Christmas Ideas for Youth Ministry Pt. 2

Previously, in my Christmas Ideas for Youth Ministry post, I shared the things God was speaking to me about this season and how in turn I was going to share it with my Middle Schoolers.We put together a funny story line to promote and brand the evening. Video one is on the post link above, as well as here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODrbM4QVTFkDuring Christmas, we can all be very self-serving or self-seeking, even myself. I remember when I...

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Old Skool Jesus #7 & #8

Old Skool Jesus week 7- Why Should I Worship JesusWe as humans are created to worship. It is in our very nature to worship something or someone. I shared with the Middle Schoolers that whether they like it or not, they are worshippers. I shared a quick little illustration where I asked them to think about countries where they worship idols made of wood, gold or whatever. I asked them, "If you walked into their world and saw them bowing down to a...

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Christmas Ideas for Youth Ministry

Christmas always seems like a tough time of year to get lessons and stuff off the ground. In a sense it's easy because you know the topics, you know the stories, but it consistently comes to the point that you feel like you say the same thing over and over again. We as youth pastors also have a tough time as to make this timeless truth timely and relevant to the lives of our students.I've been developing some cool things that I hope will help...

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Old Skool Jesus #6

Last week, we talked about one of my favorite subjects: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ! I opened the night with a great little video I'm sure most of you have seen called: "Jesus is my Friend" (below) and got them laughing to begin. Then I went back to a couple of my earlier talks about Jesus being God and a quick recap of the cross. I shared that the people who doubted (i.e. Jesus' family and disciples) that he was in fact God, no longer doubted...

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Old Skool Jesus #5

This week was pretty freakin' sweet! We went to the deep level of walking through the crucifixion, step by gory step.I started by telling the students that we don't remember or even know the true depth of pain, humiliation and torture that Jesus went through on the cross. In Jesus' day, the word "cross" was equivalent to a swear word, because it was so gory, so nasty that it wasn't even spoken in normal conversation.We have trivialized the cross...

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Old Skool Jesus #4

This week, we came back to our theme: "Old Skool Jesus" with a talk on "Why Did Jesus Come?" One of the leaders in the Middle School Ministry (Pete) spoke to the teens on Tuesday night and I spoke to them Wednesday Night. Pete had a great opening (which I stole) where he placed around the room pictures of people who needed help. Some were hilarious pictures of people getting hurt and others were more serious in nature where people were fleeing...

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Atomic Blast---Gladiators!

This w eek, we've taken a break from the "Old Skool Jesus" series and did a Big Event Outreach.We do these large events every 3 months and the focus is evangelism. Our hope is to see kids come to Christ not by forcing it down their throats, but by engaging in a conversation.We have HUGE games, great food, excellent music and a good speaker to bring a personal story about Jesus. I will be giving you all the games we did and descriptions of them below....

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Old Skool Jesus #3

As part of our ongoing "Old Skool Jesus" series, I have been uploading information for you all to utilize and work with. If you haven't downloaded the "Old Skool Jesus" small group questions/teaching guide go here: http://www.archive.org/details/OldSkoolJesusThis is for week 3 on the guide titled: "The REAL Jesus". This week we take a look at the humanity of Christ and answer the question: "Why does Jesus have to be human?" (Hebrews 4:15; Matthew...

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Old Skool Jesus #2

Old Skool Jesus is now in full swing. We have 1 week down and 11 to go, starting tonight with week 2's talk entitled: "Who Is Jesus?".I said I would post the tools I used for my lessons and I am no liar :) Below is the intro video I showed to jumpstart the series. I will also post below the video and the handout for tonight. This way you can see where we were last week and see where we are this week. I hope you all can utilize this series, that's...

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Old Skool Jesus

As I promised, I have put together my 12 week series on "Old Skool Jesus" and I wanted to share the whole thing here! At the end of this post will be a link for you to download a PDF of all 12 weeks. It is set up in I.D.E.A format (Introduction, Description, Explanation and Application). I hope you all can use these either in total or as a spinrgboard for your own thoughts. The book I got most of my in-depth stuff (other than the Bible) was Mark...

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Old Skool Jesus

I've moved from Nyack, NY back to my hometown in Pittsburgh, PA. I am now one of 5 Youth Pastors on staff at Allegheny Center Alliance Church (http://www.acacstudenministries.net/). My main focus is the Middle School area of Student Ministries. I am loving my new job and have been doing a series called iBelong to kick off the school year. I've done it before, but it is still very good! As I sat back and prayed as to what God wanted me to teach on...

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Oh How I love Poo Stories

So here's the whole story. I was at a hotel and I wanted a soda...I mean I was feindin' me some Diet Mtn. Dew real bad. I grabbed a couple 1 dollar bills so I could get one in the hotel vending machine. I get to the machine and the machine takes no dollar bills "at this time" whatever that means. So, I take my dollar bills and stick them into a snack vending machine and hit the "coin return" button. The machine returns to me 10 dimes. No problem,...

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Non-Religious Disciples

I have an atheist in my youth group. We talk a lot about God, Jesus, religion and sin. He has provocative questions that spark my own brain, searching through the Word to help him see Jesus more clearly.His biggest issue is this: "Religion has ruined the world". I would have to agree.Don't burn me at the stake as a heretic, there is a point here. Just hear me out.I would say however, it's less "Religion" and more "Religious People" that have...

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iBelong

When I was in college, studying Youth Ministry, one of the lines our Prof. Len Kageler would say is: "In Youth Ministry, we need to steal ideas from one another, for the Glory of God". I fully agree! Some great ideas are produced by Youth Pastors all over the place, so why not "borrow" some of them! I post all my stuff in the hopes that any Youth Pastor reading it can indeed steal my ideas and mold them for his/her own group.Anyways, this idea...

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Q #3: 3 Practical Questions

*This is Part 3 of a 3 part series. Part 1&2 are here: Q #1: 3 Practical Questions; Q #2: 3 Practical Questions*Q #3: What's In My Hand?Dave Gibbons in his book: The Monkey and the Fish asks this question of himself, his church leadership and his ministry third. He illustrates this idea of "what's in my hand?" with the story of Moses in Exodus 4:1-5. This is where Moses shares with God that he is not good enough to lead God's people to freedom, nor does he think they will believe Him. He states: “But behold, they will not believe me or...

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Q #2: 3 Practical Questions

*This is Part 2 of a 3 part series. Part 1 is here: Q #1: 3 Practical Questions*Q #2: What Is My Pain? Dave Gibbons in his book: The Monkey and the Fish asks this question of himself, his church leadership and his ministry second. He illustrates that the world has turmoil, hard times and the "prosperity gospel" isn't where it's at. He asks himself the question "what is my pain" so he can use the pain from within his own life as a tool to connecting across cultural, racial and gender lines.It is no secret that teens today have pain. The world...

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Q #1: 3 Practical Questions

Over the past couple of years, I've really transitioned into being an avid reader. I love learning new things, and learning new ways to think about the way I do ministry. I try not to read simply for "expounding my head knowledge" but I try to read for transformation, asking: "What can I take away from this for where I am".While reading The Monkey and the Fish I put on these lenses and came out with some really amazing stuff that I can add to my...

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Teens and Sex

I am currently reading a book called: Hero: Becoming the Man She Desires by Fred and Jasen Stoeker. It is about men (geared toward teens and college age men) being pure until marriage.Of course, I agree with the basic premise and a ton of what the author's say is true about sexuality and purity...However, it is a book that will ultimately FAIL at reaching teenage/college age boys with the message of purity. It is a legalistic, almost Amish view of life, that will NOT resonate with today's teen, nor college age person.The authors are constantly...

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Sticky Youth Group

I just got done reading Larry Osborne's Sticky Church and I was truly impressed. The main premise of the book is that Sermon-based small groups are an amazing way to make people stay at your church. It allows for authentic relationships to be formed, made and then maintained. All groups are on the very same page (even if they don't do the exact same thing). They all heard the sermon and are all dedicated to going deeper.What does this have to...

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Not that Type of Christian

I work part-time at Chili's. Everyone there knows I am a pastor. I've prayed with people, I've given hard truth to some of my Christian co-workers and I've had great chances to share my faith. The other day, I received one of the BEST comments from a non-Christian I've ever received. He said: "You're not the normal type of Christian, that's why I like you and listen to you". Those words came from my General Manager (GM).We were talking about...

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Powerful Experience

When I was a teenager, I participated in a Youth Experience a bit ahead of it's time.I am sad to say that I have never done this event since I've been a Youth Pastor, but will plan on doing so next year. I wanted to, this year, but with the economic downturn and my going part-time, it was not feasible.Anyways...this experience I speak of was called: "A Walk With Christ to the Cross". We started this experience by going to our churches Good Friday service, but stayed the entire evening to literally walk with Christ to the Cross.We followed the...

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The Apologetics Code...

I recently blogged on this topic of "Apologetics belonging in Emerging Youth Ministry" and I said I would continue the discussion.This is that continuation.Since my last blog, I actually heard a sermon on the verses used last time which was pretty enlightening upon this subject. The sermon was titled: "Suffering to Bless" by Mark Driscoll. He took 1 Peter 3:8-17 and unpacked it for about an hour. I won't give you the whole sermon laid out, but I will give you the last point.Mark throughout the sermon was discussing how we will suffer for the...

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Authentic Youth Ministry

I was perusing some blogs today on Authenticity. I said in an earlier post that I would continue to discuss this important issue as it pertains to Youth Ministry and a blog caught my eye. The little portion I will share with you comes from Tim Schraeder who is the communications director at Park Community Church. Here is the beginning of his blog:"I just read a great article in Fast Company about the appeal and risks of authenticity and it really...

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A Place for Apologetics in Emerging Culture?

I've been thinking a ton about the place of apologetics within the context of the Emerging Youth Culture. There is much debate about this topic in certain circles. Many who argue against apologetics say that the Emerging culture wants to hear about and encounter experiences, not scientific reasons for faith. This camp would also argue that the Emerging Culture doesn't hold to science as factual, so giving "scientific evidence" or even "factual...

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Conquer the Devil...Like I Did!

Something I've read a lot about, but more importantly have experienced is the need for Authenticity.If you read my past post on Authenticity (HERE) you'll see how important this issue is to me as a person and as a Youth Pastor. The old way of doing "preaching" ministry was to not be open, not be real and not be transparent because (it was believed) your people wouldn't listen to you anymore because you were also a sinner... like them. Most [Youth] Pastors were (and are) trained to look perfect, act perfect and to share stories of TRIUMPH when...

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Why a new Blog?

This new and 2nd blog of mine will deal specifically with Youth Ministry as I see, wrestle and deal with it within my Theology as an Emerging Youth Pastor. Many things need to change within Youth Ministry and I for one hope to be a voice to help the change, rather than a voice of stagnant complacency. We are few, but strong as Emerging Youth Pastors. We are also a growing breed as new manifestos are written. New conferences spoken about and new classes taught at Universities and Colleges alike. People are realizing that the way Youth Ministry...

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