What Not To Do…
Just so you know, Devil Went Down To Georgia bombed this week. What were we thinking? That kid said he could play the fiddle.
A Few Tuesday Links
1. Are we running so fast & being so cool that our kids don’t grasp the idea that we can be alive – truly alive – and just enjoy downtime in God’s creation? Rethinking Youth Ministry asks that question…
More than your ability to be a “cool” youth pastor or to entertain a crowd, Mark argues that what youth really want to know is if you know how to be truly alive in this culture, to maintain your passion, and to enjoy life in God’s creation.
2. There’s a new blogger out there blogging about Young Life. Only a few posts up now, but there’s some good stuff.
3. Remember to check out Help For Young Life Leaders NOW. There’s just some amazingly helpful stuff there, including help for talks specific to different chapters of the Bible.
4. Here’s a fun one. Create fake newspaper clippings. They say to not use real names, but what fun is that. I did this story from a story we shared on our last podcast.
Where Has This Been
Every youth leader worth his salt has to occassionally fix something he broke before anyone finds out or needs to know how to connect a PVC pipe to a life-size rubber duck so it won’t fall apart when you set it on fire.
I think this website was designed specifically for my friend Scott Berry, but they are letting us all use it. Called ThisToThat.com, it is simple really. You just look at the two things you want to glue together, fingure out what each is made of, and the website tells you what kind of glue to use.
Mix It Up Monday – Inaugural Edition
Welcome to the first official Mix It Up Monday post. It’s a blog carnival – wooo hoooo – where we all get a chance to share all kinds of great stuff. If you’re not familiar with how that works, check out my post from last week with all the details.
You’re welcome to just come and take, take, take. Every monday I’ll have a post with one game, skit, talk illustration, or something else useful for all us procrastinators. But, why take & not give back. You can create your own Mix It Up Monday post on your blog and link it up to this post by filling out the info in the Mr. Linky box at the bottom. Again, the instructions are here, so without further to do…today’s Mix It Up Monday.
Alka Seltzer Poem Reading
We did it for Valentine’s club last week, but it could be used whenever. Set it up by telling everyone that there are a couple guys in the crowd who’ve been asking if they could have a chance to do something romantic for their girl-friend at Club. Or, you can do what we did and tell everyone that a guy wanted to do something romantic for a particular girl who wasn’t his girlfriend – both were pretty embarrassed.
Take the guys out of the room. Sit the girls in the front of the group with a chair in front of them. While the guys out of the room, give them a poem and put 2 – 4 Alka Seltzer in their mouth. They aren’t allowed to tell the group about the Alka Seltzer, but have to come in, sit in the chair and read the poem passionately to the girl who will be sitting at his feet. The first guy worked great – foaming and spitting all over – including on the girl. The second guy had no saliva. Get a guy who can spit.
I Officially Love Twitter
Let me tell you why…
I signed up and started getting tweets & making my own tweets (and getting made fun of by my friends for talking about tweets) thinking it was going to be a less complicated form of Facebook. Turns out, I’ve gotten so much more out of Twitter than I would have thought.Â
I just realized that when I came across some guys posting from the C309 Conference. Now, I didn’t know what the heck that was until I clicked on the #C309 hashtag (there’s a lot to learn, but don’t worry). So, I get to the Twitter search for C309 (oh, it’s the Creative Church Conference) and everyone is posting little quotes from, I’m assuming, the guy who’s speaking. I literally felt like I was right there.
In addition to this type of thing, I’ve gotten so many great links. I’m primarily following folks in the educational technology & ministry fields, and every hour or so, I check out my tweetdeck (my friends laugh when I talk about that, too) and find some great links, pictures, and words of encouragement.
So, the bottom line is, I’m sticking with it. I’m not sure if it’s even been a month yet, but I’m sold. Sign up and get in on the action.   Join me here.
One warning. I have some friends (the podcast crew minus me & Ame) who thought it would be funny to create Mark the Youth Guy on Twitter and start following me. Turns out Mark was a real fan of the Leader Lounge. He was a huge fan. In fact, if I had taken the time to look at his Twitter page, I would have seen that that’s all he talked about. He loved the Leader Lounge podcast so much, he recommended our podcast to everyone even in seminars he was teaching. Yeah. I got real excited about Mark and the rest of the guys got a real kick out of me getting real excited. We can all have a huge laugh about it on the next podcast. It was actually very funny.
Hey Kid, Want Some Candy
Today, I was walking through the cafeteria during lunch and saw 2 guys behind a table at the far end. I recognized them right away, because last week they were in the same spot, doing the same thing – standing behind the little table with an opened bag of candy, a few pieces falling out on the table and I went up and introduced myself. I found out they were from a Youth Mininstry organization (you’d know it if I told you), so I told them I was a YL leader. We talked about church a little bit, and then I went on my way.
Today, I didn’t have time to talk, but I glanced over at their table from time to time. I gotta tell you, I felt sooooo sorry for them. What a picture of why “go to them” ministry works and “come to me” ministry isn’t quite so effective. I think I saw a grand total of 2 kids talk to them in a 30 minute period.
I’m not coming down on them, because they’re just getting started and I know all too well how difficult & intimidating it is to go into a room full of kids you don’t know hoping someone talks to you. I remember feeling like that guy. Actually, I pray that I always feel a little bit like that guy just to keep me on my toes and make me remember who’s really in control. But, part of me wanted to go over there and kick them in the butt until they engaged with some kids. I wanted to fold up their table, push them to the middle of the room, and tell them to just talk to someone.Â
Seriously, what’s the worst that could happen? The kids might laugh at you. Maybe, but in most cases that won’t happen until you walk away. Just don’t look back.
I have to applaud their consistency. They came today, and they were here last week. Maybe they’ll be here tomorrow. There’s something to be said for presence. Sooner or later, maybe a kid will get dared to go to their table and talk to them, while his friends watch & giggle. But, I’d rather force the issue. You’re there to meet kids, to have an impact on their lives, to show them who Jesus is. Jesus ain’t sitting at a table with a big bag of Starbursts.
Jump in, fellas! It’s a whole lot more exciting.
Small Group Help – CT Website
Christianity Today just launched a website specifically for small group leaders. It’s called smallgroups.com (can’t believe that domain was available) and It’s designed to meet the need many churches have as their small group ministries grow. I haven’t had a chance to look at all of it, but there’s some good stuff that I think I might either use outright or at least get some ideas from for my Campaigner group.
Christian Today launched the new site to equip small-group leaders with thousands of articles, ideas, and icebreakers for their meetings; over 50 downloadable training tools leaders can share and discuss or use for personal development; over 200 customizable and downloadable Bible Studies; and an expert panel of small-group leaders and authors that answer difficult questions pertaining to small-group ministry.
There are prices listed on most of the stuff, but right now that price is $0.00. Might want to take advantage of this before there is a charge. I don’t know if that’s in their plans or not.