iheartyouthministry.com- Youth Ministry Blog

iheartyouthministry.com Christmas Giveaway Contest!

Ok, so it’s almost Christmas…and I am in the mood to give some stuff away. And not just any stuff…some FREE YOUTH MINISTRY STUFF! The contest is as easy as “1,2,3”!  

1) In the comment section of this post, be the first one to post a picture of you wearing your ugliest Christmas sweater. (come on, we all know you have one!) 

2) I will laugh at how silly you look (don’t worry, I’m laughing with you not at you)

3) If you are the first person to post a picture you win! And what do you win? How about this: 

-2 copies of “Purpose Driven Youth Ministry”

-2 copies of “99 Thoughts For Small Group Leaders”

-2 copies of “Youth Worker’s Emergency Handbook”

-1 copy of the “One Minute Bible” 

-A zip file full of “THE OTHER 6” editable templates that you can use for your student ministry. 

That is a prize that is worth over $60.00 for absolutely free! So start taking funny pictures in your Christmas sweater and let www.iheartyouthministry.com make your Christmas a merry one!

On your mark…get set…go!

Pax, 

Rob

High-res Every two weeks our core team gets together to plan out our weekend services for IGNITION (Daybreak Church’s Jr. High Ministry). What we usually do is pass out a bunch of blank personal sized marker boards and let the entire team start dreaming up the different elements that make up our weekend service. Here are the elements that we plan for during every weekend at IGNITION (in no particular order): 1) Worship: We plan out which worship songs we will do, whether or not we will have the band do any cover songs, etc. Our song choices center around the theme of the weekend message.  2) Games: We usually plan on two games per service. One game is an “up front” game, where we bring students up on stage for some activity. The second is a “crowd game” which is more of a “everyone plays at the same time” type of challenge. Again, we usually (but not always) create games that fit the theme of the weekend.  3) Elements of Fun: This is where we think up different types of bits/skits/prizes/giveaways/etc. This can be as small as giving away free hot-cocoa after one of our Christmas services as students leave, or as complicated as a full on costumed skit with smoke machines and more! 4) Understandable Message: Every planning meeting we ask ourselves the question “what is the simplest way we can say this?”. We try to determine how to take a complex spiritual truth and make it easy to understand and relevant to teenagers lives.  5) Graphics/Video: This part is pretty straight forward. We think about what kinds of bumper videos do we need to make for the current series, whether or not we need to shoot any funny/thought provoking videos. We also get some great ideas from youtube! 6) Grade Groups: During a small portion of our weekend services (about 10 minutes) we have students move into smaller groups called grade groups. These groups are always same age/same gender. We use this time to try and get to know all of the students by name. It’s a great way to make the large crowd seem smaller. During planning meetings we determine where in the service these groups should be go, and if we want them to talk about anything in particular relating to the weekend message.  7) Environment: This is where we dream about what we want to do in terms of set design. It could be as simple as putting a chair and table on the stage, or super complex like building a rocket to sit on the stage. We usually draw out all of our ideas so we can really get creative. (You’d be surprised how a little bit of time spent on the environment of your youth room can go a long way. And it doesn’t always have to be expensive. In fact, grab a few of your student leaders and let them go nuts designing your youth room for your next series!) 8) Announcements: As of last week we just switched over to trying out video announcements (versus somebody standing on the stage giving announcements). We’ve been finding that students aren’t focusing a ton on the announcement time, so we are experimenting with doing some super funny announcement videos to try and capture our jr. high student’s attention a little more. :) Not sure if any of this was useful, but I’d love to know how you all plan your youth programs. Share your own process for building your crowd programs in the comments section below. :D Pax,  Rob

Every two weeks our core team gets together to plan out our weekend services for IGNITION (Daybreak Church’s Jr. High Ministry). What we usually do is pass out a bunch of blank personal sized marker boards and let the entire team start dreaming up the different elements that make up our weekend service. Here are the elements that we plan for during every weekend at IGNITION (in no particular order):

1) Worship: We plan out which worship songs we will do, whether or not we will have the band do any cover songs, etc. Our song choices center around the theme of the weekend message. 

2) Games: We usually plan on two games per service. One game is an “up front” game, where we bring students up on stage for some activity. The second is a “crowd game” which is more of a “everyone plays at the same time” type of challenge. Again, we usually (but not always) create games that fit the theme of the weekend. 

3) Elements of Fun: This is where we think up different types of bits/skits/prizes/giveaways/etc. This can be as small as giving away free hot-cocoa after one of our Christmas services as students leave, or as complicated as a full on costumed skit with smoke machines and more!

4) Understandable Message: Every planning meeting we ask ourselves the question “what is the simplest way we can say this?”. We try to determine how to take a complex spiritual truth and make it easy to understand and relevant to teenagers lives. 

5) Graphics/Video: This part is pretty straight forward. We think about what kinds of bumper videos do we need to make for the current series, whether or not we need to shoot any funny/thought provoking videos. We also get some great ideas from youtube!

6) Grade Groups: During a small portion of our weekend services (about 10 minutes) we have students move into smaller groups called grade groups. These groups are always same age/same gender. We use this time to try and get to know all of the students by name. It’s a great way to make the large crowd seem smaller. During planning meetings we determine where in the service these groups should be go, and if we want them to talk about anything in particular relating to the weekend message. 

7) Environment: This is where we dream about what we want to do in terms of set design. It could be as simple as putting a chair and table on the stage, or super complex like building a rocket to sit on the stage. We usually draw out all of our ideas so we can really get creative. (You’d be surprised how a little bit of time spent on the environment of your youth room can go a long way. And it doesn’t always have to be expensive. In fact, grab a few of your student leaders and let them go nuts designing your youth room for your next series!)

8) Announcements: As of last week we just switched over to trying out video announcements (versus somebody standing on the stage giving announcements). We’ve been finding that students aren’t focusing a ton on the announcement time, so we are experimenting with doing some super funny announcement videos to try and capture our jr. high student’s attention a little more. :)

Not sure if any of this was useful, but I’d love to know how you all plan your youth programs. Share your own process for building your crowd programs in the comments section below. :D

Pax, 

Rob

As youth workers all of us have a desire to see students grow closer to Jesus and grow deeper in their faith. Even though most of us LIKE big programs and getting a huge crowd together, we really LOVE it when we are sitting eye-to-eye and knee-to-knee with a teenager as they begin to really get how much they are loved by God and then begin to pursue His purpose for their lives. 

We all WANT our students to grow spiritually…but HOW do we that within our youth ministry settings? The look/feel/design of this process will look different depending on the identity/culture of each church, but here are a few questions that all of us need to be asking ourselves often when it comes to spiritual growth in our student ministries:

1) What kind of students are apart of my youth ministry? (regular attenders/visitors/student leaders/committed Christians/non-Christians)

2) How can I create a process to move students from “just showing up” to becoming committed followers of Jesus? (discipleship)

3) How does the larger church’s discipleship process work? 

4) How can I explain spiritual growth in a simple way that my students can understand?

5) How can I get my pastor/volunteers/parents on board with my desired discipleship process?

I would suggest taking a significant amount of time to go through these types of questions with your team (staff or volunteer). Take an entire weekend and dream together with your team about what spiritual growth could look like in your student ministry setting. The more thought/time you put into developing a strong discipleship process for your students, the greater the reward. Our team at IGNITION (Daybreak Church’s Jr. High Ministry) just finished planning/dreaming up our newest discipleship process/roadmap for our jr. high students (we used the analogy of learning how to surf to describe growing spiritually). Check out the video above to see what we came up with to help our San Diego jr. high students understand our youth ministry’s process for spiritual growth. 

I’d love to hear from all of you what you have tried (or are trying) in terms of developing a strong discipleship program/strategy in your youth ministry. Share some of your thoughts in the comments section below! :D

Pax, 

Rob

It’s that time of year again and my friends at HSM have created another killer Christmas rap video! Check it out! Featuring my friends Josh, AC, Chris, Jessica, Taffy and Hope!

Merry Christmas!

P.s. For more info on what HSM has been up to for Christmas, head on over to my buddy Griff’s blog at www.morethandodgeball.com ! :D

Pax, 

Rob

IGNITION Weekend In Review: Week #1 “IT’S AN IGNITION CHRISTMAS!”

This weekend we started our brand new Christmas series entitled “IT’S AN IGNITION CHRISTMAS!”. Keep on reading for a breakdown of the games we used, message ideas, song choices and more! 

Series: ”IT’S AN IGNITION CHRISTMAS!” 

Pre-Service: It’s Christmas again, so we had to use my buddy Grant’s “That’s Christmas” video as our countdown. This video never gets old. 

Worship Songs: : this weekend we had our student worship team cover Justin Beiber’s “Drummer Boy” as an opening cover song. We also sang “Saviour Of The World.”

Grade Groups: Click here to download our grade group questions for this weekend 

Games: This weekend we played a Christmas version of the impossible shot (students had to throw plastic snowflakes through a hanging wreath) and a game of “FINISH THAT LYRIC: CHRISTMAS EDITION” where students had to finish the lyrics to popular Christmas songs. 

Message: Me and one of our IGNITION staff taught this weekend on HOW we can know that Jesus is REAL. We talked about how, unlike the myth of Santa Claus, Jesus was a real living person who has the power to transform their lives. We looked at some basic tools of apologetics that students can use to determine the validity of Jesus’ existence/ministry/resurrection. 

Pax, 

Rob 

Check out this great bumper video that we used for our “IT’S AN IGNITION CHRISTMAS” series. One of my student leaders made the video and I laughed so hard when I saw it…I had to turn around and watch it again. 

How do you use video elements in your student ministry? Do you shoot/edit them as a staff or do you have students do them? Share some of your ideas in the comments section below. Merry Christmas!

Pax, 

Rob

High-res Super cool stage design that our team created for our new series “IT’S AN IGNITION CHRISTMAS”. What does your youth ministry room look like this Christmas? Reply to this post with some of the photo’s of your youth room all decorated for Christmas…and the best decorated youth ministry will win a prize (some really great youth ministry resources)! Start sending in your pictures!  Pax,  Rob

Super cool stage design that our team created for our new series “IT’S AN IGNITION CHRISTMAS”. What does your youth ministry room look like this Christmas? Reply to this post with some of the photo’s of your youth room all decorated for Christmas…and the best decorated youth ministry will win a prize (some really great youth ministry resources)! Start sending in your pictures! 

Pax, 

Rob

Super funny video from my friends Grant, Jake, Cody & Jason. We used this video for a countdown during week #1 of our Christmas series “IT’S AN IGNITION CHRISTMAS”. 

Enjoy!

Pax, 

Rob

FREEBIE! Download series graphics for IGNITION's Bible series: "THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK YOU'LL EVER READ...EVER!"

IHYM freebie!

Click on the link to download the series graphics for IGNITION’s newest 2-week series on the Bible. The zip file comes with both the series title graphic as well as the message slide. Enjoy!

Pax, 

Rob