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Small Group Overnighter

November 22, 2011 by 1 Comment

Last weekend our High School Ministry at Saddleback Church hosted a “Small Group Overnighter”. The event was held at a hotel near Disneyland. After a short program with all the groups in attendance, and a prayer to send us off into the night, the groups were free to just hang out, go eat and spend some quality time together. It was a great opportunity and a chance to bond your student small group closer to each other. 

One of the things my guys had asked was if we could do a really deep Bible study session that night. Okay, I thought. If you want a really deep Bible study session, you’ll get one. I have a huge advantage in that Steven has been adopted by my group and was going with us that night and since he is a Biblical and Theological Studies major at Biola University, I took full advantage of that and asked him to help me put together a lesson for the night. We chose the topic, “What it means to be a disciple”.

Steven’s lesson was off the charts and the participation that night was amazing, the guys in my group are at a very deep spiritual level, and the participation level that night was incredible. And as pleased as I was that night, and made sure to take time to thank God that night for this small group, the big payoff for me came the next day when I got the following text from one of the guys:

            “Hey, so I’m pretty sure I came out of that retreat last night a different person.”

It was a reminder to me of a few things:

  • This is God’s group, and he is working and growing this group in ways I still can’t comprehend.
  • If you open yourself up, God will use you as a leader.
  • There are students in your group that you can reach, but you might need to find other ways to get to them. Once you do, it’s a life changing event.
  • Teaching about God’s love, grace, forgiveness and salvation is the most important thing we can pass on to the next generation.
  • Find the leaders in your student small group and work on developing them.
  • Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray for your group by name, for each thing you know is going on in their life. This student who sent me that text has asked me before to pray for God to help him “come out of his shell”. It happened at this overnighter and God has helped change him. I can’t wait to see where this student goes from here.

 

 

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

Guest Speaking in a Different Small Group

September 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Steven: Since we wrapped up our series on Temptation, my junior high small group has taken a couple of weeks off from meeting. We have met every week since last October, so I wanted to give them a 2-week break to get into the flow of classes and a change of pace before the official small group launch in October.

This 2-week break gave me the opportunity to try something different. I had always wanted to sit in on one of Matt’s small groups with his high school guys, so I asked him if he thought it would be okay last week. He was all for it, but I also wanted him to ask his guys if they were comfortable with an “outsider” coming in for a week. They were stoked, so I got the green light. Some of Matt’s boys are interested in going to Biola, so Matt asked if I would talk to the group a bit about how God altered the plans I had for my life and brought me to Biola.

This was an awesome experience for me, and I think it was cool for the boys to hear a different perspective on things too. One thing I’ve learned in a few years of youth ministry is that no matter how many times you say something to students, sometimes it just takes a different person’s perspective to really sink it in. It’s always great to have some fresh takes on the things your students need to hear.

From a leader’s perspective, I loved the opportunity to get to meet and hang out with some students that were different than the age I’m used to leading. Going from 8th graders to seniors in high school is different in a lot of ways, but I definitely saw some moments that made me feel like I was back at home in my junior high group!

If you have the opportunity to either speak to a different group of students or bring someone else in, I highly recommend it. The different speaker may just be the thing your students need to take them to the next level.

Matt: Having a guest speaker come to your small group can bring a different perspective to the group. It’s a change from the ordinary and can being some fresh air to a group. This past week Steven came and spoke to my high school small group. I have all seniors this year and I knew that some of them are “college shopping” and trying to figure out what they want to do in life. When Steven asked about coming to my group one night, I knew what I wanted him to talk about, his education path to Biola and how he got there. My guys loved it! It was a different voice besides mine talking to them, Steven is closer to their age, so hearing him talk about college and his senior year in high school had a tremendous impact on them. Almost all of them text me afterward and thanked me for having Steven come talk to them. (I also noticed they all added Steven on Facebook the next day so that also showed me how they had appreciated him talking to them.)

While Steven was talking with my guys, I kept watching them. They were all  listening and as he talked about events in his senior year of high school I could tell they were all connecting with Steven and could relate what he was saying to their own lives right now. It was a big plus for my group and added an element that I couldn’t have the same impact. I plan on having Steven come back and talk to them again in the future. One thing I did…I knew I wanted Steven to come talk to my guys, but I wanted to get their permission first as well. After all this is their group and I didn’t want to bring in an outsider without seeking their input first.

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

Don’t try to bring students to your level – get to theirs

June 7, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Last semester I started as a student at Biola University. It was a major change for me (literally and figuratively). I had never been a part of any kind of Christian or private school, and I made a significant change in my major from Engineering to Biblical Studies. I have gone to public, secular schools my whole life. This new style of education was a bit of a shock at first, especially on my first day of classes when all of the professors opened the class in prayer. After I had been in school for a few weeks, I noticed a slight change in how I was leading in ministry – I tended to get a little more technical and detailed when it came to talking about God and the Bible with my students.

After a few weeks of leading like this, I realized what I was doing and made a course correction to fix this. I understood that my junior high students probably aren’t going to meet me at the level of detail that my professors are feeding me, so I needed to get down to a level they could understand.

I think this is a major flaw a lot of leaders in youth ministry have. Maybe not in the same way that I did, but the overall idea in general. We try so hard to get students to understand concepts and ideas that we want them to know, but we do it on our terms. Most of the time, students don’t soak in what we try to feed them when we do it on our terms… We need to get down to theirs. We reach out a hand and tell them to grab on so we can pull them up, but what we should be doing is crouching down to get to them.

Leaders: Instead of finding ways to bring your students’ understanding to your level, find a way to get to theirs. Put things in their terms. Use pop culture. Relate things to them in a way they can understand and track with.

Question: How do you make sure to relate with students on their level and not yours?

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