The following guest post is contributed by Jason Stemm.

Is your student ministry leading students into the presence of Christ? As a youth leader myself, I know the demands that are placed on us to do a good job with the teenagers. I’ve noticed in many student ministries the need for effective media in their meeting times. This is one small way to make a huge difference in what your groups accomplishes. I’ve put together a list of things that may help you in getting your student ministry media looking fresher and better organized and why it may benefit your ministry. In a world of cool motion graphics and HD television, sometimes integrating the visual element in your group’s workings can help your ministry, hopefully leading more people to Jesus Christ.

Tip #1: Animation is Key

I’ve heard it said at times that PowerPoint is an effective teaching tool and I have to respectively disagree. PowerPoint has its uses, but a lot of times it is used wrong. Bad animations and outdated graphics can turn off kids because of its dated approach. Find out what worship software your church uses and, if your group has a student band, look into putting animated backgrounds and elements in your worship. Maybe even get your group’s logo over an animated background. This can create excitement and class to your student worship experience. There are lots of good worship software out there for all budgets. I would suggest Worship Him for low budgets, EasyWorship and MediaShout for bigger budgets. Get away from PowerPoint, it was cool at first, but there are things so much better to bring your church and student ministry great worship. These types of software are easy to train your kids on as well, and it’s a skill that will enable them to serve in God’s Kingdom after they leave your group. Your church doesn’t have to be 2,000 strong to enjoy great worship media.

Tip #2: Transcend Stereotypes

An old stereotype of Christian media is that it’s corny and irrelevant. God gave us the gift of media to teach, inspire, motivate, and worship. Use media that generates excitement and enthusiasm for what you’re trying to accomplish in your student ministry. Great Christian media is focused, creative, and powerful. And this type of media, when used in the right way, can do great things for your students. It’s the shock and awe of this type of media that often shows kids that the church is not a boring place and that Jesus’ message is real. I’m so glad Christian media is getting better, in many places becoming cutting edge. But many youth groups haven’t tapped into the potential of this. Often times by not tapping into the benefits of Christian media, you miss out on the increasing number of creative students that grace the streets of our culture.

Tip #3: Become the Innovator

What separates one youth group from the next group down the road? What are you doing they are or are not doing? Are your students serving more? Worshipping more? Giving more? Hanging out with each other more outside of group meeting times? The point is clear, separate your student ministry from the rest with relevant media, but don’t get lost in it. Have the media work around the strengths of your group. Use illustration videos that are relevant and teach. Use media to motivate your kids to serve on the mission field. Use media to motivate parents into integrating Christian principles into the family. Use media smartly. Don’t invest in media just because it’s a cool toy to add to the student ministry worship hour. Integrate media to innovate the way your student ministry operates and gets the Gospel to those who desperately need to hear it. Use these tips as a starting point to better integrating media into your student ministry’s worship or youth group meeting.

————————————————————————–
Jason Stemm is a husband of one wife, father of three boys, and associate minister at his church in southern Iowa where he currently leads the worship and student ministries. He is also the founder of www.motionrevival.com, a new company that sells video backgrounds and other church media resources. Jason can be reached at jason@gostemm.com.

I have two freebies for you guys this week! The first one is a listing of lots of worship praise songs in PowerPoint. If you’re like me, I usually type up the lyrics in PowerPoint but never bother to save it because “it’ll be a long time before we sing these songs again.” However, only a couple weeks later I’m like, “Ugh, I need that song again!” So, maybe this will save me some time, and you too! The slides are plain in black and white, which is good if you like it simple and also good so it’s easy to apply your own formatting. See a listing of free worship song PowerPoints here:

PowerPoint worship songs directory

The other freebie for today is from CYPU (Center for Parent/Youth Understanding). They’re giving away the latest quarterly edition of their youth culture journal, ENGAGE. You can download/read/print it out by clicking on the link below

This quarterly edition of ENGAGE

CYPU is in the process of evaluating the content and delivery of ENGAGE. Give it a read and then give them some helpful feedback in the CPYU Facebook group.

———————————————————————-
Join our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation today at 2:00 PM EST! The topic is, “Dealing with the demands of extra-curricular activities and how it effects our youth ministries.” Brian Ford recently wrote an article on this matter that circulated the Internet for a while, so he will lead our discussion. Join us using either your telephone or your computer microphone!

Yesterday in our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation Russell Martin lead a discussion on worship in youth group. Many issues came up, including youth bands, worship styles, struggles, and practical ideas for worshiping in other ways than music. Several resources were also recommended, including a couple websites that Russell will post on his website sometime next week.

Listen to the whole conversation below or grab it in iTunes.

Download this episode

Subscribe to LIVE YM Conversations in iTunes

Next Topic: Building community with teens online to enhance community at youth group

September 26th: Next week Adam McLane from Youth Specialties will teach us how to use online teen hangouts for our advantage in enhancing community at youth group. Check out his blog at AdamMclane.com.

Join our next LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation!

Here’s a summary list of every issue in youth ministry that’s been mentioned by one of the series contributors. Whew! There certainly are a lot of issues that need to be addressed.

Discuss: Which of these issues apply specifically to your youth ministry? What changes can you make to address them in 2007?

What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is struggling with today?

• Students are under a tremendous amount of stress and pressure.
• It is vital that we remind them constantly that Jesus needs to have first priority in their lives and that He holds their future in His hands. Students are so busy and God and church is not always the #1 priority.
• We need students to be global Christians.
• The idea of godly sexuality for all people needs to be put back on the agenda.
• Mental health.
• The whole question of “church” is becoming more and more of a struggle for youth ministry.
• Professional youth pastors and senior pastors looking for job security.
• This generation is facing identity issues, sexuality issues, authority issues, and vocation/purpose issues, but in a much more intense, aggressive, combative, pluralistic context.
• Discipleship and teaching students to grow on their own.
• Retention after graduation.
• Engaging parents.
• Cultural relevance. The Church is often reluctant to change sufficiently to genuinely include the young people.
• Defining Success.
• Recruiting and training adult volunteers to be effective.
• Presenting God as the right and better choice over pop culture.
• A lack of understanding of youth culture and no desire to learn it.
• We’re spending so much time trying to keep the ones we have that we are not reaching the lost.
• The church leadership believes there are only a couple of kids caught up in major issues and the rest of the kids are great, god fearing and perfect.
• Employed Christian youth workers are only deployed where there are churches with significant financial resources, meaning deployment is based on money not need.
• The “dumbing down” of programs because of the myth that junior high students cannot go “deep.”
• Connections between people and real community.
• We should be focusing more on is inner-city and “fringe” type of neighborhoods and young people.
• The issue of personal holiness, from youth ministers to parents to students. Our calling should be to BE children of God and pant after Him so that teens can see HIS power in our lives.
• Apathy of the “cradle-Christian” student.
• Not enough long term funding or funding in general.
• The church allows the youth to be isolated, and sometimes they want the youth isolated, which is anything but unifying for the church.
• Viewing youth ministry as a stepping-stone to becoming a Sr. Pastor, as if it’s important to practice ministry on “little people” before being qualified to work with “real people.”

What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is responding to effectively?

• Loving teens and connecting with them in their world.
• The call to missions.
• Youth ministry is attempting to address the same issues that the adult church may be after, but the amazing thing is that there is more of a willingness to experiment.
• Provides a safe place for hurting students. We are responding to the deep-seated hurts of teenagers in more effective ways than ever.
• Giving students time and space to be in community with each other.
• A desire to do ministry outside of the church and where kids are.
• Youth ministry allows young people to encounter adults (and young people) who seek to live a 24/7 faith and model a life that’s Christ centered and counter cultural.

In what ways does youth ministry need to change?

• We need to make sure we’re taking our young people deeper into their faith. But not just in Bible studies, but in their experience of mission, church, worship and so on.
• Students need to be IN ministry and not just the recipient of it. If students don’t lead they’ll leave. We need to believe in students and their ability to minister effectively to their peers.
• Relational-driven is more work and less to show…at first.
• Do your deal, follow Jesus, create this environment in the student ministry IF YOU CAN. If you can’t – shut up and leave and find a place where you can if it’s that important to you.
• Less reliance on programs.
• Less “next big thing” thinking.
• Less trendy, fad, youth workers.
• Longevity. Finding a way to keep youth pastors and leader in their positions for the long haul.
• Youth ministers need to adopt more of a “Family Ministry” rather than a “Youth Ministry.” Parents need to be central to the process of our teenagers’ spiritual formation and not disengaged bystanders.
• Emotional health.
• We need to have a plan for when the kids arrive in 6th grade they graduate high school knowing the fundamentals of scripture while at the same time encountering God rather than just being taught facts about Him.
• Plug students into the greater body of Christ.
• Church leaders need to understand what youth pastors are facing and stand with them in a major way.
• Giving opportunity to live faith not just hear about it.
• There is a pretty big void when it comes to Junior High Ministry Curriculum.
• Starting where young people are instead of where we want them to be.
• Student ministry needs to change first in the heart of Lead and Senior pastors across America.

[Read previous authors and posts in this series, "Issues in youth ministry."]

UPDATE: Please read the comments below. This is not a serious post. It’s satirical sarcasm and does not contain a hint of truth. It’s a joke written by the founder of Youth Specialties describing in exact opposite terms what NOT to do. Do NOT run your youth ministry this way! This is written to such an extreme in order to point out the absurdity of running a youth ministry this way. It’s only a joke. Please don’t take this seriously or think that this is my personal philosophy of ministry. It definitely is NOT.

Ten Easy Steps to Guarantee a Successful Youth Ministry!
by Mike Yaconelli

1. Dumb Down the Gospel. Employ attractive phrases such as, “Since I’ve known Jesus I’m happier, getting better grades, and captain of the football team!” Even better, reduce the complexity of the gospel into group cheers (i.e., “Give me a J!”) or simple worship choruses like, “God is so good…blah blah blah.” (Try singing those words in Ethiopia.) Or even better, try out some hip slang (i.e., God is “phat”; Jesus is a “hottie”).

2. Count. Constantly make everyone aware of your group’s attendance figures and the increases in attendance. Make numbers an issue by setting attendance goals for each activity and reward the group for reaching those goals. Spend lots of time throwing pies at the leaders if goals are reached.

3. Put Your Students on Display. As soon as kids become Christians or rededicate their lives or show real growth, put them in front of the group and have them share their testimonies—especially if they’re physically attractive. Let young people talk about their faith as much as possible and don’t worry about the fact that most young people have no clue how complicated and rough the real world is with or without Jesus.

4. Don’t Allow Down Time. Hey, kids today are MTV kids! They can’t sit still for any length of time. Silence, solitude, prayer, meditation, fasting? All totally lame in the eyes of this generation! Nope, keep ‘em busy, active, noisy, and shuttling from one Christian rock concert to another. Fill every moment of your program with something to do—otherwise you’ll lose their attention (which would be disastrous because then they’d have to pay attention to God and their souls).

5. Stay on the Technological Cutting Edge. What would Jesus do? Are you kidding? Jesus would have the best sound system you ever heard, along with a DVD player, the Internet, instant messaging, the coolest Web site, and of course a digital TV. Show your kids that when it comes to the latest technology, Christians are right there! I mean, who needs to read when you can watch?

6. Create Celebrities. Make sure your young people get an earful and eyeful of the latest Christian music stars, video stars, and NFL players who profess their faith in Jesus on national television. Encourage your young people to worship, idolize, and live under the illusion that these people are somehow better, deeper, more Christian, more together, and more dedicated than them. Let them believe that the marketed images of these celebrities are completely representative of them—even though you know it isn’t true.

7. Let Youth Group Take the Place of Church. Oh sure, encourage your kids to attend the contemporary service—even though you know most of them never will because church is “boring,” filled with “dull, old people,” and the music “sucks.” Whatever you do, though, don’t suggest that worshiping with people they don’t like and connecting with people who are older and wiser just might save them when their adolescent view of the world is shattered. Just keep convincing your students that youth group is a good substitute for church.

8. Tow the Parental Line. Whatever you do, don’t cause friction with parents by suggesting to their kids that grades, SAT scores, financial security, college degrees, and athletic scholarships really don’t matter. Just accept the fact that most parents want their children to attend youth group as long as it doesn’t interfere with hockey, football, ice skating, tennis, ballet, or baseball practice. And don’t encourage young people to resist their parents’ attempts to smother the call of God on their lives, either. After all, you could get fired!

9. Ignore the Arts. Never encourage painting, dance, sculpture, writing, poetry, ballet, or trips to the museum, symphony, and opera. Stick with activities that rock! The WWF rules!

10. Live in the Now! Verify the success of your ministry by visible, measurable, observable results you see now. Don’t waste your time worrying about lasting results. Who can wait?! Go for the instant return. Hey, once your kids leave youth group, you aren’t responsible for what happens to them anyway, right?

11. “Us” Versus “Them.” (Yeah, yeah, I know I said “Ten Steps”—sue me.) Convince your kids that the only way Christians can make a difference is through public, physical confrontation with the “world.” Explain that this “world” is “them,” and Christians—the good guys—are “us.” And since it’s us against them, we have to “stand up for our faith.” Encourage them to march in rallies, wear slogan-filled T-shirts, hang banners, and do whatever it takes to get in the world’s face. Convince them that the Devil and his demons are running around, wreaking havoc—and the only way to deal with the Devil is to confront and “bind him.” Don’t let them believe that evil is much more seductive, much more camouflaged and tricky than they could ever imagine. And whatever you do, don’t start getting into Jesus’ strategy of powerlessness.

Now go get ‘em!

(ht jacob)

Hmm… Our interim pastor just called me and said that the guest speaker for Sunday had to cancel due to some scheduling conflicts and asked if I’d be willing to take over the pulpit. I don’t mind helping out, but I don’t really have a ready-to-go game-plan in mind either. Since I’m not really an auditory learner myself, I’d like to do something out of the ordinary that’s maybe a little interactive (kinesthetic). Plus, it’s a very full service so I only have about 20 minutes or so. Hmm… Any ideas?

[tags]preaching[/tags]

The Catalyst Blog summarized “Spirituality for 20-somethings” and, being 26 years old myself, it seems to fit me pretty well.

• They don’t like attending traditional worship.
• They shy away from labels.
• They identify with no specific religion or, if Christian, call themselves non-denominational.
• They demonstrate overwhelming belief in God.
• They show interest in how spiritual matters relate to their lives and their world.
• Many reject dogma and large institutions, instead preferring personal and convenient ways to find answers.
• They send prayer e-mail, look for love online, join smaller ministry groups.
• They fuel an industry of spiritually inspired books, movies and music.

I can identify with pretty much everything on that list, except I wouldn’t say that I don’t like attending traditional worship because sometimes I do. Rather, I would say I usually prefer modern formats of worship, but still have an appreciation for traditional styles.

Off the top of my head, I dream three things for youth ministry:

1. Students who are growing in depth and insight of God’s Word.
2. Students who genuinely worship God both publicly and privately.
3. Students who have a burden for lost souls around them.

I look at that list and think, “Hmmm, do I even measure up to that list personally?”