READ PART 1: Yesterday I shared 3 things I want my students to know before they graduate – part 1. This second part addresses how we try to accomplish those three things in our ministry.

Obviously, this is all a work of the Holy Spirit. I believe we are all depraved beings and that our natural desire is to peruse things that oppose God, so while I would love to see these three things take place in every graduating senior, I first have to be honest enough to say that these three things are not always present in my own life. My sin issues constantly derail me from being a perfect example for students.

However, without assuming too much responsibility for how each student chooses to respond to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, there are a couple things our ministry does to help push teenagers toward each of the three things.

1) 7th and 8th graders go through the entire Bible before high school. Our junior high small groups go through the entire Old Testament one year and the New Testmanet the next. By the time they enter high school, they have a basic understanding of the entire Word of God. Small group leaders do their best to help the junior highers not just fill their head with facts, but daily journaling, reflection, memorization, acts of service, and more help them apply it all practically to their daily life and practice.

2) Teach Bible study methods to high schoolers. This is a hard balance for me. Last year I did an 8 week series on hermeneutics and basically taught a crash course of my Intro to Bible Study Methods class from Dallas Theological Seminary. I whipped out all my old notes, gave them some of the same homework assignments I had in seminary, and provided books for further study. A few students stepped up to the challenge and really took the observation, interpretation and application process very seriously. For most, though, it was way over their head. I plan to revisit this series again next year, but it needs to be simplified and balanced so I don’t loose kids to day dreaming.

3) We youth leaders must model personal worship and evangelism. I do my best never to ask my kids to do something that I haven’t first tried in my own life. That means if I’m going to ask them to share about a time in the previous week when they brought God up in a conversation with an unsaved friend, I’d better have a story to share myself. If I’m challenging them to dig into God’s Word, I need to be doing it first and sharing that experience with the teens. They need to see how studying God’s Word practically plays out in my own life, how it affects my own decisions and values, and how it’s reflective in my personal worship and outreach. Otherwise I’m just another Christian hypocrite.

What it all really comes down to is our youth group’s vision to go Deep and Wide: deep into God’s Word and wide with His message to the people around us. That’s what drives everything we do, including the 3 things I want my students to know before they graduate.

Graduation is coming up in a couple months and it’s caused me to reflect a bit on our ministry overall, from 7th grade through 12th grade. By the time they graduate, what should they know? Where should they be spiritually? What should their lives look like?

This is obviously a very subjective list, but here’s what I’d like to see for our youth group’s graduates before they leave our ministry.

1) An overview understanding of the entire Bible. I’m not saying they need to know everything in it, but at least be able to track through Genesis to Revelation at a 35,000 foot level. Biblical literacy is key because you cannot fall in love with someone if you don’t know much about them. But the more you know, the more there is to fall in love with, and the more you fall in love, the more you want to know about that person. Knowing God’s Word is foundational to knowing and loving God.

2) Know how to study scripture for themselves. I don’t want our youth group kids to graduate and always be dependent on someone else to chew on God’s Word, digest it, and spit it out in bite size pieces for them each week at church. I want them to learn how to feed on the Word of God for their own and not just swallow the assumptions that I, or any other pastor or teacher, throws at them. They should be equipped to dig into God’s Word on their own, study it for themselves, and feed on it’s life-sustaining power, not being content with spiritual milk.

3) Worship and evangelism should be a natural part of their daily lives. 1 Corinthians 8:1 says, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” And 1 Corinthians 4:20 says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” Learning God’s Word and being able to study it on your own is great, but if that knowledge is just a lot of talk and never turns to love for God and for people (i.e. the Great Commandment), then it’s a waste. The outpouring of their knowledge of God should turn into a passionate love that is exemplified in their lifestyle of worship and a burden for lost people.

Tomorrow I’ll share how we address these things practically in our ministry. UPDATE: Part 2 is now published here.

What 3 things do you want your students to know, do, and/or experience before they graduate? Share in the comments below.

This is a guest post by Ashley Engleford. If you’d like to submit a guest post for LISM, read this.

Being a youth leader is very time consuming. For many of us the more time and energy we give to the ministry, the more crazy our home life becomes. To be successful as a youth Leader and to keep from completely losing yourself, streamlining and organization go a long way. Below I have listed the top six steps you can take to keep from burning out, going crazy, or getting lost in the day to day tasks necessary of a youth leader.

The first tip is to become a list maker. We can’t rely on our fallible memory to remember every appointment, meeting, ballgame, and task. Now I am not talking about having post its on every inch of your desk. Purchase 3 notebooks or notepads and label each one with one of the following titles: Quick Notes, Appt’s/Meetings, and To-Do. If you think of another title then buy another notebook. You should always have a notepad and pen on you. Prioritize your to-do list and write a number beside each task. Stick to the order! Don’t do #5 first because you dread #2. Do first things first. Every morning and evening review your notebooks so it will be fresh in your mind. As you complete a task through out the day, mark it off.

The 2nd tip is Delegation. No one person can do everything. God has provided you with an amazing team of leaders who have a wide variety of interests and gifts that are to be used in your ministry. People do not volunteer in Youth Ministry to only be crowd control or to hand out snacks. They have ideas that need to be heard and potentially introduced into the ministry. Be willing to relinquish control and become a team. Ask what gifts they believe they have and together, decide how they can develop and deploy that gift(s) in the ministry. You will reach more students and the ministry will work much better.

The next tip goes right along with the previous tip. One of our responsibilities as a Youth Leader is to equip the next generation to serve God. Help your teens discover, develop, and deploy their spiritual gifts. Youth ministry should be the launching pad for the remainder of our kids lives.

Print and handout a spiritual gifts test from www.goingthedistance.org. The test is tailored to teens. Send it home with them and have them bring it back to the following service. Before moving forward, take them home with you and review them, making note of who would excel where. (If you have a large group, delegate this task to your youth leaders.) Find a way for every student to serve on a regular basis and be creative. If you have a large group, come up with a schedule where teens rotate serving, insuring that they each serve at least once a month. Reevaluate every few months, asking the teens what they like and don’t like about the position in which they have been serving and make changes as needed.

The fourth tip is to keep a file on each student. Each file should consist of all contact information, any permission slips, allergies, spiritual gifts, serving positions, problems, concerns, family life, and so forth. Every few months you and your youth leaders should do a little file housekeeping to make sure things stay in order. A student’s file can be invaluable.

Our fifth tip is to become a collector. A collector is someone who clips headlines and news stories, prints articles, visits the best tips and resources blogs/websites, writes down a clever illustration heard on the radio, and so forth. Develop a filing system and tuck the item away until you need it. If something fits into more than one category make the appropriate number of copies and put one in each file it fits under. When you use one of these items mark the date on the back so you don’t use the same item too close together.

Last but not least to set up a youth ministry email and cell phone/pager. Use the name of your ministry as your email address in some fashion so it is easily remembered. Check it every day, several times a day (morning, afternoon, and evening). Let teens know your “schedule” of checking the ministries email so they know how quickly to expect a reply. This is another task that can be delegated out, even having each person take a week at a time and rotate throughout the group.

Secondly, if finances (and your Sr. Pastor) allow, get a cell phone or pager (I know they are old school) teens can use for emergency situations or where talking is preferred. Allow your leaders to take turns as this is another hands on experience for them.

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Ashley Engleford is a youth leader, as well as a freelance speaker and writer. She lived the first 27 years of her life traveling down every sinful road possible, eventually hitting rock bottom as her addiction to pain pills took over. After accepting an invitation to services at a local church and attending for around 3 months, Ashley accepted Christ and He has dramatically changed her life since that fateful day. He has called her to share her journey to Christ with teens everywhere, encouraging them to follow Jesus.

I spent last weekend with 2,500 other youth workers at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference. It’s really no secret that I’m a big fan of the conference and everything it stands for. They’re doing a lot of amazing things that no other conference is doing. For only being 4 years old, it is truly very impressive.

What’s good

Maybe the reason I think it’s so great is because Simply’s heart really vibes with mine. We’re both totally about conversations and relationships, hence the subtitle of this blog, “Conversations among those passionate for teenagers,” that fleshes out in the post comments, LIVE YM Talk, mentorships, MinistryQuestions.com, and more.

Most conferences are about the expert on stage sharing their wisdom with all the people in the crowd. While that certainly has it’s place, I look at the crowd and think, “There is infinitely more wisdom and experience in this crowd collectively than there is in the mind of just that one person on stage.” I want to find ways to harness all the crowd’s experience and pool it together so we can mutually learn from each other, not just follow the hierarchal “top down” kind of learning.

Simply wants to do the same thing. In fact, when they contract their speakers, they don’t contract them just for a speaking gig, they contract them to be available for ministry throughout the entire weekend. They want everyone to be accessible to each other for the duration of the conference. I love that!

The environment they create really lends itself to those connections and relationships with sack chairs laying all over the place for easy conversation. In fact, I wasn’t able to attend any seminars because, when I wasn’t speaking, I was watching my little daughter so my wife could attend seminars. But yet I left having learned just as much as I would’ve from seminars because I spent all that time meeting and talking with youth workers out in the hallways. In fact, Mark Riddle basically gave me a one-on-one personalized seminar for a couple hours himself. I took notes and everything! (Thanks, Mark!)

I also appreciate that I’m not inundated with marking, vendors, and organizations who are all making bids my limited budget dollars. Note to pushy venders out there, “Don’t call me, I’ll call you. I know how to use Google and the telephone.” Thankfully, at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference most of that noise is limited so I can focus on people. The marketing that is there doesn’t feel obtrusive at all.

What could use improvement

There really is a lot to like about the Simply Youth Ministry Conference, but there’s definitely room to improve, as well.

Conversations
The biggest improvement I’d like to see is that, while the conference is very conversational, especially compared to other conferences, it’s probably only 40% of the way to a truly relational conference. Seminars with circle tables and discussion questions are good, but listening to a speaker, turning to your table to talk through some pre-determined discussion questions for 5 minutes, and then turning back to the speaker isn’t very relational. When the seminar is over, the chances are pretty low that the people at the table will stay in touch or continue the discussion later. It’s more of a conference with conversation than it is a conference of conversation.

This is also reflective in the affinity groups, the conference’s small groups that gather once or twice a day to talk about issues surrounding an area of youth ministry. If everyone at the conference committed to an affinity group, the discussions would be amazing. But instead, I heard that only about 30% of the participants attend an affinity group and, based on my own observation, most of those people were not consistant in attending the group at the same time. Each time an affinity group met, there was a different group of people in it. The discussions were very engaging and I learned a lot from the people there, but did we build relationships and form a connection? Is that really happening? I’m not so sure.

The conference is going in the right direction with the connections, networking, and mutual edification, and it’s doing it better than any other conference out there, but it still has a lot of room for improvement.

Content
A couple quick thoughts here.

First, I feel like we’ve been saying the same thing in youth ministry for the past couple years [ POLL ]. Last year’s schedule and speaker lineup looked very similar to this year’s schedule. We’re hearing the updated versions of the same content that speakers and authors have been sharing for years. The seminars I attended back in the late 90s as a college student are still the same seminars being offered now. Fortunately, a lot of that information is very important and foundational for youth ministry, but still… I’m not saying there hasn’t been anything new, just overall, generally speaking, it feels like it’s a lot of revised and updated material of what I’ve basically been hearing for a long time.

Second, let’s be careful with the sr. pastor jokes. I understand that a lot of youth workers have horrible experiences with their pastors and many of the stereotypes are true, but let’s not reinforce the stereotypes. Instead, let’s respect the pastors who are probably doing their best to serve the Lord but have just as many personal and ministry issues as the rest of us.

Last, the Simply Youth Ministry Conference has something incredible on their hands. Several participants told me that they wonder how long the conference can continue to improve like this until it plateaus and starts to dip. I’ve thought the same thing. At their current pace, I’ll give them a couple more years before it starts to plateau. The only way to avoid this is if they continue to do what they’re doing now — always try new things, risk failure, continually reinvent themselves, and never come to a place where they feel like they’ve “arrived” or have the conference thing figured out.

As Seth Godin talks about so much, the Simply Youth Ministry Conference must continue to be remarkable. So far, they are and I’m looking forward to even more remarkable things from them in the future.

Keep up the good work Kami, Matty, Andy, Chris, Doug, Rick, Sherri and everyone else at Group/Simply Youth Ministry! Thanks for a great weekend of connections, learning, and personal growth.

Last month I shared that the Youth Ministry Mentorship Program is taking its conversations to the next level by partnering with the Simply Youth Ministry Conference to bring mentoring face-to-face instead of just over the phone. Past mentees have mentioned how valuable the mentoring has been for themselves personally and their ministries and asked if there could be a way they could actually meet their mentor and talk face-to-face. While this has indeed happened in the past, it can happen for everyone now at the Simply Conference.

If you’ve been in youth ministry for 2 years or fewer and will be at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference from February 26 to March 1, 2010, there are still some available slots! In fact, if you’re accepted into the mentorship program, than Doug Field’s pre-conference seminar, “Your First Two Years In Youth Ministry,” is FREE for you, complements of Simply Youth Ministry!

However, if you’d like to be considered for the mentorship but are not planning to be at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference, we are now accepting your applications, as well! If you’ve been in youth ministry as a volunteer, part-time, or full-time worker, you can now read more about the Youth Ministry Mentorship and apply here.

VIDEO: This video explains a bit more about the mentorship, including a story from one of the past mentees who has gone through the program.

Whether you’ll be at the Simply Conference or not, check out the Youth Ministry Mentoring site, look through the expectations, goals, and other parts of the mentorship and decide if this is for you or not. If you’re up for the 10-week journey with a personal youth ministry mentor, fill out the application and if you’re selected by a mentor, I will be in touch with you via email.

[ Youth Ministry Mentorship ]

Last Monday we talked about the need for theological questioning in youth ministry. Our featured guest was Jake Bouma, a youth pastor who even named his cat after a theologian!

The discussion we had was one that every youth worker needs to recognize and consider because the implications can run very deep for the teens in our ministries.

Some of the things we talked about:

• Why it’s important to help kids wrestle through their theological questions
• Common questions our youth group kids are asking
• How to help teenagers process through the questions
• The balance between spewing answers and encouraging the self-discovery process
• And a whole lot more…

You can listen to the whole conversation below or grab it in iTunes.

Play this episode

Subscribe to LIVE YM Conversations in iTunes

Next Monday’s discussion

February 8: Join us for LIVE YM Talk again this Monday! The “Youth Ministry Advance Team: Haiti” members discuss their upcoming missions work. We will have several guests, including Adam McLane, Jeremy Zach, Anne Jackson, Jeff Goins, and others. We’d love to have you join us! The live conversation starts at 2:00 PM eastern time! See our LIVE YM Talk page for details.

Join our next LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation!

Earlier this week Marko launched his Youth Ministry Coaching Program, a 1-year 360 coaching cohort, focused on whole-life development and youth ministry issues.

While some have compared it to the Youth Ministry Mentorship Program here at Life In Student Ministry, there really are some clear distinctions that allow the two programs to complement each other quite nicely.

I had the opportunity to talk with Marko about his program.

You can listen to us talk about the coaching and mentoring programs in iTunes, or use the link below to listen to it directly in your browser.

Play: Interview with Marko about his new YM Coaching Program

Last weekend I received this Facebook message from a girl I haven’t been in touch with for about a decade. For the sake of her privacy, I edited out some of the details and have permission to share it with you.

I share this to encourage you as you work with teenagers. Some of you feel like your investment into teens is worthless — you’re seeing absolutely no growth. Some of you are frustrated, tired, struggling, and wondering, “Is all this time, energy and emotion worth it?”

Not every teenager will come back and thank you. In fact, just like the 10 lepers, most won’t, but the ones who do will make it all worth it. You may never know the influence you have on a student just by being present in their life.

Be encouraged — it’s worth it!

Tim, you knew me 10 years ago by my maiden name. I’m not sure if you remember me. I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for being my friend! Most of all, thank you for striving to truly live your faith and not being ashamed to do so. You lived your life in a distinctly different manner from all my other friends, and it made an impression on me. Adolescence was a rough season of my life. There were a couple of people in my life during that time who were “Jesus with skin on,” and you were one of them. I’m sure you’ve continued to be a blessing to teens through your ministry and life. Now I’m a pastor’s wife (whoa!); my husband was ordained last year and we are blessed with two little boys, ages 2 years and 4 months. Anyhow, when I stumbled upon your website a few months ago while helping my husband look up info on youth groups, I realized how God had blessed me through you, and I wanted you to know.

Despite knowing otherwise in my head, the way I actually lead my church’s youth ministry is mostly from the mentality that our youth ministry is a program or service we provide to families. It’s almost like I’m unintentionally feeding the consumeristic perspective by sometimes using language like, “We offer small groups…” and, “We provide connection points for your teens…” Since when was ministry ever supposed to be about what a paid staff member and a couple adult volunteers are expected to spiritually provide for teens and families?

Youth ministry should not be about how the church can serve the youth or even how we can provide programs that help them grow spiritually. That’s the parents’ responsibility. In fact, I don’t think youth ministry should even accidentally enable parents to outsource their God-given responsibility to us, something I know my ministry is all too guilty of. Support parents, yes, but enable them to outsource? No.

The Greek word for “church” is literally “ekklesia,” a community of believers who are “called out” to serve and edify each other and the people around them.

Instead of fueling the consumerism mentality of what a church “offers” or “provides” and which church in town does it best, youth ministry should probably be about helping teens use their God-given gifts to serve the body. It should teach families that youth ministry isn’t just about what the church does for them, but that they are “called out” to think beyond themselves with a servant’s heart. I bet teen church drop-outs would decrease if they actually served as a valuable and essential part of the local body of Christ.

Youth ministry should be less about us doing youth ministry and more about youth doing ministry.

I said that two years ago, but it’s just now starting to really sink in for me. It demands a pretty radical shift, one that I’m not sure I have the vision nor the guts to really carry out yet.

Our programs program people to consume from the church, and I’m programmed to just run programs.

Please note, I’m not necessarily anti-program — I just think that too often we end up serving the programs instead of using them as very dispensable tools to equip teen believers to serve the body of Christ.

What do you think? Should youth ministry be more about providing a service or creating servants? What if focusing on the latter causes all those with the consumeristic mentality of the former to leave the group? Is it okay for your youth group to shrink numerically if it’s for the right reasons?

Almost two years ago I started doing some one-on-one youth ministry mentoring through this site and since then it’s grown into a full-blown team of mentors who have served over 100 brand new youth workers. We’ve taken a wholistic approach to mentoring by focusing on three main areas that all intertwine with each other: a mentee’s personal life, spiritual life, and ministry life. The response by new youth workers who have gone through the program has been extremely positive, so we’re glad we’re on the right track with this. We tend to do two 10-week one-on-one rounds each year, one in the spring and one in the fall, and this year will be no different.

However, this spring round of mentoring will be especially unique because we have the tremendous opportunity to partner with the Simply Youth Ministry Conference and start it face-to-face with you. Most of the mentors will be at the conference, myself included, and are pumped to take mentoring to the next level with a couple one-on-one lunch conversations. It’s advice and wisdom for your youth ministry, your personal walk with Christ, and your personal life that starts face-to-face and continues to weekly telephone conversations from there!

If you’ve been in youth ministry for 2 years or fewer and will be at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference from February 26 to March 1, 2010, then this youth ministry mentorship is for you! The video below explains a bit more about it, including a story from one of the past mentees who has gone through the program.

Traditionally the mentorship has been absolutely free, but because we want to start investing more into the mentors and into the program, the 10-week mentorship now costs $99 (books included). We realize that some youth workers who really need this mentoring can’t afford that, though, so there are some scholarship funds available.

If you have been in youth ministry for 2 years or fewer and you’re planning to be at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference next month, this is simply an opportunity I promise you cannot miss! Seriously. I don’t say that about many things. Check out the Youth Ministry Mentoring part of this site, look through the expectations, goals, and other parts of the mentorship and decide for yourself. If you’re up for the 10-week journey with a personal youth ministry mentor, fill out the application and if you’re selected by a mentor, I will be in touch with you via email to give you payment information and put you in touch with the mentor.

For those of you who want to be mentored but will not be at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference, you may also fill out the application to be considered for the mentorship. The mentors who are unable to attend the conference will be considering your applications.

I’m so pumped about this partnership! Seriously people, you new youth workers out there cannot believe how blessed you will be by both the conference and this mentorship, especially when they’re combined together like this. Check it out!

[ Youth Ministry Mentorship ]

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