I finished reading the Mar/Apr issue of YOUTHWORKER Journal as I was flying home from the PDYM conference. I enjoyed the read more this time than the last issue. Here are some of my thoughts:
What I liked: David Livermore's article, "From IQ to CQ" was excellent. The idea of getting to know "the Other" is so important to me because I don't do it. I was convicted of how I deal with the kids I'm not like and I really want to do something about it. I have a chance to do that this next week as we have 2 new boys who are quite different from the boys we have in our ministry. It will be quite a challenge and I'm looking forward to it.
???: The youth culture update had a section called - of Men and Mice. It really made no sense to me and I really don't see a purpose or point for it in youth ministry. I must be getting old.
Key statement: I love this statement, "There are multiple studies documenting the fact that the stress level of ministry is on the same level as neurosurgery." This was said by Dr Allen Jackson in the article "Caring Amidst Crisis." I would really like to see some of that research.
Something creative: Dale Tadlock had a great article called "Blessed are they who Mourn" that really shared some creative way of setting up a funeral service that kids will be a part of that is kid friendly and helpful for the mourning process of kids.
Friday, March 27, 2009
PDYM 2009 - Final Post
I'm sitting at the Denver airport with free WIFI (nice) but a sporadic connection (not nice) and wanted to get my final thoughts down from the great PDYM conference I'm coming home from. Here are my final bullet points:
1) I really like going to conferences but want to start doing them with my family. Next time I plan on taking my daughter Lindsey.
2) Nothing good happens w/out a team.
3) an idea I've had was put into words for me today - I need to care for my sponsors the way I want them to care for the kids - something I need to do better at.
4) Encourage X3 - "That was good youth ministry I just saw."
5) We need to move our sponsor meetings to different homes.
6) At the sponsor meetings have an agenda but be willing to flex on it as the meeting goes along.
7) Start looking over Bob's (our Sr. Pastor) sermon schedule and see if there are things we have done that I could suggest to him to use as illustrations for his messages.
8) Can't wait to get back with my family .
The conference was a great time to kick back and listen to other people's ideas and thoughts to impact kids. I’m looking forward to getting back to NCBC and being with the great leaders, sponsors, parents, and kids that are there. I love my church family there so much and this conference helps me see that once again.
Note: sponsors are my adult volunteers
1) I really like going to conferences but want to start doing them with my family. Next time I plan on taking my daughter Lindsey.
2) Nothing good happens w/out a team.
3) an idea I've had was put into words for me today - I need to care for my sponsors the way I want them to care for the kids - something I need to do better at.
4) Encourage X3 - "That was good youth ministry I just saw."
5) We need to move our sponsor meetings to different homes.
6) At the sponsor meetings have an agenda but be willing to flex on it as the meeting goes along.
7) Start looking over Bob's (our Sr. Pastor) sermon schedule and see if there are things we have done that I could suggest to him to use as illustrations for his messages.
8) Can't wait to get back with my family .
The conference was a great time to kick back and listen to other people's ideas and thoughts to impact kids. I’m looking forward to getting back to NCBC and being with the great leaders, sponsors, parents, and kids that are there. I love my church family there so much and this conference helps me see that once again.
Note: sponsors are my adult volunteers
Mag report - GROUP (Mar-Apr 2009)
Read the new GROUP magazine on the flight to the PDYM conference at Saddleback. Here are a couple things that stood out to me:
What I liked: Doug Field's interview with Darren Whitehead really resonated with me. The importance of equipping parents to impact their kids' lives is huge. Here is something that really hit me, "We have to move more and more toward being family-based - to have a particular emphasis on helping parents disciple their own kids." Right on Darren Whitehead.
???: When I read Steve Merritt's article "Parenting Parents" I really had a love/hate reaction to it. I agree totally with the idea that we need to help parents. I'm not sure that many parents are going to receive these ideas from most of our youth pastors. Most of them are single/just married/just had their first kid/etc and that is awesome--but hard for parents to be parented by them.
Key statement: I really liked what Stephanie Caro said in her article, "Big Worship." "If your group isn't used to worship experiences and you suddenly introduce them, it will go badly. Avoid that pothole by bringing them in from the beginning - get buy-in."
Something creative: I talked about evernote often on my blog and here is a way that I use it. In the back of every GROUP mag is a section called "the rip out." It has ideas of how to use the current media to impact kids. I put the key idea, verse(s), and key words from those rip outs into evernote. Then when I'm working on a lesson on a given topic I search my evernote and there is something from a past GROUP mag about it I'm able to find it and use it.
What I liked: Doug Field's interview with Darren Whitehead really resonated with me. The importance of equipping parents to impact their kids' lives is huge. Here is something that really hit me, "We have to move more and more toward being family-based - to have a particular emphasis on helping parents disciple their own kids." Right on Darren Whitehead.
???: When I read Steve Merritt's article "Parenting Parents" I really had a love/hate reaction to it. I agree totally with the idea that we need to help parents. I'm not sure that many parents are going to receive these ideas from most of our youth pastors. Most of them are single/just married/just had their first kid/etc and that is awesome--but hard for parents to be parented by them.
Key statement: I really liked what Stephanie Caro said in her article, "Big Worship." "If your group isn't used to worship experiences and you suddenly introduce them, it will go badly. Avoid that pothole by bringing them in from the beginning - get buy-in."
Something creative: I talked about evernote often on my blog and here is a way that I use it. In the back of every GROUP mag is a section called "the rip out." It has ideas of how to use the current media to impact kids. I put the key idea, verse(s), and key words from those rip outs into evernote. Then when I'm working on a lesson on a given topic I search my evernote and there is something from a past GROUP mag about it I'm able to find it and use it.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
PDYM 2009 - Second Post
Another enjoyable day in Calf. Here are 10 more things that stood out to me:
1) I got a chance to spend the evening with my World of Warcraft friend Matt McGill
2) "On Your Own" or "On Their Own" is so important to for discipleship ministry to happen
3) I really want our middle school ministry to be a blast for our kids but I want their experience in sr hi to be even more fun which means we need to pull back a little in middle school - which the cool thing is we already do that.
4) Interesting that I came up with 3 action ideas when we talked through the ministry purpose but only 1 action idea with the other 4 purposes.
5) Surprised myself in how well I understand "purpose driven."
6) I really like how the PDYM people use names of current and former students and leaders to explain what they have and are doing.
7) Again the need for kids and sponsors to really know each other really makes a difference in finding the new leaders.
8) A student grows better if they are allowed to experiment - often.
9) Had a great breakfast, lunch, and supper and someone else paid for it!
10) Had a chance to meet all of the people on the Simply Youth minsitry podcast.
1) I got a chance to spend the evening with my World of Warcraft friend Matt McGill
2) "On Your Own" or "On Their Own" is so important to for discipleship ministry to happen
3) I really want our middle school ministry to be a blast for our kids but I want their experience in sr hi to be even more fun which means we need to pull back a little in middle school - which the cool thing is we already do that.
4) Interesting that I came up with 3 action ideas when we talked through the ministry purpose but only 1 action idea with the other 4 purposes.
5) Surprised myself in how well I understand "purpose driven."
6) I really like how the PDYM people use names of current and former students and leaders to explain what they have and are doing.
7) Again the need for kids and sponsors to really know each other really makes a difference in finding the new leaders.
8) A student grows better if they are allowed to experiment - often.
9) Had a great breakfast, lunch, and supper and someone else paid for it!
10) Had a chance to meet all of the people on the Simply Youth minsitry podcast.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
PDYM 2009 - First Post
Got to California yesterday late to the conference but had a great time getting re-connected with people I know and meeting new people. It is so fun to meet and talk youth ministry. Here are some key reasons why I came to this conference:
1) The networking I will be able to do will reinforce the relationships I have with middle school ministers already and connect with new ones.
2) The chance to see and hear about new and different ways to impact middle school students will keep me from getting into a rut.
3) This will give me some personal away time that is longer than 2 days since I haven’t done a getaway like this since Sep 2007.
4) I hope to meet up with Matt McGill (my World of Warcraft friend.)
4) I hope to meet up with Matt McGill (my World of Warcraft friend.)
Here are some simple “take away”s I have gotten so far:
1) I had forgotten how much of what we do an NCBC is right in line with the purpose driven stuff. I love how we have such a great purpose as a church and our church family knows it.
2) There really is no "one way" to do ministry.
3) The need for ownership for my students and sponsors has to be a high value for us to be successful in impact kids.
4) I really need to take a group of my sponsors to a conference like this - the impact on our ministry would be ten times greater than it is with me only going.
5) I was a little surprised how often the statement "purpose driven" was brought up and that a lot of people take that statement negatively.
6) Evaluation of all we do is a high value.
7) Evangelistic baby steps create momentum.
8) Friendship evangelism needs events & events need friendship evangelism.
9) There is more to a crowd program than a program (People, Place, & Program).
10) I got a chance to meet Matt McGill and hope we can connect - he is really busy right now so it might not happen :(
1) I had forgotten how much of what we do an NCBC is right in line with the purpose driven stuff. I love how we have such a great purpose as a church and our church family knows it.
2) There really is no "one way" to do ministry.
3) The need for ownership for my students and sponsors has to be a high value for us to be successful in impact kids.
4) I really need to take a group of my sponsors to a conference like this - the impact on our ministry would be ten times greater than it is with me only going.
5) I was a little surprised how often the statement "purpose driven" was brought up and that a lot of people take that statement negatively.
6) Evaluation of all we do is a high value.
7) Evangelistic baby steps create momentum.
8) Friendship evangelism needs events & events need friendship evangelism.
9) There is more to a crowd program than a program (People, Place, & Program).
10) I got a chance to meet Matt McGill and hope we can connect - he is really busy right now so it might not happen :(
Monday, March 23, 2009
Family get away - Spring Break 2009
Spring break has come again and we are at a water park again as a family. You can see what we did the last two years by click on 2007 or 2008. This year we decided to go to the Grand Harbor resort and waterpark in Dubuque, Ia. It has been a fun time and everyone has a had a wonderful time making memories together. If you would like to see a short slide show of our time here please click on the pic.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Mag report - YOUTHWORKERS Journal Jan/Feb 2009
I finally got a chance to finish reading the Jan/Feb issue of YOUTHWORKER Journal. For some reason I have a hard time reading through this magazine. I think the reason is that I don't feel like I'm the target youth pastor for it. The truth is I'm not and that is ok. I'm a middle school/jr hi guy and my focus is on that age group. This magazine really focuses its material on sr hi and college youth groups. Still I did get some great thoughts and I'm suggesting a few articles to our sr hi guy (Pastor Mark Forstrom):
What I liked: Walt Mueller has a powerful article called, "Our Kids are Stressed, and It's getting Worse." There is a lot of gems to think through in this article and some great research ideas on how to help our kids through stress (the key idea of the whole magazine). One big thought that hit me was when he was talking about parents. "It's a sad irony that those who should be our kids' first line of defense against stress are too often the first and deepest source of stress in young lives." Important stuff for us as youth ministers to help our kids deal with stress and part of that is to walk with our kid’s parents through stress.
???: Dr. Steven Todd's interview with Julia Duin called "Post-Church Christians" had some very interesting and important thoughts for youth ministry. But I can't help but wonder how some of what was talked about could be implemented in our current youth ministry setting. She said at one point when she was answering what youth pastor's primary focus should be, "Give these kids a realistic idea of what's ahead for the next 40 to 60 years." I can't hardly see what is happening in the next year and it seems to me that ever article, book, etc that writes about things to come (besides the Bible) is of little use. I just don't see how this is relevant to youth ministry, at least in my setting.
Key statement: Mark Oestreicher had a great little article on middle school ministry that had a great statement. "Really we're front-lobby tour guides: We welcome; we orient, we affirm and acknowledge; and we get them all the way to their seats in the grand showroom of the find-who-you-are convention of youth." This reminded me a lot of what Gary Eilts said about middle school ministry - read what he said here.
Something creative: Mark Cannister's review of the book "Sacredspace" by Dan Kimball & Lilly Lewin had me order the book. My worship team and I are going to read through it to see if there are some creative ways we can do worship. Even if we don't use any ideas from the book it should cause us to have some great dialog.
What I liked: Walt Mueller has a powerful article called, "Our Kids are Stressed, and It's getting Worse." There is a lot of gems to think through in this article and some great research ideas on how to help our kids through stress (the key idea of the whole magazine). One big thought that hit me was when he was talking about parents. "It's a sad irony that those who should be our kids' first line of defense against stress are too often the first and deepest source of stress in young lives." Important stuff for us as youth ministers to help our kids deal with stress and part of that is to walk with our kid’s parents through stress.
???: Dr. Steven Todd's interview with Julia Duin called "Post-Church Christians" had some very interesting and important thoughts for youth ministry. But I can't help but wonder how some of what was talked about could be implemented in our current youth ministry setting. She said at one point when she was answering what youth pastor's primary focus should be, "Give these kids a realistic idea of what's ahead for the next 40 to 60 years." I can't hardly see what is happening in the next year and it seems to me that ever article, book, etc that writes about things to come (besides the Bible) is of little use. I just don't see how this is relevant to youth ministry, at least in my setting.
Key statement: Mark Oestreicher had a great little article on middle school ministry that had a great statement. "Really we're front-lobby tour guides: We welcome; we orient, we affirm and acknowledge; and we get them all the way to their seats in the grand showroom of the find-who-you-are convention of youth." This reminded me a lot of what Gary Eilts said about middle school ministry - read what he said here.
Something creative: Mark Cannister's review of the book "Sacredspace" by Dan Kimball & Lilly Lewin had me order the book. My worship team and I are going to read through it to see if there are some creative ways we can do worship. Even if we don't use any ideas from the book it should cause us to have some great dialog.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Book report - Reaching a Generation for Christ part 2
This is my second report on the book “Reaching a Generation for Christ” that I’m slowly reading through since it is a very long text book and I want to glean from it a number of ideas. You can read my first book report here and then come back and read about this one.
I found two key ideas from part 2 “Structures for Youth Ministry” that really stood out to me. Both ideas came from Mark H. Senter III eight axioms of youth ministry.
The first key idea that hit me was the overwhelming importance of adults involved in students lives. “The Christian discipleship of students will not take place without flesh and blood relationships,” is a very powerful thought from the first Axiom. Throughout the different Axioms this idea of relationships with adults are talked about. But another important thought about relationships stood out to me as well. This thought was that we as adults working with students must be careful not rely on our identity to be fulfilled through the students. Mr. Senter put it this way, “adults must be willing to release students when spiritual independence is necessary.”
The second key idea deals with the maturing of the of the youth leader which must happen by letting go slowly of different parts of the ministry to other people. Axiom 12 really talks through this and even shares a three stage process youth leaders must go through to mature and thus have their youth ministries mature. I think these stages are a good outline but there needs to be more meat to these stages to really impact the maturing process. I really like this thought, “As a youth worker grows, the focus of his or her ministry must change from primary ministry to secondary ministry or else the effectiveness of his or her efforts will be severely limited.”
There are two more sections in the book about models of youth ministry that were a good read but didn’t have anything really stand out to me on. I’ll keep reading through this book and see what other insights might jump out at me.
The first key idea that hit me was the overwhelming importance of adults involved in students lives. “The Christian discipleship of students will not take place without flesh and blood relationships,” is a very powerful thought from the first Axiom. Throughout the different Axioms this idea of relationships with adults are talked about. But another important thought about relationships stood out to me as well. This thought was that we as adults working with students must be careful not rely on our identity to be fulfilled through the students. Mr. Senter put it this way, “adults must be willing to release students when spiritual independence is necessary.”
The second key idea deals with the maturing of the of the youth leader which must happen by letting go slowly of different parts of the ministry to other people. Axiom 12 really talks through this and even shares a three stage process youth leaders must go through to mature and thus have their youth ministries mature. I think these stages are a good outline but there needs to be more meat to these stages to really impact the maturing process. I really like this thought, “As a youth worker grows, the focus of his or her ministry must change from primary ministry to secondary ministry or else the effectiveness of his or her efforts will be severely limited.”
There are two more sections in the book about models of youth ministry that were a good read but didn’t have anything really stand out to me on. I’ll keep reading through this book and see what other insights might jump out at me.
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