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What to do when you feel God directing you

September 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

As I’ve grown stronger in my faith and in my walk with God, I’ve learned to be able to know when God is leading me somewhere. I felt it when Steven and I came up with the idea of this blog and God continues to bless us in this endeavor. My adult small group meets on Sunday night and after everyone had left one of the guys in the group sent a text to Steven and I with an idea for us putting on a volunteer youth ministry mini training conference.

I read the text and thought, “Wow what a great idea.” The more I sat there thinking about it and later that night praying about it, I felt God was pushing me down this path. When you feel God directing you there are two options you can follow. One is to say, ”Okay God I’m not sure about this, but I am sure about you so I’ll follow.” Sometimes this can be uncomfortable, but that is when God stretches and grows us. The other option is to say, “Oh wow this is bad timing for me God, I’m not sure about this, I think I’ll fail, I don’t want to do this.”  (or twenty other excuses you can come up with)  

Now let me be the first to say that I don’t have all the answers in student ministry, but over the past few years I’m no slouch to dealing with problems and issues and helping students to grow in their relationship with God. Steven and I both have the spiritual gift of teaching and we should use that to help others in this game called student ministry. When I first started out as a volunteer with our high school ministry I would have loved to have some kind of training and discussion with other leaders in a mini conference format.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on the status of this volunteer youth ministry conference we’re putting together and details on how you can attend. I can’t wait to see how God is going to use us in this training conference, but I have a very strong feeling that he is directing us towards this goal.

If this sounds like something you might be interested in, click the “Contact Us” link above, or leave us a comment in the box below.

Filed Under: Training, Volunteer ministry Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Where did the passion go? – Part 1

September 6, 2011 by 2 Comments

Recently I’ve been dealing with the struggle of passion. Not necessarily passion for youth ministry, but just passion in general. In my eyes, this is something I’ve seen most Christians go through in some way or another. Here’s the cycle I usually see:

  • On fire. Your passion is through the roof, you can’t get enough of God, and you do everything you can to get more of Him in your life.
  • Dying out. After a while, the passion starts to diminish. Maybe you get busy, don’t put as much time aside for God, or things are just going well so you don’t turn to Him.
  • Lack of passion. After a time of dying out, you feel disconnected. You just don’t feel a passion for God. Maybe you even get to the point of doubting your faith. At the very least, you are stagnant in your faith.
  • The fire gets re-lit. Somehow you turn things around and start heading in a positive direction. The fire of passion gets re-lit and you return to the “on-fire” stage.

I think the real question that needs to be answered is: how do we get from the “lack of passion” stage back to the “on-fire” stage?

This is a real cycle that we go through. In my life, I just recently got out of a “lack of passion” stage, but it did take work to get the passion back. On Thursday I will give my answer to the question above. How do we get the passion back if we feel like it’s not there anymore?

Filed Under: Spriritual Life Tagged With: , , , ,

It’s time for a meet-up!

September 5, 2011 by 1 Comment

We’ve been writing this blog for about five months, and we’ve been involved in volunteer youth ministry for a combined five years. We would love to get together with our friend Dennis at VolunteerYouthMinistry.com and  some other volunteer youth workers in the Spring of 2012. This will not be a big, fancy conference, but it will be a great time to get together and bounce ideas off each other and get some practical take-away training. There will most likely be a small cost, but it will be just enough to cover our costs.

More details to follow, but if this sounds like something you might be interested in, click the “Contact Us” link above, or leave us a comment in the box below.

Filed Under: Volunteer ministry, Youth Ministry Tagged With: , ,

Sometimes you just have to get messy

September 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Matt: Labor Day weekend made me think about the term “Labor of Love,” which made me think about my volunteer time I spend with students. God commands us to serve others, but when you love where you serve you do more for God, your students get more out of it, and so do you. When you step across the line and become a student ministry volunteer it means you have said “yes” to so many things. Mainly you have said yes to God. The more involved I have gotten in my ministry, the more I have grown as a Christian.

This summer we had a junior high event at Saddleback Church called “Night Camp.” One of the events they had that week was called “Double Dare” and it involved a lot of mess which is fun for junior high students but maybe not so fun for the adult leaders. Steven had volunteered for the event that night and I called him right at the end of the night. I asked how it went, and he told me, “I’m covered in tomato sauce, flour, and water, but I loved every minute of it.” To be an effective volunteer, you have to be the guy who is not afraid or embarrassed to get right in there with the students and get messy. As the saying goes, “Go big or go home.” Steven went big that night and the difference was he built a stronger relationship with our junior high students. If you sit on the sidelines, you’re not playing the game, you’re just watching the game.

Students are watching how you go about your volunteering… they will emulate what they see. If they see a leader who loves what he does, it will encourage them to find a ministry that they love, and something they can make a difference in someone’s life as well. Do what you love, and love what you do. If you’re just sitting on the sidelines of student ministry, GET IN THE GAME!

Steven: I’m not naturally an extrovert. By nature, I’m very much an introvert and I love me some alone time. On the other hand, I tend to get out of my normal introverted comfort zone when I step onto the youth ministry playing field. There’s something about being with students that leads me to be more energetic and want to talk to everyone. Because of that, I’ve coined the term “extroverted introvert” to describe myself.

With that being said, I think it’s super important to not only step out of your comfort zone in youth ministry, but be the guy that gets messy. Don’t be afraid to step out and be the guy or girl that goes crazy for the benefit of your students. Students (especially junior high) respond to high-energy, crazy fun. You’ll miss out on great ministry moments if you allow yourself to stay in your comfort zone and keep a comfortable distance.

If I had it my way the night of Double Dare, I wouldn’t have had a drop of tomato sauce, flour, or water on me. And trust me, I tried really hard to make that wish a reality! The thing that pushed me over the edge and allowed me to break free of my comfort zone was a random student I hadn’t met yet come up from behind me, covered in tomato sauce, and give me a big bear hug. After I was covered in sauce, what’s the point in trying to stay clean? Although I hadn’t planned it, Ethan brought me to the point that I needed to get more involved and be in the middle of the action that night.

Don’t let your tendencies control you in youth ministry. Let God have control. Sometimes you’ll have to get a little messy (or covered in flour and tomato sauce), but if that’s what it takes to start life change in a student’s life, I’ll take that over being clean any day of the week.

What can you do to step out of your comfort zone and “get messy” in your ministry?

Filed Under: Youth Ministry Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Taking time for Show and Tell

September 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Loved this post by Adam Reed on Thursday. It’s a quick tip about an easy activity for you to do with your junior high or high school small group. I definitely see my group doing this sometime this school year! Check out the snippet below, then head here for the full post.

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Last night in our small groups we had our middle schoolers bring a show and tell item to share with their small group.  This is to help us kick off our series that will be starting next month called Show and Tell.  Our students and our small group leaders had a lot of fun sharing and talking about their items, and we learned something new about some of our students.

This was a great way for our students and adults to get to know each other in their small group at the start of the year!

 

Filed Under: Small Groups, Youth Ministry Tagged With: ,

Retro Friday // Who Needs You?

September 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Today’s Retro Friday post is from a blog we wrote for volunteeryouthministry.com.  You can find the original post here.

 

Doctors don’t heal the healthy, they heal the sick

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17

STEVEN: I’ve been experiencing a feeling of neglect lately. Not necessarily for me, but for my small group guys. That statement might be a little extreme, but in the past couple of weeks I’ve had this feeling that I’m not spreading myself out enough for all of my boys. Let’s be honest, it’s hard to spend a lot of time with each kid in a 13-person group, but I still felt guilty about not spending enough time with some of them. This week, I set a rule for myself that every week I would have at least one meaningful conversation with each of my guys during small group. That way I could feel better about making sure I spread myself out enough and not give the impression of playing favorites. Then life happened. While that was a great idea in theory, it’s just not as practical as I had hoped.

I don’t know if the generations are changing, or if I just got a particularly trouble-laden group this year, but it seems like there are a lot more issues that have come up for my boys this year than with my last group of junior highers. Between family conflict, extreme peer pressure at school, broken families, self-confidence/image meltdowns, etc., I have a lot of hurting kids. Most of them are sporadic things that come and go, but there are definitely a couple of guys that have constant issues that come up and need to be dealt with. That’s when I realized the fault in my “spread myself out” plan. The fact is, some kids just need more help than others. That usually means you’re going to spend more time with them, and there’s not a lot you can do to change that. I love the idea of spreading out, but I know some of my kids are pretty much self-sustaining at this point and don’t need quite as much attention as others.

This morning as I was thinking about my boys, the above verse from Mark popped into my head. Jesus knew the importance of spreading the wealth, but he also knew that people with ailments needed to be helped more than people that were spiritually healthy. It seems to me that we should take this same approach in youth ministry. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to only spend time with certain students, just don’t feel guilty when you spend more time with some than you do with others. Just like Jesus, we need to recognize the hurt and sin and face it head on.

MATT: I want to spend time with each of the guys in my high school small group each week, and during our small group I try and hit each one up for a little one on one time. One thing I noticed with myself is that sometimes I tend to spend more time with my core group of students, the one who are really grounded in their faith, are at church each and every week and are students I enjoy spending time with. Today, Steven and I talked about the above verse in Mark where Jesus is asked why he eats and hangs out with tax collectors and prostitutes. (even in biblical times, people didn’t like tax collectors, not much has changed) Jesus’ answer was, “who needs a doctor more, the sick or a well person?” Sometimes I admit it, I take the easy way out. Some of my guys have some tough issues. I find myself asking God, “Okay God, what lesson are you trying to teach me with this kid?” These are the students that are not as easy to talk to as the others, for one reason or another. I talk with them but sometimes its not a deep intentional conversation, and then I move on to my core group. But if I want to be Christ-like, and I do, I need to remember that verse above, and be more intentional with the students who need more time.

Last night I had the opposite happen to me. One of my guys who has his feet firmly planted in his walk with God was a bit quiet. I asked him a couple times if everything was okay, but I didn’t really dig deep, I just let it go. After group was over last night, I got a text from him. He had something major going on and needed to talk to me, but I was talking to the other guys and he didn’t want to interrupt. I felt horrible, I missed the signs! He was one of “the sick ones” last night, but I was busy talking to the “well ones.” It’s not easy to always know whats going on with each of the guys in my small group, I have 17 this year, but by taking time to talk one on one to each one it’s easier to know what’s going on in their world.

In our weekend setting during student services, I try and look for the kids who are standing or sitting by themselves. At the same time, I look for the guys in my group, and also our other “core” students. It takes some time, but I try and spend time with each of those groups of students. But I’ll be the first to admit, I need to remember this Bible verse from Mark and try to be more attentive and compassionate to the students who are hurting, and it’s something I just added to my prayer list. God help me remember to be more Christ-like in this area. Help me be a good example in this area to my students so that I can pass this trait down to the next generation.

Are you taking time with each of your students, or just the fun ones who have no issues? Do you take the time to know what’s going on in their lives?

Filed Under: Retro Friday, Volunteer ministry Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Love What You Do

September 1, 2011 by 1 Comment

I was sitting in a restaurant last night with two friends who are also student ministry volunteers, they were talking about what was going on with the guys in their small groups, the studies they were doing, the special activities they were doing with them, etc. It was so apparent that these two guys have a love of serving and a heart for students. They serve not just because God commands us to serve, to love others as a way of showing our love for Jesus, but because they have a genuine love for students. I look up to these guys, and I want my ministy to be like theirs!

Serving in student ministry is different from other serving opportunities. At Saddleback Church we have literally hundreds of serving opportunities. Some only need a few minutes of your time each week, some an hour during a church service and some, like student ministry, often times require a commitment on your part if you really want to be effective.

Maybe you’re just starting out as a student ministry volunteer, maybe you just give a little of your time and volunteer at a service each week. Pray hard about your commitment and if you feel God moving you to get more involved, take the first step! The change you can bring about in a student’s life and with their commitment to a relationship with God can be life changing for that student. My friends Dennis and Chip have been doing this student ministry volunteer gig for a long time and I can’t even count the number of students they have affected.

Here’s the  secret about Student Ministry…you get just as blessed as the students you are serving! You cannot out give God. The more you pour into your students, the more God will pour into you!

 

Have you checked your commitment level to your ministry? Do you need to give more of yourself and your time? Are you ready? Are you willing?

Filed Under: Volunteer ministry, Youth Ministry Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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