I’m not a business man, but I saw this one coming for years. For lots of reasons, one biggie being that their online business is about 1/10th that of Netflix, Blockbuster has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and hopes to reorganize.

Some leadership things popped into my head when I was thinking about the Blockbuster saga; some of them may even apply to youth ministry:

- Change isn’t bad….in fact sometimes it is necessary for your survival.
- If it ain’t broke, it will be soon enough.
- it isn’t about what you think works….it’s about what your “customers” think works.
- objects in mirror really are closer than they appear.
- if outsiders recognize problems before leaders on the inside do….there are BIG problems!
- Success almost always breeds complacency.

Share one of your own!

Posted By Kurt Johnston

- I was recently struck/challenged by the amount of what I call “God Talk” we use in our junior high ministry setting. By “God Talk” I mean the fact that we talk about God….a lot, but don’t talk about Jesus nearly enough. Some may see it as semantics, but I think it is more than that. In a culture where just about everybody is pro-god, I want students to begin identifying more and more with Jesus. Not sure where this is leading me, but I think it’s the right direction.

- Speaking of Jesus, we are about to wrap up a three-week series we called “Give Me a J!” which is a look at who Jesus is, what did he have to say, and what it means to us. It’s been a really great series. So good, in fact, that it will likely become a super series at simply junior high. But in case you don’t want to pay for it, here are the very basic key points from each week:

WHOIS HE: 1. God in a Bod. 2. The Promised Savior 3. The Only Way to Heaven

WHAT DID HE HAVE TO SAY? In a word, his message was about FREEDOM.

1. Freedom From Sin 2. Freedom From Acting Religiously 3. Freedom From Selfishness

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME? 1. If You Don’t Know Him, Meet Him. 2. If You Do Know Him, Share Him.

- Do you have Xbox live or use your Wii online? If so, and you enjoy television and movies, then I strongly recommend considering the online Netflix subscription for only $9.00 per month. the number of movies and television shows that are available to watch instantly is quite impressive. Of course, you can subscribe even without Xbox or Wii, but will only be able to watch on your computer Vs. your television.

- I find the Tea Party movement fascinating. If they can manage to stick to their original agenda (in case you wonder, TEA stands for “Taxed Enough Already”), they may have some legs….and may even be able to attract some moderates to their side of the discussion. But if they begin to meddle in other traditionally conservative issues (abortion, gay marriage, immigration….) I think they will loose effectiveness. Of course, I don’t really follow all this stuff enough to have a strong feel for it….it’s just an extremely un-educated observation about politics; which I’m interested in to some degree.

- Just got the new EVO phone. I may have crossed the line into a realm of technology/bells and whistles/awesomeness that I shouldn’t have. I truly can’t figure the thing out.

Posted by Jared Moine (for those of you who are new, Jared is a junior high pastor in the D.C. area who is in his first year of full time junior high ministry. Thus, the name of his column.

We’re Making Changes

The high school pastor and I have successfully talked the senior pastor into a crazy idea we both had and to both or our surprises, after some thought, he said yes. Up until this weekend our high school ministry has always had their “worship service” entry level program on Wednesday nights and since I have been here we have been having our middle school ministry service on Sunday nights. Both nights work and allow us to use the new, main, and only building. Our adults had been using the main building on Saturday nights and three times on Sunday morning. Since being here, I’ve noticed that only one of our services is full on Sundays and our Saturday night crowd is a good crowd but not massively growing and mostly full of people who come out of convenience that weekend. Meanwhile, both the high school pastor and I feel our student ministries need a change to make them healthy. We have a strong desire to have our students plugged in to small groups, and with the main high school service happening on Wednesday nights, finding another night of the week available, proves difficult. That, combined with the fact that most students don’t have much to do on Saturday evenings, we decided that Saturday would be our ideal time to have student services. However, this would require a significant shake up within the adult world of our church. We are so blessed to have a senior pastor who not only believes in us, but also believes in the importance of student ministries. We must have said the right things, because our senior pastor agreed to allow us to make this change that affects the whole church. This is huge and exciting and mostly scary. This is the first time for me to have a crazy idea, and to then get a chance to put it in place. If it’s great, then I’m part of a genius decision. On the flip side, if it sucks, it was my idea. That’s a scary sink or swim scenario that I, for the first time in ministry, find myself in. It’s terrifying, yet I think this is what faith is suppose to be all about, carrying out plans that you think are right and good, yet you don’t really know if it’s going to work.

Maybe you’re someone in the same shoes as me and you’re just getting started and everything is a new faith building exercise, or maybe you have been in your current job for a few years now and have really settled in and are doing some great ministry in a place where you know the culture and know what works for your students. If you have settled in, chances are you know what you are doing and you know that you can pull everything off. This is a good place to be, and to be honest I pray a lot to get to that place soon but there is something amazing about living in the moment and trusting God to make something grow. My prayer would be for those of you who have all the experience in your craft of youth ministry, that you would not be afraid to fail and try something new. Maybe it isn’t a complete shake up of your church, but just a small change could push your faith into an exciting new adventure. However, maybe God does have some big plans for your church and it’s you who needs to have the faith to dream and share an idea with a trusted ministry partner. Our current new adventure started with the idea of “what would be the best time for us to do youth services?” As we brainstormed the Saturday night plans kept getting better and better until finally we made a positives and negatives list and the positives in making a switch were so great that we even convinced our senior pastor.

I don’t know what God may have for you, but I do know that He always wants to grow our faith and the older and wiser we get the bigger steps of faith we need to be willing to take. Our next step starts this Saturday, when does yours?

Posted by Kurt Johnston

I don’t use the word “genius” very often. My 8th grade son, however, thinks the word is…well….genius, and used it quite liberally.

His most recent use was when we were listening to a song on the radio. After a line in the song that says, “I want to be on the cover of Forbes magazine, smiling next to Oprah and the queen…” he blurted out that the song was genius.

“On the cover of Forbes magazine, smiling next to Oprah AND the queen? That’s genius” were Cole’s exact words.

Genius? probably not. Catchy song? For sure. Of course if you can write a line that 8th graders all across America think is “genius” then maybe it is.

I’m having trouble uploading the video, but here is the link. CAUTION: Foul language in the comments section of video.

Posted by Kurt Johnston

This past Sunday I visited one of our regional campuses to see their youth ministry in action. It’s something I try to find time to do on a semi-regular basis but in reality don’t end up doing as often as I would like, mostly because all three of our regional campuses are lead by incredible youth Pastors who don’t need me looking over their shoulders.

I was reminded of the power of healthy leadership yesterday when visiting our Irvine campus led by Leo Galarza. What I saw Sunday was really encouraging: The ministry recently split JH and HS into two separate groups and each is growing since the split, both bands were led by student leaders, volunteers were EVERYWHERE….teaching, running audio, greeting students, setting up and tearing down.

The whole thing was quite impressive, actually. And it was all because of Leo. but here’s the twist: Leo was nowhere to be found…in fact due to some family issues, Leo has been out of the country for almost THREE months!

Make no mistake, Leo is a strong leader and his presence is greatly missed….but his strength as a leader has been proven NOT by the fact that his presence is missed but by the fact that even though their leader is missed, nothing else about the youth ministry is missing at all!

For you to ponder:

- when you are going to be gone, how much work does it take for you to prepare everybody for your absence? The more you equip and empower others day-to-day, the more easily they can fill gaps left when you are away.

-

Posted by: Heather Flies

Some of us call it junior high ministry… some call it middle school ministry… some have 6-8th grades… some 7-8th grades… in our ministry, we have 7-9th graders. I know, it’s weird, but I love it! I love having students for three full years and I LOVE the depth and maturity my 9th graders bring to our ministry.

As much as I love it, with any three-year program, and I would argue even two year programs, it’s a challenge to keep that “top grade” engaged and fed. Year after year, right around January, I hear statements like this from my top grade students:

–> “The seventh graders are so immature.”

–> “I don’t like the games we do.”

–> “I feel like you’re teaching to the 7th graders, not us.”

–> “I already know all this stuff.”

I’m not kidding, it’s the SAME comments EVERY year. Even though we have a specified doctrinal class (year-long) for ninth graders only– even though I use Greek and Hebrew in my teaching– even though we engage 9th graders in leadership. My initialresponse, if I’m honest, is to be annoyed, personally hurt, or indifferent.

This last year, however, my volunteer staff and I decided to take a different approach.

1) We were proactive: On our 8th grade retreat (just two months before they officially became 9th graders in our ministry), we had a straight forward conversation about the tendencies of 9th graders. We challenged our incoming 9th graders to be different– to sit in the front row, rather than the back. To engage the 7th graders and mentor them rather than ignore them. To understand that we all need to be life-long learners & there is always something they can learn from the teaching.

2) We asked questions: One of the first weeks in January, we asked the 9th graders to stay after for ten minutes following our mid-week program. We acknowledged, right off the bat, that they probably had noticed some differences between them and the 7th graders– they all laughed. We said, “We want to honor you guys as our 9th graders– what are some things we could do that would help you to feel ministered to?” They had some great ideas!

3) We listened AND responded to their ideas: For the remaining months, we chose one week to pull the 9th graders out half way through our mid-week program and go deeper into the topic. During our “Love Spectrum” month for instance, we had 9th grade-only conversations about sexual pressures & temptations– a conversation we would have had to be more conservative about if 7th graders were in the room. We also set up a couple 9th grade duos to coordinate the games for our mid-week program.

4) We created an event just for them: Last week, we held the inaugural “9th Grade Formal Dinner Cruise” on Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota’s finest and largest lakes (we have nearly 14,000 lakes! . We gathered a group of 9th graders a month before the event and asked them to design the night’s program. We marketed it as a 9th grade only event– “You have the opportunity to do something we’ve never done before!” The response was amazing! Girls found after-prom dresses at Macy’s for $23 and guys borrowed jackets and ties from their dads. We met an hour before hand and took great pictures– most same gender, trying to promote the idea of it being a 9th grade event, not a date night. Then, we cruised for three hours, enjoying food, mingling, and the “Red Carpet” theme.

From talking to many middle school ministers, I know this is a challenge for everyone– whether your top grade is 8th or 9th. Much of it is developmental, I believe, but there are things you can do to engage them and honor them. Trust me, it’s worth the time and effort!

Based on an extensive study by Luther Seminary, THE 9 unwraps nine “best practices” of youth ministries that seem to be finding success in their efforts to develop spiritual maturity in their students.

This is the first book I have written (co-authored with my friend, Tim Levert) that isn’t solely focused on junior high ministry. That, combined with the fact that much of the content was dictated by the results of the study, made it an interesting project for me.

If Youth ministry 2.0 is where we used to be, and youth ministry 3.0 is where we may be heading someday, then I think this book is an excellent resource for the current state of youth ministry in the local church.

Check it out here.

Posted By Jared Moine

MAN, I NEED VOLUNTEERS!

For the past couple weeks, I have noticed more and more that my service seems like “The Jared Show.” I preach, I run games, I give the announcements. I would probably also lead the music, if I wasn’t afraid my singing would turn students away from Jesus! I have always known that volunteers were important, I was one for years, but now the importance of adult volunteers is really hitting home for me. I have come into this new position of middle school pastor, and as I’m learning a new church, two things have really hit me about volunteers.

One, you can never have enough. Finding more volunteers and learning more about the ones I already have is going to determine the effectiveness of my youth ministry in the first year. I’ll be the first one to admit that this is hard. I love students; that’s why I’m doing youth ministry, but I need adult volunteers if I hope to have a youth ministry larger than ten. I need caring adults to help make my weekend service run; I need small group leaders to help grow a healthy ministry where students are known. I just need a team that I can rely on and empower to do more than I could ever do on my own. The plan is already in place to recruit more and work is being done to get to know better the adults who have already been serving at my new church. If you’re not in the season of recruiting more leaders I urge you to do it. Its hard and sometimes painful but well worth it because the second thing I have been learning about volunteers is that amazing, Godly adult volunteers are the backbone, hands, feet and really every other body part of a healthy youth ministry. I’m reminded of this point whenever I get to observe one of my volunteers being used by God. Whatever it might be, as volunteers are being used in the areas of their giftedness, God is given the glory. I’m trying to think of ways to better use, encourage, and grow the few volunteers I have and trusting God to multiply my workforce. I need more but I also need to use what I have to the best ability right now. Last week I had my first “design team meeting” where I had some adults and high school students come to the office to help me come up with ideas for our next series. I think it went well and I think they enjoyed being able to speak into to vision for the services. Plus, we had a great time laughing at some of the more ridiculous ideas…like having Alex Ovechkin (hockey player and hometown hero in the DC area) show up to a service just for shock value. I also took a risk and allowed one of my college age volunteers run a game this weekend. He did a great job, and it was nice to NOT be on stage for a few minutes.

If you aren’t recruiting volunteers I would encourage you to do so now, before the fall hits. As summer winds down and the school year starts, this is a great time to ask people to volunteer for your ministry. Promise to support them and do your best to train them, but don’t be afraid to ask them to help. If you have volunteers, spend this last month of summer getting to know them better and helping them to do even better ministry.

I know I need to do both!

Posted by Kurt Johnston

I am so excited to finally be able to announce that the first year of the LIVE small group curriculum for junior high students is all online and ready to roll! As you prepare for a new school year of small groups, I hope you will consider investing in the LIVE curriculum.

It has been a long time since I have been this excited about a new resource…and I can’t wait for our small groups to start using it. Check it out here, I think it may be a good fit for your ministry, too.