This past Saturday and Sunday I went on a ski retreat with 50+ youth ministry leaders and students. It was the best one we have had yet and will most definitely be returning next year. This trip has offered several unique lessons that I wanted to share with you.
The following is an excerpt of Brad Widstrom and my new book 99 Thoughts on Caring for Your Youth Group. We created this book so you can grow as a youth minister no matter what your pay grade (volunteer, full or part-time) and no matter where you work and for whom you work (a church, para-church, secular job). So the following is from our book and our heart for you to GROW!
We view social networks differently than youth view them and for a few more years this will be the case, as youth pastors didn’t grow up with social media the way our youth have.
My interest has been piqued by the recent upsurge in youth ministry blogs talking about using social media in youth ministry. I feel like I could point you to at least ten posts in the last three weeks dealing with this topic, and I have to say, I am disappointed.
Firstly, I am disappointed because along with this upsurge in social media posts on youth ministry sites, it seems to be a symptom of a problem with youth ministry blogs, many are getting away from youth ministry and getting into less important matters. It feels like in order to have a successful “Youth Ministry” blog, you have to give things away, point others to freebies, and not talk much at all about youth ministry, but rather just add to the bottom of a post “Wouldn’t this be great to use in youth ministry?”
Each week, we scour the web for great articles on youth ministry, social media, and blogging and offer the best of them to you. Here is what we have found to be good reads this week. If you find something you like, let us know what and leave them a comment on their blog.
This is an oldie but goodie. I love finding some great new resources to share with volunteers. This one has just enough humor, yet teaching content to be the perfect introduction for youth workers to setup a discussion on how to do games well at youth group. I hope this helps you do youth ministry a little better.
Working with teenagers in a time where they are emotionally and physically still growing and hormones that put them in an emotional whirlwind sporadically. One day is the greatest day in their world and the next is so awful that it overshadows whatever hope the day before held. But teens can suffer from psychological disorders including depression that youth workers need to be fully aware of.
Working in a military ministry that has military families always moving, our hunt for volunteers is never-ending. We love to put out our feelers to always know who has what talents and how interested they are in serving within our ministry. Half the time, people do not know what youth ministries need which inspired me to put together this initial volunteer assessment sheet. Below is what we look for and at the bottom is the download for the WORD document. Let us know what you think of it.
I have something I want to make public and have been holding on to this secret for five years of my life. I have depression. For those that are fortunate enough to not have to deal with this situation, simply telling other people that you have this is a HUGE deal. Of course, I have let a handful of people in my life know before this, but you reading this right now are the first beyond my close circle of friends.
If you are a fellow youth worker that knows they have depression or suspects they may be facing it, you are in similar company. We need people in our lives to help support us and in a ministry that takes a ton of effort and receives little praise or respect, your career can actually hurt you emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. We want to offer you help, so here are a number of things youth workers with depression should be doing:
We did a fun post two Fridays ago of a goofy Star Wars Valentine’s card mocking the awkward kiss between Luke and Leia before they knew they were siblings. I simply loved the card and it seems that you guys do too.
Last night I found a little bit of a surprise on the Google Analytics. We had more than twice the views for that Valentine’s Day post than either of the new posts that went live today. Digging a little deeper, I found that most of the incoming traffic to that post came from Google’s Image Search today. What untapped potential.
Last night, I had the opportunity go before a group of Young Life leaders in the local Colorado Springs area to talk about how we could partner together to reach every student for Christ. In the few minutes that I had, I shared my deep passion for working with these military teens, the crisis these teens face constantly, and how the Young Life leaders could assist. The pitch was simple, I want them to find out which teens were apart of a military family and if they had to have military-specific conversations with them, to call me if they needed help.
