Posted by Kurt Johnston

Because I spend so much time working at Starbucks (there right now, in fact), I figured it would be sort of silly for me not to read Onward, the new book by their CEO, Howard Shultz. It was fantastic.

The book chronicles Starbucks rise, fall (not really a “fall” but certainly a stumble) and rise through the Lens of Shultz.

Ministry and leadership lessons drip from almost every page. Here are just a few:

- At one point, Shultz reminds the organization that they are NOT a coffee company that serves people, instead they are a people company that serves coffee.

- The root of Starbucks struggles several years ago was their inability to stay true to their founding principles and values.

- Shultz’s intuitive style of leadership is obviously a huge reason for Starbucks success, but he is quick to admit that it has caused problems along the way.

While I think the book was about 25% too long, and people who aren’t super business savvy will loose interest at numerous points (at least that was my experience….a little too much talk about wall street, reports to shareholders, etc.), If you serve in a youth ministry setting, I couldn’t recommend this book more highly.

If you are THE leader of your ministry: Learn a ton from Shultz’s journey.

If you are a team member, volunteer, etc.: There are numerous examples of people
“leading from the middle” to influence the organization and effect change.

Posted by Scott Rubin

Last Friday our jr. high ministry hosted a party for all our regular-attending students… and their friends. It was called “Pineapple Mayhem”, and even though we only had a few pineapples, we had plenty of mayhem! I got to meet tons of new students (there were more than twice as many kids here as we usually have – another post on that later?) and the Chicago Bulls mascot rode his mini-bike around our church lobby like a maniac. It was a blast.

So last Friday afternoon as our team was setting up everything all across the church, our Sr. Pastor comes a visiting. He wanted to hear more about what the night would look like, see the stuff we had planned, and pray for us. He’s got a super-full schedule, so to see him take almost half an hour out of his afternoon showed me that he was really supportive of our event. (or… that he was really worried that we might destroy the church? ☺ )

But he did communicate one value really clearly, without even mentioning it out loud.

As we walked around the church looking at our set-up, he noticed a gum wrapper on the floor. (It wasn’t from our students, as they weren’t there yet… probably someone from that rowdy women’s Bible study group or something.) He didn’t say anything about it, just bent down & scooped it up, tossed it into a trash [...]

Continue Reading “Teaching without Words”

Posted by Kurt Johnston

As I type this, I am sitting in Chicago Ohare airport about to miss a speaking engagement for the first time in my life. The day started by hitting the road at 4:00 am to catch a flight that was delayed twice resulting in a missed connection. Then the Chicago skies opened up and started dumping rain resulting in my flights being cancelled. Even though it is “an act of God” and there’s nothing I can do about it, I feel TERRIBLE.

But this negative “first time” experience has me thinking about all the incredible “first times” I have experienced over the years in JH ministry.

- The first time I took a group of students to the beach. By “group”, I mean two 8th grade guys, and on the way to the beach, my car suffered two flat tires. Years later, when I see Joe and Chad, we still share the fond memory.

- The first time I went to a weeklong summer camp as the person ultimately in charge. I felt like I was in SO over my head. And I was. But God showed up, like He has a way of doing.

- The first time I taught about sex and dating. I wasn’t even married, had never had sex, and felt like I needed the lesson more than they did!

The list of “first time” ministry memories could go on and on. I’m sad today that I am experiencing my [...]

Continue Reading “There’s A First Time For Everything”

Posted by Scott Rubin

Our whole church is in the middle of a compassion-focused series, and our middle school ministry is teaching similar subject matter to big church. The series is called Celebration of Hope, we’re teaching on global poverty and compassion & justice in our world. Last week our students got a chance to pack millions of seeds that will be shipped to Zimbabwe to relieve hunger in some parts there… very exciting stuff.

One of the cool parts of the series, though, is a “5 day food challenge”. The goal is to eat in a similar manner to how half the world’s population eats: on less than $2 a day. It’s SUPER challenging… and by day 4 I was as hungry as I remember being in a long, long time. It absolutely made me think about hunger in a whole new way… even though it’s the 3rd year I’ve done this challenge! http://coh.willowcreek.org/we-stand/

So we presented this challenge to our middle school students, too. Of course we told them to talk it over with their parents, and gave parents a bunch of tips & guidelines as to how they could help make it a meaningful experience for their kid. Sure, I knew that some of our students would give it a shot… while others wouldn’t even try it. (We’re a comfort-society, right?) I was even trying to figure out the best [...]

Continue Reading “Do you ever Under-Expect what Jr. Highers can do? (um… I do.)”

Posted by Scott Rubin

This morning on the way to work, I see two cars coming from different directions converge on a designated meeting spot. A middle school kid hops out of one car and jumps into the other. Going from Mom’s care, to Dad’s care, or vice versa. I’ve seen it happen before with this particular family, and it gets me thinking every time.

- What’s it like to be in junior high and have 2 different households?
- What goes through your mind as you leave one parent, and reengage with the other?
- How does starting your day that way effect how your middle school day goes?

Here’s what I DO know… every time we talk about divorce from the stage in our ministry, the room gets very, very quiet.

Posted by Kurt Johnston

The title of this post is also the title of a new category. Whenever Scott, myself or another author wants to post something that has nothing (or very little) to do with junior high ministry, we will title it, “This has nothing to do with junior high ministry, but…”. This way you can quickly decide if you want to read any further!

This has nothing to do with junior high ministry, but today I heard a very interesting statement: “Academics talking about real ministry is like fish talking about
bicycles”.

Strong. Loaded. Biased. Yes.
Somewhat true. Profound. Painfully accurate. Maybe.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Posted by Scott Rubin

Just a warning… I’m feeling pretty sad as I type this.
But it’s also affecting the way I think about junior high ministry this week.

When I was in middle school, there were only 3 kids in my Sunday School class.
I guess there were a few other kids who showed up from time to time… but there were only 3 of us whose families insisted that we be there every week. (The honest truth is that I didn’t want to be there most of the time. When I was in middle school, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what “being a Christian” was. To me, church just seemed boring & disconnected from real life. I probably “looked like” I understood Christianity – but I didn’t.

Jill was one of the other 2 kids in that class. We were friends, as much as a middle school boy & girl can be friends. Her parents & my parents were really tight. So sometimes we ended up hanging out with each other trying to pass time while our parents chatted on & on in the Fellowship Hall on Sunday afternoons. Then, when we were 15, I remember Jill getting diagnosed with cancer. It was real serious for a while. And I remember being mad at God. I wasn’t following Jesus yet, but I sure remember telling God that it wasn’t fair. After a lot of treatment, Jill [...]

Continue Reading “They Won’t Stay in Middle School Forever”

Posted by Kurt Johnston

This weekend, our junior high ministry did something we try to about once a month: We forced ourselves out of our typical weekend rut. I think the weekend church experience we provide for junior highers is a great one, but because it works and because we have it dialed in, it would be very easy to get into a “good rut”.

So church this weekend was way different. It was on one hand much more relational (we sat around tables, had lots of discussion questions, etc.) and on the other hand much more serious in tone (we worked through the last few days of Jesus’ life). The weekend was FANTASTIC, not because what we did was so much better than what we normally do, but because it was different….we didn’t do what we normally do.

Ruts are bad….even good ruts…so there really are no good ruts. When really good stuff becomes predictable, formulaic, etc. it begins to lose effectiveness, and thus a bunch of really good stuff can slowly become a rut.

Here are a few ways to become a RUT BUSTER:

- Always leave them wanting more, quit while you’re ahead, etc. It is super tempting to play the groups favorite game over and over and over again. But if you do, their favorite game will quickly become the one they are sick of. It’s easy to lock onto a certain type of humor that your students respond to….but don’t overdo it. When [...]

Continue Reading “No Good Ruts”

Posted by Scott Rubin

I went to a middle school track meet yesterday. If you’ve ever seen such a thing, you’re probably already smiling a little. One of the cool things about middle school is that you can “try out” different sports, activities, interests … and see if you’re good at it. Let’s just say that there’s a chance that there might not have been any future track Olympians at the meet I went to yesterday! But if you’ve ever been to a junior high “event”, (whether it was a musical or basketball game or volleyball match or musical basketball game) you know that you don’t show up primarily to be wowed by the skills of the students. Still, there are some great reasons to carve time to show up & see a kid in activities like these.

1- You’re reminding them that they really do matter! Glance around the bleachers at events like these. Who shows up? A few friends, a few parents… that’s pretty much all. But the people who show up to see a middle school athlete or performer are primarily there to send the message that they really care about the person they came to watch.

2- You get to see more of a jr. higher’s “natural habitiat”. The atmosphere of your church is probably far different from the atmosphere of the local middle school. Take a look around and notice all the dynamics going on. [...]

Continue Reading “The Benefits of Showing Up : On Their Turf!”

Posted by Kurt Johnston

1. Say Yes When They Ask For Your Help. We have all been taught that a key to time management is learning how to say NO. However, I think that when it comes to serving our volunteers we need to say YES whenever we can. Recently, one of our junior high small group leaders was taking his group of 7th grade guys on a little field trip to In N Out Burger and needed an extra driver. He probably could have called a parent to help, but he called me. I took the opportunity to say YES to his request. It was an easy thing to do, and I was actually fairly surprised at how meaningful it was to the leader.

2. Give Them Permission To Take A Break. Thank God for faithful volunteers! But sometimes your most faithful teammates are on the brink of burn out because they feel like the ministry can’t afford for them to take a week or two off, to skip an activity etc. Have a personal conversation with some of your most dedicated volunteers and ask them….no, TELL them….that you want them to take a week off every now and then.

3. Don’t Just Give Them A Break, Pay For It! In addition to giving them freedom to take a week off, give them a couple movie passes or a Starbucks card. Encourage them to actually use the gift during the [...]

Continue Reading “5 Easy Ways To Encourage Your Volunteers”