Tag: help

Quick Tip: Gift Bags for Seniors

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Are you stressing trying to find a gift for your graduating seniors? Have you ever felt the tension that simply gifting a book isn’t enough? Have your gifts seemingly fell flat before?

Believe me, I’ve been there. I’ve always wanted to be intentional with the gifts we give and I never want our graduates to feel like the gift they are given are an afterthought. Over the years we have been able to rethink and refresh our gifts for seniors and we have found that a thoughtful and fun gift bag is the way to go.

Here’s what we do. We purchase them a book; we add in fun candy; and we get little confetti poppers, glow stick bracelets, a couple of different fidgets, multiple cards, and other fun items like graduation capped rubber ducks. Now here’s the thing: no one thing makes this bag special, but all of these items together make this gift remarkable and personal for our students.

When we give them their gift bag it isn’t a simple “here’s your graduation gift,” but an intentional moment of explaining the “why” behind each item. We explain why we got them the book and its purpose. We highlight the different cards in their bags: one is from our ministry, one is from our church staff, and the final one is a letter of commissioning and promise that is on our church letterhead. We talk about the different fun gifts and how graduation is a celebratory moment and deserving of fun.

The purpose of these gift bags is to show the intentionality, relational rapport, care, and commissioning of our seniors. That means that our gift bags change a little each year as each of our senior classes are unique and different. What doesn’t change is the reality that these gift bags are special and help make this a memorable moment for each of our graduates.

I will also say this: making gift bags can and will vary from ministry to ministry. Each ministry’s budget will dictate what can go into these bags but it doesn’t dictate the thought. Dollar stores, Amazon, and personal touches can help make these gifts fun and intentional. So don’t be hindered by your budget; instead embrace it and lean into making the most of it as you take intentional steps with the gift bags.

Ideas for Celebrating Baptisms

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Easter is an amazing time of year for Christians. Your church is probably gearing up for Good Friday and Easter services. In fact, this time of year is probably shaping up to be pretty busy for you and your church. I can relate to the busyness. Our church has extra services and it feels like it’s all hands on deck.

But one of the amazing things we do during the Easter season at our church is celebrate baptisms on Palm Sunday. It’s become a tradition within our church and it is a great opportunity to invite people in our community who don’t usually attend church to join us.

The individuals who get baptized invite their neighbors, friends, and families as they embody the mission that Jesus gave to all of us in Matthew 28. We then are able to invite them back the following week for Easter and connect them further with our church community.

I don’t know about your church experience, but as I was growing up baptisms were not necessarily celebrated. They happened in church services but were fairly muted in how people responded to them.

What I love about our church is that we have shaped our baptisms into a full service that celebrates and highlights what God is doing in the lives of our people. But how do we do that well? How do we elevate and celebrate the Great Commission within our communities?

Make it community-oriented.

One of the things we do is we encourage families, friends, small groups, and others who have been influential in the person’s faith journey to come up with them. They surround the baptismal and are there to show that they are for the individual and love them deeply. It’s an amazing picture of unity and fellowship within the Body of Christ and it is a wonderful encouragement to the person being baptized.

Create a unique service.

I know this takes more time and potentially more people depending on your church size. But what if the Spirit of God moves and 20 people (or more) want to get baptized? That happened to us and we had to radically alter the service. Our senior pastor was the one who stated, “It’s not that we aren’t having a sermon, it’s that we are having multiple sermons with practical application.”

Simply put: the testimonies are the sermon. It may mean shifting songs and service order. It may mean calling an audible and not having certain elements. But by creating a unique setting and elevating what God is doing, you are making the ordinance of baptism special for the people being baptized and your church overall.

Have a time of celebration.

This could be cookies and lemonade after the service. It could be a photo booth and balloons. Or perhaps it’s a church potluck or BBQ. Whatever way you choose, crafting a time of celebration helps your people see that baptism isn’t just a moment but is an opportunity to continue engaging with one another and sharing the Good News with others.

Have a gift ready.

I get it. Money is tight, and we are feeling it in our budgets. I’m not advocating for anything lavish or over the top. This could be as simple as a handwritten card. Perhaps you’re able to put a small gift card in with it. Maybe you can actually put together a small gift bag with a devotional. Whatever you’re able to do will make this day even more special and memorable for the people getting baptized.

Follow up.

After a couple of days, and when appropriate, ask the person out for coffee or lunch to catch up and see how they are doing. Ask questions about what they remember from their baptism. Ask them who they have shared their story with. See how you can continue to help them on their faith journey.

These moments of intentional follow-up highlight that the church and you care for these individuals and want to help them grow in their relationship with Jesus.

How do you celebrate baptisms in your church?

Quick Tip: Be Flexible

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Have you ever had to call an audible during programming? Have things ever not gone according to plan? Has life changed how things were going to go on a Sunday morning?

One of the things we train our volunteers and students (especially those going on summer trips) on is being flexible. Life happens. Schedules change and evolve. Things don’t go according to plan.

But what about for you? What I’ve come to realize about myself is that I can preach flexibility until I’m blue in the face but practicing it personally is difficult for me. If I build out a schedule for youth group, I want to follow it. If there’s a plan, I want to make sure we see it through to completion.

But what about when our people need us? What about the student who shows up to youth group hurting and needs more than a quick chat to navigate a difficult circumstance? Or when things don’t go according to plan because of a power outage, computer crash, or another unforeseen circumstance?

I’m not advocating for not having a plan, but instead to hold things loosely. Be available when someone needs you even if that means changes to programming. Sit with people longer even if it means not being a part of the normal activities.

Allow for there to be a contingency if things don’t go as planned. And remember that we are simply vessels that Christ uses to accomplish His plan. It doesn’t start or end with us, we are simply along for the ride.

Step back and allow the Spirit to be at work and hold everything with open hands knowing that God’s plan is greater than ours. Allow Him to use you and be flexible with the changes, shifts, and unknowns that can and will come up in ministry.

Resource: FYI Report on Youth Leader Burnout & Wellbeing

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I love getting resources whether they are digital or physical. I’m the guy who is always signing up to get newsletters, promotional materials, and always looking for a free t-shirt or hat. But aside from the random freebies and additions to my closet, I’m also on the lookout for resources that help me grow as a youth pastor, an individual, and as a disciple of Jesus.

One of the resources I recently obtained had to do with the holistic health of student pastors, put out by the Fuller Youth Institute. Back in the days of the Youth Specialities annual conference, I signed up to receive their emails and digital resources, and I can honestly say I’ve never been disappointed with what they send.

This last week I had an email from FYI pop into my inbox with this title: “🚨 ALERT: High burnout month ahead!” I’ll be honest, the title immediately grabbed my attention and upon reading it I saw that it contained an amazing free resource. The “FYI Report on Youth Leader Burnout & Wellbeing” is available as a free download at this link. You will need to enter your name and email info, but I can promise you that it is totally worth it.

Right on the sign up page for the free download, Fuller Youth Institute gives you a brief preview of what’s in their report. It includes “the latest research on the experiences of today’s youth leaders, firsthand insight and stories, tips for developing strategies, and practical recommendations.” What I can tell you is if you thought that sounds good, the report is a hundred times better.

Fuller’s report is constructed in an easy-to-read way, filled with stats and solid research, punctuated by real life experiences from many different youth leaders, investigative in its approach, and encouraging and challenging in its challenge to youth leaders, churches, and church staff. At the end of the day this report is encouraging because while it focuses on the realities of burnout amongst youth workers, it doesn’t claim that as the end result.

Instead, it highlights how we can overcome and avoid that result so we can thrive in our roles. The encouragement to pastors and church leaders is also beneficial as it provides them with thoughtful and practical ways to come alongside youth workers as they walk with them and encourage them.

All in all, this is an amazing resource to read through and be aware of. The end game may still be a struggle, especially if you don’t have support in your role. But this report helps you to see you aren’t alone and provides solid responses to help you thrive in your position.

It also equips you with resources to highlight the necessity of partnership within the church that may help others come alongside of you. I just wouldn’t recommend passive aggressively placing this in your senior pastor’s mailbox. Instead, consider sharing it with them over coffee or lunch, or doing the same with an elder or two. The more relationally intentional you are in sharing this with leadership, the greater the potential they will listen and respond.

So what are you waiting for? Go download this report now!

7 Reasons to Conduct Mission Trip Interviews

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It’s been a very busy couple of weeks for my team and me. We recently launched applications for our summer mission trips and now we are conducting interviews. That means a lot more hours added into our weekly schedules to be able to intentionally meet with each applicant before we confirm they are on the team.

I know some of you may read this and go, “You do applications and interviews for a mission trip?! That’s intense and a lot of extra work!” Believe me I hear you on that. It does add a little more weightiness to applying for the trip and it does add more to our schedules. But there very clear wins and benefits to requiring an application and interview.

1. It helps us know our team better.

This is a big one for me because of the size of our youth group. I don’t know all of my students as well as I wish I could, so these moments help me to get to know them on a deeper level.

Regardless of the size of youth group, interview and application questions help you understand more about your students, their faith journeys, their strengths and weaknesses, and their reasons for joining the team.

2. It provides insight into how we structure our training.

When you get to know your team better it allows you to shape how your training looks. If you know your team needs to be equipped in better interpersonal skills, you can incorporate team building moments that focus on communicating and relationship building. If your team needs to understand more about sharing their faith or ministering in a different environment, you can focus in on equipping them.

These interviews allow you to better understand your team and shape the training to make this trip the most beneficial for them.

3. It generates buy-in.

Having an application and/or interview process generates buy-in because it requires effort and intentionality on the part of the applicant. The process doesn’t need to be crazy long but it should require thoughtful and intentional responses and highlight the importance of the trip. These moments help to ensure your team has the right reasons for going and that they understand what is expected of them.

4. It humanizes the process.

Sometimes just going through a sign-up process or application can feel clinical. But when you add in a face-to-face interview it allows you to put the process on a more personal level and gives you the opportunity to be intentional with your students.

I have found that on applications and in interviews students are incredibly honest about themselves. That affords us the opportunity to truly care for and walking alongside our students in highly relational and intentional ways throughout the trip and beyond.

5. It allows us to see strengths and pressure points.

Part of my rationale in conducting interviews is it allows me to get to know my team better and it highlights pressure points and strengths that each member brings to the table. In understanding that, I am able to see potential opportunities and flare ups that may come up during the training and/or the trip itself. This helps me to both prepare and engage with those responses in proactive ways rather than having to be reactive in the moment.

6. It helps us prepare for interpersonal relationships and conflicts.

This is similar to the previous point, but it takes it a step further and looks specifically at the relational moments that will occur. If you’ve ever gone on a trip with students or witnessed them interact at youth group, you know that there are moments where there is tension, differing personalities, and conflicts.

Now put those components into the context of a mission trip. Emotions are heightened, spiritual growth is happening in rapid succession, students are confronted with their own humanity and necessity for God, lack of sleep, new environments, and all the feels and it can seem like a powder keg is about to blow up. But when you conduct interviews it enables you to see where those potential flare ups may be and therefore allows you to prepare and/or circumvent them beforehand.

7. It helps us as leaders prepare for the trip.

Mission trip interviews take a long time and add a lot more to my schedule. But hear me out on this: while it makes a few weeks busier for me, it actually makes the trips easier. Why? Because I am better prepared.

I know my team. I know more about what needs to be done to equip the team. I have a better understanding of what the dynamics will be during the trip. I have insight into each person and how to care well for them. All of these things empower me to be a better leader and to be more equipped to lead my team well.

Have you done trip interviews before? What’s your go-to question?

Quick Tip: Giving Students Ownership

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We are preparing for a special immersive experience the week before Easter for our student ministry. Our church creates a walkthrough Easter Experience that leads people through a wonderful interactive engagement with the story of Easter and the profound truths of the Gospel.

We have tried a few times to provide opportunities for our students to walk through the experience, but they haven’t worked out for a variety of reasons. This year we think we have it figured out: we are creating interactive stations and opportunities for our students to engage with what they learned alongside of their small groups.

One of the elements we are seeking to incorporate into this evening is a time of musical worship. But here’s the problem: my staff team isn’t equipped or gifted in leading worship. So we were faced with a conundrum: who will lead this?

Our worship teams are extremely busy with Easter, so we couldn’t ask them. Most people we talked to were busy that week. Then it hit us; we have students who are gifted musicians, so why not give them the opportunity? We talked to a handful of students and they jumped at the opportunity to serve and lead their peers in this way.

You want to know what happened in that moment? I was reminded that when students are given the opportunity, they will rise to the occasion. When presented with the ability to lead and disciple their peers our students are ready, willing, and capable to stand up and lead as disciples of Jesus.

Students are powerhouses when you give them the opportunity. Yes, they are young and immature. Yes, this may cause you a bit more work and require flexibility. And yes, at times they will fail. But how is this different from anyone else, including ourselves?

When given the opportunity, and with the right guidance, students can and will rise to the occasion. My encouragement today is simply this: give them ownership. Give them a chance.

When you afford students the opportunity to own their youth group you are generating excitement, buy-in, and unity for your ministry. Students who can take a leadership role will invite their peers. They will seek to help others be a part of your vision, mission, and values. And they will develop into the leaders you have been longing for.

This isn’t a mindset for a certain type or size of student ministry. This is an opportunity and a calling to invest in the next generation in tangible ways. This can and will look different from ministry to ministry, but we must ask ourselves if we are doing this.

Are we developing our students into leaders and providing them with ownership of our ministries? When we do this, we had better be ready, because I can promise you one thing for certain: God will move in and through these students and we will see them shake the world for His kingdom.

Quick Tip: Preparing Your Budget

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Depending how your church’s fiscal calendar works, you may be in the early stages of preparing your budget for the next year. Our church just walked through preliminary budget conversations with each ministry and this year we had to start from scratch and account for each budget line.

This may sound tedious and scary, but our team has done well at tracking our budget and accounting for all of our expenses over the past few years so building from the ground up was not as difficult as it may seem. But when we heard that we had to account for everything and substantiate why it was needed for the ministry, it caused us to pause and wonder if budgets were going to be cut.

Typically budget meetings, especially for youth ministries, can be scary because we wonder if leadership will understand why we need to buy dozens of pool noodles, seemingly unlimited boxes of Cheetos, and hundreds of water balloons. But we promise, these are all absolutely necessary.

Kidding aside, these moments can feel super scary because there is a reason and rationale for why we ask for our budget, and we worry that if it’s cut our students and families will feel the fallout and affects. So how do we try to keep that from happening? Is there a way we can still maintain our budgets and find a way to help leadership see the necessity of what we are asking?

Well, today I want to share a couple quick tips that I have utilized when preparing a budget submission or conversation.

First, know why you’re asking for what your budget reflects.

Sometimes you’ll get asked questions about why certain line items are there or why exactly you’re requesting a certain amount for a budget line. Knowing your answers and being able to confidently share your reasoning will help to explain your budget and your rationale.

Second, aim high and shoot low.

My encouragement is to go into these meetings with a budget that you would dream of having. Don’t go in being greedy, but go in asking for what you’d dream of having for student ministries. In the same moment, go in with a realistic expectation as well. You may not be able to purchase three 9 Square sets, but you may be able to get one. That’s an example of aiming high, but knowing that the realities may be different.

Third, be a good steward of your current and next budget.

Part of being a leader in a ministry is practicing good stewardship. We need to appropriately manage the funds that God has provided us with through His church, and that means we need to steward our current and future budgets well.

We shouldn’t spend frivolously or haphazardly, but instead should honor our budget and let that be reflected in how we spend it. This may mean that questions or statements may come like, “You did okay with less last year,” but this is where we can explain why we are asking for something different this year.

Lastly, focus on what matters.

I am not saying to simply focus on what matters when you create your budget but also if your budget isn’t approved for what you wanted. When you build your budget for your ministry always do so with your vision and the Gospel in mind as you seek to love and care for your students and families. And should your budget not get approved or be altered, remember that budgets aren’t ultimate. Yes, they allow for us to do things and to scale the ministry, but they don’t allow us or keep us from fulfilling the calling God has placed on our lives.

Seek to work within the context and budget that has been stewarded to you and as you do that, remember that everything you have is a gift from God to you. With this frame of reference, our perspective and understanding of utilizing our budget is shaped differently and helps us to seek to honor God in all aspects of our careers.

Quick Tip: Knowing When to Cancel Programming

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Have you ever had to wrestle with knowing when to cancel programming or even if you should? I’ve worked in a variety of church settings with different perspectives and rationales on this topic. Some advocated for never cancelling, some had specific parameters for when you should, and still others put the choice in ministry leaders’ hands.

Today, my desire is to provide you with some perspective for when you should cancel programming. Granted, this must align with your leadership’s guidance and perspective so this may not be as simple as just cancelling programming. It may entail multiple conversations with leadership prior to ever having to cancel. It may also mean trying to find a middle ground.

This post is simply meant to provide a framework for you and to help alleviate some of the guess work that goes along with cancelling. So when should you cancel programming?

When weather is a factor.

Depending where you live this may not be as big of a deal as it may be for others. Living in places that get snow, have hills, and are prone to drastic temperatures swings has left us having to cancel more than once. This isn’t because we are scared of snow, cold, ice, heavy rain and flooding. It’s because we are being intentional in keeping our students, families, and volunteers safe. If safe travel is an issue and if the weather is being uncooperative, it is best to cancel to keep everyone safe.

Lack of volunteers.

This is not to say that if you don’t have volunteers you can’t have programming. But if you don’t have enough to safely run programming and care well for your students, it may be necessary to suspend programming for that day.

When schools cancel classes and/or activities.

A great metric for cancelling is looking at what schools are doing. Did they close for weather? Was there an early dismissal? Are afternoon and evening activities happening? These are key metrics to help determine if you should cancel programming.

When there’s illness going around.

This is one that you need to keep an eye on because depending on the sickness it could spread quickly in your group. Many of us unfortunately learned this during 2020. But if there’s a stomach bug, the flu, Norovirus, Covid, or really any nasty bug it may be advantageous to cancel programming.

We have done this a few times because we had highly contagious bugs going around and rather than potentially add to the spread (and put our immunocompromised people at greater risk) we have opted to cancel.

Around holidays.

We cancel programming around Christmas and Easter because we know many families are extra busy, spending time with loved ones, and traveling. So from a programmatic standpoint it makes sense to cancel our gatherings. This also affords our volunteers and staff time to catch their breath and be with their loved ones on special days.

Culturally specific reasons.

We live and work in a tourist-heavy economy. This means typically during peak tourist season our locals tend to leave because tourists come in, which directly affects our ministry. Because of that we change how we do ministry in the summer months and suspend normal programming for the sake of summer programming.

You may have similar circumstances for spring break or Christmas break. Or maybe your community has different events and activities throughout each year that pull people away from ministry programming. That may be a reason to cancel.

At the end of the day, the safety and care of your people is paramount. You need to make a judgement call and know that in your heart it’s the best decision you could make. It may not always be the right one, but if you make it for the right reasons you have made the best decision possible.

Make Room for Leaders of All Generations

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I’ll admit, when I started to work in youth ministry the key idea for recruiting volunteers was to find the young, cool, and relatable college students or young adults. It seemed the mentality was “have cool young people leading and it will attract students to your program.” As I have been serving in student ministry I will admit that my personal philosophy and desires have evolved in this category.

I believe having leaders of multiple generations serving in student ministry isn’t just something we should be doing, but is essential in the discipleship process of our students. Different generations of leaders offer different perspectives, insights, skills, relational connections, maturity, and abilities to speak into students’ lives. Older generations have a better understanding of navigating life and its challenges while younger leaders can engage with the “here-and-now” parts of our students’ lives. Both of those generations are necessary and important for our students to help them grow and mature in their lives and faith journeys.

But how do we do this well? How do we not only encourage various generations to serve but also encourage our students to engage with them?

Start by highlighting the need.

Make sure people know there’s a need. Those of us who work in student ministries know there is a huge need for loving and capable adults to serve. But does your church know that? I’ll be honest: I’ve assumed this before but the truth of the matter is that people may not know.

I was talking to some elders a short time ago and as I was explaining what was happening in our ministry one of them asked me this question: Do you have enough leaders? I chuckled and said no, and they were shocked. The reality is that even our leadership may not know that we need more help.

To help people take a step of faith and serve, you must highlight the need. Talk about it. Share stories. Point to what more leaders could accomplish. The more you share the need, the better the opportunities for recruiting new leaders.

Extend a personal invitation.

In as much as I would hope this would happen, people don’t typically show up at my office asking to serve. I’d love that to happen but it only has a handful of times. The way I have typically recruited people is through a personal invite.

Reach out to different generations and ask them to serve. Take them out for coffee, explain the need, share why you are asking them, and ask them if they’d be interested. The more you can care for and invest in people, the more likely they are to jump in and serve alongside you.

Explain what different generations bring.

I love talking to people who think they are “too old” to work with students because I get to point them to the truth that they aren’t too old. Sure, as we age maybe we can’t play dodge ball or 9 Square as much (or ever), but that doesn’t mean we are dismissed from serving.

Students crave authentic, Jesus-centered, interpersonal relationships with adults, and I have found that older generations tend to be amazing at doing this. I love watching people in their 60s and 70s sit with students, listen and share stories, love them well, and show up at important moments in students’ lives. When you can highlight the importance of inter-generational relationships and the skills, insight, and wisdom that different generations bring, you will help to ensure that they see value in serving.

Show ways generations can participate and serve.

This is key in encouraging different generations to serve. We have different areas that people can serve and I would encourage you to think about places where people can step in. It may mean we have to think creatively or create new opportunities, but doing so will help your ministry to flourish.

These areas can include small group leaders, mentorship roles, managing the cafe or kitchen areas, helping with administration, teaching, mentoring and shepherding your leaders, leading training sessions, or any other areas where you see a need.

Create opportunities for generations to serve together.

Don’t isolate generations or have them serve in silos. Instead incorporate different generations throughout your ministry. Have leaders serve together from different generations, allow various generations to disciple and speak into the lives of your students, have all generations at training, and show equal value and worth to all generations.

This may seem like a “duh” reality, but our culture doesn’t always allow different generations to share life together and that can, at times, seep into our ministries. We must be intentional in creating opportunities to serve together and thinking about how our ministry is actively doing so.

Quick Tip: Gingerbread Houses Remix

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We just had our leader Christmas party this past Saturday and it was a blast! We had wonderful food provided by families in our ministry, we spent a good amount of time in fellowship, we shared stories, and played games. One of the games we did this year was a gingerbread house decorating contest.

Now I’ll be honest: we have done gingerbread houses before for both our leaders and students, and here’s what I learned. It takes a lot of prep time, you need to buy a lot more items for decoration including icing, it takes up a lot of time, it’s messy, and it can be frustrating for different teams or individuals.

So when the idea was floated that we should do it again, I’ll admit, I was skeptical at best. But my teammate shared that she had an idea that would make this go over well and by way less difficult than before. And let me tell you, she was right! Our leaders had a blast doing it and their creativity, story telling, and humor was on full display.

Now I know you’re anxiously wondering what we did, so here it is. We did cardboard gingerbread houses. A quick search on Amazon will bring up a variety of styles, sizes, and purchase options for you to choose from. The ones in the link above came with some decor but we quickly realized it wasn’t enough, so we bought more items to go with them. We purchased pompoms, pipe cleaners, stickers, markers, tiny presents (ones for dollhouses), little trees, and fake snow.

We packed up the unmade houses and supplies into baggies for each team and gave them fifteen minutes to build their houses. We then allowed each team to present their house to the judges and the stories we got for each home were just as unique as each of the houses.

All told, we spent less than $150 for 12 houses and additional supplies. We probably could have spent even less if we had shopped for the supplies at a dollar store, but time was not on our side for that. This is a great alternative to spending lots of money on an activity that could get fairly messy and would require significant prep work. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a fun new, yet timeless, Christmas activity.