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Letting God put the right students in your path

August 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

This fall, I’ll be getting a brand new small group of 10-12 7th grade boys. This has been on my radar since my last group moved up to high school, so I’ve been super intentional about spending time with our junior high ministry at summer events, weekend services and when students show up to our student building out of the blue. The idea was that I would get to meet a lot of incoming 7th graders and begin to build relationships as we move into a new small group season.

Once that started happening, there were a few students I connected with that I started wanting in my small group this year. We connected well, so it seemed like it would be a good fit. When I dug a little deeper, I started dropping hints that these guys could request to be in my group for summer camp and small group. The problem was, they had already asked to be in someone else’s group before we met.

Some time went by, and I had a group of 10 guys at camp that I had never met before. After building relationships with them and hearing their stories, it was clear to me that God had another plan for my ministry this year. I wanted to get these guys in my group from earlier in the summer, but I had forgotten that God already had my group all planned out, and it didn’t necessarily include the guys I would’ve picked.

This was a great reminder to me that we don’t control how the Kingdom is built–God does. As you head into the new school year, try to be more open to who God wants to put in your path… those will be the ones he chose for you, even if you didn’t choose them yourself.

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Junior high guys’ trip recap

July 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment

This last Wednesday and Thursday was our junior high ministry’s annual guys’ trip called Burly. It’s an awesome 2-day overnight event full of manly stuff all over Orange County. We took 45 students and 8 leaders, and covered a lot of miles to do some awesome stuff. I could write all about it, but my friend Dillon Phommasa was a volunteer for the trip and blogged about it already. Best part: there are almost 200 photos from the trip on his blog! Check out a piece of the recap he wrote, then head over to Dillon’s blog for the rest of the recap and all the photos.

Sometimes in youth ministry you just have to be a kid, and BURLY is a perfect time for that. Burly is Wildside’s annual guy’s trip, where we jam pack as many activities as possible along with all the junk food possible into two days. This was my second year at Burly and we did a ton. On the first day we watched a baseball game, went to lazer island, ate at a local pizza place in corona, played some dinosaur thumbwars, had a broomball tournament, watched the Sandlot, and finally went to bed! On the second day we ate breakfast at Chick-Fil-A, drove over to Speedzone, played arcade games, road go-karts & dragsters, played some minigolf, ate lunch at Pat & Oscars, bowled at Bowlmor in the District, and then finally went home.

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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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Summer plans for staying connected

May 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Matt: Some student small groups take the summer off. We do that at Saddleback Church but I want to continue to keep my group connected during the summer. Last summer, even though not every student was able to be there each week, I still had a weekly meeting. I simply told my students to be there when they could. I tried to keep the subject matter light and not do multi-week lessons. I didn’t want a student to miss a week and feel like when he returned he wouldn’t know what we were talking about so each week was a different lesson. Summer can be filled with distractions for students and for some they probably need their small group as much if not more during the summer as they do during the school year.

This year is a little different. I have high school seniors who will be moving on next year so we plan to meet over the summer but with the intent of them forming their own young adult small group. I’ve begun to decrease my involvement with the lesson and with the meeting each week so that they can become more reliant on each other for their group. My current group has some natural leaders and I want them to step up during this time. We’ve also planned some fun outings over the summer, a time to just get together and hang out with each other. I want to keep the unity they have formed with each others and not let it slow down over the summer. I also want them to realize the importance of a small group not just during their junior and senior high school years but for life. I want them to have a group of Christian brothers who will always be there for each other.

Steven: Staying connected this summer is going to be more important than ever for my small group boys. They are moving into a new season of ministry, from junior high to high school. This means they will be making a transition, and there is plenty of opportunity for some of the guys to drop off and not make the jump. To avoid this, we’re doing everything we can to make sure they stay connected with each other so they have a seamless transition.

  • We’re ending our “official” small group meeting time (which normally parallels the school year) with one of the guys’ favorite events–a sleepover in our student building. This will be the 4th time we’ve done it with this group, but we have a few extra things planned to cap off the year.
  • We’ll be meeting through the summer on our normal meeting day. Some of the guys have already started asking if we’ll be continuing after school ends, and we don’t see any reason to end it! If they want to keep meeting, we’re game. We’ll do this up until the guys leave for high school camp.
  • Because some of the guys in our group weren’t able to make it to the sleepover, we wanted to make sure they got to celebrate their time with us too. We’re taking a 24-hour trip to one of our local parks, which is something we’ve never done with them before. It’s close enough that we don’t have to drive far, but far enough away to feel like a total getaway.

This is just an example of some of the stuff we’ll be doing to keep our students connected. In this vital time, we want to give them as good a chance as possible so they start their time off right in high school.

Question: What are you doing to keep your students connected to each other over the summer? Let us know here.

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