by Chase | Student Min
Student ministry can be downright weird.
As a leader, you are in a mix of teen culture, puberty (not you, but that middle school kid), and social media.
- Which Kardashian did what?
- When does the new gaming system come out?
- Why can’t students stay with a social media for more than three years? Come on students, you are exhibiting some commitment issues!
You are continually reliving middle and high school as if you’re the church’s equivalent to Billy Murray in Groundhog Day.
Often you are looking for an outlet to have conversations with adults, but until that happens, you are content arguing why DC Comics is better than Marvel.
Let’s be honest, deep down you would rather talk about Krypton than health insurance premiums.
Student ministry is unique to say the least!
To celebrate the greatest phase of ministry in a local church, here are a few student ministry proverbs.
Student Ministry Proverbs
- Sugar stirs up trouble within the group;Â Caffeine emboldens the meekest.
- Leaving your phone unattended results in 1,000 selfies on your phone’s camera roll.
- Identify the student who has an obsession with medieval weaponry and befriend him at once.
- Always screen the jokes students plan to use during the welcome time. An un-supervised joke will end with a call from your supervisor.
- Messy games are all “fun and games” until someone throws up – then it is legendary!
- An angry high school girl is like a roaring lion – make them all mad and you are dead.
- Glow sticks are a lamp unto my feet and a light during Neon Night.
- Three things we will never understand: How the soundboard is always messed up, how the girls’ bathroom is dirtier than the guys’, and how that one kid wins the March Madness bracket by picking the mascots…
- It is better to take ahold of a mad dog by his ears than to argue with a middle schooler about Minecraft.
- If a parent drops a student off hopped up on sugar, we shall send them hope with the same amount of energy.
- The leader who allows a student to drive him to an event deserves the high blood pressure that he will receive during the drive.
- The man who challenges a high school guy to a pizza-eating contest is a fool – may God have mercy on his digestive tract.
What proverbs would you add to this list?
by Chase | Kid Min, Student Min
“Am I already home?”
Chances are, you have asked this question before as you have driven into your driveway after a long day at work. Perhaps we were mentally consumed with a problem or just singing along with the radio, but the truth is that we can’t remember ANYTHING about our drive home! It isn’t that you are a horrible driver. You slipped into autopilot.
Truth is, you often operate by autopilot with your family, job, and relationship with Jesus.
At the end of the day we are left wondering, “What did I do today??”
Another way to describe autopilot is with the idea of muscle memory.
Muscle memory is a stored physical response that you draw upon when the time is right. Think about a golf swing – thousands of practiced swings compound into the next swing as the golfer seeks to swing perfectly each time.
For a while, our family ministries have operated on autopilot. Much of what we do is out of muscle memory – our processes, events, and programs.
Now, muscle memory is not a bad thing! The goal is to make great habits second nature. But often, we pickup inefficiencies or take shortcuts and it starts to negatively affect our muscle memory. Great athletes and artists have perfected muscle memory to hone their skills. Michael Jordon worked on the fundamentals of basketball daily to perfect his game.
For ministries and discipleship groups, we often forget about the fundamentals – meeting people, maintain our personal walk with Jesus, being intentional with visitors, striving to offer clear communication.In a rush to do more ministry, we tend to neglect the foundations that support solid groups.
Before you start planning your next quarter, your group or ministry should take some time and discover who you are, what God wants your group to be, and how you will operate.
Here are a few questions you can pass along to your group or ministry and get the conversation started:
- If we had unlimited funds, volunteers, and resources, what would God want us to do?
- In what ways has your personal spiritual life fallen into a negative cycle? Pray that God will reveal to you how you should break the negative habits you have developed.
- What were opportunities the group failed to capitalize on last year? (This could be as simple as following up with absentees…)
- What are the needs of our community – physically, emotionally, and spiritually? How can/are we meeting needs to provide an avenue for people to meet Jesus?
Now What?
These are a few questions to kick around and get the conversation started. Retraining you ministry’s muscle memory will only happen when you engage the entire group in conversations about where God is leading your team.
by Chase | Kid Min, Leadership, Student Min
Resolutions, goals, or whatever you may call them are about to blow up your newsfeed and conversations.
Your friends and co-workers will be talking about losing weight, saving money, or how they want to learn conversational Pig Latin (I tried a few years ago but sadly gave up).
Now, this post is not about how to keep a resolution. For information about that, Michael Hyatt has great content and insight to help you with that, like this post about the persistence needed to reach your goals.
This is less about how you should accomplish a goal and more about which goals you should be thinking about as a ministry leader.
Last year you made several mental notes about what shifts need to be made during your small group, the changes needing to happen for next year’s camp, and how you can spread the Gospel to more people.
Brainstorming can be exhausting. Thinking about everything that needs to be tweaked and the scores of people who need a little TLC every now and again can make you anxious, overwhelmed, and fearful that change will ever happen.
As you survey last year’s small group, ministry, or event, here are a few resolutions every ministry leader needs to make this coming year:
3 Essential Resolutions for Ministry Leaders
Daily – Connect With Jesus
Let’s be honest, your spiritual life is not perfect. Ministry is a tricky beast to tackle. On one hand, you do have a responsibility to put in the best work that you can to help the ministry or group you lead. But on the other hand, you are serving King Jesus.
He has promised to be your strength, wisdom, guide, and provider.
When we lose sight of Jesus and our spiritual disciplines lack, we tend to lose focus in our ministry positions.
If nothing else, this year you should plan to be closer to Jesus than you have ever been in your life. Remember, the point is not to maintain a perfect bible-reading plan; the point is to maintain connection with the perfect Savior, Jesus.
Weekly – Communicate With People
Often we are so rushed to maintain programs that we neglect investing in people.
Why don’t you make it your aim to personally communicate with one person per week?
I’m not talking about a weekly leaders email or parent newsletter (you should continue doing those things, though).
I’m suggesting that you pick up a pen and write an encouraging, personal note to one person per week. If not an encouraging note, you can pick up the phone and call someone midweek just to check in and pray for him or her.
There are creative ways to communicate with people. Make sure that you are investing quality time encouraging your parents, volunteers, and leaders.
Monthly – Care For Your Community
When is the last time you have taken an off day to serve your community?
I’m not talking about a church-sponsored community event that you led or were expected to attend.
When was the last time you chose to use your precious time off to enrich someone else’s life?
Many church leaders serve only when they are on the clock. This year try serving once a month, in some capacity, when you are off the clock.
As we share the Gospel of Jesus outside church-sponsored events, the Gospel transforms our heart for the broken.
This coming year you will expect many parents, volunteers, and leaders to sacrifice their free time to help serve in some way.
Are you willing to make the same sacrifice to serve others?
Do you have any other resolutions ministry leaders should consider in the upcoming year?
by Chase | Kid Min, Leadership, Student Min
The Volunteer Project: Stop Recruiting. Start Retaining.
is a must read for church leaders who are responsible for volunteer management. Trust me, I do not receive a kick-back for endorsing this book — it is simply an essential resource for leaders.Â
Back in April a book caught my eye as I was walking by the bookstore at the Orange Conference.
The book, The Volunteer Project: Stop Recruiting, Start Retaining, looked too good to be true.
I mean, who can make that kind of claim? For the past 11 years I have worked in para-church organizations that have relied heavily on volunteers to run (and sustain) the ministries. Because volunteer management is a passion of mine, I bought the book without a second glance.
Over the past week, I finally picked The Volunteer Project up and read it. I know, I know, I didn’t read the book for 7 months… don’t judge me! In all seriousness, I wish I had this book available to me a decade ago.
The Volunteer Project: Stop Recruiting. Start Retaining. discusses a 4-part volunteer strategy aimed to retain and develop the volunteers you have. It is filled with ministry specific insight for training, recruiting, and retain volunteers to further your ministry’s mission and vision.
Darren Kizer (@darrenkizer), Christine Kreisher (@christinekreish) and Steph Whitacre (@StephWhitacre) did an amazing job creating a solid resource for ministry leaders.
As I read, I used the hashtag #volproject to live-tweet the book. You can head to the hashtag or visit the book’s website for more info.Â
Top Quotes From The Volunteer Project:
by Chase | Kid Min, Student Min
Adult volunteers must sit with the group.Â
I get it, students are intimidating.
Their culture and vocabulary shift every couple of weeks.
Kids aren’t that much easier either. Kids can’t seem to sit still long enough to notice that you are there.
Shoot, most adults are horrible at engaging in conversation with a person outside their friend group!
Unfortunately, there are hundreds of adult volunteers who attend midweek worship services, small groups, and kids worship and fail to connect with their groups.
Like I said, I completely understand. Most days it is easier to stand in the back of the room while the kids or student ministry service is happening. Leaders need to connect with other adults to see how their week has been, follow up with a prayer request, or just chat a bit around the coffee pot. Besides, the family pastor has it all under control.
Can I be frank for a moment? (Seeing as how I am the one writing, I will take your silence as permission to proceed.)
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Why would you attend a student worship service if you didn’t want to disciple students?
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Why would you serve in the kids ministry if you didn’t want to get in the floor and play with kids?
I’m not questioning your desire to connect with young people each week – we simply lose focus and create bad habits that separate us from the group.
So here is my encouragement for this week’s service:
Leader, sit with the group.Â
As an adult volunteer, you have just as much influence on a young person’s life as the family pastor has. You have been specifically gifted by God to build the kingdom of God.
The truth is that if you are not with your students, you will never lead them.
The best way to engage is to pull up a chair and sit beside a student.
5 Reasons You Should Sit With The Group Each Week:
(These reasons are interchangeable for both kid and student ministries.)
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They Come Back Week to Week
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When they know a leader, they feel cool and accepted.
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It Limits Distractions
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When you are sitting with them, they will not feel the liberty to act up and be loud.
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They Worship More Authentically When They See Adults Worship
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Many of our young people do not have parents who are in church. Seeing adults raise their hands and worship Jesus with all they have leaves a lasting impact.
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They Will Participate More
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If we are leading a game and the adult leaders are laughing, having a great time, and are engaged, young people will loosen up and participate more.
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They Will Bring Their Friends
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When they feel noticed, they will bring others into the mix.
What are some other ways that you engage with young people during programming? Â
by Chase | Leadership, Student Min
Many student pastors need to rename their student ministries.
There, I said it.
Can we just admit that there are tons of confusing and weird student ministry names around the country?
For far too long churches have been using confusing names for their buildings, rooms, and programs. I’m ready to usher in some simpler wording for the sake of clarity … even if that goes against what we as student pastors have been doing for a long time.
Let me tell you a story.
When I arrived at my church, the room where the youth group meets was called the Alley.
Many of my students love that name. Some were around when the church started using it, and they are attached to it. It seems harmless, right?
Now imagine the look on a visiting dad’s face when a greeter called me over one morning and told him, “This is our family pastor, your daughter can just follow him to the Alley.”
And try to put yourself in the car with me a few months back when I saw a giant billboard for a brand new bar/club that has opened in our town.
What did they decide to name the new nightclub?
The Alley.
To kick off the grand opening of the bar, the Alley hosted a heavily advertised Halloween bash featuring Dennis Rodman and half-priced longnecks.
Needless to say, we’ve gotten rid of our “Alley” branding and have since started calling the building the Student Center. It wasn’t a popular decision, but we had to try to re-align the name of our student facilities with our core value as the church — to use every opportunity to lead people to Christ and not distract from the Gospel.
A lot is in a name. And for too many churches, the names of their programs, ministries, and buildings are confusing for those outside of their church.
2 Reasons That You Should Change Your Student Ministry’s Name
Weird Names Are Inwardwardly Focused
Let’s be honest, no one outside of your church knows what you are talking about. We live in a biblically illiterate culture and overusing Christian talk while naming our ministries creates a divide with outsiders. If students and parents can’t find their way around, they will not come back. Make it easy. Naming things Student Center, Worship Center, and Gym is not evil. You are allowed to call things what they are! It brings clarity to outsiders. After all, your ministry exist to bring people in. How will they come in if they don’t know where to go?
Weird Names Are Confusing
If you have to explain your name to every new person that you meet, your name can stand between someone visiting your group. Giving ownership to your students doesn’t mean you sacrifice clarity for the congregation and community. When areas or bible studies groups are named with trendy, flashy names, much can be lost in translation.  Clarity does not limit creativity. It simplifies things for anyone who is new to the group.
You can give your students ownership without sacrificing clarity.
Schools do not rename every room, building, and class. No principal is thinking of renaming the second-grade wing “Blossom.” They simply call it what it is and use other means to bring about ownership and foster creativity. Awesome decor, updated bulletin boards, and giving students and teachers a say in that process give a school the ownership they want without sacrificing clarity.
Now What?
What are some confusing ministry names you have seen in churches?Â
