Attitude Video

Below is a video that I shot while teaching Youth Leadership Camp for the Susquehanna Conference Camping Program concerning attitude. I hope you enjoy.

10 Back To School Kick Off Ideas Youth Ministry

1. Barbarian Hyped Up Capture The Flag – this is a fun crazy spin-off of capture the flag sure to get the blood pumping. It takes a little prep work, but it’s definitely a fun one.
2. Before School Phone Blast – Blast an encouraging txt message to your students before they go to school to encourage them to live for Jesus! If your group is a little big or if you want to send group text messages – then read my post about Youth Ministry Text Messaging Service where you can txt your group all at once. Another idea along the same lines is to record a voice message every morning and encourage them to call in and listen to encourage them. I would try to keep it to 5min.
3. Do a Lock-In After See You At The Pole – I’m enouraged that lots of students and youth ministries still participate at SYATP – but why stop there? Since SYATP is still early in the fall – you can do a lock-in that Friday – the same week as SYATP. This year besides Survivorz Lock-in (which is a blast) you may opt-in for something more outreach oriented like Supernatural Event. SYATP is a cool public display and also a cool platform to have the students in your community hand out flyers or txt their friends about Supernatural Event. I want to emphasize that Supernatural Event is for the non-church student so there needs to be a well explained plan to your leadership and Christian teens on what it is about and the purpose of how it can reach out to students in your community – could be very powerful and start off your year winning souls to Jesus!
4. Bigger or Better – This is a fun activity where you break your group into smaller groups so that they can fit in cars and then each team starts with 1 penny and is set out to go knock on doors and introduce themselves to let the people know that they need something bigger or better then the penny (or whatever they currently have after the penny). Give them a time limit and award a prize for the team that has come up with the biggest thing and the team that has come up with the better thing. Sometimes the big is also better so just use your best judgement on how you want to handle that.
5. Church Sponsors – take a photo of each student and have them fill out a card – try to keep things in order to make it easier to match the pic with the card (some churches have software programs to plug people in along with info). Then assign each student with an adult sponsor in the church. The adult sponsor is responsible for praying for the student throughout the school year and you can take it a step further where they meet the student for lunch once a month or twice a school year. Stick to your church policies about background checks and such because you just never know. This can be a great way though for the adults in the church to get know and pray for the student ministry.
6. Progressive Dinner To Meet All The Youth Sponsors – A cool way for you to introduce your sponsors for the year would be to set up a progressive dinner where the students start at one place with say dessert and then move on to the next place main dish and each place they visit is also a youth sponsor (when I say youth sponsor – I’m meaning a youth leader volunteer for your youth ministry). The youth can then connect better with who the sponsors are so that when they head into their small groups – they feel like they at least know them a little more. Relationship builder and dinner = 2 for 1 SUPER AWESOMENESS!
7. Fastest Text In The West – Or east or south or middle or north lol. To make this work a little better – divide into 2 – 5 teams and select one person as the texter for the whole group. The group that texts you the quickest with the right answer wins points or a prize or candy. You can go at it for say 10 questions or two rounds. You can also style it by making it like your favorite game show such as jeopardy or family feud.
8. Messy Olympics – Since we just came off an Olympic summer – this may be something they are in the mood for – plus its messy – so definitely take some pictures – it will be fun to have those posted for the school year.
9. Facebook Status Outreach Challenge – This activity is a challenge – guys vs gals to see who can by Facebook status update bring the most friends in within 1 hour. Structure what they need to say for there status update like: “Hey we are doing a girls vs guys challenge to see who can bring in more friends to [ such and such place] and the winning side gets free ice cream. The challenge ends in 1 hour from this post. please help us girls/guys win.” Or something similar. Have each group cheer when a new girl/guy comes through the door. You may just be surprised that you need to pay for 1000 ice cream cones, but you also will have made some new connections with students you may haven’t known before.
10. Year Long Group Art Project – This is a cool idea that helps build and promote community in your youth ministry. Start your year by starting some type of art project that the students can build either 15min every week or a whole youth ministry evening once a month or somewhere in-between. Maybe it’s building something like the last supper (life size) out of news paper, or Jesus on the cross using play-dough. Come up with some type of project that will take your group a school year to complete – you will be glad you did.

How to Communicate with Students

Here are some ways to communicate with students—ways that are Hot or Not. 

HOT: Facebook
This is where our money is at right now—the highlight of the tools we’re using to communicate with students. The only downside is that a youth ministry page requires constant updates and management to really be effective. And there’s a desire to spend time on our OWN pages instead of building up the church site. Facebook is where it’s at, so get on board to get it mastered just in time for your students to move on to something else.

NOTE: Our junior high ministry uses Facebook, but not as strategically as high school. We walk a fine line due to the reality that Facebook has age restrictions, but most junior highers are still there.

NOT: Email
When you’re communicating to parents, email is as hot as can be. The older people get the more possessive/stagnant they become with technology. Students on the other hand are quick to jump on what is next, usually before adults have even heard of it. If you are emailing students and it is working, realize that it is a miracle of God and won’t last very long. Email is out.

HOT: Texting
Probably right up there with Facebook is texting—it comes in two flavors: individual and mass, and both work incredibly well. Use a service like Simply Text or Duffled to build a list of everyone, and don’t discount the power of a personal text from their small group leader or youth pastor. Texting is where it is at right now for sure. 

NOT: Paper
You’ve gotten very good at Publisher 2003. I get it. You like clip art and flyers made on the church photocopier. We do too, but those days have past. Sorry to be the one to break it to you.

HOT: Facebook event pages
Different from your main Facebook page are the event pages you create for service projects, mission trips, or special events. These are usually syncing with many students’ phones now, so you get calendar reminders as well as triggers built into to social media. A classic win-win-win situation.

HOT: Calendars
Calendars, if they make it home, have a tremendous return. Put a magnet on the back and you might get on the refrigerator for 2-3 months!

NOT: mass postcards in the mail
The shelf life is just too short for a postcard for a series and the cost is typically prohibitive, too. I love these and am sad to see them already fading out, but unless you’ve got cash to spare or a cheap printer to crank them out this one is dropping quickly.

HOT: individualized postcards from small group leaders
This one will never go out of style. Try it out this week: Pick up some postage-paid postcards and scribble out a few handwritten notes this week and see if it works. Or just trust us…no technology will ever replace the power of a handwritten note!

(I got these ideas from a weekly e-mail that I get about youth and young adult ministry)

Great Resources for Students

Here are some great resources to get in the hands of your students.

1-Minute Bible by Doug Fields
You've committed yourself to more Bible reading plans than you care to admit, and you're 187 chapters behind in your latest attempt. If this sounds familiar, then the One Minute Bible for Students is what you need to get back and stay on track. Do the math. There are 1400 minutes in a day. It will take you One Minute to read a passage of Scripture.

Student Leaders Start Here by Leader Treks
Student Leaders Start Here is a practical, interactive workbook, to help students grow in leadership. It focuses on three topics that are crucial for developing as a leader, and gives students a personal leadership profile for their strengths and growth areas in each topic. Give this book to the individual student who is growing in leadership, or use it in your student leadership team and small groups when you follow the bonus pages for small group facilitators. 

Stripped Clean by Jeff Storm
Give your teenagers a guilt-free, up-close look at materialism—one that strips away the overwhelming messages of a consumer society. You'll see authentic changes in readers as they tear out pages to use in Jesus-centered activities 

Case for Christ Student Edition by Lee Strobel
Who Was Jesus? A good man? A lunatic? God? There's little question that he actually lived. But miracles? Rising from the dead? Some of the stories you hear about him sound like just that—stories. A reasonable person would never believe them, let alone the claim that he's the only way to God! But a reasonable person would also make sure that he or she understood the facts before jumping to conclusions. That's why Lee Strobel—an award-winning legal journalist with a knack for asking tough questions—decided to investigate Jesus for himself.

Live Large. Be Different. Shine Bright. By Josh Griffin and Doug Fields
In Live Large. Be Different. Shine Bright., Doug Fields and Joshua Griffin share about some important character qualities that will help teenagers live large, be different, and shine bright. A lot of what Doug and Joshua write about doesn't seem to get much sermon time, but these topics are definitely worthy of consideration and experimentation—topics like competition, laughter, cliques, encouragement and several others will help teenagers in the process of being a more vibrant follower of Jesus. 

More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell
With almost 10 million copies in print, More Than a Carpenter continues to be the most powerful evangelism tool worldwide. Josh McDowell's timeless examination of the true nature of Christ and his impact on our lives is one of the best-selling Christian books ever. Written by a former skeptic of Christianity, it is a hard-hitting book for those who doubt Jesus' deity and his purpose. 

Your Own Jesus by Mark Hall
A true storyteller and a teacher with a heart for ministry, Mark Hall traces the downward spiral caused by spiritual compromise with the world, and then charts the upward road to wholeness and restoration that comes when we claim our very own Jesus. When that happens, believers experience authentic fellowship with the one living God. Through fascinating personal stories, scriptural insights, and discussion questions for practical interactive study, Your Own Jesus: Student Edition will set readers free to live without compromise with the Jesus they come to know intimately and love fully.

Middle School Survival Series by Kurt Johnston, Mark Oestreicher, and Scott Rubin
There are six books in this series: My Faith, My Family, My Friends, My School, My Changes and My Future.  Each book consists of 72 easy-to-read mini chapters written specifically for young teens.