Youth Ministry Idea: Why I Like jr. High Lock-ins
This morning I finished up our 6th grade boys lock in at the church. It was an awesome (and exhausting) night of junk food, video games, crazy games and great memories. And even though I am basically comatose at this point after getting near to no sleep here are some quick thoughts:
1) Lock-ins’ are powerful. I know that holding a lock in is super hard, very tiring and takes years off of your life…BUT, a good lock-in is the kind of memory maker that sticks with students. They may not remember a word you taught during their junior high years, but they will remember the relationships that we’re developed at a lock in!
2) When it comes to lock-ins, smaller is better. A couple of years ago I started trying out a new idea, where instead of holding a huge lock-in for the entire youth group, I’ve encouraged our jr. High small group leaders to hold “mini lock-ins” with their small groups once a school year. Here are the advantages: less stress, intentional focus on relationship building, easily manageable, etc. PLUS these events bring our small groups closer together super quickly based off of all the shared memories!
3) Use your lock-in to test out your volunteers. Nothing will make a volunteer show their true colors like being locked in a building all night with smelly, energetic teenagers. Last night at our lock-in I had a new volunteer join me to see how he would handle all the controlled chaos/lack of sleep. He did a great job and I got to see how he reacted in a variety of different situations. Now I’m not saying that you should freak out every new volunteer by forcing them to go to your I overnighter’s…but…it is a perfect way to gage how much one of your volunteers likes teenagers!
And then again…it’s an overnighter. With that in mind, here’s a classic from my friend Jake Rutenbar:
GUEST POST: 5 Reasons your youth ministry may never grow
Here is a recent post of mine entitled, “5 Reasons your youth ministry may never grow.” I was having some issues posting the text so I posted a link so that you could see my blog and other recent blog posts of mine. I would love to share some of my thoughts on your blog sometime. I have subscribed to yours, and have you in my reader. If you have any further questions about my ministry or blog, let me know.
http://joshhevans.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/5-reasons-your-youth-ministry-may-never-grow/
Check out this AWESOME promo video my buddy Ryer Flaker made for our jr. high and high school youth ministry at Daybreak Church. Super cool. I love the very apparent difference between jr. high and high school students as displayed in this video. Thanks Ryer!
Graphic for this weekend at IGNITION (Daybreak Church’s jr. high ministry). It’s our graduating 8th graders weekend. We are using the entire weekend service to celebrate our departing 8th graders.
What are you doing for the students who are transitioning out of your ministry? I’d love to hear your ideas!
Check out ChurchWebWorks!
Our church’s website was highlighted recently by +Church Web Works . If you are looking for a web designer for your church or youth ministry, check them out!
Join A Youth Ministry Circle!
Looking for some great youth workers to connect with? Get to know some of these! Great friends with great youth ministries.
This weekend is our 8th Grade Weekend at IGNITION (Daybreak Church’s Jr. High Ministry) and I am speaking on the three big ideas that jr. high students need to know before they graduate up into high school. I’m using a clip from the tv show “King Of The Hill” which illustrates a hope that our graduating 8th graders won’t “grow out” of Jesus as they move through high school. The clip we are using is 9 minutes 10 seconds into the video. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Using Adobe Creative Cloud In Your Youth Ministry
Are you a youth worker on a small budget? If you don’t have someone to make graphics/videos for your services, you might want to consider grabbing a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud. For a cheap subscription you can use all the Adobe software without having to purchase the entire suite.
Here’s my idea:
1) Get an adobe creative cloud subscription
2) Grab a student in your youth ministry who loves creative arts
3) have them come in during the week and design you your graphics/videos/etc. while they get to learn on the best software out there.
Could be a huge win for your youth group & a great way to plug students into ministry. Let me know your thoughts!
Hahaha. +Matt McGill You always kept me laughing. Check out Matt’s “Camp Rules” video made by my friends over at MARINERS CHURCH. If you have summer camp coming up, get creative with your announcements!
Watch The Simply Youth Ministry Show!
Hey youth workers! Looking for some great youth ministry training/ideas? Then subscribe today to the SIMPLY YOUTH MINISTRY SHOW! My friends Kurt Johnston and Jason Carson are the hosts. Great content & great fun.
