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Daily connection with God

June 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

One of the things that Steven and I both strive for is a daily connection with God. It’s not always easy and a lot of times I have to be very intentional about having a daily connection and quiet time with God. Our friend Aaron Crumbey wrote a great post on his blog about helping students know the importance of this daily connection. Here’s a tease below, the rest can be found here.

 

For Students: Something You Must Do!!

In order for anything to move their must be a constant flow of energy.  I’m learning it’s the same way with my life being effective for God.  In order for me to be moving in the right direction there must be a constant flow of acknowledging God in the matters of my life.  When that doesn’t happen I stall. I make bad choices and decisions.

Do you have a daily connection with God?

The effectiveness of my life for God is only as strong as my daily connection with Him.  My ministry should be a direct reflection of my daily connection to the one who holds the purpose to my ministry.  For example:

  • The same unconditional love I receive from my relationship with God should flow over into the way I love others.
  • The way that God has given to me, should flow over into how I give to others.
  • The way God has cared for me through our relationship, should flow over into how I care for others.

Those things are hard to do consistently when I’m not connecting with the source daily. Whenever my life seems super overwhelming and I feel like I’m lost in it all, I first check out how often I’ve spent time connecting with God.  We never purposefully stop connecting.  We either get distracted by the craziness of life or sometimes even the calmness of life can derail us. We get very comfortable with things being great and we don’t see ourselves drifting away from our daily connection.  Things have to get rough in order for us to fall back in line with connecting with God.

Go here for the rest!

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

Keeping it light this summer

June 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

As the school year ends and summer begins, both Steven and I are keeping our student small groups going over the summer. Both groups have changed our format a bit and we are keeping it lighter, and also mixing in some fun nights and bonding time as well as lesson time.

I have a particular interest in keeping my group bonded close together since they are now graduated high school seniors and about to go off to different colleges, although most of them are staying local, they won’t be going to school together. I want to make sure this group continues on as a young adult small group.

This week we are having a fun night, just a time to go out as a group and have fun and do some bonding time together. I have to admit though I’m actually accomplishing two things here and I think both of these are equally as important.

One, my student group is doing something together. Something fun and active for a couple of hours and then we’ll go and have dinner together. The second thing I’m doing is for me. Yep, this one is for me. In order to do what I have planned for this week I need to take a day off of work, which after reading Doug Field’s book, “What Matters Most” it dawns on me that I need to do this more often. I’m really trying to learn to say no to the good stuff so I can save my time for the great stuff, the stuff that really matters.

Take some time this summer with your student small group and just have fun. Do stuff you might never do, something that your students will look back on and remember the rest of their lives. Create some memories with them. Let them remember small group time as a time when they grew closer to God and closer to their group and established some life-long friendships and accountability partners. Let it be a time when they remember a leader who led them in Bible study and also wasn’t afraid to get smacked in the head with a dodge ball.

Filed Under: Cool stuff, Small Groups Tagged With: , , , ,

Starting out with a bang

June 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Yesterday Steven wrote about ending his 8th grade small group with a bang. They have a great overnight outing planned and still have about a month left with his group before they move on to high school. It made me think that I want to begin my new 9th grade small group with a bang. By that I mean I want to go out of my way to make my new group feel comfortable and safe and that the lessons and life examples taught to them by Steven and his co-leader Kyle will continue on.

Since the first day that Steven asked if I would be interested in taking his small group when they reached high school I was honored that he asked and at the same time I know the amount of trust that he and Kyle have placed in me. I’ve watched in amazement over the past two years as the two of them poured into these students. I’ve seen them laugh with these guys and cry with them, I’ve watched as Steven and Kyle met each week before their small group time so they could go over the lesson and the night’s events and to pray for their guys. I’ve been with Steven as he got phone calls and text messages from students needing his help. Never once did he divulge to me what the problem was or the student’s name, he always kept the confidential stuff to himself while I sat there and watched the sadness or frustration on his face as he worked towards a resolution to a problem for a student.

I also know how Steven and Kyle live their lives and how they put God first and how they are both Godly men and excellent examples for students in every area of their personal lives. I’m telling you all of this because I am very aware that I have a big set of shoes to fill or I should say sandals since Steven and Kyle rarely wear shoes.

That being said I’m spending the summer in prayer and doing a lot of thinking on how I keep the momentum going that Steven and Kyle have built up in this group. This week we had not thought about writing the entire week about planning for next school year’s small groups but I think God has taken our blog that way this week and we hope if you’re getting a new student small group that you’re already praying and planning for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kyle and Steven

 

Filed Under: Cool stuff, Small Groups, Spriritual Life Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Going out with a bang

June 26, 2012 by 1 Comment

Four weeks from today, I’ll be saying goodbye to my second group of awesome 8th grade students. That day will be the last time we meet before we cut them loose to high school ministry and the amazing leaders they’ll have through their high school careers. Before we do that, we want to make sure to end things on a REALLY high note.

This Friday, my co-leader and I are taking the guys on a camping trip. It won’t be anything too fancy, but it will be some awesome time to solidify the bonds they’ve formed with each other over the past 2 years. We’re doing a quick, 24-hour trip to a local park that seems far away, but only takes about 20 minutes to get to from our church. It will be an awesome last event of the summer.

After the camping trip, we’ll meet with the guys 3 more times in a small group setting. I really want to make the most of these times together, but I also don’t want to do anything too heavy. Just enough stuff to keep them learning, but not too much as to overwhelm them during summer.

Question: What do you do to end your time with a youth group with a bang?

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Getting ourselves ready for new students

June 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Steven: Something we’ve been talking about lately is the subject of change. Both Matt and I have a lot of change happening in our lives right now, one of those changes being our junior high and high school small groups. This year, Matt will be getting a brand new group of 9th graders (most of them I had as junior highers), and I will be getting a group of 7th graders. Both of these groups are new to our ministries, and there are a few things we can do to prepare for them. Here’s what I’ve been doing and will be doing in the next few weeks:

  • Pray for God to place the right students in my group. I know that the group I have now must have been handpicked by God because of how they’ve related to my co-leader and me, so I want to do everything I can to let God work.
  • Think through some of what we want to teach them. 7th graders usually come in to our ministry having a lot of Bible knowledge, but not much in the practical side of things. Our junior high ministry supplies curriculum, but I always want to be thinking about how to serve my students best as well.
  • Prepare myself spiritually. I know it’s old school, but I love the illustration of a glass that fills up with water. If I dig into God’s Word and spend a ton of time this summer preparing myself spiritually, I know that my cup will overflow into the students I’ll be getting in the fall.

Matt: Next year I have a group of incoming freshmen guys. Freshmen! Yikes! What a difference from the group of high school seniors I currently have. I’ve joked about getting a group of freshmen but actually I’m pretty excited about it for a few reasons.

First I know the junior high leaders that most of them had, and they had two really Godly men who set excellent examples for them. Second, I think freshman year is such an important year in teens–especially guys. It’s when they really start to take on the who they are going to be and I’m excited to be a part of that.

I’ve already started praying for them and for the group. I don’t really know any of them but I do know that God picked these guys for my group and I want to do all I can to help them on their spiritual journey. I’m also excited to see the spiritual growth in each of them. I have some lesson plans in mind and I’m excited about where God is going to lead this new group.

It also dawned on me that as I’m getting these new students, in their minds they are getting a new leader. I want to do all that I can to be an excellent example to them as well as leading and teaching them.

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

Making volunteers feel valuable

June 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

Since we both are not only on the staff of a church but also volunteer there, we’re always looking for good articles that point out ways to make volunteers feel like they are making a difference in your ministry. I loved this post from  Doug Franklin over at Youth Ministry Leader, I think you will too. Here’s a quick tease below, the entire post can be found here.

MAKING VOLUNTEERS FEEL VALUABLE

Volunteer staff need to feel like winners.  They need to feel invaluable in your eyes and the eyes of the students.  There are several different ways you can accomplish this, but here are just a couple of suggestions:

1.    Choose games that allow the volunteers to provide the vital part needed for success.

Here are three great ideas:

Taste Test: Create a list of 20-30 options and include crazy ones that only the adults would know. Example: For soda tests  include RC Cola, Tab, Diet Rite, etc.

Top 10 Songs from the 80’s: Play short clips from songs and have teams guess the songs. The staff will be the superstar for this game, and everyone will love the nostalgic stories.

Where am I?: Take video shots of yourself at the bank or the library, a grocery store or the courthouse, or any obscure         place around town. Staff generally know the answers because they are more aware of their environment compared to students.  It’s great to see students confused and amazed at places they didn’t know existed in their own town.

2.    Connect their ministry with their passion.
Find out what they enjoy and how they can best use their gifts.  Then structure their responsibilities accordingly.  Some ways to find out where they fit best is to give them a Spiritual Gift assessment or the DISC temperament assessment. It is wise to research how to analyze the results or find someone you know that can help you so the assessments can be applied.

One success story I know of this is when Steve was a new youth pastor, making his volunteer staff feel like winners in a role that they enjoyed was what made the difference for his ministry. One mom would only commit for one year, and she felt like she had to be the mean adult in the group.  When Steve helped her move past that self-assigned role to becoming the friend, she soared.  She was so encouraged by the change that she remained a committed volunteer for the duration of Steve’s ministry.

Go here for the rest!

 

 

 

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

Connecting with God on a deeper level

June 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

One of the best things we can teach students and model for them is to connect with God every day. I’m constantly preaching to my high school small group guys about the importance of a quiet time every day. I can tell when one of them has really taken quiet time serious as well because they become just as big of a spokesman for daily quiet time as I am.

One of the things I have learned from Steven is to every now and then take a quiet time to the next level. He has a “secret spot” he goes to, something where he is away from everyone, and in a serene setting. Once he gets there I usually get a text from him letting me know that he is at “Secret Spot” and about to begin an intense time of connecting with God and that he is shutting off all technology.

This week he shared with me the exact location of his “Secret Spot” and I’m going there today for a time of reconnecting with God. Let me explain something here, I don’t feel disconnected from God at all, in fact I feel the opposite and quite close to God. But I also know it’s a good thing to switch things up every now and then and to connect with God on a much deeper level. So I took the time to clear my schedule this afternoon, got my Bible and a book I want to read today, “What Matters Most” by Doug Fields. Click here to read about this book.

This week I want to pass on to my small group guys the idea of an intense quiet time, totally away from everything and everyone and all distractions. (Don’t worry Steven, I won’t share your spot with anyone, the secret is safe with me!) I know that once they experience what it feels like to connect with God on a deep level they’ll want to incorporate this into their schedule as well.

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

Dealing with change in our lives

June 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I don’t think I know anyone who likes change in their lives. Even positive change means that there is something new and we always seem to have a fear of the unknown. I know for me change means a very negative thing. Most of the change that occurred in my life was the result of something bad that happened so when I realize that change is on the horizon I go through a whole range of emotions. For students, change can be a very scary thing indeed.

How do you deal with change? Here’s what I do when I start feeling the fear of change, this would be great to share with students to help them go through a time of change:

  • Pray and pray a lot. Ask God to guide you through the entire process. When I start getting scared and worried I just stop and remember that I’m not alone, God is right here with me.
  • My personality is such that I need to process things. This might take me a couple of days. During this time however I have to be careful that I weigh out all the issues, both positive and negative and not just the negative, which is easy to do. I’m also a “list-maker”, I’ll sit down and list out everything I’m processing and try to figure out how to deal with the negative and accentuate the positive. It’s not always easy but it helps to write it all down.
  • Talk to someone! We all need to have someone we can talk frankly with about our fears. Sometimes we just need someone to help point out positive things to change that we might not see on our own. I also ask that person to pray for me as well.
  • Remember that sometimes God will close one door to open a greater door for us. It’s hard to realize it when we are dealing with the fear of change but we need to remember that God knows what is best for us.
  • Think outside the box. Change means something is going to be different; this is a time to think about how things will be because of the change and how to make it better, not a time to remember the past, get stuck there and not move on.
  • Change often equals growth and growth is good. God looks for ways to stretch and grow our faith and often that is done during times of change in our lives.

I’d love to hear your ways to dealing with change. You can comment here.

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

Teaching students to lead

June 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Today my small group co-leader and I are trying something we’ve never done before. We decided to let a pair of our students lead small group. We opened up the opportunity to the group last week and asked if anyone would be interested in leading, and to our surprise almost HALF the group wanted to do it! So, this week and next week will be completely student led, from start to finish.

We wanted the guys to come up with a topic to discuss at small group that they were passionate about, and they came with it completely on their own. The big idea they want the group to take away from tomorrow is:

You don’t have to be perfect by the world’s standards because you have already been created in God’s image.

The cool part about them deciding on this topic is that they’ve both had significant experiences in their lives that have taught them a piece of that truth. It has become a personal topic for them, so we know that passion will show through when they lead the group tonight.

When we met with them yesterday to plan out what the night was going to look like, we gave them a rough outline of how we normally plan our group time, but we gave them free reign to do whatever they want. We empowered them the best that we knew how, and I have a lot of confidence that they’re going to do an amazing job.

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Is your life “copy and paste”?

June 18, 2012 by 1 Comment

Matt: It’s so easy to get in a routine and to make ourselves busy. It might even mean making yourself busy doing something that you love. The problem is over time, no matter how much you love what you do, you can get burned out. When that happens everyone loses. For me it’s work. I can get so busy with work and not taking time off that I get stuck in a rut and then I feel overwhelmed. Sometimes we need to have someone point that out to us because we get so wrapped up in our daily activity that we don’t realize the effect it’s having on us.

I’ve had to do some real soul-searching here and realize that I’m in a rut right now. We need rest and we need to step out of the day-to-day routines that trap us. When you’re in student ministry either as a career or as a volunteer we need to remember that students are watching us very closely. They see what we do. It’s important that we don’t set the example of spending so much time serving God that we forget to stop and take time to worship God. When you work for a church, especially a mega-church where there is just so much good you can do and get involved in that you don’t realize that at the same time you’re hurting other areas of your life. We also need to remember that God tells us to take a Sabbath. He knows that we are no good to him if we don’t take time out to recharge our batteries and keep our ministries fresh.

Steven: When I look at my life, I notice that I have a tendency to fall into periods of repetition. Especially during a school semester, each week seems to be a copy and paste of the week before. This is good for structure and keeping on task, but after a while the monotony starts to wear me down. Between work, school, relationships, ministry and other things, there’s a lot competing for my time. After a while, there needs to be a period where I take a break in the repetition and free up some of the things that are competing for my time.

Luckily I recognized this trend early on and I made a course correction to keep my sanity. Normally I work at the church Saturday through Monday. Because I’ll be starting a brand new group of 7th graders this year and I want to get to know some of them before we start small group signups, I decided to take Saturdays off so I could serve with our junior high ministry’s weekend services. Not only does this give me the time relief and break in monotony I need, but it helps me to get to know some of our new students that just came in to our ministry. I had to give up some valuable hours of work (and the pay that comes with it), but I know the tradeoff is way more important right now.

A great resource that talks a lot about freeing up time for the most important things in your life is Doug Fields’s “What Matters Most.” It’s a really quick read (45 minutes or so), and you can get it nice and cheap on Doug’s site. It even ships out from his garage, so it may even come with Doug’s fingerprints on it!

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