I was feeling a bit worn before this event. Nerves were on end and I was finding myself wanting to just rest when I needed to do paperwork. The desire for students to know Christ better was still there, but the passion had lost a bit of its edge. I needed to be refueled.

I know many different ways to be renewed, but none of them are better than silence. I can read books, journal, or program a website (yes, that’s refreshing to me), but all of those are still a kind of work. Silence and solitude, even if just for a single run on the slopes, can fill my soul, restore my heart, and calm my mind like nothing else. After several runs, I was a whole new man and my faith was running deep again.

How do you restore your soul? Is it the best that is out there for you? Have you practiced it? Restoring our soul needs practice. The first time that I sat in silence, it took an hour for my mind to shut up. Now, a five minute ski lift trip is enough and the three minutes back down is truly encouraging for me. Exercise your “soul care” muscles and practice being with God, however you do so.

So what are you waiting for? Go out now and be with God!

Before we even begin to dream of what can and will happen with this blog, we need to lay down some serious foundational work that will allow for us to streamline the future processes and make writing articles so much easier.

What are the pieces that we need to set up this foundation for the blog? How can we begin strong so that we bring the best of ourselves to the viewers? Here are three things to define before we even begin to entertain the ideas of setting up a blog.

• Know Your Passions And Limitations
  Something in your life has drawn you to want to blog. Whatever this ‘IT’ is that is driving you to share what you have to say, whatever you are passionate, you need to fully define what ‘IT’ is. These passions and desires will form your blog and so clarity is top priority here. While we define where we go forward, we must also be very clear about what we do not know. Want to write about Christian theology and how culture and worldview play into that? Great! But be careful not to go too far outside of that. You are building a brand with your blog and you need to stick to your strengths.
• Define Your Vision And Purpose
  We now know what drives you from your past experiences and what you have learned in life. We now need to mold that and form it into a driving force for this blog both at the kickoff of your website and to sustain it for many years to come. Practically speaking, you need to take all of these thoughts and put them into a tagline that is the basis of your site as well as a short paragraph of where you want to head with this website. Do not rush this process, instead dwell on it for awhile and let it marinate. Take out all of the fluff and wordiness and get down to business.
• Become A Subject-Matter Expert
  We know what we know and with a vision and purpose for the blog, we know where we want to head. To stop here and blog from this point is really shorting yourself as well as your audience. We need to be experts in what we write on. This means tons of research, long before we write our first article. Take the time and do a great service to your viewers. Prepare by subscribing to all of the best writers out there, check out the latest books on your subjects, and experiment. Nothing is better than continuing your education by learning from others and teaching yourself more. You cannot write a blog on parenting if you are not a parent yourself. You could educate yourself all you want on a topic, but to be an expert, you need to have tons of experience.

Looking at these points, what is your blog going to look like?

These ski retreats are designed to take students out of their elements, remove all phones and iPods so that we could build relationships between everyone, and share the life of Christ with them. At the same time, the events of skiing and hanging out in the evenings would create lasting memories.

1. Patience Is The Golden Tool
   I love to go skiing, the rush of the slopes along with the thrills of hitting jumps and going through the forests, it is amazing. This year I saw very little of that. Instead, I found the majority of my time teaching students the basics of how to ski and snowboard. While this meant that I had to give up much of my time, the relationships that were strengthened are more important. The golden tool of being with these students was not dressing “cool” or knowing the latest music. Instead, I simply was patient while they took time to learn how to get the technique down, listening to their concerns, being non-judgmental when they wanted to give, and encouraging them as much as possible. When they succeeded, I was there cheering them on. And when they didn’t get off the bunny hill, they still had so much fun that it didn’t seem like a failed trip.
2. Introverts Can Survive Road Trips
   I get exhausted when I hang out with students because they are not energizing for me. I always have to take time to prepare being with students when they do not have their technology to distract them and usually need time to decompress too. So the road trip the the ski resort is always an interesting one to prepare for. I usually try to come up with enough conversation to last half the trip and hope that they fill the other half of the time. This year was different, we jammed out to tunes in the car with dance parties and iPod karaoke. It really does not have to take much, simply be with them and it will work out.
3. Volunteers Renew Their Passion
   The volunteers that went with us were an amazing help. We needed the drivers to get students to and from the resort as well as chaperones while we are out on the mountain. But the greatest thing to happen to these volunteers were not the good deeds that they did this weekend, but seeing these students having fun as well as really connect with the youth group talks every night reignited a passion in them. I am excited to see how this translates as we kick ministry back up at home.

What have you learned on your events?

Below is a list of all of the topics we will be covering and will be linked once the article is written. While this series will be perfect for those who are looking to begin blogging in the future, this will be the perfect refresher for veteran bloggers that need a kick in the pants or a renewed spirit to keep pushing out great content.

The last day we will field several of your questions, so do not hesitate to leave comments every day and we will try to answer as many of them as we can.

1. What Will You Write?
2. Know Your Audience
3. Creating A Blogging Strategy
4. Setting Up The Blog
5. Integrate Social Media
6. Network, Network, Network
7. Develop A Routine
8. Measuring Success
9. SEO Tools
10. Prepare For Launch
11. Take The Leap
12. Reassess This Adventure
13. Answer Your Questions

What other topics would you like to see from us on setting up a blog?

Who we are is most important, but we can improve our skills—in fact, it’s essential that we do! Just remember to follow this adage: “Adapt it, don’t adopt it.” Learn from others, but remember that what works for them may not work for you—at least not without adjustments and tweaks. Here are five ways to grow as a youth worker who cares:

Grow by reading
If you’re the lead youth worker, some of the best money you can spend is on a resource library for your adult and student leaders—and if you’re a volunteer, you can help invest in this kind of library, too. Sure, it can include resources on games and how to plan activities, but it should also have counseling and crisis response resources. Search for good books that teach in-depth counseling and crisis response skills. Read these books thoroughly, and then keep them nearby. That way you can grab them when you receive a phone call but you’re not sure what to do. And make sure they’re available to any leader or volunteer who needs them. Also create a bibliography of helpful resources for students and parents. Include books, CDs, DVDs, websites, counselors, and other helpers. Then put this list in the hands of families, and consider posting it on your group’s website and Facebook page.

Grow by watching
Just as you have your own gifts and skills, so do others. You can learn a lot by watching people in action—even your students. Many teenagers have been trained in peer counseling and response at their schools. They might be able to teach you a thing or two if you allow them.

Grow by attending
Attend formal training sessions at youth ministry or Christian education conferences, other churches, local schools and social work agencies, colleges, universities, and seminaries. Some of these are free; others may have a cost. You might even choose to invest money and take a for-credit class at a nearby college or university.

Grow by asking
Be ready to ask others for help and advice. I (Brad) once had a student who we knew was smoking pot and into the occult. I wasn’t sure how to tackle this, so I called a pastor friend. Not only did Mike spend significant time walking me through potential actions, he even came and participated as we worked to address the situation. Don’t be afraid to admit that you don’t know everything. Reach out to teachers, pastors, other youth workers, parachurch leaders, social workers, law enforcement officers, and professional counselors.

Grow by doing
You can only read, watch, attend, and ask for so long before you need to jump into the fire. Jesus didn’t let his disciples just sit and observe; he sent them out to preach, teach, minister, and heal. They probably made as many major blunders than we do, maybe more. Remember that God has called you. God loves your students even more than you do. God will use you and even redeem your blunders. Wisely leap into the fire and care for your students in their times of need.

To order this book Click Here: 99 Thoughts on Caring for Your Youth Group

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?”

Secondly, I am disappointed because many articles I have read go about “Social Media” in a completely wrong manner. Let me ask you this, “when was the last time you heard a student in your youth group say We should connect using social media?”

And here is the simple problem of why these posts go about it all the wrong way: We are not web 2.0 Natives.

Some back story:

My freshmen year of college was 2005, and here is something that many youth pastors will find completely foreign; I remember being asked to sign my name on an email to send to Facebook because we needed to have x number of people wanting Facebook for them to add a network for Trinity Christian College. Facebook was brand stinking new, it wasn’t even available to all the colleges. At this time, we were still using Myspace. When I got my first job as a youth pastor that year, I remember it being such a big deal that one of the senior girls in my youth group had a Myspace account and the only reason she had one was because she met a cute boy at a college visit who asked if she had one.

It wasn’t until 2008 that Facebook became open to the general public, and since then, it has grown.

But think about the students in your ministry and their views of Facebook, because it is completely different for them than it is for us. For them, Facebook has been around for “forever” it seems, because even the seniors have probably had one for at least all of high school. For many youth pastors, Facebook is relatively new on the scene. Yes, it seems like it has been around for forever, but we can also remember what it was like before Facebook.

So fast forward to today and add in the fact that many youth pastor social media “experts” use social media for promoting a blog, and you get a messed up view of social media being using in youth ministry.
I think Facebook can be a great tool for ministry, but can we accept the fact that the way we look at it is not the way our students do?

If you get invited to an event on Facebook, how often do you actually RSVP and do what you RSVP’ed for? How many times have you created a Facebook event for a youth event and had 4 people RSVP and 40 show up, or 40 RSVP and 4 show up?

So you want to know how to use social media to be the most effective in your youth ministry? As someone who loves blogs, it is almost painful to say it, but quit reading blogs about it and start asking your students. Most likely you have a group of students who you can ask questions like this in a productive manner. I guarantee you that will make your social media strategy 50 times better than reading 50 blog posts about creating one.

That being said, what are ways you have tried to use Social Media in Student Ministry that have failed? What have you done that has been wildly successful?

Teen Role Models: Who They Are, Why They Matter
The people teenagers look up to as their role models matter a great deal in determining the shape and substance of the next generation of churchgoers, consumers and citizens. A study conducted by Barna Group among a national sample of teenagers gives new insight into whom teens select as their role models and why those individuals captured their attention.

A Closer Look at Cyberbullying [Infographic]
Eric Dye of Churchm.ag shares a great infographic on the statistics of cyberbullying. A must read for all youth workers and parents.

Setting Specific Goals for Your Corporate, Business Blog
John Saddington, blogging and social media guru, offers a couple of handfuls of tips to creating goals for your blog.

The seasons of the soul and your role as youth leader
Rachel Blom always brings it in her writing. This time she tackles the much ignored concept of seasons of the soul in ministry and hits some tough areas that most youth workers are not willing to touch on. Great read!

Helicopter Parents Are Leading The Job Hunt For Millennials
Helicopter parenting has hit a new high… Out of 700 employers who participated in a survey conducted by Michigan State University, nearly one-third said they had received resumes submitted by parents and four percent of moms and dads actually came to the interview.

[Via TheSource4YM]

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.

Titus 2

Here are a few statistics about teens and depression that we received from TeenDepression.org

• About 20 percent of teens will experience teen depression before they reach adulthood.
• Between 10 to 15 percent of teenagers have some symptoms of teen depression at any one time.
• About 5 percent of teens are suffering from major depression at any one time
• As many as 8.3 percent of teens suffer from depression for at least a year at a time, compared to about 5.3 percent of the general population.
• Most teens with depression will suffer from more than one episode. 20 to 40 percent will have more than one episode within two years, and 70 percent will have more than one episode before adulthood. Episodes of teen depression generally last about 8 months.
• Dysthymia, a type of mild, long-lasting depression, affects about 2 percent of teens, and about the same percentage of teens develop bipolar disorder in their late teenage years. 15 percent of teens with depression eventually develop bipolar disorder.
• A small percent of teens also suffer from seasonal depression, usually during the winter months in higher latitudes.

Working with teens who have depression is a unique relationship and there are several things we as youth workers need to keep in mind. Here is a quick list of things you need to do.

• Know the difference between depression and being depressed. One is a simple feeling that only lasts for a little bit and the other lasts for weeks at a time with little or no breaks of relief.
• Suicide is a very real ending. Do not treat depression lightly and do not think that you can handle it yourself. This is not “just a bad day” so give it the attention it deserves.
• Promote a medical approach. Depression needs a medical diagnosis that may need a treatment with medication or proper counseling. Pastors can offer a spiritual dimension of help, but do not be so naive that you fully understand it unless you have a proper license.
• Do not make promises you can’t keep. If they want to tell you something but make you swear, you are putting yourself and them in jeopardy. If they say that they will cause harm to others or themselves, you are required to report it and promising them secrecy before you know the information will result in breaking the promise or putting them in serious danger.
• Be vigilant. If they promise to tell their parents or talk to a doctor, follow up with them fairly quickly afterwards, within a couple of days. Do not be pushy, but know that you have a responsibility as a Christian to keep up with their progress.
• Offer Overwhelming Support. A little bit of encouragement for someone with depression typically is not enough. Shower them with praise and support and let them know that you are being authentic and it is not an inconvenience. They need to hear it.