Lesson Helpers: iPhone & iTouch Youth Workers Need This Free Application

Search in Applications for YouVersion. You can download the free Bible. It’s incredibly useful. You can search by verse or keyword. You can even bookmark your verses for the night and click on each verse as you need it. You can even teach your small group students to use it. God’s Word will be more fun to use when you mix it with technology they already love.

Here are some screenshots from the application:

The Power of a Good Word

A friend of mine operates a pretty well-known youth ministry blog (MoreThanDodgeball.com). A few days ago he liked one of my blog posts and put a link from his blog to mine. See the affect it had on my webstats in the graphic below. It’s not difficult to guess which day he posted the link. It’s amazing what a good word from a respected source can have.

The volunteer youth-ministry application for this goes back to the idea of encouragement. If you look at the development of your students, there is a big difference in the lives of students who get encouragement from a trusted source (like you and me) and those who don’t have a caring adult pouring into their lives.

Let’s never underestimate the power of our influence.

The Power of a Good Word

Ministry Lessons: Don’t Let ‘Em Off The Hook

One of my students sent a note to me today saying that he couldn’t make it to small group tonight. He was pretty vague in his explanation, but it had something to do with showing his parents his grades. He said his grades were fine, but there was some issue.

My note back to him was, “Great. Get it done and come to small group when you can.” I always respond with some kind of expectation that they will follow through on their commitment to small group. It’s this expectation that keeps small group a high priority in their minds. If I let them off the hook by saying it’s okay or it’s not a big deal, then it won’t be a big deal. I want them to feel a little pressure for not being there. It’s healthy for keeping their priorities straight.

Too often the church takes a backseat to sports, drama practice, choir and many other things. We should consider these commitments while scheduling our small groups. However, once students commit they need to be held accountable for following through… always in love.

Great Note From A Former Student

I love getting notes from students about what they’re doing in ministry, about how I’ve impacted them or about the good ole days. By sharing these on my blog, I hope these “trophies” can be an inspiration to a youth worker who is new, discouraged in ministry, or doesn’t feel “qualified”. I had a pretty rough start in ministry. Several years later, I frequently see the rewards in changed lives of current students and in former students who are now pouring into others.

Here’s a note I got today on Facebook from a student who was in my Area Bible Study from 1999-2002.

A note Jen wrote on my Facebook wall

Facebook Ministry

In the past few weeks I’ve become a Facebook user. It’s been great because I’ve reconnected with long-lost friends and friended many current friends and students. As great as that is, it’s pretty typical for what I would expect to happen.

However, what I didn’t expect is the ministry angle of Facebook. Last night I counseled a girl from my ministry using the chat feature. She was sharing her faith with an atheist friend of hers. He would ask her a question which she would answer and then turn to me for more information. She was able to make a difference in his life.

In one of my other posts I put a picture of a chat I had with a student who was sharing how excited he was about the difference he had made in another person’s life. I was ministered to through his excitement and encouragment. We had a great ministry moment on Facebook.

I’m beginning to see Facebook as the bridge between the weekend service and small groups. If my computer is on, I’m logged into Facebook. My students know they can log on and talk to me if they need to. They’ve always known they can call me on the phone. However, there’s something about connecting on Facebook that is easier for them and makes it more likely they’ll want to talk.

A Little About You

I’d love to know a little about you and how this blog may be useful to you. Can you please take 5 seconds to answer these poll questions?

If you would like to contribute to this blog or give suggestions, please e-mail me at dennisbeckner@gmail.com or comment on this post.

Calling All Volunteer Youth Workers

Hey fellow youth workers,

My passion in youth ministry is to not only be a great volunteer to my students, but to also help create community among volunteers so we can learn from each other, encourage one another and challenge each other.

I would love to hear from you through either comments on my posts or by email. I have a lot of ideas to share and will get more throughout the year. I’d love to post some of your ideas as blog posts, too. My e-mail address is dennisbeckner@gmail.com

Lastly, if you like what you see, please tell others about this blog. The more the merrier. As a youth ministry volunteer, I know how great it is to share ideas with other youth workers. Nothing against the paid professionals, but sometimes it’s better to talk with other volunteers because we have a different perspective.

I hope to hear from you soon,

Dennis

Lesson Helpers: Cutting Up My Lesson Plan

I am very aware of the need for students to share in small group. I try my best to get them to talk more than I do. I have so many stories and pieces of helpful advice for almost anything my students can say. It’s a fight to keep myself from dominating the small group time.

One Solution I’ve Found

I don’t do this very often, but it is a good way to get the students talking more than me and help them have ownership of the lesson.

I cut the lesson into segments. I number each segment so the curriculum stays in the right order. During small group time I hand each person a segment and have them teach their part of the lesson. Each student may only get a paragraph or a question, but it’s theirs to own and lead that part of the discussion.

How They Benefit

– It helps us get through the material because each student typically wants to lead the section he’s given
– Students feel more inclined to share when being led by a peer because they want to help their friend succeed
– They feel a sense of leadership and healthy pride for getting to lead a segment
– The lesson has a better chance of sinking in because they typically interact with the material on a deeper level when I use this method

Why I Don’t Always Do This

If this works so well, why wouldn’t I do it every week? I believe it works so well specifically because I DON’T do it every week. One of the reasons this works so well is that it’s an unexpected surprise when students get to small group. If I did it every week, the novelty would wear off and it wouldn’t be as effective.

Bonus Material

This is related, but not specific to this blog post. Each year I offer my seniors a chance to teach a week of small group during the second semester. Not all of them take me up on it, but it’s a small way to honor them and give them a chance to step up. I love when they accept the challenge.

Lesson Helpers: Using My Graduates

The point of this blog entry is to point out that even though students have graduated from your ministry and may be hundreds of miles away, they can be very important to your ministry.
How Graduates Can Help (even from afar)

College students can reinforce your message in a way you are trying to communicate because:

– They are where your students aspire to be. This adds appeal to their message
– They have hindsight perspective on what is and isn’t important about high school
– They are close enough in age and culture to your students that they don’t appear as out of touch

My Most Common Way To Use Them

Tonight our small group curriculum is about the importance of connecting with other Christians for support, spiritual growth, service, companionship, etc. This is one of the 5 purposes of life that we teach about each year in small groups. We refer to this purpose as Connect.

I’ll teach this lesson tonight, but the best part of the lesson won’t come from me. I’m going to call Eric. He’s one of my students who graduated a couple of years ago. Eric goes to college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo so there’s no way he can be here in person, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use him. I wouldn’t teach this lesson without his help because he’s the best asset I have… he’s been where I’m trying to lead my students, he’s from their generation and he can testify about the importance of connecting with other Christians on a deeper level.

Each year in small group I beat the drum of the importance of being in a devotional accountability relationship with another believer. This is a simple e-mail connection students make with their partner each night to confirm that they read their Bible, prayed and wrote in their journals. Without the accountability to make this a daily part of their lives, many won’t do it. What I’ve discovered is that many high school students have never read their Bibles on their own outside of church.

How I Get The Message Across Using A Graduated Student

What I know about these accountability relationships is that the longer they go, the deeper they grow. Although they start with a basic level of accountability, they can open the door for accountability about deeper issues that people typically keep private such as temptation, thoughts and purity. I know they desperately want to be known on a deeper level. However, I need help getting them to the point of starting the process.

Tonight I’m going to call Eric using the speaker phone feature on my cell phone during our small group time. I’ll interview him about the pros and cons of his experience. I’ll ask him how it helped him in high school and what it’s meant to him as he attends a secular university. I’ll also ask about the value this relationship has played in his spiritual development and the depth of his connection with his accountability partner. I’ll also allow my students to ask questions.

I could teach this lesson to my students and do a good job. However, using a former student who has taken the accountability challenge will make it come alive and help students see the need. At the end of tonight’s lesson, I’ll renew the challenge I gave last week to find an accountability partner. I’ll beat the drum until they start then I’ll encourage them along the way once they do.

Update To This Blog Post

Today I got an e-mail from Eric’s brother. He wrote, “Eric liked that you called him.” Coming from a guy, that’s saying a lot. I don’t think I had even really thought of the impact this could have on the graduate. I imagine including them is a great way to help them give back and get a great feeling of accomplishment.

Eric gave a great interview in our conference call last night. It was kind of a funny situation. In the building where our small groups are meeting for this semester there’s an incredible echo. With all of those groups meeting at one time, it can be hard to hear. Eric was also sick so we were having extra trouble hearing him. We went into the elevator for the conference call. It got kind of hot in there, but at least we could hear.

My guys definitley had a great response to this. Their eyes were opened to the need and benefit for being part of an accountable relationship. I also had 3 of my current guys who have been in accountable relationships share what has worked for them. I expect by the end of the semester we’ll have some close accountability relationships going in our group. I’m super excited to see that happen.

Traditions

Traditions are an important part of my ministry to students. They create anticipation for my boys as they look forward to an event, build community, and help increase the value of my ministry in the life of the student, that student’s family and to the ministry I serve. When they look back on their high school years, I want their memories to go back to times they spent with their Bible study leader and with Christian friends in small group or at camp.

Here are some traditions I’ve started over the years. Maybe they will be useful to you. Hopefully they’ll trigger some of your own ideas, too.

Small Group Traditions:

Driver License Lunch: I tell my students that once they get their driver license, they can come pick me up and take me to lunch. They drive, I buy. It’s up to them, however, to take the initiative to call me when they’re ready.

Wisdom Teeth Extraction: When one of my guys gets his wisdom teeth out, I take a BIG container of sour gummy worms to his house. It’s kind of funny because he can’t eat them until he gets better. Maybe a better word for “funny” would be “mean”. The idea is that having the gummy worms gives incentive for them to get better quickly. This tradition allows me to get some connect time with a student and hopefully meet his family, too.

Chem/Flem: Students share “Chem” – what was good about their day and “Flem” – what they wish hadn’t happened that day. One of my students suggested this. We don’t do it every week, but it’s a great way to get them talking about their lives. Usually when a student brings it up, it’s because they already have something in mind they want to share.

Camp Traditions:

T-shirts: I find T-shirts as cheap as I can. That usually means an ugly color off the sale rack at Mervyn’s or Target. I can usually get them for less than $2. I get all the same color. I’ll commission a couple of the older students to come up with a design, then print the design onto iron-on paper. Together at my home we iron the design onto the shirts.

Each year the cabin guys are anxious to see what the design is for that year. The funny thing is it’s always something that makes no sense, but the students like it. Other students ask where they can buy them. This baffles me because the shirts really don’t make any sense.

Years later, I’ll still see students wearing those shirts. They create a great memory and, during the camp, they create great community within my cabin. We’ll pick a day to wear the shirts all together, but they seem to get worn a lot throughout the week… which is a little nasty. They’re super cheap. The bang for the buck is huge.

Zebra Ambush Cabin Shirts

Toaster Core Cabin Shirts

Candlestick Liftoff Cabin Shirts

Journaling: Every year I buy some cheap notebooks. I print labels with the graphic from the shirts above and each student’s name. I put these labels on the front of the journals. On the first page of the journal, I put a label with all of my contact information and a label to create a place for them to write each other’s contact information. The rest of the journal is for cabin time at night. After the evening chapel we head back to the cabin and write a quick synopsis of what we learned that day then we’ll do a debrief together.

While we do this, the camp is usually going crazy. After our cabin time, they’re free to do what they want and go crazy for a while. However, keeping this discipline in our cabin allows the message of the day to sink in a little before they go crazy in the last hour before bed. We usually have some pretty good discussion time.

I also bring 2 bags of cookies with me to camp. One for the first night of journal time and one for the last night.