Month: July 2024

5 Ways to Support Your Church’s Student Ministry

Posted on by Leave a comment

While this blog is primarily geared toward those already leading in student ministry, today we want to share a post for those who aren’t currently serving. Maybe you’re considering how you can serve in your church, or maybe you’re not sure where to begin. We want to encourage you to think about creative ways you can care for younger generations, particularly the middle and high school students in your church body.

1. Commit to praying daily.

Prayer may seem “too simple,” but talk to any youth leader and they’ll share just how important it is for their ministry. To know that others in the church body are praying regularly for their students and ministry is so meaningful.

You can pray generally and specifically for the ministry and those involved. An easy way to pray specifically is to ask for prayer requests from youth leaders, and for names of students and leaders for whom you can pray. Commit to praying leading up to and during trips and events. If there is a student ministry email your church sends out, ask if you can subscribe and use the content to help guide your prayers.

This will also help you learn more about your church’s student ministry and the people involved in it. It will also help you learn about the needs of the ministry and might help you find specific ways you can serve.

2. Volunteer if you’re able.

Churches have different requirements and needs for who can serve, and different areas in student ministry where volunteers are needed. There is always the obvious need for small group leaders, but there are other opportunities as well. Talk to whomever leads your church’s student ministry to find out what needs exist and where you might be able to step in.

You may be able to help with set-up and/or tear down as many student events are held in multipurpose spaces. You may be able to host a small group or event at your home, or provide a meal for leaders and/or students. If your church’s student ministry serves snacks or food, you can volunteer to help with serving and clean up. Or if you’re a musician or sound tech and your church has worship for the students, you can volunteer to serve on their worship team.

3. Give what you can.

Perhaps you can’t commit to regularly serving the student ministry in person, or perhaps you want to do more. There are multiple ways people can give to student ministry, beyond just monetary gifts and tithes. Again, speaking with the leader of the student ministry will help uncover specific needs, but a few ideas include donating snacks and drinks, Bibles, pens or other writing utensils, journals, fidgets, or games.

Other youth programs may need furniture or decor to help make their space more inviting and homey. Some may love to have shirts with their logo to give out to students to create a sense of camaraderie and community. Still others may be longing for equipment, like 9 Square or speakers. Look for the unique needs of your church’s student ministry and the ways you may be able to meet them. And again, please check with leadership first before purchasing or dropping things off.

4. Invite others.

As you learn of the needs of your church’s student ministry, invite others within the church body to join in serving. Not only will leadership appreciate the support, students will appreciate the care they receive from invested adults who genuinely love them.

Don’t forget to invite students to the ministry as well. If you meet a new family in your community, don’t be afraid to share about the ministry and invite them to check it out. Connect them with leadership or students who are involved so they can make connections before visiting.

5. Learn.

One of the best ways older generations can help students is by learning about them and their generation. It can be too easy to ignore or write off younger people, which is not what church body life should be about. We are a family and that includes knowing and caring for each other. We should seek to learn so that we can understand and serve younger generations well.

Take time to listen, to read, and to educate yourself on the issues students are dealing with, both specifically and generally. You may not be able to talk to students in your church (though if you can, that is the best place to start), but you can learn from professionals and those working with young people, like the student leaders in your church. Seek to foster understanding and empathy, so that you may care more deeply and love more fully, and allow that to spill over into the ways you pray, serve, and give.

Quick Tip: Preparing Yourself for a Trip

Posted on by Leave a comment

Let’s just pause for a moment and consider how all-encompassing student ministry trips are. If you’re the primary leader you’re in charge of everything. Organizing transportation, collecting and distributing medications, handling first aid, making sure students are following the rules, pouring into leaders, making sure curfew is followed, engaging in discipleship and relational community, tackling tough questions and circumstances, handling administrative tasks, and so much more! These trips can truly take a lot of planning and organization, but they also can take a lot out of you physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.

Trips require our holistic presence and as a result, they can deplete us rapidly. While I don’t yet have a miracle booster to rebound from trips, I can tell you that proper personal planning leading into the trip can do you a world of good that will help you lead and live well, and prayerfully bounce back soon.

1. Rest well before you leave.

This is so important because leading up to a trip it can be all go, go, go. But that can lead to a lack of sleep, more stress, and more anxiousness. If you take the time to rest and sleep well, it will help you lead well on the trip and be able to give everything you need to while you’re serving your students and teams.

2. Be preventative when it comes to illness.

Trips are notorious for sickness. Every youth pastor has a story about their students getting rocked by illness on a trip (ask me about the time norovirus hit our winter retreat), but there are steps we can take to stay healthy. Rest and sleep, hydrate, eat good meals, take preventative medicines like Airborne or EmergenC, and drink things like herbal teas and kombucha to help your body gain natural boosts. Also make sure to wash your hands regularly, especially before eating anything.

3. Have a plan and stick to it.

When it comes to preparing for a trip, it’s important to plan things out so you can reduce any anxiousness in the prep period and ensure that you’re not forgetting anything. Plan when you’ll communicate to your team, plan how and when you’ll communicate with families, plan what to pack, and plan down time for yourself.

While some of this may seem a little excessive, when you create structure and stick to it you are allowing yourself space to breathe and acknowledge you have completed all you need to. This helps to relieve stress and anxiety.

4. Pack your essentials and everything you need to lead well.

There are two types of packing we do as leaders of the trip: packing for the team and packing for ourselves. When it comes to packing for yourself, pack all the things you will need. Think about things like personal snacks, power strips, phone chargers, a camera, medications, ear plugs, clothing, and whatever else you may need.

When it comes to your team, think about not only what your team will need on the trip, but also ways to encourage them and lead well. Things like prayer journals, candy, fidgets, extra Bibles, coffee and tea for leaders, snacks for leaders, Bible studies, sharing the Gospel tips, and whatever else will help you lead, shepherd, and care well for your team.

5. Stay organized and communicative.

This ties into point 3 well, but the more organized and communicative you are, the better the trip will function overall. This isn’t a foolproof way to ensure a perfect trip but it is a way to ensure everyone is up to date and informed. That helps to make sure that plans are followed and understood which helps the trip to function well and for everyone to know what is happening.

Quick Tip: Trip Communication for Parents

Posted on by Leave a comment

We just wrapped up our first out of two summer trips for our student ministry. It was a great time with our students but it also contained multiple calls and communications with families due to the intense heat we were experiencing during camp and the subsequent heat-related illnesses.

That got me thinking about how we communicate with parents before and during trips in order to provide the most effective and clear communication when needed. Here are five tips to help you do this well and keep parents up to date on what is happening.

1. Before the trip, provide information about how to get in contact with you and/or your team. One of the best things you can do is host a parent meeting, send emails, and have a print out of contact info for parents on departure day. These intentional steps will help parents know how to contact you and your team and also get all the pertinent information that they need.

2. Prior to departing, make sure to indicate how and where updates and communication will happen. Letting families know how you will post updates and where they can find them is important as it will help alleviate confusion or questions. Whether it’s via a texting group, social media, emails, or whatever works for your group, make sure that it is clear how and where you will share updates and communications.

3. Provide timely updates and prayer requests. One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that families love to see photos and know what is going on while their students are away on trips. The more photos you share the more engagement you will get from parents, but it will also help to amplify any information you are sharing. Therefore, you can utilize the photos to share prayer requests and updates for parents and there is a greater possibility of them seeing and retaining the information you’re sharing.

4. Share arrival and departure information clearly and multiple times. The more you share clear and concise information about timing for your the trips, the more likely it is people will be on time and know what is happening. When sharing information be sure to make it abundantly clear and simplified which will allow for better understanding.

5. Utilize students and leaders to help with communication when appropriate. When you’re traveling with students and leaders you may have more opportunities to get information out to parents and families. The key to leveraging this aspect effectively is clearly stating what needs to be disseminated outward. That means information is clear, constant, and consistent across all mediums. This resource when utilized correctly can be a big win in helping to share information.

Quick Tip: Connecting with Your Audience

Posted on by Leave a comment

When it comes to public speaking we must recognize that while God has gifted us to connect verbally with others, there is also a craft and skill set that comes with it. Any communicator who has been active for a long period of time knows the benefits of connecting with an audience as this will help in effectively communicating God’s Word to those with whom we are engaging.

As communicators of the Gospel we have an obligation to communicate truth and to help our audience not only understand but also apply that truth to their lives. Being able to connect with our people helps our message take root and grab ahold of their hearts and help to transform their lives.

So what are some effective ways to connect with your audience?

Know who you’re communicating with.

Whether you’re speaking to your youth group, at a retreat or camp, or in a church service, the more you know about your audience the better suited you are to connect with them and connect the Gospel to their lives.

Be personal.

Sometimes speakers just come to speak. And while that may be fine in certain environments, we can look at some of the great communicators throughout history and see that being personal helps to connect with our audiences. This is especially true when communicating with younger generations and new environments as it makes you real and relatable.

Tell stories.

Stories are a great way to connect with your audience because they can help to make truths understandable and provide insight into how to apply them. When you tell stories always be courteous, intentional, and clear in how you tell and the point(s) you trying to make. (Read more on storytelling here.)

Use props.

Let me be clear here: use props intentionally. Don’t use props just to have something on stage with you or if it’s a weak connection to your point. A prop should always be something that intentionally connects to the message and will help the audience remember what you were communicating.

Be yourself.

Don’t try to be a replica of another preacher, communicator, or influencer. Be who God designed you to be and let Him work in and through you as you communicate.

Have fun.

One of the best things you can do when attempting to connect with your audience is to have fun. Smile, laugh, be engage with your material, relate to the audience, and be willing even laugh at yourself. Having fun helps you to relax and helps your audience see you as an authentic communicator who is more than just another talking head.

5 Tips for Conducting a Review

Posted on by Leave a comment

How do you feel about reviews? You may have read the title to this post and thought, “I’ve never had a review before!” Or perhaps your thoughts were more along the lines of, “Reviews suck, and I am always blindsided by them.” Or maybe you thought, “I’ve never given a review before and it’s never been modeled for me.”

Reviews, well, they get mixed reviews (pun intended). Some people love them and others hate them. For some it fills them with dread and for others they long to finally have one. The reality is that reviews in and of themselves are neutral. It’s what we do with them that allow them to be positive or negative, both in how they are executed and in how they are received.

Today’s post is all about helping you think through how to give a productive review to your team member(s). And even if you don’t have a paid staff, you can use these insights to help you proactively walk with, encourage, shape, and disciple your volunteers and even your student leaders.

1. Reviews should never be a surprise nor should the content.

I don’t know how your reviews have gone but I’ve sat in several where something is shared that completely caught me off guard. Sometimes it was positive and sometimes it was negative. But when those moments happen it can often feel surprising, isolating, debilitating, and even make us doubt our calling and career.

Whatever you share should be things, goals, challenges, and feedback of which your teammate is already aware. Reviews aren’t an opportunity to dump some new critique or rebuke but instead an opportunity to facilitate growth, empower your people, highlight achievements, and help them develop their skills and ministry.

2. Review the year and set goals.

Another aspect of giving a review is doing exactly what it says: reviewing the past year or set time frame. When you take time to look back and review the year you can focus in on victories and celebratory moments, and you can highlight areas where growth is needed. It also allows you to think and dream about what the next year will hold, which gives you the structure for setting and implementing goals. Goals are a great way to provide focus, intentionality, and mission to the review and to help your teammate grow and excel in their position.

3. Allow the review to be relational.

I have sat in too many reviews that have felt clinical. It’s felt one sided and as if the reviewer didn’t even know me as an individual or ministry partner. That isn’t how a review should be. Yes, there are aspects of you being the supervisor and the person being reviewed an employee, but that shouldn’t remove the intentional relational component.

You should be a shepherd in your entire role and that includes when you review people. You should still seek to love and care for them, to understand and hear them, and to be for them. When you approach the review from a relational perspective you have helped both sides to flourish.

4. Communicate care and growth.

Part of giving a review is being honest: honest in what they have done well and honest in helping them to see growth areas. This isn’t always easy and it can feel kind of crappy at times, but if you truly care about your teammate you want to help them flourish and grow. So even as you identify growth areas, do it from a position of love and care. Don’t be accusatory or aggressive, instead highlight what you have seen, how you care for them, and a path to flourishing.

5. Pray for them.

This is a big piece that I’ve been incorporating into my reviews over recent years. When a review is relational and personal, seek to care for your teammate in a holistic way. Ask how they are doing, what has gone well for them over the past year in ministry and personally, ask what has been difficult, seek to understand how you can shepherd them better, and then ask how you can pray for them. Inviting them into the process and showing that you love and care about them makes this review much more relational and allows you to truly care for your people.