Thought Matt and Doug had a great series of questions for small group leaders to ask their students – getting to know your kids or getting to know them better. Head there for the whole list and some tips on how to use them, and if you’re not getting the daily email from YouthMinistry.com - sign up for it (it is FREEand awesome) right here.
35 trigger questions to spark conversation: 1. How are you involved at your school? (Clubs, cheer, band, sports?) 2. What was a highlight of your week? 3. What is something you did this summer that was fun? 4. What is your absolute favorite thing to do? 5. If you could have free tickets to any concert, where/who would it be? 6. What is your favorite subject at school? 7. Who is your favorite teacher and what do you like about him/her? 8. Are you the type who gets things done early or waits till the last minute? 9. What do you normally do when you have free time? 10. Where?s your favorite place to eat? 11. What?s the best Christmas gift you?ve ever received? 12. What?s the best thing that?s ever happened to you?
JG
On Thursday afternoon of last week I got a phone call asking if I would be willing to speak in our adult services the upcoming weekend due to Pastor Rick having suffered an eye injury. The conversation went almost exactly like this:
voice on phone: Kurt, Pastor Rick is hoping you can teach this weekend…he is still in quite a bit of pain.
Kurt: Ummm….ummmm….sure. I would be happy to. Is there something specific for me to speak on?
Voice on phone: No….do you have something in your file you can use on short notice?
Kurt: Ummm….ummmm….I have only taught adults three times in my life so my file is pretty thin.
Voice on phone: Okay. Thanks a ton for being willing to help out…you will do a great job.
I love my Pastor, I love my church, I love that they felt comfortable making a last minute request, and I loved the opportunity to speak to the adult congregation at our church. Here are a few observations that struck me.
- Adults are a pretty easy audience. The pressure I felt was purely one of what I would call “content creation”….can’t give adults the same level of content you can give JH students….BUT adults are an easy audience! They all want to be there, they don’t send text messages or get up in large clumps to use the restroom. They don’t flick the ears of the kid in front of them and they don’t pass gas loud enough for the entire room to hear.
- Despite that….they really are just big teenagers. They have similar insecurities, similar struggles and similar hurts…..they are just packaged a little differently.
- Many of them have no clue about our youth ministry. I was shocked at how many parents introduced themselves to me saying things like, “we had no idea the youth ministry was in such capable hands” or, “we have never been down to the youth area…what else is going on for my teenager” etc. This was an eye opener for me and a reminder that no youth pastor can assume parents are as informed, connected, in the loop etc as we often think.
- I am glad to be a junior high pastor! In 14 years at Saddleback, I have spoken in the adult services two times. I would certainly welcome the opportunity again, but last weekend reminded me that my giftedness and my calling (funny how those two [...]
It is frustrating to have to allow some app to compress you video or image files before you can upload them to your intended destination. Also frustrating is the cap on “over the air” uploading from your iPhone even when it is connected to WIFI. To top it all off, I like to have my video residing natively on YouTube and Facebook, but hate having to go through the painful uploading process twice. PixelPipe solves all of those problems.
PixelPipe focuses on one thing: publish photos, video, audio, text and files on over 100 online destinations. Basically that means it will put your media on every blogging, social media, and online storage site you can imagine.
Once you register for an account, you set up “destinations” like YouTube and Facebook and it adds them to your list of destinations. Then, once you are ready to upload, you select the media you would like to upload, click upload and it does the rest (one upload to multiple destinations). It has a 250MB cap which should make most of your HD clips uploadable; though, if you have edited them into a snazzy video, it may exceed the limit.
Its one flaw is its UI. Once you fire it up, it is not obvious how to go about selecting which destination you are uploading to at that particular moment (you have to go into settings>edit destinations and then [...]
There are a lot of changes happening in our student ministries right now. In the midst of the crazy summer so many other components are moving in different directions. Many of the changes are great, and needed. And it will be exciting to see how God will unfold all that we have been praying for. But there are a few changes that I (as the wife) do not like so much and don’t understand. It is these changes that I don’t know what to say, and not say, and just what to do. My pride wants to shout at my husband, “Hey, did ya think it all through? Are ya real, REAL sure about that one?!” And my favorite, “Listen to me, listen to me, just listen to me!” BUT…..I know I shouldn’t.
I don’t know if I’m alone on this one, or what?? Anyone else fear change as much as me? I totally trust my husband and his call to this ministry. I do believe he is brilliant and gifted and a wonderful leader. Buuutttttt, what do you do when you don’t agree with it all?? Nothing? Pray? Vent, and visit this site?
I did take a big step (for me) this weekend. Our Pastor asked us to choose one area in which we would come to God daily for the summer and ask his guidance. I was certain that I was going to ask for wisdom concerning all these changes happening for us [...]
As a youth pastor in an urban setting, I need to be able to resource my youth group ona budget. A lot ofthe guys Italk too say the very same thing. I’m going to take the next week or so and talk about some resources and ways to be an Urban Youth Ministry Baller on aBudget!
My boy Scott Mills from LifeWay was feeling me when he wrote this….
As a student minister, I am sure you have to tighten your belt these days and make more youth ministry happen with fewer dollars. With the economy like it is, everyone has to make the most of what we have ? at home, at work, and in our ministry
Did you know that LifeWay has many options for Bible Study? We have options for all budgets, but you will not lose anything when it comes to solid biblical teaching that is built on a strategy for developing students spiritually. All our Bible study resources line up with a solid strategy to help students KNOW God, OWN their faith, and make their faith KNOWN. (www.lifeway.com/studentstrategy)
Here is how these resources compare per week if you have 1 teacher and 20 students:
I recently wrote an article called, “Guidance Toward Biblically Mature Conclusions.” It’s about causing college-age people to think more deeply about (their) faith. In this article I give 5 questions to ask them and how/why I’ve found them helpful to ask. To read that, click here.
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Chuck – thanks for the questions. For my own conversations with students, I try not to make opposites of conscience and faith. Our conscience may be based on what we’ve grown up with, and it does not save us, but it does help us through the transitions towards maturity.
Christ calls us to walk in freedom – - apart from the Law (Rom. 2:14-15), which means we need to be sensitive to our conscience (Rom. 14:20-23), and to not step over the consciences of others in the exercise of our freedom (Titus 1:15).
If the opposite of a pure faith is unbelief, then the opposite of a pure conscience is a defiled conscience. Paul urged Timothy to fight the good fight, “keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith” (1 Tim. 1:19).
I’ve found that a great question for college students on the subject of conscience is found in comparing the religious-cultural taboos of one generation to another.
* For example, our granddads would step outside of a Sunday church service and would gather on the steps to light up their cigarettes and talk… but they would never shop on a Sunday, because that was breaking Sabbath.
*Today, smoking is considered by many to be sinful, but shopping on Sunday is perfectly routine. Who was correct?
How do you follow your conscience, and how do you grow in faith and freedom without dulling your conscience?
Used the 5 questions in the last two week’s gatherings. Worked pretty cool! thanks and keep ‘em coming!
paul
Paul, good to hear!