The Youth Ministry Toolbox
Most days of the year, the best way to describe my office would be organised chaos. There’s stuff everywhere – mostly dumped there at the end of a long night of youth group or as I’m rushing from one event to the next. In those rare moments of quiet – when programs are wrapping up for the year and I feel like I can stop and take a breath, I get on top of the job of cleaning and organising my office. And in even rarer moments, I start thinking of how I can do the organising thing even better.
And that’s when I get ideas like the Youth Ministry Toolbox.
Biblical Theology Resource: Magnets
In our senior youth group here at St Luke’s we’ve just finished a teaching unit on how the Bible fits together as one big book. Drawing on a little bit of Goldsworthy and Roberts, we’ve looked at how the 66 books of the Bible are all part of one big story – God’s plan of salvation for his creation.
Being the visual learner that I am, I came up with a resource to help us each week – Biblical Theology Magnets!
What Do I Do When Teenagers Question Their Sexuality by Steven Gerali
I love being a youth minister. God has used me to influence the lives of many young people over the years. It’s an enormous privilege. And it’s not just because I can justify buying video games as a ministry expense. The big reward is seeing the results of your hard work, when you see a young person growing in godliness and maturity. But before you get to that point, there’s a lot of trials along the way. And a lot of conversations. Some of them you are prepared for. Some of them come out of nowhere and you don’t know how to deal with them.
That’s why Steven Gerali’s new series of books What Do I Do When… is such a valuable resource.
The Youth Minister Scorecard
I love youth ministry. I’ve devoted a huge part of my life to teaching the Bible to teenagers. People who minister to youth tend to be a different breed than other ministers. And of course there are certain stereotypes. While I’m a big fan of going against type and encouraging older, more mature Christians to work in youth ministry, sometimes the stereotypes are just plain fun.
Stuff Christians Like is a site I link to a fair bit. That’s because it makes me laugh. Here’s something that makes me laugh greatly – The Youth Minister Scorecard. As I go through the list, I know these people. I’ve either experienced these things or know someone who has.
I scored a 90.
What about you, fellow youth ministers? What did you score?
Help! I’m A Frustrated Youth Worker! by Steven Case
Help! I’m A Frustrated Youth Worker!: A Practical Guide To Avoiding Burnout in Your Ministry
By Steven L. Case
I love youth ministry. I love getting alongside teenagers and introducing them to Jesus. There are few things better than being there to see that look in a young person’s eye when it finally clicks and they commit themselves to Christ. It’s a great privilege to be a youth minister. But it’s not easy work. There are pressures from parents and ministry staff. People don’t understand what the task involves and can think all you’re doing is hanging out. And with many youth ministers being younger themselves and early in their ministry life, they don’t always have the skills needed to deal with these pressures. That’s why a book like Help! I’m A Frustrated Youth Worker! is a must read.
D2 Does KYCK
D2 is the youth crew at my Church, St Luke’s Liverpool. As a group, we headed up to Katoomba this past weekend for KYCK, a Christian youth convention. It was great. Here’s a video to show what KYCK was like from our point of view.
King of the Hill 8×02: Reborn To Be Wild
A few years ago I was going through a bit of a Sum 41 phase. As I was surfing the internet for Sum 41 related stuff, I came across the image to the left. Sum 41 had been on King of the Hill and it had some kind of God theme. Interest piqued.
After a bit of searching, I found the episode in question – Reborn To Be Wild. If you’re a youth leader, you really should get your hands on a copy of this episode. Watch it with other youth leaders. The discussions you’ll have afterward will be invaluable.
Mission Wrap Up
Here are some random thoughts I have after Moore College Mission 2009 at MerrylandsAnglican. They’re not in any kind of order, just putting it out there. I also attended a youth event run by Liverpool City Council on Saturday, so I’ll add my thoughts about that here as well. (MTC = Moore Theological College)
Fervr Presents: Moore College Mission 09 – Saturday
The final Mission Vodcast for 2009. Last night at The Vine, the youth ministry at Merrylands Anglican, a group of us College students teamed up with the youth group leaders and ran sessions on things like the internet, friendship, movies and fashion. I got the chance to not only interview the leaders, but also a few of the youth.
Fervr Presents: Moore College Mission 2009 Week 3
This week I interviewed Dave Morgan, who runs the youth at Merryland’s Anglican. I had to cut a lot from this episode. We were having so much fun in front of the camera! Much more fun than flying solo.
Movie Review: 2:37 (2006)
2:37
2:37 (2006)
Rated R
I’ve been trying to get my hands on this movie for a while. When it was first released in cinemas, I heard a radio interview with the director, Murali Thalluri. The themes of the movie, as well as the confrontational nature of the content intrigued me. Thalluri talked about how the movie dealt with important issues for teenagers, yet ironically the movie was given an R rating, therefore guaranteeing that teenagers would be unable to legally see it, let alone watch it in a class room setting. Last week I finally managed to get my hands on a copy.
Fight Club Rules
One of the difficult parts of running a Bible study group, especially a group consisting of teenage boys, is to get the group to open up and share what they really think. One way I have found to be really helpful is to institute Fight Club Rules.
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