See, there is a reason why I call this website an experiment lab for youth pastors.  I thoroughly enjoy looking at the laws of physics and intersecting them with youth ministry.  Granted God engineered these systems (Psalm 19.1)  so I think it is fair to say there is overlap between physics and youth ministry.

My hypothesis:  For the postmodern teen I believe putting them in unfamilar and uncomfortable environments “to do hands on” ministry will greatly test their spiritual maturity.

The Law of Inertia states:  Unless acted upon by an outside force, a body at rest stays at rest and a body in motion stays in motion.

How the Law of Inertia can create spiritual growth in our teens: a student’s faith will remain the same unless acted upon an external force.

Our students’ spiritual life tends to quickly move to “idleness” real fast.  They get saved, they get baptized, they go to church, they follow Jesus’ commandments, then what?  They hit the autopilot button until they graduate.

Many of our students leave our youth group without having a crisis of faith or even having to demonstrate their faith.  I almost think we should manufacture mini-crisis situations that force students to act.  I know this may seem dark and counter-productive, but students are leaving youth group with the same faith they had when they were in 7th grade.  Our students need to be put in environments that apply external force which forces them to test drive their faith.

I think Sir Isaac Newton law of inertia has many corollaries to the spiritual development of a teen.  If Newton was a youth pastor you could almost bet he would apply disruptions in order to produce spiritual growth.  In order to get something to move you have to apply pressure or the spiritual life of a teen will plateau— very quickly.

Applying external force on students’ spirituality requires them to:

- pray to God immediately

- ask God to reveal Himself to them right now

-  test God and see if He will use them

-  heavily rely on God asap

-  exit out of the “comfortable” zone and enter the uncomfortable zone

Applying force puts an urgency on the teen to make a decision of:  Do I really believe this so much that I will act for God?

In Luke 10.1-10, Jesus send out 72 of his followers and said go serve, bless and pray for others in the community.  It is going to be uncomfortable but this is what it means to be the Kingdom of God here and now.

So what are some ways youth pastors create mini external forces that challenge student to act for God?

-  Take your students to apologetic debates between a Christian and an Atheist.  Look at your local colleges or university philosophy departments and see if they have debates happening.  Sometimes they will sponsor religion departments.  Or visit the Stand To Reason website here.  The Stand To Reason guys and gals are from Biola who do the debate thing really well.

-  Take your students on a gnarly 3rd world international mission trip.  My top three picks:  Belize, Haiti and Nicaragua.

-  Invite your students to fast together as a group for more than 30 hours.  The go to event is the 30 hour famine.

-  Randomly start asking students to share their testimony in youth group.  Giving students to talk to other students why Jesus changed their life is so important.

-  Once a quarter randomly select a few nights where you invite your students to go out to the local community and pray for people.  

-  Start practicing hour long solitude times during youth group programming.  Awkward silence creates such an opportunity for the students to search their hearts and the scriptures while asking God what He is doing in and through their life.

-  Visit other churches that are completely opposite in style.  The goal is to find churches that are so different than yours that make you uncomfortable.

-  Invite students to pray out loud in multiple settings at multiple times.  And no I am not talking about asking a student to pray for the meal.  During pray request time, ask a student to immediately pray out load for any student’s request.

-  Find areas of need in your community and serve them.  After the serving encourage students to pray for them.

If you are wanting to apply the law of inertia in your youth ministry, here are some guidelines:

(1) Youth pastor must brief and debrief with the students.  It is important to always walk students through what to do and what just happend.  It is going to be uncomfortable for them to move in a new spiritual direction, so make sure to explain why and how and allow room for them to process out loud.

(2)  Document everything.  Record (both audio and visual), take pictures and write everything down on what happen and how it happened.

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Is it ludicrous to import the law of inertia into our youth group programmatic structure?  Why or why not.

What are other practical ways the law of inertia can help the spiritual life of teens?

(Board game pic brought to you by:   All rights reserved by dennoir)

I know this post may seem elementary and that youth group is NOT about games.   But I need to share why I had so much success using these 5 board games.  By using these 5 board games you can build instant community and fun in youth group in a matter of minutes.

In years past I have had to really work hard at blending different type of student clusters in order to make youth group manageable.  Some student clusters would not talk with other student clusters, so it was very difficult to have a productive time– talking about God’s love in youth group when some youth group students didn’t necessary love the other students.

So how did I “break the awkward ice” and get skater Andrew’s peer group to mingle with homeschooler Tom’s peer group?

BOARD GAMES!!!!!!!  That is right.  No one is to cool for board games.

These top 5 board games have been tried and tested in the most awkward youth group environments especially when the youth pastor is dealing with a diverse group of students who hate each other.  I have found that these board games can be greatly utilized in smaller youth ministries and in small group ministries.  Basically board games are great when trying to cultivate more relational, communal environments.

Trust me… I would wandered the board games aisles in Walmart and Target trying to find the perfect game that was fun, engaging and inclusive.  Here are my findings:

(5)  Spoons:  Spoons is a game that requires alertness and fast muscle reflexes.  The goal of Spoons is to 1) collect  4 cards of one a kind, 2)  get rid of all your cards by collecting all the one of a kinds  (4 queens, 4- 5, 4- kings) and placing them down before anyone else, 3)  not be the last one without a spoon once someone in the circle has no more cards.  You will need 3-5 deck of cards and plastic spoons.   To read a full description of how to play spoons click here 

(4)  Twister:  There are so many variations of twister it is ridiculous.  My favorite twister variation is taping the twister board on the wall and making the students play by the same rules.  Getting students that don’t like each other to get really close to each other is pretty funny to watch.  You can buy the game here

(3)  Scene It?:  This game is a blast.  It keeps the students engaged and challenges their pop culture IQ.  All you need to do is get a TV, DVD player and anyone of the Scene It? versions.  My favorite versions are:  Scene It?  The DVD Movie Trivia Game  Scene It?  TV DVD edition  Trivial Pursuit:  DVD Pop Culture

(2)  Family Feud:  This DVD board game is based off of the game show FAMILY FEUD.  This game really challenges your group of students to rally together as two families.  The answers the students come up with are always hilarious and the students get sooooo into it.  All you need is a TV and DVD player.  Make sure to check out this game here

(1)  Catch Phrase:  Okay I will admit that I had two catch phrase devices in my office at all times.  This game gets the kids talking very fast as one student is given a word or a phrase and then rattles off clues to help get their teammates to guess the word/phrase.  Catch Phrase was my go to game.  Catch Phrase never flops unless you don’t edit the inappropriate words/phrases on the word cards.  Yes I have had some pretty inappropriate words slip through my radar Needless to say: Go buy this game  here now.

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Do you agree or disagree that board games are helpful in building community?  Why or why not.

If so, what board games have you had success with?  Please share.

(pic brought to you by:  Miss Blackflag)

As a youth worker, one of the nastiest teen bullying episodes I encountered was on facebook.  I knew cyber bullying was happening, but I didn’t know it got so mean, dirty and out of control.

I quickly learned:  Students can leverage their social media influence to bully students they don’t like.  And the scary thing is that the cyber bully can easily frame any student by easily manipulating and destroying their online presence in a matter of seconds. Students are more inclined to be really unkind online.

So how do we (parents, peers and pastor) help kids who get caught in this social media bullying crossfire?

Parents:  The youth ministry needs to not only educate but enroll parents to help protect and monitor their student’s social media presence.  The monitoring of the parents will greatly help when you (the youth pastor) hear and/or see the online bullying happening.  When others would tell me about online bullying or I would see it for myself I would simply shoot the parents an email/text saying:  ”You may want to look at your student’s facebook page”.  The biggest advantage to online bullying is that it is public domain, so everyone can see it and help stop it.

According to Pew research (Pew’s research ran a series of seven focus groups with teens aged 12 to 19):

77 percent say they’ve (the parents) checked a website that their child has visited. Two thirds have searched to see what kind of data showed up about their child.

86 percent of teens said they’ve gleaned “general advice” from their parents on using the ‘Net safely’.

58% of teen internet and cell phone users told Pew that “their parents have been the biggest influence on what they think is appropriate or inappropriate when using the internet or a cell phone.

More than six in ten teens report that they know their parents have checked their social media profile, and 41% of parents of online teens have friended their child on a social network site

Parents are key when trying to prevent online bullying.  They can stop it before it gets out of control or it is too late.

Peers: friends are obviously a huge part of a teenagers life.  So it may be wise to get other trusted adults to lean into the peer network when confronting cyber bullying.  We can invite the peers (of the one being bullied) not to join in on the cyber bullying and also stand up to the bullier by asking him/her/they to stop.  Ask the friends to stand up for what is right when they see their friends getting bullied.

According to Pew research:

But over half (55 percent) said that most of their peers ignore the bad treatment or bullying of others. Nineteen percent admitted that they “frequently see others join in the harassment.”

The role of the friend is very pivotal because how he/she responds, determines if the online bullying continues.

Pastor:  As a youth pastor, I think it is our responsibility to help assist, correct, confront, discipline, encourage and equip our students’ online lives.  Students always need more help in how they navigate their online world.  Also don’t hesitate to confront the cyber bully.  I had no problems confronting the cyber bully who was bullying students in the community.

Plus if parents know they have another trusted-committed-online savvy adult looking out for their teen online, then parents will automatically love you.  I am a big advocate for youth pastors pastoring their student online.  This online pastoring not only protects their students, but invites students to be like Jesus in their online relationships.  A student simply needs to be taught and modeled how to conduct their offline and online presence.  Essentially both the online and offline Christian teenager needs to love and reflect Jesus in every  ”space” of their life and they may be looking to their parents and youth pastor for help.

According to Pew research:

70 percent of teens said they’ve gotten advice from teachers or other adults at school and in the community.

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Questions For the Youth Pastor:

How do you educate parents about social media?  Do you feel like your parents are checking their students online profiles?

How involved should a youth pastor get in “pastoring” their students online?

Do you find in your context that online bullying is a happening frequently?  Why or why not.

What other ways can youth ministries stop online bullying?   How have you dealt with online bullying in your youth ministry?

Disclaimer:  This post has been sitting in my queue for the past 7 months.  I kept rethinking, updating, deleting and adding content, which made this post a little long.  So I am sorry for the lengthiness.  

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Starting or sustaining a youth ministry is very unrewarding.  Basically you build and don’t see the fruit and results for a while.

I found myself spending a lot of time working ON my youth ministry and not so much IN my youth ministry.  I would prefer to think about youth ministry systems and strategy rather than think about my youth group sermon.  In the last 5 years it has been my obsessive quest to figure out how to develop a healthy, sustainable youth group.  So I thought it would be rad to share my finding.

This post is ideal for:

-  the new youth pastor who just arrived at a new church

-  the 1st year youth pastor trying to keep his/her head above water

-  a youth worker leading a youth group of 0-35 students

-  a college student who is majoring in youth ministry

-  a youth pastor who loves to think about systems and sustainability

-  a team of lay leaders who are wanting to start a youth group at their church

-  a part time paid youth worker

-  an individual who wants to become a youth pastor

-  a youth worker who is feeling “distracted” and unfocused

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Here is a simple formula that helped me think through how to build a youth group from scratch:

(C + S + S)$ = Healthy Youth Group  

***  p.s. CSS is a web language that brings structure, sequence and style to a webpage just like how CSS will bring structure, sequence and style to your youth ministry.  

C=  Core Values

S= Strategy

S= Staff

$= Fundraising

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Core Values:  Before you start a youth group, you have to know the values that will guide your youth group.  There are three statements that need to be crafted:

(1)  Theological-  What will be your theological focus in your youth ministry?  What scriptures will guide the way you do youth ministry?

(2)  Mission-  What do you want the aim to be for your youth ministry?  The mission statement will define who you are and what you do as a youth ministry

(3)  Values-  what are the essentials of your youth ministry?  What are the non-negotiables?  What 3-5 things define the unique of your youth group?

Remember your strategy and systems will have a greater impact on your youth group culture than mission statements.  So don’t spend too much time on these statements.

Strategy:  You have to decide on a youth ministry strategy.  It took me a LONG time to realized that having a consistent strategy will determine the longevity and effectiveness of your youth ministry.  I had to realize that adopting a “C+” ministry strategy was way better than not having a youth ministry strategy.  Coming from the academy not only was I introduced to many of the major youth ministry strategies, but I learned how to quickly deconstructed them.  I had to get over the fact that there is no perfect strategy and every youth pastor needs to pick a strategy and just stick with it.  Too many youth pastors think it is okay not to have a comprehensive plan or strategy for orchestrating their youth group.

I will never forget listening to a “Systems” talk by Andy Stanley that finally brought my to my knees admitting I needed a consistent strategy for my youth ministry. You can get the talk here or review the notes of the talk here.

Here are 6 reasons why your youth group needs a strategy:

1.  Strategy will give you structure and focus

2.  Strategy requires tested research to be applied

3.  Strategy saves you time

4.  Strategy requires you get other people to assist

5.  Strategy gets your ideas and process in a document format

6.  Strategy automatically gives you a solid network and community of like minded youth pastors

This is why I selected Orange to be my strategy of choice.  Orange fit with my theological convictions and provided spectacular resources and tools that allowed me to execute a family ministry strategy.  A strategy instructs youth pastors on what to do with your parents/families, service, communication, leadership structure, program, volunteers, teaching, and small groups.

Staff-  The book Good To Great talks about getting the right people on the bus so you can conquer the world.  Feel free to read my Good to Great book review here.  The key is finding the right people and get them in the right place.  Make sure to write out what you want your staff to look like.  Draw up an organizational chart, clearly define attributes that you want your staff to exhibit, write out how you will find staff/leaders and the hiring protocol, and how you will train your leaders/staff.  I would highly suggest giving staff/volunteers personality profiles (i.e. Rightpath and strength finders) so you are able to accurately place them in positions they will be passionate about.   In Steve Job’s book he reiterates why organizational leaders need to be great at recruiting and keeping talent. Be persistent at getting great people to be apart of your youth group.  Healthy youth groups attract healthy people.  The goal is to be good at cherry picking people in your church and community and convince them why caring and loving students is an incredible gift.

Money-  Your start up wont be possible if you don’t have the funds.  You need the strategy to get the funds, and you will need funds to fund the strategy.  My annual youth ministry budget was $2500 for 65 6th-12th grade students.  After scholarships, doing 4 events, buying curriculum and bibles and renting vans my budget was gone.  I hated asking for money.  But I had to learn how to do it in a very tactful and compelling way.  This is way I am a huge advocate youth pastors getting some business education so they know the process on how to raise capital to fund the mission of their youth ministry.

My final-cautionary thoughts: It is really easy to do youth group start ups but it is really hard to keep momentum.  At first, things seem to be really focused but over time things will become fuzzy.  This is why every 3-5 months the youth pastor needs to revisit each piece of (CSS)$.  Remember the mission of your youth ministry will stay the same but the plans will always be changing.  Be flexible.

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Questions:

What other components do youth ministry start ups need?

I would love to hear any success/failure stories about trying to do youth group start ups.

What are three behaviors you wish your youth group would do well ? (i.e.teaching, communication, welcoming) And how is your strategy helping to achieve these youth ministry behaviors?

Three of the best youth ministry systems thinkers I know are:  Coach Shef, Jeff Brodie and Jason Chenoweth.