Youth Ministry – This Is Why I’m Alive

Time to Get Back on the Diet

A couple of years ago one of my small group Bible study students asked me to hold him accountable in a few areas of his life. One of them was physical fitness. If I was going to hold him accountable for fitness, I also needed to get fit. I trimmed down by 40 lbs in 2 months. It was awesome! It scared a few people that I did it so quickly, though.

I kept the weight off for 2 years. However, last Thanksgiving I fell off the wagon and didn’t get keep up good eating habits and exercise. These shorts fit me not too long ago. When I’m back in shape, they will again. Today it’s time to get back on track. Wish me luck! My goal is for these shorts to fit again by the end of May 2009. What really scares me is stepping on the scale at the gym this morning. I don’t want to know what the damage is.

This student has also fallen off the wagon. We were talking last night about it while eating at In & Out Burger… for me a last unhealthy meal for a while. I’m going to challenge him to get back in shape with me. Youth ministry can and should be about more than just spiritual health.

This time I’m keeping a log of my workouts as a way to challenge myself to gradually do better and know for sure how many days I skip. I’m a little bummed that I’m going to miss all next week since I’ll be on our high school mission trip to New Mexico. I’ll just try to eat a few less cookies this year.

Mission Trip Musts for Volunteers

I’m leaving on Sunday for a week-long mission trip with our high school students. My mind is already thinking about what I need to pack to make sure this is as pain-free as possible. I’ve learned to pack as lightly as possible. It’s easy to over-pack and take up more room than I need. It’s a waste of time and space. However, there are a few items that are a must (in addition to the obvious sleeping bag, toiletries, etc).

Our mission trip is one of the few events where adults are more chaperones than ministers. We minister to our students, but we let them do the ministry to the children. Student leaders oversee the program to the people we’re reaching out to. We allow them to succeed or fail with as little help from us as possible. It’s a brilliant learning, team-building, reality-check experience for them. Because of this, many of the items on my must-bring list reflect ways that I can serve them without being the leader of their tasks. Some of them, however, are just for my own comfort and convenience.

Here are some bits of wisdom I’ve learned over the years to put on my packing list:

1. Instead of a suitcase or duffle bag, I use a Rubbermaid tub. I learned this from a student. It keeps my stuff from getting stepped on in the tent and if it rains, everything stays nice and dry. The year it rained, we had to abandon camp and head for shelter for 3 days. I was very happy I learned this tip before that trip!

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2. Pool float – I have a self-inflating mat, but a pool float works so much better when there are rocks under the tent. This is another tip I learned from students. Also, pool floats are super inexpensive and can be thrown away. I don’t buy the cheapest one I can find, though. I want something that can for sure hold air and take a little abuse for a week. I’ve never taken a spare, but it would be a good idea. That might even be a good ministry idea to bring an extra to share with a student.

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3. Battery-operated air compressor to inflate the pool float. Sure you can do it yourself, but this is so much easier. Also, another great way to connect with students… allowing them to borrow it to inflate their own floats.

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4. Two folding chairs – another ministry idea. Every time we have chapel, I invite a different student to sit next to me. They are glad not to have to sit on the ground. It’s a great way to have some one-on-one connect time as we wait for the program to begin.

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5. Wet wipes – lots of them – on our trip we don’t get showers for 7 days. Wet wipes are a huge help. This is another great sharing opportunity.

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6. Three bags of cookies. One to share on the trip out. Another to surprise the students on day two or three when they’re needing a little boost. The third is for the trip home. Students always treat me like a hero when I surprise them along the way with these.

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7. Hand lotion – another hero – maker. I typically pull this out on the last day after students are all dried out from a week in the sun. It’s funny how many of them turn it down at first. The few students who take it kind of flip out over how good it feels to apply lotion after a week of no showers and hanging out in the sun all day. After that happens, everybody wants it.

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8. Hand sanitizer – a big bottle for the van and a small bottle for the pocket – I’m a germ-a-phobe. I want to keep my hands clean, but I also want to make sure my students can, too.

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9. Sunblock – We have our chapel services outside. In the morning as we are about to start, I like to go around giving students sunblock. It’s a great way to keep sunburns down while also meeting their needs. It gives them an example of how easy it is to care for people. I don’t tell them that’s what I’m doing, just leading by example.

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Bonus: I’ve never used this, but I found this picture while looking for a picture of a rubber tub. We are using busses instead of vans this year so there’s no use for it. However, I can see this being a great cup holder to put between the front seats of the van. Inside the tub can be trash or supplies. Great possibilities!

Bad Attitude Day as a Necessary Tradition

We’re getting ready to take our students to New Mexico for a week of serving on an Indian reservation. I’ve helped with our Spring Break trip for about 10 years. On year 3 or 4 I stumbled into what turned out to be a brilliant idea. I’ve used it ever since.

I got tired of Wednesday. This 1/2-way mark of the trip was always plagued with bad attitudes. Students were tired and getting on each others’ nerves. The 2nd wind was coming, it just never came until the pain of Wednesday was over.

One year in our training meetings, I told the students that they needed to save up their bad attitudes for Wednesday. On Wednesday, we were going to have “Bad Attitude Day”; which was tongue in cheek, of course. It had an amazing affect on our week, though. Ever since that time, I’ve always announced Wednesday as Bad Attitude Day.

PDYM: Water Canon Video

We have a water canon outside the Refinery building at Saddleback Church (what church doesn’t?). Here’s a video they shot of some unsuspecting attendees getting a little blast from our water feature. Good times.

Crowd Program: Poll Your Crowd – Fun, Interactive, Live, Effective

Our high school ministry has used this for the past couple of weeks. It’s super cool. The teacher will ask the crowd a question then have students text in their answer or vote. Everybody can see in real time how the crowd feels about an issue, struggles with a topic, etc. It’s a great way to get the students involved and then drive home a message.

Here’s a link to their website:
PollEverywhere.com

I’ve Seen It All

I’m sure this video will soon be posted all over the Internet. It’s incredibly awesome. My friend Jake makes these videos for conferences. Their always super funny. This one, however, while funny, also has an amazingly encouraging message reminding youth workers why we do what we do.

Here are other videos Jake has done:

Video Scavenger Hunt

A few years ago I put together a video scavenger hunt for my small group guys. We broke into 2 teams. Armed with a video camera and a list of items to capture video of, they went off to film as many of the items as possible. There were also bonus points available for over-the-top footage.

At a specified time, we met back at the church where we watched each video and talked about all the funny experiences each team had. I pre-printed the awards and hand-wrote students’ names on them as we voted on who should receive each award. Instead of breaking a small group into two for this event, you may want to challenge another small group. Each group would be its own team.

Please tell your friends about VolunteerYouthMinistry.com. There’s lots of great stuff here. More is added all the time!

Have fun! Links to all the files are below. If you do the scavenger hunt, please come back to leave a comment so everybody can know how it went.

Video Scavenger Hunt | Worst Injury Award | Winning Team Award | Scariest Award | Most Daring Award | Got Shot Down Award | Funniest MVP Award | Best Use of a Prop Award | Ate Grossest Thing Award

PDYM ’09 – Session 8: Volunteers

Big Picture Principles:
1. God has the leaders, you just have to find them
– God cares more about your youth ministry than you do. You just have to look for them in expected and unexpected places
— Remember Marv? 70-year-old volunteer
— Students recruited him
— “You know Marv loves you, don’t you?” – kids lined up for it
— A healthy youth ministry depends on a dependence on the power of God
–10% of your volunteers will feel called by God, 90% will be asked
—Click this link to read a post I wrote about how Josh Griffin wooed me into some youth ministry responsibilities

2. Raise the bar, raise healthy leaders
— It’s always easier to hire somebody than fire somebody
— Exodus 18:17-23
— You can do youth ministry, but not alone
— 1 Peter 5:2-3
— Have a screening process (application, background check, requirements)
— Saddleback’s volunteer process is in First 2 Years of Youth Ministry and Purpose Driven Youth Ministry
— Here’s an article written by Doug Fields entitled Why Do You Ask About Child Abuse On Your Potential Leader Application

3. Encourage your leaders
— Redirect encouragement to your volunteers
— Be specific with praise
— Value leaders publicly
— Here’s a link to some great articles and resources to train and encourage volunteers
— Box of thrills at camp – volunteer idea

4. Volunteers need
— Care
— Conversation
— Confrontation
— Challenge
— Here’s a link to an article about keeping volunteers

Key Learnings

1. Training meetings are overrated. One-on-one care is more effective (on a personal note: training meetings are still important for training and encouragement of the volunteers as a group)
2. Great communication goes a long way
3. Leading volunteers is a ministry within itself

Other Ways

1. Ask leaders to find or refer you to potential leaders
2. Ask your pastor what he’s speaking on and then give him illustrations about the great stuff going on in your ministry that fit in with his message
3. Get them to volunteer for a short-term special event then put them with your all-star kids & coach the kids to make them fall in love with youth ministry
4. Equip and encourage them
5. Have many levels and ways to get involved as volunteer leaders

Related Resources:

— Developing a Strong Volunteer Team, by Doug Franklin
— Removing Somebody From Your Leadership Team, by Doug Fields
— How to Fire Volunteers, by Mary Margaret Mitterling
— Help! I’m A Small Group Leader

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— Help! I’m A Volunteer Youth Worker

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— Help! I’m A Woman In Youth Ministry

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Three websites Doug wants you to visit regularly
PDYM Community (look for chapters of the rewrite of PDYM 10th Anniversary edition)

• SimplyYouthMinistry.com
• SimplyKurt.com
• MoreThanDodgeball.com

Site Doug didn’t mention, but you definitely need to put at the top of your bookmarks:

• VolunteerYouthMnistry.com

Dinner at Chipotle with Some PDYM Youth Workers

Thursday night of PDYM I got to have dinner with a bunch of guys from the conference. Good times. For many in the group, it was the first excursion to the sweetness of Chipotle.