Here is a short list of what I believe to be fundamental when teaching/speaking to junior highers:
– The first minute is the most important minute
– It doesn’t need to be long to be good
– If it’s going to be long it needs to be good
– Junior Highers like to laugh
– Junior Highers like stories
– Be authentic
– Be relevant to THEIR world
– When possible, include active learning ingredients. Students learn more when they experience it.
– Offer specific application steps
– The last minute is also the most important minute
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We had our first night of small group tonight. When I got home, I had this note on my Facebook page. I’ll put this in the trophy case. It’s important to celebrate the tokens of appreciation our students shoot our way.
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My friend Josh Griffin just came out with his first book
99 Thoughts for Youth Workers. I read though this book and have some very good things to say about it. It didn’t hurt that he wrote the nice inscription (below) inside the book.
I think a better title for this book is The Best Of MoreThanDodgeball.com. Josh has pulled the best from his blog and put them into a pocket-size book of essential nuggets of wisdom for youth ministry. I highly recommend grabbing this book. At $4.99 per copy, it’s even a great gift book for youth ministry leaders. It would be a great way to say “Thank you”, “I believe in you”, “Happy birthday” or “Merry Christmas”. Of course, don’t forget to include a $5.00 Starbucks giftcard so they can enjoy a tasty beverage as they read it.
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I’ve been asked to share some tips for small group leaders this week in our training meeting. I only have 3 or 4 minutes. Since it’s directed toward rookie leaders,
I thought I’d share 2 helpful thoughts about leading a small group. One is for the leader’s sanity and longevity. The other is for bonding the group in a safe close-knit environment.
1. For your sake: Thinking through age-appropriate behavior will save you a lot of anguish and you can use it to help you plan your lesson
— Think through what to expect from your group based on their gender and age
— What will the energy level and attention span be?
— How can you use that to their advantage while teaching?
2. For your students’ sake: Define the culture of your group and actively pursue it.
— This is our group
— What’s said in the group stays in the group
— We will have fun, but not at each other’s expense
— When it’s time to start the Bible study, we’ll do it without a lot of messing around and everybody will participate
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I got permission from our youth ministry team to conduct volunteer round table discussions. We’ve done these in training meetings years ago. They were some of the best trainings we’ve had because we’re discussing youth ministry concepts with others who also volunteer youth workers. I’m very excited to see the training that comes out of these. I’ll post some of what we learn on this blog.
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Today our high school ministry served a mission organization called Feed My Starving Children. By packaging small bags with rice, soy and dried veggies, we were able to provide food to feed 57 children for a year. I highly recommend this as a service opportunity for students in your ministry. They’ll even come to your location so you don’t have to travel.
All of the details are on their website at FMSC.org
Here are some stats from our efforts today:
We packaged 20,736 meals in 2 hours
That will feed 57 children for a year
Another group served yesterday. Combining our efforts with theirs, here are more life-changing stats:
113,000 meals packaged
That’s enough to feed 311 kids for a year
All of that is to show a big difference can be made with even a small amount of time. We had 85 people working today. I don’t know how many people helped yesterday.
Here’s some more information about this mission organization:
Their website is FMSC.org
Each meal costs 15 cents
$14 will feed a child for about 3 months
They have videos on their website about their work
On their website you can get information about helping them package meals
We had a fun time, they were very organized and easy to work with
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I love leaving students with some kind of a memory they can tie to a lesson. At this weekend’s services, our high school students are writing “heal” and “real” on their arms to remind them that in order to experience healing, they need to get real with God. It’s a great visual that will remind them of the lesson until it washes off.
VolunteerYouthMinistry.com has moved to a new location. To catch up on the latest tips, videos, free resources and conference information click here
Tonight we baptized students after the high school service. I shot a video to share the event. Tonight was more of a celebration than normal. However, I think it would be great if this became normal. So much fun and affirming of the student being baptized! This never gets old. I love it!
VolunteerYouthMinistry.com has moved to a new location. To catch up on the latest tips, videos, free resources and conference information click here
SimplyYouthMinistry.com puts free training in its weekly newsletter. Many times it is specific to volunteering in youth ministry. They also have specials on their products. I recommend subscribing to this weekly bundle of joy. Sometimes you’ll even see material from VolunteerYouthMinistry.com make its way into the newsletter. Don’t hold that against them, though. 🙂 If you are a youth pastor, you will also find great stuff for your newsletter in their freebie section.
VolunteerYouthMinistry.com has moved to a new location. To catch up on the latest tips, videos, free resources and conference information click here
This is part 4 of a 4-part interview with Tom and Marla. In this segment, Tom and Marla talk about some pain in their family and how they used it to help other families seeking help to recover from issues of addiction.
Be sure to also check out the brief comments below the video.
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There are a few things I love about this video series:
– It was videotaped by a student volunteer. This was a great way for him to see some of the heart behind what we do as leaders.
– The video is not professional… much like our service as volunteers. The interview isn’t polished, the camera is shaky, and there are no makeup artists. It’s just regular folks talking about a mutual passion: reaching out to students through ministry
– It’s a good start for other topical interviews to be done in the future
Dennis Beckner
Former Location of VolunteerYouthMinistry.com 