My Journey, His Glory » uth ministry

I’ve seen a lot, but not enough.

rodney — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:36:27 +0000

I gotta say, I don’t think I’d rap it, but I pretty much have to agree with everything this guy is saying. After 14 years of youth work I’ve definitely seen a lot, but never enough.

Some Thoughts on Contemplative Youth Ministry

rodney — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:04:34 +0000

I’m currently in the process of reading a book titled “Contemplative Youth Ministry” by Mike Yaconelli. I figured I’d take a few minutes to share my thoughts. After reading numerous reviews (good, bad, and ugly) on this book I decided to read it for myself. I found the book to be very well written and to be based on a premise that is easily accepted by most people – we live in a fast paced world. In one story shares that a young boy decided to name himslef president of the “Slow Club”. This boy, by making a commitment to take things slowly, was able to see many things that others in this multi-tasking world would normally miss. Although some portions of this book suggest things that I wouldn’t necessarily feel comfortable with (use of holy words, icons to help you focus) the overall message that I received is to simply slow down. Another big message that came through was the need for prayer not only in our ministries, but for our ministries. Not just prayers, but intentional focused prayers for ourselves, our leaders, and our students. Overall I would recommend this book with slight caution to the methods used in the meditation portions. Great book.

Free Group Text Messaging from your website

rodney — Tue, 26 May 2009 00:23:08 +0000

This is a simply amazing plug in for wordpress. If you run your church or youth group website on wordpress this could potentially save you $60 or more a year. As a youth minister I’ve tried various ways of keeping in contact with my students. I’ve gotten myself a facebook, signed up for twitter, log-in to msn/google chat on a regular basis, gotten a phonevite account (see post on phonevite), adn send group e-mails. Yet nothing can communicate with teens like txt can. At first I signed up for 300 txts a month, that was a bad idea. The few services I found charged a nominal amount per month. But then I realized that $5 a month still adds up to $60 for the year. So I was lef t with no idea what to do. How was I going to communicate with all my students on a regular basis easily? Wordpress came to save the day again. I found EasySMS which allowed me to integrate the system into my wordpress site and communicate with all my teens though the wordpress dashboard. It’s a really easy system to set up. Simply install the pgin and activate the system and the widget. Put the widget into your wordpress sidebar or footer and viola! it’s ready to use. You can then sign up and get started. EasySMS lets you put subscribers into groups and send any number of messages for free. Did you catch that last part FREE!!!. Check it out for yourself. Don’t have a wordpress site for your ministry? Check out ShareYourChurch.com or BanyanData.com to get started.

Free Wordpress Plugin SMS EasySMS Group Text Messaging from your website | Mister Nifty.

EXAMEN.me (an awesome resource)

rodney — Mon, 18 May 2009 23:28:20 +0000

I’ve been hearing about the practice of examen for awhile now. I’ve briefly looked into it and thought it looked good, but never really delved deeply into it. Then, an God-send came in the form of a web-app. I know, I can hear it now. Why do you need the internet to worship and study God’s word? Well, I’ll tell you. EXAMEN.me brings the whole concept of “examen” to the masses. It comes in two versions, free and registered. The great thing is that both are free. The only difference is that the registered version allows you to journal and keep your notes saved on the website as well. Personally I would rather journal in a seperate notebook and simply let the site lead me through the process. This past week I used it in my Sunday School class. I printed out a sheet that gave each teen five different passages to choose from and led them through the same process found at EXAMEN.me. The students were not only quiet, but actually spent the entire Sunday School time digging deeper into God’s Word for themselves and were able to share with each other after class what God had pointed out to them. The site puts “examen” into an easy to understand process. I for one endorse this site fully.

Link: http://www.examen.me

a great youth ministry ministry

rodney — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:52:21 +0000

I have got to take a minute to brag. Dare 2 Share Ministries is a wonderful resource lead by some really great people. Living in Atlanta area normally gives me easy access to some awesome resources (conferences, seminars, other trainings). Because of my day job, I normally don’t take advantage of many of these. However a few months back Dare 2 Share hosted a luncheon (only had to take the afternoon off) downtown to help promote their upcoming conference, but also to hold a training called “Turn your youth group into a reality series”. It was at the ESPN Zone downtown and offered a free lunch, so I grabbed my gear, invited my bride to join me, and we headed off. The place was easy to find and we got there a bit early (a first for me). As we came across the parking lot a familiar face came up to greet us. Greg Stier, the president of Dare 2 Share was in the parking lot. We stopped and talked to him for a few minutes before heading inside. That was a great experience. I was expecting to meet their area director, Robert Coulter, and watch a training video that covered the concepts, but Greg was there himself. This was big for me. He was very open and much more down to earth than a lot of people in his position are. I learned that the church he grew up in would make Bob Jones University look liberal. It got me thinking, how awesome it would be if the pastors of the church met people in the parking lot? The training was great, I plan to write more about it later. At the time of training I ws leading our youth group through “The Gospel Journey” video curriculum, and have now begun them on the “You’re Next” 30 week study covering 30 core truths of the Christian faith. All in all I have really enjoyed getting to know the Dare2Share team and am really looking forward to tye conference in March. Check it out for yourself. www.dare2share.org Until next time, BDFRNT!

Youth Ministry Insights

rodney — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:19:23 +0000

I love working with youth. I started working with teens while I was still in high school. At that time it was either me or the preacher to lead the youth group. I remember what the church decided to call me “Interim Leader of Youth Activities”. It’s been a long time since then, I plan on using this section to talk about all things youth ministry. Being on my own journey while helping to lead youth on theirs doesn’t get boring. Stay tuned.