We are currently in a transitional time in our youth ministry. About a year ago I decided that it was time to split into more age-specific programming, and it took a year to convince everyone to get on board. There are a lot of logistics to splitting a ministry, and it’s been pretty good so far.
Here are some of the challenges we are facing:
-we are only getting core kids to come out
-it is a different dynamic when you only have 25 people versus 80
-some kids are taking it personally
-we are feeling our way in the dark rather than knowing exactly where we are headed!
Even though we are presented with this difficulty, I will say this. Our vision still stands. We still come in to work every day and work our bee-hinds off to lead students in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. When we see kids take steps in that direction, it is a win for us. When we see kids inviting their friends into that journey, it is a win for us. When we see leaders mentoring our students to be growing Christians, it is a win for us. When we see new graduates and seniors-to-be starting to embrace the role of being a mentor rather than a student, that is a win for us.
Though we haven’t experienced outrageous numbers coming to Christ or even in attendance, we will celebrate every victory along the way, because as my dear friend Andy Stanley says, “What is celebrated is repeated.”
So leaders, students, parents, volunteers and onlookers…. stick to your guns, and don’t look back!
I am about 3 days back from holidays, but have been plagued with terrible internet access at our church (they are digging a new line, yes!). So now I am out at Starbucks with one of my favorite bevvies and thought I should send an update to my beloved blog!
My holidays were awesome! I didn’t do too much. But it totally put me in a new place, ready to serve again! I’m super excited for what God wants to do at Cross Church this summer!
If you are a pastor and are burning the candle at both ends, please, please PLEASE take at least a day to chill out! Rest is so awesome (and Biblical!!!). It will recharge you and give you energy to work even harder than before!
Anyway, I know that wasn’t super-deep. I need to take some time to write some future blogs, so keep tuning in!
Just thought I’d give you a heads up and let you know that I’m starting a week of holidays on Tuesday next week! I would have started today, but we have our annual church picnic Sunday, as well as a Summer 2 Serve meeting on Monday night! SOOOOOOO… that means I’ll have to be in the office to take care of that! But the blog will be a little quiet for about a week or so, unless I get REALLY restless and need to post my thoughts…
I’ll probably have one more blog, which will unveil my NEW MACBOOK PRO which is scheduled to arrive in our offices on Monday morning… I definitely will be posting my excitement over that… oh yeah, and did I mention I’m getting the new Adobe CS5 Design Suite with said laptop? This. Is. Epic!
Today’s post is bought to you by our newest staff member at Cross Church: Miss Lindsay Giesbrecht. Lindsay is helping out in our games and junior high department and had an amazing experience this last week at neXus Youth! If you have awesome stories about your experiences, please pass them along and you can be a guest poster too!!!! -Terrin
This past Friday I have the awesome experience of leading a youth to Christ. Something I had never done before. This is not something I will forget, or take for granted. Our series for the past couple of weeks has been about “Stories,” where some of our youth leaders shared stories and experiences that were undeniably God-breathed. This was a very inspirational series and I hope all of our youth were inspired and challenged!
Something our speaker (Dennis Perron) mentioned this week was when we are in a place of comfort in our life, do we ask God for the next step or next direction in our lives? This is a challenging thought, being in constant communication with our Father about what to do in our day to day life. As humans we rely way too much on ourselves, making our own plans and then we wonder why we are disappointed or why things have not worked out “our” way. This Friday after Dennis spoke I had this feeling of contentment, a feeling I usually would thank God for. I am truly blessed with a wonderful job, co-workers, family and friends. This past year while I was away at Bible school two topics that continually came up in class, assignments and Bible reading where humility and kenosis.
Philippians 2:5- 8 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being, in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”
We are called to have an attitude of Christ. Instead of feeling proud or lucky that my life was in a good place, I took a new step and asked God to lead me in the direction he wished me to walk in, emptying myself of my own feelings, thoughts and wants allowing myself to be used for the work of the Kingdom. After praying one of the most honest prayers I have ever prayed, God led me to a new student at our youth group who had never been to a Church except for the funeral of her brother. I was able to pray a prayer of peace over this student and her friends, which continued into this student asking questions and accepting Christ as her personal Lord and Savior! The joy radiating from her was undeniably God. What a Story! I feel humbled and blessed to have been part of this great moment, and am looking forward to following up with this student!
current series: Stories: A Glimpse of the Undeniable (Part 4)
sermon in a sentence: Dennis Perron shared his testimony of the three times in his life he called out to God: make me a better person, help me to change and make my life count!
games for the night: We played a rousing version of “Are You Smarter Than Your Youth Leader.” It was a brilliant game created by Cindy L. and Lindsay G.! Apparently, the youth leaders won this round!
Attendance: 58. The rain was atrocious! We had a great time thought!
element of fun/positive environment: Go to YouTube and look up the video “drummer can’t contain the rock”… oh boy!
music playlist: Tell the World, Blessed Be Your Name, God of Wonders, Cannons, Enough
favourite moment: Debuting a new song called “Forever Changed” right before we gave a call for the gospel. It worked so well!
up next week: BONFIRE AT LITTLE MOUNTAIN PARK!!!!!
This Sunday is “Bring Your Parents to Church” Day
July 2 is drop-in from 7- 11
The next week we start Junior and Senior High Ministries (we will probably be having a contest to name our Jr High ministry… Seniors are already calling Wednesdays HSM!)
So it was about 11 months ago that I agreed to take on neXus Youth Ministries in my portfolio here at Cross Church. I have always been involved in youth ministry pretty heavily, but have never held the reigns for one simple reason: I didn’t attend Bible school to become a youth pastor! My first two years of training were very heavy in worship theology, and at the end of year 2 before I started as an intern at Cross Church (then Weston Gospel Church), I would have sworn up and down that by 2010, I would be a very happy music pastor at some church in a big city. Funny how God works, isn’t it?
Originally, I agreed to act as a transition for a maximum of 8 months starting in September of 09 to make sure our youth ministry would transition into another full-time pastor who was gifted and skilled and loved teenagers. My portfolio was very full, as I had (and still have) worship ministry, our graphics department, and a lot of administration on my plate. Here we are, the 8 month mark was passed months ago, and I am still at the helm.
Hmmm…
Here are some highlights of my first year’s adventures in youth ministry:
Fall retreat out at Calvary Temple Youth Camp. This camp has a special place in every person’s heart who attends it. So much happens there and it allows us to set up the year for success. I also love seeing life change!
Gym Riot in November! We had about 150 people attend and have a blast. It also marked the first time we ever had to call 911. Thankfully everyone ended up being ok. But yikes, what an adventure!
Having Drop-in over Christmas break and watching “UP” together. I love that movie so much! I had already seen it 3 times in the theatre, and it was so great to share it with our youth!
January staff meeting! We bought a big pile of chinese food, canceled youth on the first Friday of 2010 (we should make this into a tradition!) and talked about youth ministry. It was so thrilling to see the passion that each and every one of our adult volunteers has to see students in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ!
Mission Statement Challenge: Every Friday night for the past 6 months or so (for the most part), we’ve challenged our kids and leaders to learn our mission statement as a youth group. I think this in itself has given people ammunition and purpose to understand why we do what we do every week!
March’s retreat out to Camp Arnes to talk about sex. Some very enlightening information came out of there!
Seeing our numbers grow over normally quiet months. We are even stronger than last year!
Getting to share my vision to see two separate ministry environments for junior and senior high students- can’t wait to see this happen in a couple of short weeks!!!!
and BEST of all… since February 26, we have seen OVER 50 STUDENTS give their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ. HALLELUJAH!
Don’t get me wrong, there have been some definite lows and moments of frustration. It’s been a challenging, stretching and hard year for me. I have had to humble myself several times and admit that God knows best, even in areas that I could say “I got this.” God is really good and is blessing our ministry and working through our leaders and students to reach our neighborhoods. I have no plans or prospects to hand over the reigns of youth ministry to, so it looks like I’m going to settle in for a while longer. In future posts, I definitely want to share with you some interesting research I’ve discovered about the demographics in our immediate area, and our plan of attack to share Jesus Christ with them!
neXus Youth Ministries exists to lead students in a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating environments where students prioritize their relationship with Christ, influence their friends and experience personal ministry!
OOOOH look out, this might be a hot topic! Make sure you respond on the poll before reading this post! Could make for some fun times in the comments section!
So anyway, video games seem to be a VERY touchy subject for some people. I’ve grown up playing lots of games: Mario, Mario Kart, James Bond, Call of Duty (though that one is recent), Rock Band, Guitar Hero and sports games are generally my favorite. For Christmas this year, I bought my husband an Xbox 360 (Modern Warfare 2 Special Edition, oh yeah!) and little did we know that it would become an amazing tool for connecting with some of the guys in our ministry!
This has led to some interesting conversation. At youth, we don’t allow violent, vulgar or sexual games to be played in the church. That’s pretty much a no brainer. You don’t want a kid going home to their parents at the end of a night to a conversation that goes something like this:
“Hey Timmy, how was youth tonight?”
“Well mom, it was awesome! I stole a bunch of cars for a while, then ran around shooting people and sang along to an Eminem song (or insert some other culturally relevant profane artist in there).”
We really want our kids to love coming to the church for the night, but we limit those experiences to something that will glorify God and be wholesome for the whole family.
But how does that translate into our everyday life? I hear all different ends of the spectrum. Personally, I don’t have much of a problem with First Person Shooters, such as Call of Duty, Halo, or for the N64 lovers, James Bond: Goldeneye. I actually find online games more akin to a game of dodgeball: You get hit and then you’re back in the round after a few seconds for respawning (and if you don’t play in hardcore mode, you’re just a wussy!). Some people would harshly disagree with me and even question my faith and my abilities to lead based on my video games choices. Is it a sin to play a video game with blood and violence in it?
How is that different from video games that have swearing in them? Or even games these days that have a high level of sexual content? Is there a certain line that has been crossed as far as gun violence goes? Why doesn’t the Bible address video games and the games that we should allow into our homes? I know that some people will read this blog, and after seeing that I play FPS games, will write me off and think that I’m a bad role model for their children (and if our numbers are down this week, I’ll know who to call), but I do ask this in all seriousness. As a Christian, what is permissible? Paul tells us that just because things are permissible, it doesn’t mean they are beneficial. So what is beneficial about video games?
Here’s why I have continued to play:
Online playing has allowed me to have a connection with a demographic at our youth group that I normally do not converse with (male leaders AND male students)
Teamwork is promoted as we get together and talk as a team
My motor reflexes go into high gear when I’m driving down the street and see people on the roof, at the tops of hills, or in windows, or anywhere else suspicious. There is no way I can be caught by surprise by anyone!
I’m not going to come out and draw up a standard for every age group, person and religious belief represented in the readership. What I will do, however, is list some guidelines that I will definitely put into play when it comes to my own kids in the future:
What is the game’s rating?
How much time and influence will this game have on my child’s life?
Is there anything on this game that I wouldn’t want to subject my child to?
Will this promote more harm or more good in their life?
Anyway, that’s enough of my observations… What are your comments out there?
I always think it’s pretty entertaining when people ask if I am going to have a relaxing summer. Sure, if you call tripling your ministry time, and provide an only means of connection for students to have with their friends, tossed in with a bunch of drama-magnets over the most boring part of the year “relaxing!” I kid about how dramatic they are (sortof), I really do love hanging out with them, having them take over our offices and building, and seeing them every day. I probably would feel very strange if summer went any other way. But relaxing, it is not!
One thing I love about summer though, is that it is an amazingly easy time to get new kids out to our drop-in or regular youth events. Kids crave to be around each other so much that they’ll meet even in a church if they have to (lol). So with the idea that kids are going to invite their friends so they can see them all summer, why not leverage that to grow our ministry and introduce those newbies to Jesus Christ? Why not create an environment that is so irresistible that they will still want to come in the fall when their schedules begin to fill up?
Here’s our simple vision for the summer:
3 Environments to encourage kids to prioritize their relationship with Christ, influence their friends, and experience personal ministry!
1. Junior High Ministry- A lot of research on middle schoolers will tell you that their attention span does not go much further than their age (in minutes). It’s extremely difficult for an 11 year old 6th grader to sit through a sermon, even if it is engaging and interesting and life-changing to them!
Junior High night will be exciting, fun, silly, engaging, and best of all, short bursts of energy and attention that will make a night fly by even for the shortest of attention spans! It is our vision over the summer to double the amount of junior high students in our ministry from 30 to 60 kids, even triple to 90 (God is a very big God, right?). We want to introduce these kids to Christ while they’re still young!
2. High School Ministry- We hear it over and over again: “those little kids are annoying!” As much as Jr High students look up to their older friends, the need to have an environment where high school students are challenged to grow has become more and more apparent to us.
High School Ministry night (or, simply, HSM) is going to accomplish that this year. We are not going to be as focused on numerical growth as our junior high ministry is, but more on spiritual growth. Over the summer, we are doing an exciting small group driven series entitled “T3: Time, Talent, Treasure” which is going to challenge our students to take a look at the world around them and start meeting some of the needs represented (think along the lines of our “Do Something” series we did back in January).
3. Friday Night Drop-in- This year marks the fourth summer of drop-in, and every year it gets bigger and better! This year we are open an hour later than any other year (11pm) and are still offering some of the same awesome things for our students to kill time with: team sports, video games, board games, chilling in the cafe!
Drop-in isn’t just filler time, we take this night very seriously too. Drop-in is the perfect environment for our students to gain influence in their circles of friends. Invite them out to an easy, fun, relaxing and kid-filled environment. Have a blast. Invite them to a ministry night, introduce them to Jesus Christ. Meet an adult that cares about their life. Get to experience older youth and leaders in their relationship with Christ, and how they leverage their conversations and attitudes to attract others to Christ.
So there you have it: a simple vision to create 3 distinct environments that are irresistible to students and encourage them to grow, have influence with friends, and experience ministry!
current series: Stories: A Glimpse of the Undeniable (Part 3)
sermon in a sentence: Cory Fines, one of our grade 11/12 boys small group leaders, shared his testimony. It was awesome!
games for the night: More “Minute to Win it!” We are having some serious rain issues… it is cutting into our outdoor time!
Attendance: 57- a lot of our regulars have year-end dinners and wrap-ups, along with performances… hopefully we get a big week this Friday to celebrate our last regular youth before summer!
element of fun/positive environment: We showed an awesome presentation of some of our favorite pictures that were posted of the Car Rally!
music playlist: Let God Arise, Forever, You Are Good, Cannons, Lead Me To The Cross, Mighty to Save
favourite moment: Hearing Cory share his testimony!
