John of Damascus Quote
“Being perfect God, he became perfect man, and accomplished the newest of all new things, the only new thing under the sun.” – John of Damascus
Yearly Archives: 2011
Reflections of 2011
The new year is upon us and being one who loves to reflect on profound moments in my life as well as those times that seem to slip away, I wanted to take a few minutes and reflect on the … Continue reading
Craig Groeschel Quote
I believe our greatest priority as Christian parents is to gradually transfer our children’s dependence away from us until it rests solely on God. Craig Groeschel from his book WEIRD: Because Normal Isn’t Working
[VLog] Christmas Volunteer Gifts
We talks about some great gifts for volunteers in your Youth Ministry this Christmas.
Angry Birds Played Through Christmas Lights
We did a guest post over at Churchm.ag you should check out. Here is a link to the full post and below is a snippet: People have amazing ideas for Christmas lights, including great lights set to the latest Trans … Continue reading
New Shirt Design
This is the first shirt design we have for the New Year. The design came from the students mocking me and letting me know that I tend to randomly dance all the time and they had come up with the … Continue reading
Links of the Week
Seth Godin – 2011 Investor Gathering: Market Creation is Hard
Seth Godin, bestselling author and entrepreneur, on creating markets for the poor and the difficulties in selling socially beneficial products to low-income markets.
U.S. Teens Triple Data Usage
Teens have officially joined the mobile Data Tsunami, more than tripling mobile data consumption in the past year while maintaining their stronghold as the leading message senders.
How Social Media is Ruining Our Minds
Along with our attention spans shrinking from 12 minutes to just 5 seconds, social media affects reading comprehension, decision-making and problem-solving skills, and memory.
Millennials Are The Best Generation Ever
An infographic displaying the differences among Millennials and older generations, including demographics, lifestyle, work, and politics
Teens and Social Networks
Internet usage is higher among teens than among adults as a whole (as of August 2011, 78% of all adults go online), although internet adoption rates among adults ages 18-29 are identical to those found among teens.
Teens on social media: Cruelty, but also esteem-building
More than 80% of teens who use social-media sites have witnessed others being mean or cruel on the sites — and about a quarter say they have had an interaction that resulted in a face-to-face confrontation later, a new report finds.
Latest Teen Sex Survey
The Centers for Disease Control recently reported news along similar lines: less than half of youth ages 15-19 (42% of unmarried males and 43% of unmarried females) report having had intercourse. That’s all the way to age 19, post-high-school for most.
Track Santa via Google
We did a guest post over at Churchm.ag you should check out. Here is a link to the full post and below is a snippet: One of the fun and geeky things I look forward to doing with my child … Continue reading
John Dyer Quote
We must continually attempt to view technology through the lens of the story of God and his people, with the resurrected Christ at beginning, middle, and end of that story. John Dyer from his book From the Garden to the … Continue reading
When Volunteers Teach You
I am one of those youth workers who know my short comings and love surrounding myself with people who can help build me up in ministry. It makes ministry ministry go so much smoother and helps hit every single student as opposed to only those that I can reach. One of the unexpected outcomes of surrounding myself with these people is the wealth of knowledge that they can offer. Each volunteer that comes on board is an expert at something in their lives and can bring so much to the table.
Here are four of my own volunteers that I will be seeking out this next year to help teach me something about doing better ministry:
- Jim: Jim is currently working on his doctorate in team management and I have loved sitting in Starbucks and simply listening to him talk about how we can better work on streamlining “the process” and improving tactics to bring out the best qualities in each member to make the whole system better. He is also a part-time professor at a local university and it is my hope that this next year, he will be willing to take over an hour of our volunteer training to teach on the “best of” in systems techniques for our group.
- Rob: Rob is a professor of business management at the Air Force Academy and has a wealth of knowledge on how to handle money. So when I put together my budget this next year, I will be sitting down with him to discuss how best to use our money and setting up checks and balances through out the year to manage this money.
- Kristin: Kristin is currently a stay-at-home mom, but she has her undergrad and masters in school counseling and someone that I want to have on board if something terrible were to happen. I am hoping to put together a “crisis plan” for staff and volunteers in our youth ministry and will be consulting with her to make sure that all of my bases are covered for the different situations that could potentially happen.
- David: Working in a military environment, I know very little about this third-world culture and so I will be seeking him out in how we can better impact this community this summer. With his many years serving our country, he will be able to bring unique ideas to the table.
Do you allow volunteers to bring their experience to the table? If so, how do you let them teach you?