YouTube Video Describing Christianity

This is a YouTube video by gentleman named Tyler Oakley. He evidently posts on a regular basis and this post has to do with his description of Christianity. Take a look and then ask yourself or a group the questions below.

1. What's your reaction to Tyler Oakley's description of Christianity? 
2. Did you find it funny? Accurate? Misleading? 
3. What would you say to Tyler about his video and his interpretation?
4. If this was someone's first intro to Christianity, what sort of picture do you think they'd have?

Relational Ministry

Relational ministry might be described as any step toward building a relationship with a student in your ministry. It could be a big step, it could be small—either way, it's simply the effort toward truly living in community and sharing life together.

Ministry with young people should be known for this! Students that are a part of your ministry are there to be known, loved, and cared for. All of these things take time—and time is what we can offer that the world (and too often, parents) isn't giving. 

Relational ministry takes time—but not as much as you might think. Here is a list in order of significance for you to follow.

Be Present - going to a student’s sporting event or school performance such as a band concert or play is major. Other colleagues of mine see this as an opportunity to have a date night with their significant other. The key is staying and making sure that the student knows that you were there.

Talk with Them - in a world of texting and emailing it’s often nice to hear someone’s voice. Take five minutes and give the student a call to check in with how their week is going. This will mean a lot to the student but also to the students family that you care enough to individually call them and ask how their day was.

Send Handwritten Notes - this may sound old-school, but everyone including my 18 month old daughter loves to receive mail. The art of writing a handwritten note is going by the wayside, however, for certain students this could mean the world. Whenever I receive a handwritten note from someone I cherish it, and so will your students.

Connect Through Social Media - if you are not Facebook friends with your students, you should be. If they have a twitter account, you should be following them. From time to time write an encouraging word on their wall or send them a direct message through twitter. You could also use other social media platforms like Insta Graham, Interest and others. This takes very little time but this is the world in which most students live and to see that they have an adult who understands the media and uses it, shows that you care about meeting them WHERE THEY ARE.

Text message them - I’m not talking about a mass text that you sent to all your students, rather, a personal text just to them so that they know that you are thinking about them. Again, text messaging is where most young people live today and it youth and young adult workers are not using that media, we will quickly become irrelevant.

I would offer you this challenge. This week try to begin a habit of relationship building with your students. Relationships are the hardest and most time-consuming part of the Young People’s Ministry, however, I would argue that it is the most important.

PS: don’t forget to encourage your leaders as well. 

5 Low-Tech (But Personal) Ways to Connect with Young People

It this age of social media, staying in touch with our youth via email is now consider archaic.  Facebook is yesterday's news and texting only allows for the simplest of messages.  Want to really be cutting edge?  Go "old school" on your youth and reach out to them with something they probably would never expect: the personal touch.  Rather than hiding behind social media, try making contact with some of your youth each week through one of these low-tech options:

1) Phone Call - Why not select a few of your youth each week and surprise them with a quick phone call?  You might be able to tell a whole lot more from the tone of their voice than you ever could reading a tweet.  Just take a few minutes to check in on them and let them know you were thinking about them.

2) Affirmation Letter - Show you really know your teens. On a regular sheet of paper, write a student's name down the left margin of the page in large letters. Use each letter to write out a word or phrase that describes that teen's best gifts and qualities.  Another option is simply to write their name in the center of the page and then surround that name with all sorts of positive words to describe them.  (And, if you like to doodle like me, consider adding a little piece of original art to the page!) Next, just stick it in an envelope and mail it, no message necessary because the affirmation letter will say it all.

3) Visit - At my last church, I actually took time at the start of my ministry to do home visits with all of the youth.  To be sure, some of the teens (and their families) were shocked and a little suspicious about why the youth pastor was visiting them at home.  No pastor had ever done that before!  But what a difference it made to just drop by for 15 minutes and see those teens in their home environment. If home visits aren't convenient, take some time to meet one-on-one with your youth at a local coffee shop or restaurant. 

4) Pray - Keep a prayer calendar with different students' names written on each day of the month. Take time each day to stop and pray for a few of your youth, focusing both on why you are grateful for their presence in your ministry and how you might be called to help them in their walk of faith.

5) Prayer Postcard - When you finish praying, simply write out a quick postcard letting the teen know you prayed for him or her and drop it in the mail.  Trust me -- it will make a difference in their lives to know they are connected to you and God through prayer even during their busy weeks at school. 

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)

Bloom Where You're Planted

Many people in ministry are envious of others in the same ministry. I have known youth pastors who wish they were at the large church because they would have more money and more resources to do the kind of ministry that they wanted to do. I also know local church pastors who have not been satisfied in the church that they have been assigned, remarking that "If only I was at a better church my ministry would grow." It is very easy to indulge yourself in the temptation of being envious of others ministry, however, that is the temptation that we must resist.

Have you ever heard the term "Bloom where you are planted?" I have heard it from time to time in my ministry, especially when I have been depressed that the ministry that I was assigned to be doing wasn't working the way I wanted it to. What I have come to learn from that statement is that God puts us in a ministry setting where we need to be at a particular time when we need the there. God has given each one of us different gifts and God knows where we need to be to be using the specific gifts.

There is no perfect ministry out there. Every church is messy. Accept that! If I might quote Josh Griffin in a blog article he wrote, "[there will always be] pushy parents, apathetic teenagers…" And I would add inadequate facilities, a lack of funding. You can dwell on the negative and constantly be complaining and wish that you were someplace else, or you could be grateful for the gift that you have been given and the place that you have been put to do ministry. 

5 Must Read Books Concerning Young People's Ministry

If you are new to Young People's or have been involved in Young People's ministry for a long time these 5 books would hope you understand young people and their culture, as well as, develop a well-rounded plan for ministry with young people.

1.  “Almost Christian” by Kenda Creasy Dean – A statistical look at the development of faith for millenials and those to follow. Interesting points on faith differences between generations.
2.  “Sustainable Youth Ministry” by Mark DeVries – Consistency makes a huge difference for youth, and avoiding burnout by building a sustainable ministry begins with introspection of yourself as a leader.
3.  “Safe Sanctuaries” by Joy Thornurg Melton – Building safe space for ministry to happen means lessons for adult leaders as well as your church as a whole. A must have!
4.  “You Lost Me” by David Kinnaman – An exploration of why young people are leaving mainline denominations in the US and rethinking their faith. This one is perhaps most powerful when thinking about youth after they have left youth ministry (whether via graduation, moving, or choice).
5.  “Sticky Faith” by Kara Powell Brad Griffin – This original concept has grown into a full-blown resource with several different print versions and online offerings, and is associated with the Fuller Youth Institute. Combination of resources for youth workers and parents.

10 ways to use Facebook in Your Ministry

This is a link to an article that I found particularly interesting. In a recent study by the Barna Institute it found that 94% of young people do not respond to e-mail. The best way they communicate is through social media (Facebook, twitter, etc.)

I hope you find this as helpful as I did.

http://www.shrinkthechurch.com/2011/05/10-ways-to-use-facebook-in-your-ministry/

Fast Facts for Young Adults

• In 2006, 69 million people in the US are projected to between the ages of 18 and 30 (Census Bureau) 

• Young Adult’s appreciate and are spiritually fed by a variety of worship styles.  There is no specific style of worship that is a magic wand for drawing young adults. 

• There is a wide diversity of Young Adults.  YA’s are: married, single divorced, in College, never went to college, in the work world, in professional schools. 

• In a recent Barna survey, it noted that 94% of young people do not respond to e-mail. 

• Young Adults, like most generations in the church, want a place where they can meet God as they are and feel comfortable asking the “tough questions.” 

• There is a diversity of family and “home” experiences from which Young Adults come (traditional, divorced, one-parent homes, same-sex parents, being raised by someone other than parent). 

• We are in the midst of a generational shift-the GenXers are at the place where they are “suppose to come back to the church” because they are getting married and having children.  But they are not returning to the church for a variety of reasons. 

• GenXers have an intense need for inter-generational, inter-racial and inter-faith relationships, which transcend typical interactions and environments often found in churches. 

• Technology has impacted the 18-30 year olds in significant ways-not only are they ultra “plugged in”—it also feeds the dynamics of  “Helicopter Parents”, hyper-multi-tasking, and increases the gaps in the haves and have nots. 

• The church must look at non-tradition ways to engage in issues of faith.  This has an impact on: Sunday school, worship, mission trips, evangelism, service opportunities, where church gathers, etc. 

• Studies show that there is NOT a decrease of young people entering seminary BUT there is a decrease in those who are in seminary who are choosing ordination for traditional preaching ministry.  Only ½ of those graduate with an M.Div. 

One final word of note about young clergy: currently there are 15,954 ordained elders in the United Methodist Church. Only 951 are under the age of 35 (or 5%). Within 20 years, 14,000 our clergy will be retired.

Something got change!

High School Graduation Gift Idea

Here is a great idea for any high schooler who you know is graduating this year.

If you want to keep your graduating seniors involved in their faith, especially when they are away from home, then you'll want to get them a subscription to Relevant magazine. 

Relevant magazine is a periodical specifically devoted to the spiritual enrichment of Christian young people. The magazine it published every other month (6 times a year) and is filled with articles, devotionals and information dealing with young people’s culture and faith. There is a lot about this magazine that I like, starting with its price. A years subscription is only $14.95. It also is not filled with a lot of advertisements, and what few advertisements are in the magazine have to do with Christian related events.

They have recently come out with an electronic version for the iPad and that's where they take it up a notch.  The electronic version has embedded video, special web links, and found it with the various articles. 

To learn more about this excellent resource visit http://www.relevantmagazine.com/