Wowzee….there is a lot of cool new stuff in the Simply Youth Ministry world! Here are a few of my favorite:

- Group/SYM’s annual “ReGroup” is small (limited to 100) gathering of youth workers at Group’s headquarters in Loveland, CO. This year promises to be one of the best EVER due to the fact that my good friend, Mark Oestreicher is joining us to lead the majority of the conversation. For details, and to smile at bit at Marko’s perspective on this year’s event, jump over to his blog.

- LIVE Curriculum goes to College! That’s right, the best stinkin’ small group curriculum on the planet is now available for College-age ministries. Good stuff….really good stuff. Check it out!

- SYM has put together a new app called THE YOUTH MINISTRY WIRE where you can access a bunch of blogs from folks in the SYM community. An easy place to access them all at once.

These past 2 weekends, we’ve been welcoming “Brand New 6th Graders” into our ministry… maybe you’ve been doing the same. We move our students up from childrens’ ministry into Jr. High Ministry in June, because it helps them get acclimated to this new rhythm before the stress of school starts in the Fall. A big bonus is that they also get to come to summer camp with us!

A couple years ago, we started snapping individual photos of each new 6th grader on their first day into our ministry… complete with them holding a 8/5 x 11 handwritten “sign” with their name on it. Truth be told they look a little more like mugshots than yearbook photos — but we’re cool with that!

There have been several big payoffs from doing this:

Name Recall! – I’m sure I’m not the only youth pastor who’s been guilty of calling a kid “dude” because I couldn’t remember their name. We print out these photos & use them like flash cards… and I shocked Tomi & Harrison & Noah by remembering their names when they came back for their 2nd weekend last week! (Of course, several other students couldn’t believe I forgot their name too… but hey, I’m disappointing sometimes!)

Growth recognition – Do you know how much the average kid GROWS between the first day of 6th grade, and the last day of 8th grade? Looking back at old 6th grade photos reminds me that they’re not just growing physically…. But emotionally, relationally & spiritually, too.

Blackmail ammunition – When students get older, you can say “don’t do that, or else I’ll show everyone that picture of you from 6th grade!”

Creativity….the thorn in the flesh of almost every youth worker; especially those who work with young teens. So much has been written on the subject, and I’m certainly no expert, but I thought I’d share a few thoughts:

1) All of us are creative. I know this because you used to be 5 and all 5 year olds are creative. Over time, we have been taught how NOT to be creative by the constructs of our society.
2) Creativity in youth ministry is over-rated…we put WAY too much pressure on ourselves to do stuff we (but mostly others) will view as creative, exciting, cutting edge, cool, new, unique, etc.
3) My working definition of creativity: “The willingness to try something different”. If it’s sort of new or different in your setting, then it’s creative!

Here are several ways to practice the art of creativity; or simply to become a bit more comfortable trying something sort of new or different:

- Hang Around Creative People! One of the best ways to be creative, is to let others be creative for you! There are people in your ministry with TONS of new ideas, new perspectives and new ways to do the same old stuff. Surround yourself with a few of these folks.

- Be a “Looker”. We live in a world steeped in creativity. Open your eyes, and look for inspiration. Too often when we need a creative idea or solution to a problem we hole up in an office or coffee shop hoping something magical will pop into our heads.

- Use T.V., Don’t Let It Use You. Watch television….but watch it with a purpose. Some of our most creative minds work in the entertainment business and there is a lot to learn from them.

- Go Surfing. Or do whatever it is that refreshes you and clears your mind. Sometimes “walking away” from the pressure to solve a problem, write a bible study or design a youth group website is the best way to spark the creative juices you are desperate for.

- Find Your Creative Time. For most folks, creativity is tough work….so do it when you’re at your mental peak. For most, trying to thin creatively an hour after eating a massive bowl of Thai food for lunch is bad timing.

- Clean The Slate. Instead of reaching for last year’s summer camp file, start with a blank white board. Teaching another lesson on friendship? Avoid the temptation to make your first move grabbing last year’s lesson on friendship. Use your old stuff as reference points, but try not to automatically depend on them this time around.

- Steal. Seriously. Surf the internet and look at stuff other JH ministries are doing, and steal those ideas. Get to know the youth workers at the other churches in town, and steal from them. If you are using something of theirs outright, ethics would dictate you ask permission, but there’s no crime in seeing or hearing about something another ministry is doing and adapting it for your your own setting.

Question: What are some other ways you have sparked your creative juices?

For the next 40 Hours, you can save 40% on TONS of SYM’s favorite resources. Books, curriculum, games and more! Plus you can get 40 free backgrounds. As summer starts, why not stock up for fall now? Lots of junior high-friendly stuff there, too!

A little while ago, Jonathan McKee sent me a copy of his new resource, Real Conversations, a multi-week video-driven curriculum designed to help students start faith conversations with their friends.

I have to admit, it took me a little while to work up the courage to watch the videos and read through the “training” because I’ve always been extremely leery of evangelism training programs and formulas even though I’m a proponent of helping students develop confidence in this area. Part of my resistance certainly comes from my years of being involved in Evangelism Explosion, a highly popular door-to-door follow-up and evangelism program (back in the early 90′s the church I served at was “all in” with E.E.). And while I found E.E. to be an incredibly simple way to present the gospel (to this day, I still use portions of it every time I share my faith), it felt canned and a little too aggressive in its approach.

So with that as my background, I sat down to watch Jonathan’s “Real Conversations”. Three words: I LOVED IT.

No resource is perfect, and one that attempts to train students to share their faith is bound to hit a nerve here and there…mostly because the topic of evangelism and sharing faith is hotly debated these days. But I applaud Jonathan for tackling a tough, scary and vitally important topic in a way that makes it palatable to skeptics of such training.

Good job, Jonathan!

Question: How realistic is it to train junior highers to share their faith? What strategies have you tried?

Two assumptions I have when it comes to junior high ministry are:
- Relational ministry happens best when good conversation occurs.
- Good conversation happens best when the “window” is open.

First, an admission: I like to talk, but I’m not the greatest at conversing. For a recent example, watch the latest episode of the SYM Show, and you’ll notice that I talk too much, I talk over Jason, I interrupt to get my point across (sorry, Jason…).

As a result, many of my relationships include lots of me talking about stuff I want to talk about when I want to talk about it! So I have been trying to practice the art of what I call identifying the “window of conversation” that everybody has. Let me explain.

Everybody has a time, or times, in their day that their individual window of conversation is more naturally open. For some it’s the morning, for others it’s as the evening is winding down. Some people like to talk in the heat of the moment, some would rather talk after things cool down. Some like to talk in the car, while others like to quietly stare out the window and watch the trees go by.

This is true for the junior highers in your ministry, too! Most youth workers love to talk, and most of us have lots of good stuff to say. But I’ve learned when I try to force conversation when my window is open instead of waiting for when theirs is open, the quality of the conversation suffers.

It takes time to figure out when the “window of conversation” is cracked open (and sometimes a crack is all it is!) for each student in your ministry. But I think you’ll discover that as you begin to figure it out….and wait for their window to be open instead of forcing your way into conversation on your terms, your conversations with students will become more meaningful.

- Tonight, we have our 3rd annual “6th Grade Bridge Event”, which is sort of a 90-minute orientation for parents about what to expect from their kids during the next two years of early adolescence, and for kids about what to expect for the next two years from our JH ministry. Believe it or not, our children’s ministry runs the entire event. They ask us to play roles, but they pay for the advertising, the snacks, etc. I’m continuously shocked at how supportive our children’s ministry is!

- On a scale of 1-10, I’m at about a 7 on my desire to buy a Harley Davidson. I rode a street bike in College, currently ride dirt bikes, and have always been a fan of “putting the breeze to the knees”. But mostly, I think it’s because my father-in-law is an avid Harley Rider and it would be a fantastic way to bond with him a bit more as he enters his golden years.

- I’m on a bit of a teaching hiatus in our junior high ministry, and have really enjoyed the opportunity to visit some of the youth ministries at our regional campuses. We currently have 4 full-time regional youth positions and 2 part-time….and all of them are doing a fantastic job. What has been the most eye-opening is in the way each ministry is simultaneously totally Saddleback, yet totally unique and contextualized! It gives me hope that we might be able to accomplish a similar feat as we move into 12 international cities in the next year.

- I blogged and Instagrammed about the book, “Global Youth Ministry”, and was thrilled to get an encouraging email from the one of the Authors, Terry Linhart. Terry offered some insight, some connections and a willingness to help out as we continue to move forward in our 12-city initiative. I haven’t found time to reach out to him, but Terry’s generous response was a true shot in the arm.

- Plans are moving forward for our first “Worship Together Weekend” in which we will cancel our JH and HS weekend programs so families can attend church together. It is slated to happen on the first full weekend of every month, and so far the response to the idea has been very encouraging. It will be a HUGE learning curve for our students and the culture of our church, but I’m hopeful that it will eventually be seen by everybody as a big step toward a more healthy connection to our church among our teenagers.

In case you are one of the five people who enjoyed the SYM Show before we took a break….it’s back!  Jason Carson joins me as co-host (Jake Rutenbar took a position at a great church in Seattle) and the show has a new 12-minute format that I think you will find as fun and helpful as it is brief. Below is the first episode of the new format.

You can access the SYM Show a few ways:  In iTunes, at show.simplyyouthministry.com, or by subscribing to the SYM TODAY newsletter I write with Josh Griffin.  If you don’t subscribe to SYM TODAY, you should!  Delivered into your inbox each week are three topic-driven articles and the SYM Show (which now ties into the sym today topic of the week).  You can subscribe to the SYM TODAY newsletter right here.

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine who has recently moved “up” from youth ministry to an associate Pastor position. During the conversation he lamented, “I feel like I’m the Junk Drawer Pastor….I’m the guy who does a little bit of everything”.

In that moment I had two simultaneous thoughts:
1) “Gosh, I’d hate to be the Junk Drawer Pastor!”
2) “Wow….every ministry needs a Junk Drawer Pastor!”

In an era where so much of ministry is specialized (youth pastor, children’s pastor, care pastor, small groups pastor, teaching pastor,) it seems like being a gifted “junk drawer pastor” would be a hot commodity! The reason being that many folks on a church team simply don’t want to do the junky, nitty-gritty, stuff anymore. We’ve become specialized wimps!

And this leads me to JH ministry. I think the most valuable people on a JH ministry team and the “junk drawer” team members; those men and women who like variety, don’t mind getting messy and are willing to step up to the plate whenever they need to. I’ve heard these types of people describes numerous ways: “Jack of all trades”, “Utility player”, etc.

….but my new favorite is Junk Drawer Specialist.

Do you have a Junk Drawer Specialist on your junior high ministry team?

I’ve been thinking a little bit lately about some of the well-intentioned cliches we hear in youth ministry. Do we really mean them? What would happen if we really lived them out? Here are three of my favorite:

- People Matter More Than Programs! So why do we spend majority of our time and money creating awesome programs? Why do so few of our churches let us actually show people they matter more than programs?

- Everything Rises And Falls On Leadership! I’ve seen awesome stuff “rise” with poor leadership and I’ve stuff “fall” with great leadership. Certainly the Holy Spirit and the sovereignty of God have something to do with stuff, right?

- Raise The Bar…Students Will Rise To Whatever Level We Expect From Them! Some will. And others will die in a pile of Christian performance anxiety. There are students in your youth group whom the best thing you could do for them is to lower the bar and grant them freedom to doubt, struggle and find their way.

Don’t be afraid to challenge the cliche’s. Remember there are exceptions to every “rule”. Just because somebody coined a catchy phrase, or said something was true in an article, blog post or from the stage doesn’t mean it’s true every time….or any of the time.

Add your favorite church cliche in the comments.