curriculum | Ministry Blackboard

1May/130

UthMin Lunch with the Big 3

On Friday last week during the Orange '13 Conference in Atlanta, UthMin.net hosted a lunch where "the Big 3" (as I like to call them) sat down and discussed Middle School Ministry with about 80 lucky golden ticket winners.

Here are some of the notes I took during that gathering.

What is going well in your Ministry?

Tom Shefchunas (Northpoint guy) - Camps are going really well... Camp t-shirts are a huge win for kids to get going
Scott Rubin (Willow Creek guy) - Raised the bar on leaders and supporting them better. Meeting 30 min early before a meeting is a great leader moment time to prepare them for the night
Kurt Johnston (Saddleback Guy) - de-siloing the youth ministry...begin to help them feel more apart of the larger congregation...1 weekend a month they have "worship together" weekends.

What are some tangible ways to value leaders:

Each of them agreed that "tangible" is different per church. What is tangible to you is not tangible to another church. That means that you have to know your leaders and what they need.
Connect them to relationships...to you and to others
You have to understand your leaders and help them feel appreciated and valued
During camp, provide a leader room where they can veg and recoup
Give them responsibility that only they can do

How do you Recruit Middle School Volunteers

Talk to Children's Minister and see if there are some who are willing to move up for the long term health of student...that way relationships long longer and people can continue to build into them.
Ask middle school students to recruit adults to serve them It's better to have bigger groups than bad leaders

I wish we had more time to discuss this but the question came up of how can we be better about Integrating Special Needs students. Bottom line was that they all agreed that we need to accept them and find ways to get adults plugged in with them. One suggestion was to get help from adults who work with special needs students in other environments to get them more engaged in the church (both the volunteer and the student).

To keep up to date on UthMin.net follow them on Twitter or the Facebook.

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Tagged as: conferences, curriculum, families, family, middle school, ministry, orange, orange 2013, rethink, saddleback community church, Students, tween, uthmin, willow creek, youth No Comments

29Apr/130

the Monday Morning Debrief: Processing OC ’13

I have to say that Orange '13 Conference was one of the best conferences I have ever been to. Why? Simply put, it was because I was more intentional than ever in my seminars and connections than I have ever been. I didn't just choose workshops based on the speaker, but on the topic. And I benefitted tremendously because of it.

While I'm still processing so much from the conference, here are a few things I'm taking away from it:

Networking matters and is helpful...great connections. I had a great time talking to other KidMin, StuMin and FamMin leaders and picking their brain. In years past I have had very superficial conversations. This time, I was more honest and inquisitive of how they do ministry. I love the conversations I had.
Make sure you clarify the win with your volunteers so they feel successful and you gain momentum with your leadership team. For each ministry the "win" will look different, but there should be a win. For more notes on this, click here.
We need to rethink how we share "history" with students. Focus them more on Jesus than anything else and lead them into the great story of Him. It all centers around our approach. To read more on Andy Stanley's message, click here.
Our legacy is not to be famous with many people (i.e. speakers, writers, etc)...Your legacy is going to be with the people you are with right now. Invest with the people close to you. To read more from Reggie Joiner's message, click here.
It was great to hear Doug Fields sit down and talk to Reggie about why Student Ministry needs to be a priority within the Church and what that can do for the church currently and the future. Click here for the notes.
As I work on creating a small group format with our group, Sue Miller's seminar on Leading Small was very helpful.
Tweens are area that I really want to be more aggressive about in reaching. That is why Dan Scott's seminar on reaching Tweens was very insightful and encouraging with understanding and ministering to them.

What about you? What are some things you learned and/or still processing through from Orange '13? Share them so that we can all learn from each other and benefit.

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Tagged as: andy stanley, conferences, curriculum, doug fields, families, family, Leadership, leading small, ministry, orange, orange 2013, reggie joiner, rethink, small groups, Students, sue miller, tweens, volunteers, youth No Comments

27Apr/130

Orange ’13: 2nd Friday Morning General Session Notes

Adam Duckworth shared on Tribes.

They saw a Parent (leader of home) and the Small Group leader (leader of Church group) that if they are leading the student/child, they need to meet.

Parents and Small Group leaders need to get to know each other so they can be working together. It raises the odds of success for the child/teen.

Heather Zempel also shared on Tribes.

Moses was the 1^st small group leader…leading people who complained and didn’t follow directions…sound familiar?

Jesus was a small group leader. 12 close people yet at the time of trial, 1 betrayed him and the other scattered.

Community is messy and always will be.

Small Groups are great, then people show up. They bring their hurts and habits to the table…community is messy. There are lots of messy issues we have to deal with.

Mess can be a catalyst to growth.

Ben Crawshaw also shared on Tribes.

He felt that everything rested on his shoulders as a student minister. Then, 2 things happened. 1. Walk in the freedom of the holy spirit. 2. He began to see that tribes really matter

Our ministry needs to be built around multiple leaders.

You platform isn’t the stage, it’s the circle. Give the credit away. Spend more time with your leaders.

When you plan and create, think, “does this build that” connection…not on 1 person, but on people.

If tribes really matter, then your ministry needs to be built on multiple leaders.

Doug Fields was then interviewed by Reggie.

You have a different kind of a relationship with the people when you stay at a ministry for a long time….Doug spent 20 years at Saddleback.

Doug had a treadmill mentality in ministry. Now, he has slowed down. He felt that sometimes he was building “my” kingdom to now trying to build God’s kingdom.

He sees Jesus and time differently. He lives at a different pace now.

Why is Student Ministry a priority in Churches?

The potential it has to impact the un-churched. If you care for someone’s kid, they will love you. It draws parents in.
It establishes a quality of adult leaders who is integral to the church. Youth group spawns good kids when they have adults who are investing in them.
It puts pressure on the rest of the church to stay culturally relevant. If we want to keep the younger generation of the church, we have to address them and keep them engaged.
It keeps relationships as the focus.
It develops leaders and talent the church needs now and the future. If we get them serving as young people, they stick in their faith longer.

Young people are attracted to Jesus, not Christians or the Church. We connect them to walk with Jesus. We need to create environments for them to do this.

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27Apr/130

Orange ’13: 1st Friday Morning General Session Notes

Bob Goff spoke at the 1^st morning session. He has a book called, “Love Does”.

People who follow Jesus leak Jesus (similar to walking with wet feet…wet feet leave footprints, leaking Jesus leaves footprints). You were made to leak Jesus.

Christ wants you to be you! We are afraid that if we leak Jesus as we were made to be, people will not respond.

Some of us are posers. We are just faking it. We are afraid to be who God made us to be.

Every time we do an act of kindness or share love, you answer the question, “I wonder if it is true”.

1 John 3:16 - "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."

Paul says for us to live a life worthy of a calling you have received.

We are called to love the hurting.

What if we are the ones that lift people up? You won’t have to say you are praying for them, they will know it when you care for them.

Bring your “A” game to Jesus and your community as you lift people up.

Expect terrific things to happen, we are children of a King!

What if we are picky about what we say to each other? What if we greet people from now on with, “its good to see you”?

We are the aroma of Christ. Don’t put a Bible verse about it, be it! That is who you are.

If you want to know who you are, fix your eyes on Jesus. Let’s keep our eyes fixed on Jesus!

After worship, Kara Powell was then interviewed by Reggie.

Youth Group graduates tend to view the gospel as 2 list of behaviors. 1^st is a list of things they have to do…the 2^nd list (longer list) is the list of don’t and cant's.

When we do that, we offer a gospel of sin management. No wonder why they aren’t sticking with this gospel.

FYI is trying to help reclaim the gospel. We are created Good. God loves us. Guilt separates us. By God’s Grace, God sent Jesus. We serve and obey because we are so full of Gratitude.

Jesus is bigger than any mistake. If Jesus can’t handle kids partying, then we need a new Jesus. He is so much bigger than all of that.

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25Apr/130

Orange ’13: “Casting the Vision Daily to Keep Everyone Aligned” Notes

Carey Nieuwhof led this time.

You can dream dreams and navigate change but if you don’t have alignment in the church, it will be all derailed.

Alignment isn’t Automatic

In a perfect world, alignment is automatic
A leader never has to work at getting a team unaligned. It naturally happens
Organizations naturally go towards complexity, inner competition and confusion
Over time, minor misalignments become major gaps and, as a result, the common mission is lost

Just because you start together doesn’t mean you end up together

How does Misalignment happen?

1. Misalignment rarely happens in a church on a mission or vision level

2. Misalignment almost always happens on a strategy level

3. In particular, strategically unaligned programs become divisive because what you’re involved in becomes the mission.

what helps is that we are only going to do the things that support the mission.

4. Leaders forget to talk about why we do what we do.

Why unites
What and how divides

Your best friend as a leader is the “why”

5 Ways to build and keep alignment

1. Take personal ownership of the Strategy as a leader by:

Gain clarity around that strategy
eliminating all competing programming (do less for more)
create a common language

2. Empower people who are already on board

we all have an existing church and a future church. Some are already on your team and some are not. Look for like minded who leads with a proven track record (what they have done in the past, they will likely do in the future)
focus on strategic alignment, not just mission alignment
use financial records if necessary
prioritized the “who” of team reduces friction and speeds alignment as you discuss the “what” of ministry

3. Build Trust

trust is easiest relationally when people are aligned missionally
there is a direct relationship between speed and trust

4. Eliminate Alignment Killers

unclear wins. It turns you into people pleasers
ministry clutter
infrequent communications (never assume they know)
infrequent relational deposits. Hare to stay aligned when you don’t talk
infrequent follow through

5. Stick to your strategy long enough to see it work

people who change the world don’t change ministries every 5 years
people aren’t used to alignment
people aren’t used to clarity
people are used to getting their own way

Ultimately people gravitate to a clear and compelling mission, vision and strategy

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25Apr/130

Orange ’13: “Clarify the Win: Narrowing Down What is Most Important in Your Ministry” Notes

Jonathan Cliff lead this seminar.

Jonathan started off the seminar by recommending "Seven Practices for Highly Effective Ministry" by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner and Lane Jones.

Clarifying the win is developing a strategy for very aspect of the mission statement.

When a win is unclear, you force those who want to follow to guess what a win looks like. You also enable those who want to lead to define winning in their own terms. You also risk the havoc that misalignment can cause on the team.

When you clarify the win, you have real alignment with all areas going in the same direction. You also know where to spend the money.

When you win, it becomes contagious.

How does this happen?

4 Ways to clarify the win:

Sum up the win in a simple phrase (EXAMPLE: Mission - We believe life change happens best in the context of small groups…the win is meaningful conversations in small groups)
Keep it as specific as possible. You know you win when you get there.
Build ways to restate the win in all our areas
Continue to clarify the win at every level

When all is said and done, what is it that we want to look back on and celebrate?

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25Apr/130

Orange ’13: Thursday Morning General Session Notes

Today's theme is "Words"

Ken Koleman was interviewed by Reggie Joiner

We are teaching kids to answer questions. We should be teaching them to ask questions.
the most successful people are still asking questions
sometimes we can focus so much of what is next that we miss what's in the now
Andy Stanley keeps asking, "Why am I doing what I'm doing"
Always be asking questions

After worship, Andy Stanley then shared the main message at the morning session.

Rethink how you talk about scripture to children and youth. This is a challenge of approach.

Rethink he way you talk about scripture because we are not the majority and we do not have authority over everyone.

1. Your approach determines people's response to what we have to say

like with your different children, you have to approach each them differently
same is true of teaching

2. We must adapt out approach depending on who our audience is

1 Corinthians 9:19-23...change your approach to reach other types of people. Paul adapted and changed his approach depending on who he was talking to in hopes to win some for the sake of the gospel
Paul was out to win some...the approach changes but the goal stays the same

3. You inherited an approach that assumed a consensus about scripture

You do not believe what you believe because the bible says so.

7 guidelines for sharing to our children and youth

1. Choose a passage of scripture and stay there

instead of calling it a bible story, what if we say it is "history"
make it interesting, bring your energy to the scripture (not just the illustration) & practical

2. Give people permission not to believe or obey scripture

people don't believe...when you do this they will be more interested to explore
1 Corinthians 512-13 - none of our business to judge others outside the church
when you give them an out, they respond by diving in ("just try it")
the attraction of the church is everyone doing one another to one another to one another...who doesn't want to be apart of that? Look how they live one another

3. Teach in a manner that emphasize the identity of Jesus over the authority of scripture

they believed he was the son of God because he rose from the dead
you are not Christian because of the Bible
the foundation of our faith is not the Bible, it's "history" of Christ's resurrection!
we have to talk in a way that ties everything back to who was Jesus
the foundation of our faith is based on the resurrection, not the infallibility of scripture

4. Don't refer to the Bible as a book

it's way better than the book
we don't need to say God wrote the Bible...over 40 different people wrote it inspired by God

5. Cite authors not the Bible

"today we are going to look at what James wrote..." "Paul writes..."
it's just a change in approach...not changing what we know
tie the author back to history and who that person was
We should not expect rational to believe Jesus rose from the dead because the Bible says so
Jesus rose from the dead because people actually experienced it and wrote about it. They actually saw a dead man walking. Real people saw it and we're willing to die for it
don't say "biblical marriage"...say "christian marriage"...how many great marriages are in the Bible...I submit to _____ is because of what Christ did for me and what Christ called me to. Don't change what you believe only your approach

6. Acknowledge the odd as odd

there are some odd things in the Bible. It's ok to say its odd
you believe the Old Testament is true because Jesus believed it to be true
leverage what Christ did as the reason for what you believe

7. Don't create the impression that you must choose between faith and science

science is the search for natural explanations. We need science in life!
when you take your child to the Dr., you pray and also hope a Dr. has a natural understanding of how things work so your child can be healed

Acts 15:19 - "It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God."

Lets not make it difficult for our children to stay firm in their faith, not because of the Bible but because of an event that changed history!

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25Apr/130

Orange ’13: “Managing Volunteers so They Thrive” Notes

Sue Miller lead this time.

How do we get leaders from "having" to follow us to "wanting" to follow us?

What do we need when managing volunteers is a clear game plan implemented over time so that volunteers will thrive.

1. Plan the Plan; work the Plan

Sometimes we are great at planning but not so good at working it.
We have to figure out how serving with you benefits the leader. We need to help them see the benefit of their time. Build relationships with them.
Do the Process of recruiting them well. Communicate regularly and make it a priority.
Pay attention to how they are wired. Place them were they excel.

2. Task vs. Family

Task ALWAYS gets trumped by family.
Leaders need a sense of belonging.
Community is essential.
Decide to value, respect, include and appreciate each volunteer. YOU are their biggest cheerleader!
Resolve conflict. Be available.

3. Make it a Faith adventure

Keep improving things to accomplish the mission.
Manage change well. Inform and communicate. Keep them informed always!
Tell lots of God stories. Life up your volunteers

4. Who is next, what's next

How are you replacing yourself?
Empowering others leads to more owners

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24Apr/130

Orange ’13 Preconference: “Off the Couch! Developing a Student Leadership Culture” Notes

This seminar was led by Jamey Dickens who is the Director of High School Ministry at Buckhead Church in Atlanta, GA.

This generation thinks that Church is about getting something. That isn't just because of "this generation". It is also because of leadership. How do we get them from "church is about getting something" to "church is about being something"?

1. Lead with Vision. Students want to be apart of something big and a way to connect.

Make it God-sized. Bigger than what you currently are...bigger that only God can do
Get specific. What exactly does it look like for a student to get off the couch?
Stay on mission.
It has to start with you. You have to believe there is impact to be made.

2. Give Students a role in growing their own faith

Create steps, not just destinations. Focus on attainable goals.
Teach them the basics. Keep it simple, doable (gotta find a way to fit it into their schedules), and effective (they need to see fruit)

3. Connect students with Relationships

They should be walking with someone older. This is NOT a parent or a peer who spends time with them on their turf and really invests in that relationship.
They should be investing in someone younger where they feel connected to someone else and are held to a higher standard.

4. Give students leadership in your Program

Ask students for input (use as a resource, not a sole dictators of what happens in your program)
Get them on stage (if something great or funny happens, get them on social media and tag them...instant celebrity status)
Give them roles *if appropriate*. They can be hosts, worship leaders, game person, testimony giver)

5. Partner with them to reach their schools

Give them something to belong to
Train them in a process they can win at
Celebrate everything

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24Apr/130

Orange ’13 Preconference: “Transitioning to a Lead Small Church” Notes

Sue Miller led this discussion.

Why is Change needed?

What circles need to know about this? The people above you, another Director who could be impacted need to know.
What Positives would happen as a result? Spell it out to others the benefits of this. Show them what it will look like for a student to come to the same safe place for 4 years and what that student will look like.
Practice communicating your Vision. What is the 5 min version? The PowerPoint version? The 15 minute version?

The Big Change

Maybe it doesn’t have to be so Big. Take time and implement it in stages or steps.
Figure out an Implementation plan. When do you start and who (what demographic, age or grade) do you start with?
Think about a team of Leaders that can help you. Then, bring them along with you during the process.
Maintain vision by setting up ongoing Communication. The leaders need to be in the loop on things. Share what you are learning, ask what they are learning and their stories. Over-communication is much better than no communication.

Dealing with the Angry Birds

Listen, Process, and then Stand firm. Processing this with the Angry Birds is important but there will come a time when you have to end the conversation and stand firm.
Some will Leave.
It’s OK to let them Go. We have to trust God to provide

Getting off to a Strong Start.

Volunteers need to know how to do this. So, it’s time for Training. Help them know what it means to lead and process stuff with them. Help them know what a “win” is.
Build into your Coaches. Meet regularly with them. They need to be shepherd by you to shepherd others. Maybe meet 15 minutes before the start of church to meet with them.
Every program should point to Small Groups. It’s important so they need to be pointed towards those relationships that are building into small groups.

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