This is my first post all week because I have been in three full days of youth ministry discussions that  has captured my thinking. Without going into details, here are nutshell highlights of some discussions I’ve been in:

1) Our student ministry “Core Leadership” (department heads, directors and regional campus leads) escaped for a couple of days to discuss two key areas:  1, what do you LOVE and HATE about youth ministry? 2, What did you think about this book (I had an advanced copy that I photocopied, with the author’s permission, to give the team)? Both discussions were really rich and the second one led to some great conversation about how we can better train our adult leaders to be good question askers, listeners and fellow journeyers instead of “answer givers” and “information imparters”.

2) We talked A LOT about what a good “entry level”  weekly large-group program for students really looks like. How important is a tight program? Is a program that is jam-packed with games, videos, comedy bits etc. really all that much better than a fairly trimmed-down program? Do students value the production quality as much as we think they do? Would we be better off spending less time during the week on production of the program and more time with the leaders and students who come to it?

3) Today I was with a group of about 20 junior high youth workers and we talked about a bunch of different stuff.  We talked about teaching: How important [...]

Continue Reading “A “Brain-Stretching” Week So Far”

- Church in jeopardy of loosing it’s meeting space over sex series.

- Serbian union leader eats his own finger. Talk about dedication to a cause!

- Have you seen iCarly? Your younger students sure have!

- Some interesting history about Hollister.

- Random, obligatory Broncos news.

Ever find yourself super busy doing all sorts of super good, even important, ministry stuff but wondering if you are doing the right ministry stuff? I know that just because something is good, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good for my schedule, my ministry, my family etc. Below is a list of the major “stuff” I’m participating in over the next 6 weeks or so. It’s all good, but is it all good for me? 

JUNIOR HIGH BELIEVE: I leave tomorrow and fly home Sunday. I speak at this event twice each year and absolutely love it. It gives me a chance to speak to students outside my own church which I don’t do very often.

CORE TEAM RETREAT: Next Tuesday-Wednesday I will take our “core” team away (youth ministry department heads and directors from our four campuses) for a time of team building, brainstorming etc.

SMALL GROUP VIDEO CURRICULUM: On May 12-13 I will be filming 15 junior high small group lessons. I actually only teach about half of them, but play a role in the whole process. This serves two purposes: It provides great bible studies for my own students as well as providing a good resource for other junior high youth pastors.

TEACHING IN COLLEGE MINISTRY: On May 14 I am slotted to guest speak in our college ministry. The primary reason I try to do this every May is because they allow me to recruit summer volunteers. Last year after I spoke, we had 21 college kids sign up to [...]

Continue Reading “Busy Doing Good Stuff….But Is It The Right Stuff?”

About 10 months ago, our student ministry department moved into an amazing new facility. “The Refinery” is about 52,000 indoor, and close to the same amount of outdoor, space that consists of a multi-purpose gymnasium, a theater, an indoor half-court, games, pool tables, eating areas, coffee shop, deli, outdoor grill house, high def monitors throughout and more. I’m thankful for it , but truthfully it’s more than any youth group really needs.

Which brings me to a plot of dirt.

last night I was giving an old college friend and his ministry team a tour of the building and  I couldn’t wait to point out my favorite part of the whole place: a backyard-sized plot of dirt surrounded by some trees. 

You see, this plot of dirt is our “camp ground”. It’s set apart to be a place for small groups to set up a few tents, light a fire and spend the night together. There is still some work to be done on it (trees aren’t grown in well enough to provide privacy etc.), and it hasn’t yet been used to it’s potential. BUT….in a high tech youth ministry world of facebook, iPhones, texting, twitter, blogs, video production and state-of-the-art youth buildings a simple plot of dirt where conversation can flourish, relationships can be strengthened, and memories made is my favorite part!

This past weekend we kicked off a two week series on Global Missions/PEACE (Saddleback’s missions strategy). Two weeks on missions isn’t the easiest junior high topic, but I think we got it started on the right foot.  A few big picture reminders from this weekend’s program:

1) While the band we had was REALLY good musically and vocally, they lacked anybody who really wanted to “lead” the crowd in singing. As a result, music really lagged this week because interaction from stage was pretty much non-existent. It was a great reminder that junior high kids really do need somebody to lead them in worship and singing.

2) Video is still tough to beat. Yes, it can be over-used but pound for pound, I’m convinced students still enjoy video elements in a program as much or more than anything else. We had two fun (and super cheesy) videos this weekend, and both of them stood out as highlights.

3) The jury is out concerning seating around tables. As much as I love the concept, having junior high students sit around tables is really problematic. I think the only way it truly works is if there is an adult at every single table. The biggest problem for me is this: While it makes conversation, interaction etc. really easy for connected kids and outgoing kids, it is brutally painful for a shy or loner student if he/she has to sit around a table and there is no adult there help facilitate a healthy experience.

- A couple days ago I twittered asking for some book recommendations and got a ton of great responses. Because there were so many, I decided to try something fun: I asked my assistant, Karen, to compile them into a list and then to choose the three titles that seemed most interesting to her and those would be the ones I read first. Her email to me after she ordered the first three books was hilarious:

“Just so you know, I totally prayed over my selections that God would lead me to order good ones. If these are crappy, blame him!!!!!”

So…the next three books I will read based on your recommendations then picked by Karen will be “The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith” by Timothy Keller, “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto” by Mark R. Levin and “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us” by Seth Godin

- We are kicking off a short, two-week, series on PEACE (Saddleback’s local and global missions strategy). While I’m super excited about [...]

Continue Reading “Random Randomness”

I found this article about Domino’s recent PR nightmare really good. While the focus is on responding to internet and social networking related PR problems, I couldn’t help but see some correlations to how me might better respond when our junior high ministries take a PR hit with….be it real or perceived.

My life the past year has been a blur of busyness. There has been so much going on in my life and ministry that I have, numerous times, felt almost paralyzed by the “list” of responsibilities, opportunities, options, decisions etc. in front of me on any given day.

My number one love in ministry is simply leading my junior high team here at Saddleback. I have been in junior high ministry since 1988 and it is still my primary calling and the thing that brings me an incredible amount of fulfillment. But the truth is I just CAN’T (and shouldn’t!) do everything all the time…..even stuff I really like.  Today, I took some time to remind myself of what I think my primary roles are; the stuff that the primary leader of a ministry really can’t ask others to do on his/her behalf. Here’s my list….feel free to add or delete in the comments section.

NURTURE MY SOUL: Taking care of my soul is my primary role.

CREATE THE CULTURE OF OUR MINISTRY: How does our ministry “feel”?  How do we treat other team members? What are our values etc.?

POINT THE WAY: Where are we headed? What are our goals? What’s our purpose? What do we want to see accomplished in our midst?

SELL THE VISION: Once God gives me the direction we’re heading, pointing the way is only part of the leadership process. Not everybody will like where I’m pointing! That’s where selling the vision comes in.

EQUIP THE TROOPS: Others can help equip my [...]

Continue Reading “What Does A Leader Do?”

Because it was Easter, we didn’t have junior high services this past weekend. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t eventful! First, a small team from our junior high ministry returned on Saturday from a trip to the Philippines where students helped lead a PDYM youth conference, participated in local church services, ministered to the community in a variety of ways and much much more.

Several of us from our student ministries team partnered up to run a significant portion of our child care for Easter Sunday. We headed up the 1-3 year-old age group and it was a blast. I’ve never seen so many well skilled youth ministers so overwhelmed! We really had no clue what we were doing but had a ton of fun doing it. The experience certainly served to remind us all of our calling to students.

After a long Easter of children’s ministry and family time, Rachel and I dropped into bed feeling really tired but really fulfilled and mindful of the power and significance of Christ’s resurrection. It was a good day.

On tap? Feels like we are headed into a busy, but eclectic little season. In the next 5 weeks we are focusing on Global missions, teaching our 3-week sex and dating series, co-hosting a “how to survive junior high” event with our children’s ministry, leading a service day to the inner city and running an 8th grade retreat. Additionally during the same time I have to squeeze in a speaking trip for Believe, a trip to New York to preview [...]

Continue Reading “Weekend Wrap Up”

Bethany Johnson heads up our junior high small group ministry and she is doing an amazing job! So good, in fact, that I really NEVER need to think about details and am freed up to write curriculum, dream about big picture things etc. Here are a few small group items on my mind today.

- Trying to set most of today aside to start work on writing “scripts” and study questions for two new sets of junior high video curriculum that I want to have in our leaders hands for next season of small groups. One set will be on the book of Proverbs and the other will be called “The Red Stuff” and will focus on Jesus’ words.  If I can just chart a basic course for each today I will feel pretty good.

- Small Groups. I have felt a little (not a lot, but definitely a little) unsettled about our small group structure for a while and am really torn between the ideas that our strategy is a good one that just needs a tiny bit of tweaking and attention vs. maybe it’s time to really begin to re-think junior high small groups and open the door for a variety of groups such as affinity groups, deeper learning groups, larger groups focusing more on relationships etc. In my “gut” it feels better to allow lots of freedom and variety, but organizing such a strategy feels like a nightmare at best! I guess at the heart of my struggle is [...]

Continue Reading “Small Groups On My Mind!”