Do You Realize How Many Summers You Have?

When many people think of years they think of them as 365 days.

It's true, because that's how many days there are in a year, but there's a different way to think of years that might be more helpful.

I'm about to show you a way to think about time that can help you to seize the moment and be more conscious of the time you have with the students God gives you.


Here's the new way to think of time...

Jim Rohn, business/success speaker (and pastor's kid), says that we should think of years as "times".

Example:
5 Years from now is only 5 summers from now.

Have you ever realized how many summers you're going to have with each of your students?

If you lead and group of combined Jr. High and Senior Higher, then you'll only have them 6-7 summers, before they graduate.

If you lead just Jr. Highers, you'll have them for 3 or so summers. If you lead High School, you'll have just 4 or so summers with them.

But even these numbers are actually a HIGH estimate! Think about this...

These number are only true when you have the student in your group the whole time.

Think how many students start attending your group part way through (how many start when they're sophomores, etc.) their time in school?

That means you really have even less time than you think!

I want you to be more effective with the time you have with your students and seize every opportunity, then you should begin to think of years in "times".

Think of your students right now.
Picture their faces.
How many times do you have with each of them?

How many summers do you have with them?
How many summer/winter retreats do you have with them?
How many Falls or Springs do you have?

Really let the reality of this sink in and then ask God to help you to make the most of this Spring and Summer coming up!

Focus On Stories, Not Just Topics!

You've got to see this quote fromTerry Ann Knopf in Reader's Digest. It will help improve the way you teach and speak to your students.

Here it is...

Don Hewitt, creator of "60 Minutes," on his special talent as a journalist: My philosophy is simple. It's what little kids say to their parents: "Tell me a story." Even the people who wrote the Bible knew that when you deal with issues, you tell stories. The issue was evil; the story was Noah. I've had producers say, "We've got to do something on acid rain." I say, "Hold it. Acid rain is not a story. Acid rain is a topic. We don't do topics. Find me someone who has to deal with the problem of acid rain. Now you have a story."

The most powerful way to speak to your students is with stories.

The next time you come up with a topic you want to focus on, do what Don Hewitt does.

Ask yourself, "Where or what's the story I can use to connect with my students and communicate to them in the most powerful way?"

Anarchy Night

One thing I did as a youth pastor to really help prepare my students to lead the group, and not just rely on me or the other adult leaders, was to have what I called an "Anarchy Night".

What is it?

It's a special night where my student leaders run everything from the opening prayer to the closing prayer. They come up with and run the game for the night. They do announcements. They do the "talk" for the night.

How it worked:
I picked a night on the calendar and told my student leaders it was going to be "Anarchy Night". I told them they'd do EVERYTHING. If they dropped the ball and didn't prepare or do something, then it wouldn't happen!

I asked them to decide what they'd do for the "talk" section of the night. They could have one student give a sermon, or lead a discussion, etc.

I asked them to tell me the topic for that night and to give me a basic outline of what was going to be talked about. (I also worked with and gave "preaching advice" if one of the students was going to speak for the "talk".)

We then advertised and promoted it in the group!

It was always cool to see the students run the whole thing that night. Some of the nights were times where God totally moved.

The students who weren't on the leadership team loved it. It also inspired some of them to want to become a leader too!

But either way, it gave them more ownership of the group. It also gave them a chance to see all the work that was put into our Wednesday night gatherings. It helped them appreciate my job more!

I'd really encourage you to try one of these nights. I never regretted doing one of these nights!

Use Servant Evangelism To Grow Your Youth Group!

If you're trying to extend the reach of your group and bring in some new students, then try some servant evangelism.

IDEA:
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Go out and give away 100 free sodas with a card that says...

"Random Act Of Kindness - We just wanted to show God's love in a practical way. If we can ever help you in anyway, then let us know (your group website) (an email addres)! Come check us out on (time of your meeting) at (location)."

I wish I did this when I was a youth pastor! I mainly relied on students bringing their friends, which was good, but it was the slower way to grow.

I should've done more things like this to get our name out there.

The key to this is to NOT just do it to get students or advertise. Do it to show Jesus' love and let him do the rest.

If you want a ton of more ideas, go here!


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SHHH!

If you're going to have a Lasting Student Ministry you need to teach your students how to spend time with God on their own. They need to have a personal, growing relationship with him.

If they don't have this, and all they have is the "worship-God-in-youth-group" relationship, then they will probably lose their relationship when they graduate from youth group.

Their relationship with God has to be established as something they have on their own - separate from youth group.

That means we need to teach them how to spend time with God daily. They need to know how to quiet themselves and hear God's voice.

The hard thing about this is that many students nowadays don't know what it's like to sit quietly and focus on one thing.

They're used to multi-tasking. They watch TV, while being on the internet checking out a site, while IMing their friends, doing their homework and talking on their cell!! :)

We need to provide opportunities for them to "practice" being quiet.

In your discipleship times, you can have 10 minutes where the students go off to different corners of the room and just spend time with God (praying, reading the Bible and journaling).

On your retreats you can schedule in devotional times where the kids take 30 minutes and do the same thing.

We need to help them build spiritual habits that they will continue for their rest of their lives. This is a huge challenge for todays students, but with your help they can do it.

Update On Ebook

We've sold 82 "How To Build A LASTING Student Ministry" ebooks so far in a little more than a week! That's pretty good since I don't have some big advertising campaign for it.

The BEST part is how exciting it is to hear from people who've grabbed a copy and are already being helped.

I've been getting a lot of cool testimonials from customers. You can see them here.

I really owe it all to the 14 contributors who shared their "in the trenches" knowledge and experience. They're what make the book so unique and helpful.

Jesus & The Holy Spirit

I've been reading the book of John and the book of Acts recently.

The book of John is constantly pointing the supremacy of Jesus.
The book of Acts is constantly emphasizing the power of the Holy Spirit.

Your ministry should do the same.

You should contantly be pointing your students and leaders to Jesus. He is the cormerstone of our faith.

You should be constantly relying on the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and use you as you lead the group of students that He's given you.

Beyond any method or technique that you try, it will be Jesus and the Holy Spirit who will cause lasting change in your students and help you build a lasting student ministry.

I'd encourage you to start reading John and Acts - a chapter from each, each a day. This will cause you to focus more on Jesus and remind you to let the Holy Spirit work in your group.

Have You Tried A Little Decentralization?

Which is easier to kill? A starfish or a spider?

Anyone of you who have tried to catch a spider scooting across the wall in your house might say a starfish, but you're wrong!

If you cut off a spider's legs you slow it down.
If you cut off a spider's head you kill it.

But guess what?

If you cut off a starfish's leg it grows a new one and here's the crazy part... that leg can grow a new starfish.
If you cut a starfish in four pieces it can become 4 starfishes!

You're probably thinking...

"That's a kinda cool fact, but so what?"

There's a new book out called "The Starfish and The Spider" by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. This book talks about the unstoppable power of leaderless organizations.

The authors say that traditional centralized, top-down organizations are like a spider. You take out the head and it dies! The leader leaves and the whole thing collapses.

A decentralized organization which spreads out the power and relies on peer relationships is like a starfish.

You want an example of a more decentralized organization?

Look at a lot of the new "Web 2.0" companies and you'll see examples. Companies like Craigslist, Skype, and Wikipedia all have a lot of decentralized features.

Did you know that the early church was pretty decentralized?

Paul would go and start a church somewhere and pick people to lead. And then what would he do? He'd leave!

Paul shared his authority with others. He taught them, prepared them and then gave them the authority to lead and run the thing! He trusted the Holy Spirit and the person's relationship with Jesus to keep them on track.

What's that mean for you?

If you want to have a lasting student ministry you need to give away and/or share some (I didn't say all) of the power!

When I was a youth pastor I, at first, tried to do everything myself. I did Wednesday nights and Sunday School, events, etc...

Guess what happened?
Wednesdays were good. Events were good, but Sunday School was just ok.

Why? I couldn't do it all WELL!

What I finally did was hand over Sunday School to one of my leaders back then named Ioannis (pronounce "Yanni" - this is him now).

You know what happened?

Ioannis was able to focus all his energy on it and run with it! He didn't have to always ask me if he could do something (centralization). I trusted him and let him go (decentralization).

And the result?

Sunday School was sooo much better!!! Not only that, I could relax and focus on all the other stuff!!!

When I left that group Ioannis and some of my other leaders where there to help run it and work with the new youth pastor.

Try a little decentralization and see what happens!

Email me and tell me what happens! :)