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Moving On to College

May 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The end of the school year means a time of transition for eight grade students to high school and a time for high school seniors to move on to college. This transition time has been a concern of mine for a couple of years now. I don’t think we do enough on the hand off, especially in high school ministry. We need to move the goal post back a few yards and realize that just because high school is over we’re not done with these students. We need to help them transition to college ministry or often times with students who move away to college, we need to help them find a new church to attend. I just read a great blog by Kurt Johnston and Josh Griffin on this subject and they bring up some great points. This is a must read article. Click here for their thoughts.

One of the problems we have is getting students to move on from a ministry they love, especially your “core” kids. The ones that are at every service and event you have. I think they have a big problem making the move for several reasons. First off they are going from a ministry where everyone knows them to one where they are unknown.  They go from being the big fish in the small pond to being the small fish in the big pond. They are stepping out of their comfort zone. If you have a student who hates change more than the Amish this is really a problem.

We need to get students plugged into college ministry programs before they get out of high school. If your student small group is composed of all seniors, get them signed up as a college small group so they can get to know the small group leaders for college ministry and the college ministry leaders can get to know them.

We need to get college ministry leaders to attend summer camps and begin building relationships with outgoing high school seniors. I almost think we need a separate summer camp just for this!

If you have students moving out of the area to go to school, help them find a church close to their college. Don’t wait for them to leave and do it on their own, chances are unless they are really strong in their walk with God they won’t follow through. Spend some time helping them research the area and the churches there so you can find one that closely follows your beliefs. If you know of previous students in that area, connect the students together so they can know someone there before they move away.

Follow up! Keep in contact, make sure they know you’re there to help and advise them and pray like crazy for them.

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

Too Old, Too Soon; Too Young, Too Long

February 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment

If you’re a junior high youth worker, be sure to check out this post from Kurt Johnston, the student ministries pastor at Saddleback Church. His post is more JHigh specific, but if you’re a high school or college youth worker, this could give you some insight into what will be coming your way in the next couple of years. Excerpt below; follow the link at the bottom for the whole thing.

Do me a favor and re-read the title of this post one more time. I believe it accurately states the current adolescent journey.
For those of us who work with junior highers, it presents a unique opportunity (challenge):
How do we help young teenagers hold onto childhood/youthful innocence while adequately preparing them for young adulthood in our culture?

(Read more)

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

Youth Ministry is a Calling of Extremes

September 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Saw this post yesterday from Josh Griffin and Kurt Johnston and knew it would be popular among youth workers. This simple reminder about youth ministry was a part of the Simply Youth Ministry Today newsletter, and the post can be found in it’s entirety here. Check out the first two below, then head over to MoreThanDodgeball.com for the full post.

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Not long ago, we were chatting it up with a couple of students who had expressed interest in being youth pastors. Our conversation ran through various aspects of youth work when it hit us: youth ministry is a calling of extremes. If you’re new to the gig, you might not feel it just yet – but ask anyone who has been doing it for a while and they’ll tell you it is true.

Extreme schedule
In youth ministry there is no such thing as a typical week. Quite often every day is completely different from the last. This summer alone I (Kurt) ran from event to mission trip to vacation to camp to … I don’t even remember what came next because the schedule was so extreme. It was even busier for Josh…in addition to all the youth ministry stuff, he had to schedule time play video games, watch Star Wars and snack on pretzels.

Extreme salary
Youth ministry pays extreme. Extremely little.

 

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

Called to Youth Ministry

August 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I just came back from junior high summer camp and was reading through my blog feed when I found this gem. Josh Griffin and Kurt Johnston reflect on their calling into the youth ministry game. It brought me back to a talk I heard from Kurt about being called to youth ministry during a counselor meeting at last year’s summer camp. I’m thinking about doing a follow-up post to this in the near future, so stay tuned. Until then, check out this excerpt and then head over to Josh’s blog for the full post.

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I remember hearing a pastor once talk about his “calling to ministry” – my first thought was how mystical it all sounded; that God would pick out some normal person and make them super special for ministry.  Would God’s calling be accompanied by bright light, an audible voice, smoke and lasers? I always wondered what God’s voice must have sounded like (probably like Morgan Freeman’s), and how it must have felt to be hand-picked by the Creator of the Universe for this special job.

And then I felt called, and it wasn’t anything like I thought it might be. It wasn’t super magical, but it was life-changing. Here’s a little from each of us on our calling to youth ministry:

JOSH: My first inclination that God was calling me to youth ministry was through a significant mentor in my life. I was about to graduate my senior year of college and Jerry Dorman told me he was about to leave his current position and become a pastor. He asked me to consider becoming his youth pastor. I couldn’t believe what he was asking (I was newly married and about to graduate with a business degree) but said I would pray about it. Little did I know that this nudge from a caring adult in my life would lead to a lifelong pursuit and calling from God to minister to students.

KURT:Like Josh, the first time I truly felt “called” to youth ministry was through a significant mentor, and it was a fairly powerful moment.  I had taken a semester off from college to go on an extended mission trip to England.  My prayer before leaving was, “God, I don’t want to return to school until I know exactly why I’m there.” I hadn’t told anybody about that prayer, but one night on the trip while the team was huddled together under Big Ben praying for those we had ministered to throughout the day, my youth pastor pulled me aside and said that he believed I was gifted for ministry and should consider changing my course of study when I returned to school.  No lasers, no Morgan Freeman voice, but pretty epic nonetheless.

(full post)

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