emphasis was on community, this video went after showing that to our entry-level students.

JG

Here is HSM’s Fall Calendar that goes to print this week – you may notice some echoes of the Summer Calendar in it still. Couple big things we’re starting to really push as we head into fall:

• Services – 1/4 of the calendar is dedicated to our central program. Our 4 entry-level services each weekend are the top of the funnel where students enter our discipleship process. In some ways, the calendar acts as much for invitation as it does for information.
• Life Groups - a huge amount of space is dedicated to the 2nd step in our process – getting connected in a Life Group.
• 1 event – We have just 1 real “event” in the fall – Pumpkinfest is in its 3rd year and we’re still really excited about it.
• A few activities – We have several low cost, fun activities planned in the fall – each of them are directly connected/linked to a weekend service. I’ll post more on this strategy soon!

JG

• Let the night go - We have to realize that the night is behind us and we cannot redo it.  We cannot continue to replay the night over and beat ourselves up on where we feel like we failed.  The only thing we can do is let go of the night behind us and move forward.
• Start getting ready for next week – It’s time to start getting ready for next week.  It’s time to start praying, planning, and preparing for the next weeks service.  Set your eyes on what’s next.

JG

• Push Momentum generators. This is a great time to push what your focus for the fall/school year will be or whatever builds momentum in your group.  Our students love each other so we push Small Groups HARD the first three weeks.

• Have all your ducks in a row. I think this is more important in high school than in middle school (we all know middle schoolers love things more when the ducks are NOT in a row, haha).  In my experience some high schoolers are looking for a reason to discount the church as “not relevant to their life” or “just a knock-off of pop culture” and if there is a lack of excellence this opens that door for them…NOT TO MENTION GOD DESERVES OUR BEST!  (Also note: You have to define excellence for your context, don’t judge it off of another church, it must be contextualized.)

• Meet the minimum expectations THEN EXCEED THEM. This one sounds odd at first but most students come to our ministries with a bare minimum expectation of what could/should happen.  Some minimum expectations are things like:  We will read/open/hear about the Bible, Jesus’ name will probably be used, someone will pray, there might be music, someone will likely talk to us, I’ll have opportunities to spend with my friends. So we try to meet those bare minimums every week (because they’re good ones) AND THEN completely exceed them by trying to constant “redefine church/youth group”.  This is especially important considering during the launch phase there are usually lots of new students. (Comment if you want me to write more on this topic).

JG

I’m willing to give this game a chance, because when you put the whole religious side of things in a box, the Old Testament – with its plagues and pestilence and pillars of salt – is pretty badass. The Bible Online is a new massively-multiplayer online game from German outfit FiAA, and will – over the course of many chapters – give players the chance to re-enact certain parts of the Bible.

In the beginning, there was…Chapter 1, The Heroes, which will be the first release of the game, and sounds a lot like Age of Empires (it looks a lot like it too), as you control Abraham and his descendants on their journey to the promised land.

As a Christian … and a gamer … my first reaction to Bible games are pretty rough. Here’s hoping it can be done right!

JG