1) It is amazing to praise God with Christians in another country. We’re thousands of miles away from home, but sing, praise and worship the same God. It is fun and powerful to be united in a few songs both groups knew this afternoon.

2) Youth ministry faces many of the same issues whereever you go. Some of the same questions we face in our church are identical to the ones youth workers internationally face. These youth workers are struggling to find volunteers, feeling the frustration of elders and knowing the limitations of budget.

3) The calling of the youth worker binds us together. We’re responding to the crisis together, all around the world. Students need Jesus, and the ones who do know Him need to be connected, grow and serve. We are part of a world-wide army of people serving students.

Powerful day.

JG

Excited to be here, but miss the family and fireworks for sure!

JG

I blogged the other day that Simply Youth Ministry’s LIVE 4-year small group curriculum was about to launch, and now they’ve released a mini-site explaining how it works and doling out free samples. Pretty slick stuff – you can deliver all of your small group leader material online and communicate at a central hub with your leaders, too. We’re starting to move HSM in this direction this coming year, putting it through its tests right now.

JG

EVANGELISM DIRECTOR – I want someone on the team who will passionately seek out after the students who aren’t in our church yet. A volunteer who will lead our ministry’s heartbeat for the lost, and always remind us of who Jesus came to save. This person loves that Jesus came for the world and wants to bring the world inside your church. I love these people, but a quick warning: they usually shake up some senior pastors.

FELLOWSHIP DIRECTOR – I want someone on the team who cares most about fellowship. In our setting, someone who is all about small groups. Someone who bleeds connecting, someone who has experienced community and knows that for students to make it they need to get inside it. A person who will encourage and train our leaders to help students open up and get the gunk of life out on the table.

DISCIPLESHIP DIRECTOR – I want someone on the team who cares deeply about helping students grow on their own. Someone who wants to teach Bible lessons beyond the weekend, someone who wants to find or create resources to help get students into the Word.

MINISTRY DIRECTOR – I want someone on the team who lives to help get students to serve. Who wants to take students that are gifted and help them use their talents for God. Who sees needs and sees the solution in students. Someone who constantly asks, “why isn’t a student doing that?”

WORSHIP DIRECTOR – I want someone on the team that cares deeply about celebrating God’s presence. The person has to think much bigger than music, and create an experience and environment where people who visit feel it, are moved and can’t wait come back.

These people by default will not get along – and your role as a leader is to orchestrate them together. Everyone must work in concert – so that your students will live out biblical purposes in their lives. If you’re the leader, start building this team today.

JG

1. Packing–bring the good stuff. I love dressing up on my vacations. Obviously, your wardrobe will be determined by what type of trip you are taking and you need to pack what’s appropriate. But, listen…I have pictures in Pisa wearing a Green Day shirt and Birkenstocks. And I have pictures in front of Buckingham Palace in a pretty dress. Bring nice stuff! Trust me…that T-shirt with the hippo on it that says “hip” shouldn’t be worn in front of the Eiffel Tower. (I would know.)

2. Mentally prepare yourself now for Starbucks stores in airports, and remember that not only are the prices jacked up, but your Gold Card is not accepted. It’s such a shame, I know. I was very disconcerted at LAX when I was forced to pay full price for my latte. It’s not even about saving the thirty-five cents…it’s the rejection of the belonging to the establishment that is kind of spirit-crushing. So, just be ready for that in advance so you won’t be as crestfallen when purchasing your delicious beverages in airports.

3. Footwear–the white exercise sneaker look is unecessary while traveling, unless you’re planning on running a marathon or something. I know when you’re packing, you think, “I need comfortable shoes…I’ll be walking a lot.” This is true; however, “comfortable” and “not ugly” are not mutually exclusive concepts. Also, Tevas are only appropriate when climbing rocks; don’t wear them in airports (You’re outdoorsy. You have a North Face backpack and a Nalgene. I get it.). Lastly, Crocs are not okay. Anywhere.

4. Toiletries–There are so many incredible products that come in travel sizes! Check out Target–they have travel tissues, mouth rinse, deodorant, hairspray, medicine, shave gel, toothpaste, even mini lint rollers. And everything’s a buck. I love buying new toiletries and lotions for trips. So treat yourself to some new products and save some packing space.

JG

One of our amazing summer interns, a journalism major at Pepperdine, is helping launch a 3-month experiment in HSM. In our 5-year plan for our ministry, I have us slated to go after parents with focused efforts in 2011, so this is exciting to say the least. We’re going to do a series of summer newsletters for parents – lot of info on what’s going on, what’s ahead and arm them with ideas and discussion starters for their students.

I know it is critically important to equip parents to disciple their kids, and for too long student ministry has aimed to take on that primary responsibility. We’re using The Parent Link (they’ve got a 30-day trial going on right now) as our basis for the newsletters, and highly customizing it to our own needs.

It goes out the door tomorrow – PDF to an email list and a few printed copies at the info area, too!

JG

Saw a link to RunPee.com in the latest issue of Group Magazine. Brilliant website – it tells you when you can sneak out of a movie to go to the bathroom. Simple, but strong execution of concept. Ha!

JG

Sermon in a Sentence: As we grow up physically, emotionally, and socially, we also need to grow spiritually and put ourselves in a position to allow God to transform our lives.
Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 3 out of 10
Service Length: 72 minutes

Understandable Message: Jason Petty, our pastor of discipleship, mixed things up a bit and challenged students with a message devoted to showing the importance of growing spiritually. Because all healthy things grow, the goal of our spiritual growth is to look more like Jesus. However, growing spiritually is difficult without a teachable heart, which God will give us if we are willing. We have to put ourselves in that position to see God. Petty gave students deep truths to think over and made sure there were a ton of resources available to for students to grab after the service.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: Students ran cameras, lights and sound. Volunteers also greeted and did setup/cleanup.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We aired a video Jake recorded on how to approach HSM, including how to walk, how to take a bulletin and pen, and how to interact with the greeters. Fun! Also, we had a “Bible Ninja” video where students gave an infomercial for Bible Institute and expressed how much they wanted to understand the Bible, but could never seem to do it. Exciting and hopefully thought provoking!

Music Playlist: Surrender, This Is My Desire, Center

Favorite Moment: During his message, Jason made sure to not play the guilt card on students as to why they need to grow with Christ. He shared a story that continually made him spiritually guilty on how Jesus was waiting in a coffee shop and crying because we forget to spend time with him. Instead, Jason compared meeting with Jesus as the excitement and passion of how we interact with the guy or girl we “really like” and how our pursuit of that person drives us to want to communicate and get to know that person better and deeper.

(This report was written by the amazing summer-intern Kyle Cleveland, I was gone this weekend to do a wedding)

I’m very excited to announce today a new addition to the HSM team here at Saddleback – Robby Boyd is joining us to serve High School students here in Orange County. He doesn’t have a blog or a Twitter (yet, I’ll immediately start to work on him), but has been around Saddleback for a long time and just graduated with his MA from Wheaton. He has a huge heart for pastoral care of students and is going to build up a crack team of volunteers to care for them. He’ll fit in great, couldn’t be more excited about this addition to the team!

JG

My sophomore guys team didn’t take the title this year … just 2 of the 3 tournaments building up to the main event. Next time!

JG

Here it is – the new look for More Than Dodgeball!

We’ve still got about 65 little tweaks left to make on the template before it is technically finished – we did enough testing to at least roll it out tonight. As we kick off version 3 of the now 3-year old site, I thought it might be fitting to go back to the significance of the name.

So what does the name “More Than Dodgeball” mean?

More Than Dodgeball is simply a way of expressing our heart’s desire to see youth ministry as more than entertainment, glorified babysitting or church “lite.” More Than Dodgeball reminds me daily of my calling to serve God by serving students – reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, connected in a small group with a caring adult, growing in their faith on their own and serving God in the church and with their lives.

Please know I love dodgeball, we even played a version of it a few weeks ago in our youth ministry – but I see it as a symbol of student ministry past where purposeless activity and busyness stood as a false measure of success. Student ministry should be judged about changed lives and hearts being drawn closer to Jesus Christ, which is what we want to be all about.

More. Than. Dodgeball.

JG

Oh man, how have I missed this? Looks incredible.

JG

According to the Itasca County Sheriff’s Department, they received a 911 call at about 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

Paul Shorma and Kayla Domagall were amongst the crowd of 30 on the beach outside Zorbaz restaurant on the shore of Pokegama Lake when the call for help arrived.

According to witnesses, a group of young people were on a house boat on the lake, en route to a sandbar to swim.  That’s when witnesses say the weather turned and the waves on the lake grew to about 3-foot swells.

One youth was struggle with the waves when Junker and Hermiston went out to help him with a life jacket. The youth was able to make it to safety but both men didn’t make it back.

The community where this happened consists of about 8,000 people so you can imagine the HUGE impact on the town.  He grew up in Grand Rapids, Now was the youth pastor at the Baptist Church and his dad is the Senior pastor at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in the same town. More information and to make a donation to his trust click here.

JG

1. Please take time to pray with your student before they go. Pray for their safe travel, for good health, that God would use them to change lives, and that He would grow them more into His likeness on this trip.

2. Please double check their packing. DON’T let them overpack. An iPod and camera are OK, but they don’t need to bring all their electronic gadgets with them to Africa. NO LATOPS or other bulky/expensive electronics. And, it’s Africa…not a fashion runway…so don’t let them pack a ton of clothes. Also, help them think through the carry-on bag. As a team, we need to be prepared to have luggage not show up at the airport. It happens all the time, so pack a carry-on accordingly.

3. Be prepared to not hear from your child everyday! I know some of you have talked about international call plans on your child’s cell phone. If you do this, you still need to be prepared to not talk to your child everyday. They will not be allowed to use their cell phone unless we are at the hotel. With the time differences, it is very difficult to plan talking times. We will have two cell phones, and every student will have the chance to call home when it is convenient for the team and in case of emergency, so you will hear from them. Also, we will encourage your students to email home, and we’ve set up a blog for you to check in on the team where we will post pics and videos.

4. Please be on time to pick up your student from LAX. They are going to be very tired, and very excited to see you. If you need help making pick up arrangements, please don’t hesitate to email or call Danny. We can certainly help arrange that if you are working and cannot make it. No worries! Just let us know ahead of time so we’re not waiting at the airport after 30 hours on a plane … haha.

5. Be prepared to be patient with your student when they return home. It takes a few days to recover from traveling internationally. Jetlag and culture shock are real. Your students will be experiencing life-changing sights, smells, sounds, and stories. Be ready to let them process that safely with you at home. Ask them question. Pray with them. Cry with them. Look at pictures together. Listen. It’s our expectation that they will come home a little different from this experience. Anticipate that and be ready to help them talk about it.

JG

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Did you know that Jesus’ Beatitudes are one of the most effective teachings on the topic of personal spiritual healing and renewal in the Bible?

Now those teachings are available this fall in a brand-new, 8-week church-wide spiritual growth campaign called Life’s Healing Choices and the experience will transform your church. Join Rick Warren and Saddleback Church for this 8-week journey on the Biblical road to total spiritual renewal for every member of your community.

JG

In short, the book makes a strong case about the future of American innovation and economy – how abundance, Asia and automation are helping devalue the traditional analytical thinking and forcing us to tell stories, play, create and design. The payoff of the book is basically that R-directed thinking is the wave of the future, but both left and right brains are needed in the new world we live in. There are all sorts of implications for youth ministry – my mind immediately was drawn to chapters on empathy and meaning, how important it is to feel needs and have a purpose for life. A good book – not too heady either. B+

JG