Josh Griffin

Two Helpful Youth Ministry Blog Posts

reblogThe internet is full of blogs about a number of different topics. You can read a blog about just about any subject imaginable. Look, you are reading a blog post right now about blog posts!

One of the benefits of youth ministry in 2015 is that there are a lot of free resources, articles and training tools online. Some of them come in the way of blog posts. I had two links come into my email today that pointed to two helpful articles. One is for youth ministers/volunteers in general and the second is for those who work specifically with junior high/middle school students.

Whether you are a paid youth worker or an unpaid volunteer, we all benefit from hearing from other voices and gleaning information from those who serve students and families.

The first is titled “What I Wish I Knew” written by Josh Griffin. He reflects on what he has learned in the past 20 years of serving in youth ministry. While all the thoughts he shares are good, I thought the point he made about youth ministry being about students and adults was on point. You can read the article below or by clicking the link above.

The second post was called “Top 10: 5th-8th Grade Years Transitions” and was written by Dan Istvanik. I think this is the first time I’ve visited his blog, but I thought what he shared about students transitioning into junior high/middle school was helpful. Sometimes we forget what it is like to be a student who has to navigate the junior high years. His article was kind of a quick bullet point list of the transitions students face. Check it out below or by hitting the link.

Thanks to all who share your wisdom on blogs, websites and social media!

WHAT I WISH I KNEW – JOSH GRIFFIN

I’ve been in youth ministry for 20 years. That’s still a crazy thing for me to write – I still feel sometimes like I’m just getting started and know very little. But the truth is, I’ve been living this out for a couple of decades. I still love it and still love being in the trenches of youth ministry (and serving youth workers through DOWNLOAD YOUTH MINISTRY) if I could go back and talk to my 21-year old self a few things about youth ministry, here’s what I would say to that eager, exciting just-graduating college young man:

IT ISN’T ALL GOING TO BE FUN AND GAMES.
Youth ministry over the next 20 years of your life is going to be SO fun. You’re going to laugh and play so much. You’re going to smile a ton, and just love doing what God has called you to do. You’re going to make memories all over the world and impact teenagers at a crucial point in their life. BUT, it is also going to be really difficult. It is going to test you. You’re going to see things that discourage you. You will be frustrated. You’re going to be pushed to the edge of your patience and the edge of your faith. It is going to be SO fun, but it is real work and you’ll battle real spiritual warfare, too.

YOU ARE GOING TO BE IMPACTED.
You think this thing is all about students – but YOU are going to grow a ton. As you lean into the Scriptures for guidance as you teach, counsel and help others, you will grow so deep in your faith. Of course, the temptation is to do this in your own strength, but that doesn’t end well. Your life will be changed because of youth ministry when you walk with Jesus.

IT IS ABOUT STUDENTS AND ADULTS.
When you think about youth ministry, you think about youth. But it is so much more than that. Yes, it is about teenagers making decisions for Jesus. You do get to help serve them in this crucial life stage. But it is also about parents and adult leaders. It is about the team you get to create and do life with. It is about the moms and dads you get to equip and encourage. And you’ll grow from single youth worker to married parent in the process of this whole thing and realize more than ever when you’re in the thick of it just how important youth ministry is to your family, too.

IT IS THE MOST REWARDING CALLING EVER.
Through the ups and downs, through everything, there’s no better calling on the planet. There’s nothing more rewarding to give your life to. Stay the course, stay close to Jesus and after a while you’ll realize just how incredible it is. You’ll think about your teenagers … now adults and watch them flourish (and some flounder still trying to find) their faith as followers of Jesus. You’ll look at your own children and smile as you reflect on them growing up loving the church.

What would you go back and tell yourself when you started youth ministry?

TOP 10: 5th-8th GRADE YEARS TRANSITIONS – DAN ISTVANIK

10. One Classroom to Multiple Classrooms.
Going from the elementary school, one maybe two main classroom setting to the middle school/Jr. high setting of a homeroom and changing classrooms for every subject.

9. Stable to Emotional.
With changes all around them and internal, hormonal changes. Middle year students may go from being stable, consistent emotionally to having ranging emotions from highs to lows often inside a short period of time without much real cause or warning.

8. Dependent on Parents to Independent of Parents.
Middle year students with the various changes in schedule and personality will also move from childhood dependence to a maturing need for more freedom.

7. Arranged Friendships to Chosen Friendships
Friendships go from parent arranged “play dates” to students choosing their own peer groups based on mutual preferences and interests.

6. Innocent to Knowledgable.
With social education, media access, and parent’s having “the talk” the middle year are marked by a stage from a more innocent view of the world to a more knowledgable, realistic view of life.

5. Fearful to Risk Taking
Along with the move from innocence to knowledge and the transition from dependence to independence to knowledge the middle year are time of being fearful to taking risks socially, emotionally, and even physically.

4. Sexually Unaware to Sexually Aware
More specific in the innocence to knowledge transition, these are the years of becoming aware of sexuality, others and their own. Often leading to some questioning and identity awareness.

3. Concrete to Abstract Thinking
A black and white, right and wrong simplicity of thinking moves to a processing of grey areas and synthesis of understanding and thought.

2. Child Body to Teen Body
Growth spurts, puberty, and sexual discovery are the physical transitions in the middle years that move a child into being a teen/young adult.

1. Family Faith to Personal Faith
Where the role of middle years ministry and importance of a church providing a solid middle year specific ministry becomes so paramount. Belief moves from what parents believe and teach to what a student personally discover, question and claim as their own. The reason we do what, we do as 5th-8th pastors/director/leaders/volunteers!!!

Best Small Group Promo Video…Ever!

Even if you are not a Lord of the Rings fan, you will love the creativity of this video.  If you know the context of the original scene in the movie, you will laugh out loud when you watch it.

This comes from Josh Griffin’s blog More Than Dodgeball.  Don’t know who does their videos, but they are always so good.

Enjoy!

After Summer Camp Talk

One of the challenges that youth ministries face after a big summer event (camp, conference, retreat, etc) is the emotional letdown.  We use phrases like “spiritual highs” and “mountaintop experiences” to describe the emotions and experiences from the event.  Then, we come back to “real life” and have the challenge of putting into practice what was committed during the week.  Josh Griffin, High School Pastor at Saddleback, posted this video on his blog.  Kurt Johnston is the speaker and he does a good job of helping students work through the “after camp” experience.

This is good advice for both students and adult.

The Future of the Church

I receive a daily email called Simply Youth Ministry Today.  The writers offer insights on various aspects of youth ministry and the church.  This week they have been writing about the future of the church.  I thought what Josh Griffin wrote yesterday was good.

The future of youth ministry sure is a topic that has been getting some play for a while. And while that is very interesting to me, I thought it might be interesting to think about what we know is going to happen to the whole church in a few years:

The students in your ministry will be the parents in your church in 10 years
The students you are counseling, nudging and caring for are the parents in your church in a few years. These kids will be having kids (if you’ve been in youth ministry a while, it is a disconcerting feeling to say the least) and they will be the parents.

So? Teach them well. Step in as a role-model in single parent homes. Nudge students to honor and love their parents a little more this week. Help them realize that in the not-so-distant future they’ll be the mom and dad their teen is frustrated with. Oh, and help them stay pure in the meantime so parenthood doesn’t happen earlier than it should.

The students in your ministry will be the missionaries of the world in 12 years
The students who are on your Spring Break trip or with you in Costa Rica this summer are going to be the missionaries of the future. They are the ones to take the Gospel to the last people groups who haven’t heard and translate the Bible into the final most obscure languages.

If that’s true … Get as many of your students to experience missions as possible. Model servanthood to them. Fight for more scholarship money to get kids on these trips. Don’t hold back when it is time to push them.

The students in your ministry will run the church in 15 years
The students you are mentoring, discipling and reaching for Jesus right now are going to be the elders, deacons and pastors of the church. They are going to be making game-changing decisions about the standards of the church and the interpretation of the Bible. They are going to be hit with a myriad of huge decisions (our generation wrestled with but will largely leave to them).

My point? Disciple your students well. Make sure they are grounded in the Word. Make apologetics a priority. Give away leadership to them now so they have some experience when the church is given to them.

So what is the future of the church? Look no further than your own youth ministry to see it today.

Hilarious Promo Video for Teaching Series

I’ve mentioned Josh Griffin’s blog in previous posts. Doug Fields and Josh teamed up to do a teaching series called “Facebook Official” and they talked about love, sex, dating and relationships in the four-week series.  Below is the promo video that they made and it made me laugh out loud.  I showed it to two others in the office because I thought it was funny.  You can read more about Josh Griffin and Doug Fields at their respective websites.

Enjoy the video.  It was meant to be funny so feel free to laugh.

Simply Youth Ministry: A Heart for God (re-post)

I receive a regular e-mail from Simply Youth Ministry with different thoughts and insights about youth ministry.  This week’s is focusing on the heart.  Monday’s devo was excellent and I wanted to re-post it.  I thought what they said about fakers was right on.

Youth Ministry Basics: A Heart for God
by Kurt Johnson & Josh Griffin

I (Josh) did a survey on my blog not too long ago asking youth workers to share about their Bible reading and personal time with God. The results from the more than 400 votes were staggering – almost 10% of youth workers hadn’t cracked their Bibles in a week and only 18% considered their Bible reading “solid”.

Here’s the deal – we get it…there are certainly seasons where you are closer to God than others. Certain times of the year or patterns that lend themselves to spending time with God, or that make it tough to do. But if we were honest …it’s fair to say that if youth workers aren’t reading their Bibles, the whole thing is going to collapse sooner rather than later. And if we’re being really honest … we would admit to you that from time to time we’ve been caught up in the pace of youth ministry and not connected significantly to Christ either. And if we’re being really, really honest…we would admit it happens more often than it should.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing …” John 15:5

Youth pastors are great fakers. That’s pretty harsh, but honestly – most Christians are good fakers. We pretend that we’re walking with God by using the correct Christian subculture language. We count listening to Gungor on our 4-minute commute to the church office as our devotions for the day. We subscribe to the Verse of the Day on Twitter (@abibleverse) and every once in a while even look at it.

You can fake it for a while … but not forever. Too often we hide behind charisma, talents, gifts and abilities when the real us is dying in a spiritual pile. This type of shallow spirituality makes us an easy target for the Enemy and prime candidates for a sudden stumble or fall. God has gifted you, but don’t arrogantly think you can lead without him. Follow THE leader!

Recommit to a genuine, ongoing relationship with Christ as you minister in His Name. Good youth ministry starts with a leader whose heart is sold-out to Christ. Good youth ministry is done by youth workers connected to the vine. Let today be the first day when we start to change the statistic and t is rare the youth worker who isn’t connected to Christ daily.

Here’s some practical advice from youth workers in the trenches who are finding creative ways to spend time with God:

– Before you look at any screen, spend time with God.
– Take the first few minutes of your office hours in prayer
– Pray with your spouse before bed each night – Is it okay for me (Kurt) to admit that this one is tough for me?
– Block out one afternoon a month to reconnect with God
– Use one of YouVersion.com’s reading plans on your Evo