The Garden and Youth Ministry

Last March (as in March 2012), I decided it would be a good idea to plant a garden in our back yard. I wanted to teach our kids about the hobby and More »

The Rhythm of ministry in the summer

The last test has been taken. The final bell has rung. The last bus has finished its route. Summer is here! Hopefully you have all your major summer stuff planned – camp, More »

What I learned from Seminary

This weekend, I will graduate with my masters degree from Cincinnati Bible Seminary. It has long been a dream to get my masters, and I finished it exactly 10 years after getting More »

Keeping parents in the loop

Do parents know whats going on in your ministry?  I’m talking beyond a calendar of events. Do the parents of the students in your ministry know what your talking about in youth More »

The Return of Margin

I’m done! The final lecture has been listened to, the final book read, and the final paper has been submitted. In less than a month, I’ll walk across the stage and be More »

 

Baby Bottle Chug

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By the time you read this, my wife should be close to done giving birth to our forth child. So, in honor of this momentous occasion, our game of the week is the “Baby Bottle Chug.”

Materials

3 (or more) baby bottles

Liquid to drink

The game is simple. It makes a great up front game. Buy three or more baby bottles, fill them with liquid like pop or water, and set them on the stage. As the up front game, simply pick three volunteers and have them sit in front of the bottles. At a signal, they race to see who can drain the baby bottle first. 

Be sure to poke a hole in the nipple (yes, I did say nipple in a youth ministry blog!) I found out the hard way not all come pre-poked. Or, if you want to mess with someone, have one without a hole. Then when they go to drink it, the one without the hole starts to freak out. Simple and fun game! Let me know in the comments how it goes!

The Garden and Youth Ministry

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Last March (as in March 2012), I decided it would be a good idea to plant a garden in our back yard. I wanted to teach our kids about the hobby and to grow some healthy food for our family. It was a great idea. Fast forward about 14 months, and I finally finished planting it. Yeah, I might have a slight problem with procrastination! Even though I might not be the world’s fastest farmer, I found that the process has been enlightening. As the sweat poured off my forehead and the dirt worked its way underneath my fingernails, I was struck at how much you can learn about youth ministry from gardening. Here’s some of what I discovered…
1. You can only plant the seeds – I have absolutely no power over making the seeds grow. I only have power over how they are planted. This echoes Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:6 saying, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” We can only play our part, and then trust that God will do the rest.
2. A lot of time spent on your knees – I could try to garden standing up, but I wouldn’t accomplish much. I don’t get things done until I get on my knees. The success of your ministry will be determined by how much time you spend on your knees in prayer.
3. You can’t plant too deep or the seed won’t grow – Most seeds were only covered with an inch or less of soil. If I tried to plant them deeper, they wouldn’t grow. We want the roots to grow deep, but you don’t need to plant seeds deep to accomplish that. We want to have a deep ministry, but by going too deep too soon you threaten to strangle the seeds you plant. Help the roots grow deep…that will ensure your ministry is deep.
4. It takes a lot of work to prepare – You can’t just start throwing seed around. You need to prepare the ground, study the soil, buy the right kind of seed, then plant in the right season. The better prepared you are, the more likely your seeds will grow well. Don’t think you can just wing it and hope to succeed. Think things through, plan it out, and work to prepare so that when you do plant the seeds they are able to grow.
5. Be patient – Things don’t grow overnight. It takes time. Don’t expect teenagers to act like life long Christians. Jesus was with his disciples for 3 years, and at the end of His ministry they still didn’t get it. You’re not Jesus, so realize it will take patience.
6. Don’t try to harvest too soon – You will see growth. But just because you see the plant poking through the soil doesn’t mean its ready to harvest. If you pull it too soon, its not ready. Wait until its reached a level of maturity before expecting a harvest. Just like being patient above, you shouldn’t expect your students to be finished growing.
7. There are many obstacles to growth – Weeds, rabbits, frost, children running through the freshly planted garden, wayward lawn mowers – some of the many dangers to a garden. You will find many things out to destroy what you’ve planted, so you need to do your best to protect the tender shoots. Make sure you are removing as many obstacles to growth as you can to aid in healthy growth. Find ways to help your students to get through any obstacle they come across.
8. You will get your hands dirty – Its unavoidable…you plant a garden and your hands will get dirty, a lot. If they’re not getting dirty by getting into the muck, then you’re not putting in the work you need to make a difference. Student Ministry is messy and dirty. If you’re really doing ministry, then your hands will get dirty as you work through the messes in their lives.
Ministry and planting have a lot in common. Its no wonder that both Jesus and Paul used planting metaphors liberally. Do you have any other ways planting and youth ministry are alike? I’d love to hear it in the comments!

The Rhythm of ministry in the summer

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The last test has been taken. The final bell has rung. The last bus has finished its route. Summer is here! Hopefully you have all your major summer stuff planned – camp, mission trip, activities, etc. If not, close out the browser and get to work! Otherwise, we’re going to examine how the summer is different than the rest of the year.

Ministry seems to have a natural rhythm to it, a flow that you get into. During the school year, its mostly the same. You have a few blips with major holidays like Christmas and Easter, but for the  most part its pretty much the same from week to week. Maybe Tuesdays you go to the school for lunch. On Thursdays you meet with your local YM network. Wednesday morning you help out the local Christian club at the middle school. You can pretty much identify where you’re going to be each week and what what you’re going to be doing.

Summer is different. During the summer, no two weeks are the same. Maybe you cancel youth group for the summer, or at least do it differently. You might be gone for camp one or two week. You might be getting ready and going on that mission trip. Your students go on vacation at different times through the summer. Your leaders go on vacation. Your students that are around probably sleep til noon, or have jobs that they’re busy with. They have band camp or cheer camp or football camp. And you are left with a schedule that’s in an uproar. How to find a flow to the summer when there is none? Here are some tips -

1. Relax

Summer tends to be a more relaxed time for everyone, except for YMs. I know few youth ministers that take vacations in the summer, while everyone else around them is going on these nice trips. That doesn’t mean we can’t relax. That doesn’t mean don’t work, but it does mean to join others in their relaxation. That means we need to…

2. Be more relational

Summer is a boring time for teens, even for the most busy. They are used to having a 40 hour school schedule plus homework, so suddenly they have that massive hole there. Use this opportunity to spend time with the teens. Just grab a few and get some ice cream, or go miniature golfing, invite some over for a BBQ, or whatever. To do that, though, you probably should…

3.Do office work in the morning

You’re going to have administrative tasks. Get them out of the way before noon. Chances are a lot of the administrative tasks are not as pressing during the summer so you can spread them out over several days. Just don’t waste early afternoons and evenings when your students will be awake and available doing admin you could have got out of the way.

4. Plan for the “Big Weeks”

I love camp and missions trips, but they are big rhythm killers! They take you out for a week, usually require a day or two to get ready for (I’m talking packing, not planning!) and then a day or two to recover from. You know those are coming, so work ahead to make sure that they aren’t killer. Also don’t be afraid to take a day or two off afterwards to recover (with appropriate permissions of course).

5. Dream for the future

Summer is a great time to just dream big dreams for the future. You have a little more time available (unless you overscheduled yourself!) and so take a few hours each week to just get away and focus on the future.

6. Find rhythm elsewhere

No matter what you do, the summer is not going to flow naturally. So to keep your sanity, try to find rhythm elsewhere. Maybe go for a walk each morning, or plan a special family trip each week. Just something that you can rely on each day or week to be there.

What do you do during the summer to help establish a flow or rhythm?

Recommended books from Seminary

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In the past two years, I read books. Lots and lots of books. An insane number of books! I miss reading just for the joy of reading. Even now, I’ll be reading a fiction book for fun and be planning out a book report for it. Thankfully, much of what I read was extremely valuable. Many of them I would not have even known about unless I had been “forced” to read them for class. So I present with you the 8 best books I read during seminary. I highly recommend you find some time to check these books out. They will be work it.

Community That is Christian

Post Modern Children’s Ministry

Sticky Faith: Youth Workers Edition

Church + Home

The Emotionally Healthy Church

Overcoming the Dark Side of Leadership

Systematic Theology: A Systematic Study of the Christian Life

The Next Christendom

If you’ve read any of these books, I’d love to hear what you thought of them in the comments!

What I learned from Seminary

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This weekend, I will graduate with my masters degree from Cincinnati Bible Seminary. It has long been a dream to get my masters, and I finished it exactly 10 years after getting my Bachelors. As I prepare to get hooded, I just wanted to share some things I learned over the past 2 years…

Church history is a complicated mess

Family ministry will be the next wave of church revolution

The “meat” of what I learned was from the books I read

Its great to be challenged by people with lots of different ideas and perspectives

I learned a lot more than I knew being “in the trenches” of ministry

Bible classes challenged me to look past the surface issues of the text

My spiritual life is much more important to my leadership than I ever imagined

Grace is a powerful spiritual force that the church does not exhibit enough of

The Church has survived tougher spots than 21st century America

This is just a sampling of what I learned. There is part of me that wishes I could have taken many more classes. But that sane part of me is slapping that part and celebrating all that I’ve achieved. Regardless, I’ve learned a lot. If you’ve been to Bible college/seminary, what is something you learned?

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