Starting a Family Ministry

(Submitted by Travis Jenkins)

We (Travis and Lynn) are in the process right now of creating a new emphasis on family ministry. We are kicking off the new approach with a family retreat geared towards parents with children of all ages, from 3 months to 18 years old. We are having an "expert" come in and lead some conferences for the parents and having age specific activities for the children. Of course, also we are having family group time with games and other fun time.

As we started talking through the idea of a family approach to ministry we sat down and came up with some purposes and vision for it. I just wanted to share it with you and see what other ideas you may have. Feel free to "borrow" anything we came up with.

Vision:
Connecting families to the heart of God

Purpose:
To equip parents to invest in the spiritual development of their children

Five Foundations of Family Ministry
1. Make life a spiritual adventure
2. Talk about God
3. Create a desire for God's Word
4. Create a culture of prayer
5. Serve as a family

(Travis Jenkins and Lynn Puryear serve as Minister to Students and Minister to Children respectively at Central Baptist Church in Carthage, TX.)

Enlisting and Training Youth Workers-Part 3

(Part 3 of an article contributed by Chuck Gartman, Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church in Lubbock, TX and owner of Go To Youth Ministry, a consulting firm specializing in leadership development.)

The Process of Enlistment

Once the needed Sunday School organization is determined, the Sunday School Director and Youth Division Director work together with the church nominating committee to staff the Youth Sunday School. Worker enlistment calls for clear understanding of the job and its requirements.

Youth Personal Worship (Useek)

(Submitted by Travis Jenkins)

Ephesians 4:5

"one Lord, one faith, one baptism;"

In the years since I have become a Christian, I’ve talked to a lot of people about their faith and what they believe. One belief that a number of people I have met is that all of the major religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism) basically get you to the same place. They believe that as long as you follow your version of religion like you’re supposed to and are a pretty good person then you will end up in heaven. The tough part about believing like this is that it doesn’t line up with what the truth from scripture. We see in today’s verse that there are not multiple ways to be in right relationship with God. There is only ONE Lord, ONE faith, and ONE baptism. This means seeking after salvation from anything or anyone other than Jesus will only make you fall short.

Enlisting and Training Youth Workers-Part 2

(Part 2 of an article contributed by Chuck Gartman, Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church in Lubbock, TX and owner of Go To Youth Ministry, a consulting firm specializing in leadership development.)

What Workers Are Needed? 

An effective Youth Sunday School organization includes the following positions. (As your read, keep in mind that this is an ideal organization. In your church there may not be a need for every one of these positions; or you may need a combination of these. Fit these positions into your church’s organizational structure in the way that best meets the needs of your youth and youth ministry.)

The Future for Volunteers in Student Ministry

(Contributed by Randy Johnson)

What will be needed by volunteers in student ministry as they seek to impact the lives of students? Here is a list, but I am sure it is not exhaustive. Most of what is offered below is happening now or needs to happen soon for volunteers to be the best they can be. Please consider the following as food for thought.

Dodgeball Postcard

Here is a postcard I (Travis Jenkins) made for a 6th grade only dodgeball game night to get them introduced to the student ministry. We print these up and have them passed out at the school in their classrooms.

Travis Jenkins is the founder/creator of The Youth Ministry Network and the Minister to Students at Central Baptist Church in Carthage, TX.

New Graphics - NameTag teaching series

Five slides contributed by Jeff Howard of New Life EFC in Aurora CO for a teaching series. Great stuff feel free to use.

What I Learned in Student Ministry

(Contributed by Randy Johnson)


7 things I learned to do in a local Church Student Ministry

• Keep the preeminence of Christ as the focus of your ministry 
• Help youth discover their gifts - equip them to do the ministry 
• Train youth to be leaders – give them ownership of the ministry 
• Train & equip adults to become ministers of youth – give them ownership of the ministry 
• Affirm youth and adult leaders for who they are and what they accomplish 

Enlisting and Training Workers-Part 1 (Chuck Gartman)

(This is the first part of an article submitted by Chuck Gartman, Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church in Lubbock, TX and owner of Go To Youth Ministry, a consulting firm specializing in leadership development. Additional excerpts will be uploaded regularly.)

Where Are the Workers? 
If you have served on a church’s nominating committee, you have probably asked yourself this question on many occasions. Keep this principle in mind as you think about locating people to work with your youth in Sunday School: Really good Youth Sunday School takes an investment of time! It is a long process. There are no instant answers or pills that you can swallow to make it easy to find and train the workers. You have to work at it. Following are some ways for you to locate potential workers with youth in Sunday School.

FREE Online Book, Introducing the 21st Century Teenager

Dr. Allen Jackson from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary has offered to share his free online book dealing with teenagers in the 21st century. Click HERE to for the link to the pdf.

Enlisting & Keeping Volunteers

(Submitted by Randy Johnson)

THREE BASIC CRITERIA... We can train folks to teach or to do other things, but they must have some basic characteristics in order to make training worthwhile. Dr. Charles A. Tidwell has stated that there are three major criteria for Youth Leaders:

1. Are they faithful - to the Lord, to their church, to themselves. True to God’s Word and true to their word. 
2. Are they willing - to love, to serve, to be trained, to prepare, to grow, to cooperate, to pay the price.
3. Are they capable - capable of relating, capable of loving, capable of serving, capable of learning, capable of making commitments? 

SUCCESSFUL VOLUNTEERS HAVE… 

1. Genuine love for people - acceptance, genuine friendships and relationships, take the role of a mature adult. 
2. Sense of God's leadership and calling 
3. A growing relationship with God - asked about in recruiting and periodically in the ongoing training 
4. A special patience and flexibility 
5. Time to be available for ministry & preparation 
6. A team player approach 
7. An aptitude for commitment and endurance 
8. Ability to teach and equip youth 

ENLISTING QUALITY YOUTH LEADERS BY...

1. Praying for God’s Guidance and Opportunity. 
2. Keeping, Cultivating, and Updating a List of Potential Workers 
3. Working through the Proper Channels 
4. Public Promotion and/or Survey 
5. Providing Potential Leader Training 
6. Personal Interview with Shared Expectations 

KEEPING QUALITY YOUTH LEADERS BY...
“Treating Them Right”

1. Making Expectations Clear 
2. Asking for a Commitment 
3. Providing Regular Training Opportunities 
4. Encouraging Regular Planning and Evaluation 
5. Providing On-Going Encouragement and Affirmation 
6. Treating Them as a Partner in Ministry 
7. Seeking to Meet Their Needs 

Randy Johnson has 36 years of youth ministry experience in the local church. For the past 26 years he has served as the Student Minister at the First Baptist Church of Richardson, Texas. He and his wife, Carol, have two adult daughters.

Graphic Upload: Easter Egg Hunt

Here is a postcard submitted by Lynn Puryear, Children's Minister at Central Baptist Church in Carthage, TX. Send in some other examples of Easter marketing and let's see what else we can share to help others.

New GRAPHICS upload - "Apostle of Hope" series

Here is a set of graphics shared by Jeff Howard from New Life EFC in Aurora, CO. These were made in-house there at New Life and offered here for free for anyone to use. ENJOY!

Revivals and Easter

(Submitted by Travis Jenkins)

My church is gearing up for a series of revival services the week before Easter. The revival is definitely focused on adults and not a youth-focused revival with a v-neck wearing contemporary praise band and ipad toting preacher. I am very excited about who and what we actually have going on. The question I wanted to pose and see about feedback on is specific ways to integrate youth into the "adult revival". Comment and send some ideas. Anything will be helpful.

After-Prom Lock-in

(Submitted by Travis Jenkins)

I have never been a big fan of lock-ins. In fact, they drain all the energy out of an already worn out guy. Throw in the fact that occasionally lock-ins can be on Saturday night instead of Friday night means that I get to be a zombie on Sunday morning at church.

With all of the reservations I have about lock-ins I caved this year at the students request. This is how it went down: They begged and begged me to let them have a lock-in after prom. After all, the selling point was that they would be safe at the church instead of a field somewhere doing stuff they shouldn't. So yes, I am hosting a lock-in for the high school students after prom. The night is mostly consisting of games, movies, and lots of food. I did have students ask for a big midnight breakfast which is the only real "planning" thing that had to happen. I am hoping the lock-in goes off without a hitch. We'll see though.

If anyone has any ideas for lock-ins (besides not doing them...EVER)  please share them with us. If we are going to be stuck doing them we may as well have some good ideas for them to make them rock.

Youth Personal Worship: (Unique)

(Submitted by Travis Jenkins)

Ephesians 4:4 4

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;…"

Sonic restaurants advertise that there are 168,894 combinations of drinks on their menu. If you wanted to try every combination you would have to order 5 drinks a day everyday of your life until you were over 92 years old. Could you imagine tasting five new drinks everyday of your life? One thing is for sure, it would always be a unique experience. There are so many different things which define us as unique in society too: Schools offer tons of extracurricular activities; you can google millions of hobbies; family situations vary widely from one teenager to the next; fashion is constantly changing; etc. The list of what could make someone unique keeps growing and growing. With so many options out there it is easy to be completely unique, unlike anyone else on the planet. How do we overcome the desire to be unique with the truth of today’s scripture?

The Plan

There are so many youth ministry websites out there it is easy to get lost in the mix. I started the Youth Ministry Network blog as a place for normal, real life, in the trenches youth workers to share with each other what they have been experiencing. No fancy publisher to impress. No required degree or impressive resume. Just real life youth workers sharing about real life youth groups. I hope this can serve as a resource and sounding board for youth workers from all backgrounds, geographic locations, and church sizes to learn from each other ways to better influence teenagers today.

Coming soon I will begin to add an ever-growing list of resources to help youth workers, as well as my own personal youth ministry philosophy, and anything else I can think of that might be helpful to someone working with teenagers. My goal is to not be the only contributer of articles, but to take advantage of the expertise of other youth workers' experience.

I hope this blog can be a tool for which many youth workers can learn, contribute, and discuss the ever-changing world of youth ministry as we know it.