Tag Archives: USAFA

Youth Ministry and Parenting: Ministry Implimentation

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I have this deep desire to make youth ministry more than a one-night-a-week thing. I want teenagers to take these lessons and apply it into their lives. So we will be posting an conversation starter video on the USAFA Club Beyond Facebook page three days before the lesson and a reflection video that night after club. It takes 15 minutes to put the video together, twenty minutes to upload, and hopefully a life-long impact as they apply this lesson to their life. Worthy investment.

Conversation Starter on Family

Club Reflection on Family

Measuring Success In Youth Ministry

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People measure success in many different ways. In fact, if you do youth ministry, you know all of the different people that have buy-in to it. You, the students, your volunteers, the parents of the students, your senior pastor, the deacons, the congregation, other youth ministries you work with, and more. Each of those people may have a different way of measuring success. And while many think that numbers are evil, you need to be able to actually be able to measure if you are succeeding. Attendance numbers are easily measurable, but that does not quantify real discipleship.

I do want to be clear about one thing. Measuring success is not comparing your ministry to others. They have their ministry that serves that part of the community. If we start to compare ourselves, we begin measuring their goals to our ministry and that always makes someone look bad. Separate your ministry from them and recognize God’s blessing on your specific ministry.

  1. God’s View Of Greatness.
    God’s view of greatness is not what the world would call success. Look at Matthew 5 and see how He wants you to success in life and ministry.

    Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
    Matthew 5:3-12

  2. Ensure Everyone Is On The Same Page.
    Find out who has important buy-in to your ministry and include them in on the process of measuring success. Maybe the senior pastor helps you decide what the goals of ministry should be this year. The volunteers are shared with the goals and how they will be incorporated into the plan to success. And the parents hear a monthly or quarterly update on how those goals are being fulfilled. The most important part of this is communication.
  3. Constantly Evaluate How It Is Going.
    This means that we have quantifiable goals that I can achieve, meet ten new friends of students currently attending or have volunteers run 25% more of youth group. We do not have control of who gets saved or even comes to events and so those would be bad goals. Our goals are year-long at USAFA Club Beyond and every quarter we look at the progress. If things are way off, we are just killing it or not doing as well as possible, we look at why. Maybe our goals were unrealistic or we didn’t (and couldn’t) see tough barriers. So we readjust those goals into new twelve month goals. Because we are constantly tweaking and reevaluating the goals, we never actually reach them, but are always growing and improving.

So what would you count as success? What are your goals?

[Contest] Qualities in Hiring An Associate Staff

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[UPDATE] Facebook decided today was the day to enforce HTTPS, of course when we go live with our app. So ignore going to Facebook and just leave your answer to the question in the contest rules below in the comments!

CONTEST RULES

You have two ways to enter to win, each with their own prize.

  1. The first is giving an answer our question below. Afterwards, we will pick what we believe is the best answer out of the bunch and they will receive our top prize.
    What is a vital quality to look for in hiring an associate staff to your ministry?

  2. The second way to win is by posting this Tweet:
    “I just entered to win 2 prizes from @seventy8prod at http://wp.me/p1tL3d-vh and you can too. Contest closes at 5PM MST on 10/28/11.”.

We are hoping to gain some great insight into what churches, non-profits, and people look for if they were to want to hire an associate staff to assist in their mission.

PRIZES

  1. Top Prize: For the one we choose to be the best response, we will give away one (1) $10 Amazon giftcard.
  2. Tweeting Prize: One random person who tweet’s the contest (see rules) will get their choice from a selection of books.

The contest ends on Friday, October 28, 2011 at 5PM. We will post the names of the two winners at seventy8productions.com Saturday, October 29, 2011.

All rights reserved. We encourage multiple entries as for the Facebook portion of our contest, but remember we are looking for quality, not quantity. All information provided to us is covered under our privacy policy and terms of use. The winners of the contest will be contacted by seventy8productions for a mailing address and contact information. All contestants are allowed to win one prize per year. Amazon and Facebook are not affiliated with seventy8Productions in any way. Contest ends at 5PM MST on Friday, October 20, 2011. Any forms of cheating, lying, or stealing will result in withdrawing from the contest and banning from all further contests at seventy8Productions.

[VLog] Casting the Whole Vision

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As I have experienced the conference, it has been great to hear about Youth for Christ’s whole mission and vision for teens and not just their ministry to Campus Life kids. They serve as a great example to share about your WHOLE program and not just the biggest one.

Regional Conference – Central States
YFC Military
USAFA Club Beyond

The Real Test of Volunteers

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This year we had several new volunteers sign up to serve with us at USAFA Club Beyond. We had an extensive six hour volunteer training, follow-up one on one meetings, a mock youth group to show them how we see it run, and even ran the first meeting to show them how it really goes. Then the test came to let them run youth group by themselves and it was a huge success (in fact, they did much better than I could have). Yet, I was there in case something happened and it all came crashing down.

But what happens when you leave the state for something? That is the real test, no safety net and complete trust in your volunteers that ministry will continue on in your absence. Mistakes will happen, but ministry will continue. The hope is that my volunteers will be even more empowered by this time directly with students.

Trusting Your Volunteers
So what happens when they know that I trust with the ministry?

  1. They can fully use the gifts that God has given them.
  2. You promote longevity with volunteers who are capable of running ministry while you are gone.
  3. They gain the flexibility to run ministry the way they are most comfortable, which could reach new students in new ways.
  4. Self-directed people will be more inclined to volunteer more and maybe even branch out into new avenues of your ministry.
  5. You will free yourself from the stress of micro-managing the ministry.
  6. You will learn to trust God to provide the people resources needed to accomplish his dream for the children in your church.
  7. They will have deep ownership in the lives of the students they are serving.

For those that may see this idea of letting go of control as crazy, I would ask how this ministry would survive the next time you have to leave town, or worse leave ministry? Allow volunteers to be a huge face of the ministry and provide other means for students to hear the Gospel.

Intentionally Surrendering

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As I stated on Monday, I am headed to the Youth for Christ Regional Conference in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The theme of the three days is “Surrender” leaving no doubt that I will need to turn my mind and heart from getting stuff done to listening to what God is doing in YFC and specifically here with USAFA Club Beyond.

This idea of letting go and letting God has been the theme of my life for the past five years and it never gets easier. In so doing, I let go of my control for my life and this ministry and let God take the driver’s seat. I am more than willing to do so and looking forward to what God has to see to me about the national and local ministries.

When is the last time you let go and see where God led you? How did God come through in it?

Defining The Ministry

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This weekend, we have our first volunteer training for the USAFA Club Beyond year. With the beginning of the school year, we have new volunteers, new programs, and restructuring some of the program. Because of all of this change, we need to clearly define the different aspects of the programs for everyone involved. So below is how we have defined the ministry for the volunteers.

[PICS] Taking Students To Air Force Game

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Here are some photos from the USAFA Club Beyond youth ministry when we took them to the Air Force Falcons vs. TCU college football game.


Ever squad currently enrolled at the Air Force Academy out on the field before the game started in remembrance of 9/11


Most of the group that came to the game watching as parachuters land before the game starts.


The Academy team defending their endzone that ended in a TCU touchdown.

USAFA Club Beyond Review: Week 28

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Weekend Teaching Series:
Great of These Is Love (week 3 of 3)

Sermon Message:
Looking at what love is and why it is the greatest of the three attributes.

Main Scripture:
1 Corinthians 13:13

Main Game:
Egg Drop
Bring in supplies like Styrofoam and tape, cloth and string, and cardboard and give groups of students twenty minutes to make something that will keep the eggs safe from a 15 foot drop. Then go outside where you can have smashed eggs and test their projects.

Favorite Moment:
As we wrapped up the year, the students shared their favorite moment of the year and the volunteers bragged on the students.

USAFA Club Beyond Review: Week 27

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Weekend Teaching Series:
Faith and Hope (week 1&2 of 3)

Sermon Message:
Looking at what it means to have faith and hope as teenagers.

Main Scripture:
1 Corinthians 13:13

Main Game:
Chinese Jelly Bean Challenge
Ask for three volunteers and with chopsticks in three minutes, the person that move the most jelly beans from a center bowl to their own cup wins.

Favorite Moment:
In talking about faith being strong and weak like muscles, the students coming up with the concept of “flabby faith”