iheartyouthministry.com- Youth Ministry Blog

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Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:46:58 -0800

Check out episode #15 of the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast. This...

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 10:09:51 -0700

Check out episode #15 of the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast. This episode: “How To Deal With Conflict In Youth Ministry!”

Watch episode 14 of the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast! This...

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 18:09:14 -0700

Watch episode 14 of the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast! This week’s episode: “How To Do Youth Ministry On A Budget”.

Where can I view Youth Ministry Hangout #1 (beta)?

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 07:34:45 -0700

It should be on the site. I will double check today and send u a link! Thanks for watching! :)

IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast #13...sort of...;D

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:03:57 -0700

IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast #12

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:01:35 -0700

Watch this week’s episode of the IHeartYouthMinistry...

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:14:23 -0700

Watch this week’s episode of the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast with Nikkie Schuster, Dennis Beckner, Rob Ham and Nathan Wells. This week’s topic: Reaching Lost Teenagers and plugging them into your church.

Working on my final draft of this weekend’s message on...

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:31:37 -0700

Working on my final draft of this weekend’s message on “grace” for our jr. Higher’s. (Taken with Instagram)

Our 10th episode of the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast with Dennis...

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:47:17 -0700

Our 10th episode of the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast with Dennis Beckner, Nikkie Schuster, Peter Nelson Nathan Wells and Rob Ham. We celebrate our landmark 10th show by answering our “10 Top 10 questions”! Join us every Thursday at 12PM (PST) online.

Watch the newest episode if the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast now...

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:14:33 -0700

Watch the newest episode if the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast now with Dennis Beckner, Nikkie Schuster, Heather Ann Ham and Robert Ham. This weeks show is all about student small groups! :D next week we celebrate hitting our 10th episode! Be sure to join us live next week at 12PM (PST).

Check out the newest episode of the I heart youth...

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:10:00 -0700

Check out the newest episode of the I heart youth ministryPodcast with Nathan Wells, Nikkie Schuster, Robert Ham and special guest Greg Bragg. In this week’s episode we chat about speaking to teenagers and how we can best communicate to the students in our ministry. Watch it now and then subscribe to our Podcast on iTunes!

Leading with Integrity Many times it can become easy to rely...

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 05:27:49 -0700

Leading with Integrity

Many times it can become easy to rely on the positional title status we hold to be the launch board from which we lead. But if you we want to be a leader worth following we need to lead from a launch board of integrity.

As we become seasoned in our leadership, the goal of maintaining our character of integrity doesn’t get easier and in fact becomes much hard. With new opportunities comes added temptation. One of the biggest reasons we find leaders today sacrificing their character of integrity is because the direct path to success is often not a moral one. It is important to hit pause and ask yourself am I willing to take the longer path to reach my goal so that I can preserve my morals?

Many times we see leaders who sacrifice their integrity moving forward faster. But there is no correlation between talent and maturity – talent and integrity. When we assume that there is a correlation I call this the Enron strategy. When we lead with integrity, our integrity should enhance the talents we have and not the other way around.

Progress will, at some point, demand compromise. As a leader it is most important to continually re-evaluate and know that our morals and character are not items we are willing to sacrifice in a compromise. These seem the easiest for us to sacrifice and often times see to be the most minor; the “no big deal” sacrifices we make. But even a small compromise in our integrity can have disastrous results.

I think a picture that comes to mind on this is that of a boat. When a boat lack’s integrity in the water, from the outside it may look like a boat but the inside looks considerably different. Rather then being able to take us somewhere, the hull which lacks integrity begins to sink itself and eventually stalls from being able to move forward. In some cases the lack of integrity, which started small, over takes the boat and it sinks. Don’t let the walls of integrity in your life cause you to stall and destroy your ability to lead.

A tweet I saw this morning from @RickWarren: ‘Integrity trumps popularity: “You make yourself look good in people’s eyes but God knows your heart” Luke 16:15 TEV’

THIS GUEST POST WAS WRITTEN BY NATHAN WELLS OF www.nothingworthreading.com

Yesterday on the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast, Nikkie, Peter,...

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:53:09 -0700

Yesterday on the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast, Nikkie, Peter, Andy and I discussed the topic of building a “God-Centered” Youth Ministry by focusing on theology (the study of who God is) and then secondarily focusing on Anthropology (the study of people). If you would like to read further about this topic, you can read this blog post, or you can check out the book “Getting Rid Of Gimmicks: Reclaiming Youth Ministry From An Entertainment Culture” which we highlighted on yesterday’s show. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below! :D

Check out Episode #7 of the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast with...

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:27:45 -0700

Check out Episode #7 of the IHeartYouthMinistry Podcast with Dennis Beckner, Nikkie Schuster, Rob Ham and Andy Schreiber. Our topic: THEOLOGY IN YOUTH MINISTRY!

WHAT’S LURKING IN YOUR YOUTH MINISTRY? This morning we...

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 09:56:00 -0700

WHAT’S LURKING IN YOUR YOUTH MINISTRY?

This morning we finished up our summer jr. High guy’s lock-in. We had a great (and exhausting) time, but the most exciting part of the night was making a new friend…with a possum! Actually, we found out that a possum had been living in our student ministry room for the past week.

Last Tuesday I noticed some things moved around messed with in our youth building and don’t think anything of it. Finally, one morning my staff and I found some…um…”droppings”…and we just assumed that an animal had snuck in, did its business and left. Little did we know that our friend the possum had took up shop right in our building! So last night one of our volunteers was rummaging through our youth ministry closet and saw what they thought was a stuffed animal. But they were wrong! In fact it was a gross,creepy possum wreaking havoc in our youth ministry room.

This funny/gross encounter sparked a thought: WHAT IS LURKING IN YOUR YOUTH MINISTRY? What program needs to be cut that isn’t contributing to the ultimate purpose of your youth Minsitry? Perhaps you have a volunteer that is causing dissension with your leaders and needs to be asked to leave. Maybe you are doing something in your youth ministry just because “we’ve always done it that way” and it is time for a change. This is a really good question to ponder during the summer. Remember that while the God’s purposes never change in student ministry, our programs and strategies can change!

Maybe it’s time to kill a program, start a program or start from scratch. This summer ask yourself the question: what is lurking in my youth ministry that needs to be gotten rid of or changed. Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

YOUTH MINISTRY HANGOUT #6

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:50:00 -0700

YOUTH MINISTRY HANGOUT #5

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 11:56:00 -0700

Here is a great book that I am in the middle of reading right...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 05:30:50 -0700

Here is a great book that I am in the middle of reading right now called “SERVANTHOOD AS WORSHIP”. There are a ton of books out there about leadership, but this book focuses on serving in ministry not to get ahead or to gain leadership roles, but simply to serve as an act of worship to Jesus. This could be a great resource for your students and/or your adult volunteers. Check it out and let me know what you think!

I have a confession to make: I am a huge movie fan…I love...

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 21:07:56 -0700

I have a confession to make: I am a huge movie fan…I love going to the movies! In fact, there is hardly a month that goes by that me and a group of friends aren’t going out to the theater to catch a new flick. Last week I re-watched one of my all time favorite movies, Back To The Future! Seriously, this movie should go down in history as one of the greatest flicks in the world, it’s just a ton of fun.

In the movie, Doc Brown (a very eccentric and genius scientist) has invented a time machine and he invites his young protege Marty McFly (a young teenage goof ball) to witness his invention firsthand. In a series of crazy and random events, Marty McFly is transported back to 1955 (from 1985). and spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out how to get back to the future.

While I was watching this movie, a scene that I’ve seen many times jumped out to me in a brand new way. At one point Mary McFly runs into the Doc Brown from 1955 (a younger version of the scientist) and insists his help to get back to the future. There is a famous movie scene where Doc and Marty are bantering back and forth and working together to try and figure out how they can power the time machine with enough energy (1.21 Jigawatz of electricity) to get back to 1985. The only problem is, the materials necessary to accomplish this task aren’t going to be invented for another 30 years! Finally by talking it out together, Marty and Doc discover the solution, which happens to be harnessing the power of a lighting bolt into the flux capacitor (which makes time travel possible). If you have no idea what I’m talking about…seriously, you need to watch this movie!

Here is the point: In this scene, independent of each other, neither Marty or Doc have the answer they need…they are clueless! It isn’t until the both begin to brainstorm together that they are able to come up with a solution that will work. The same is true in our youth ministries! Sometimes, on our own, we just don’t know the answer to our problems. As youth workers we might not have all the answers we need such as:

-How can we get new volunteers?

-How can we effectively reach out to new students?

-Why do our students seem to be falling through the cracks?

-How can we make this youth ministry event a success?

The truth is that most of the time we need the power of other people working together, brainstorming ideas, to come up with the solutions that will work. In terms of brainstorming there is power in numbers! In our ministry our volunteers get together every other week to plan our weekend services and upcoming events. The reason we do it together as a team is because as the lead youth worker I understand that I don’t have all the answers. I need the thoughts and ideas of other youth workers (and students) to come up with the concepts and programs that really work with our students.

Maybe you are trying to figure everything out on your own in your ministry setting. Don’t do it alone! Grab a team and start brainstorming together. When it comes to finding the answers, youth workers are better together. So what are you waiting for? Start brainstorming today and see what happens! Brainstorming together…it’s what makes youth ministry possible!

Now you can subscribe to the iHeart Youth Ministry weekly...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:56:00 -0700

Now you can subscribe to the iHeart Youth Ministry weekly hangout on iTunes. Choose to listen or watch. Both audio or video versions of the weekly live hangout are available. Make sure to leave us a review and let us know what you think.

The i Heart Youth Ministry Podcast discusses topics about youth ministry every week. As always you can join us LIVE every Thursday at 12pm (PST) by visiting www.iHeartYouthMinistry.com