#SYMC 2012 Final thoughts

March 8, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

Yesterday I shared some of my thoughts on SYMC mostly talking about the labs and seminars.  Today I want to continue with my final thoughts, even though I do not think I can ever put them down in words.

One of the main things that blew me away this past weekend was the main sessions.  The music of Shane & Shane and Tim Timmons was just truly pure worship.  There were no guitar solos or any comments by either group saying that a song was from their latest album.  They were there to worship with us and not put on a worship concert.  Too often at conferences, it has become more about the artists, their solos, them trying to dress and act to impress the audience.  But this past weekend I experienced the first authentic worship in a long long time at an event.  It was so refreshing for my soul and for my time away from the noise.  It allowed me to breathe in God.

I also really enjoyed the Skit Guys.  I have seen these two for years and own every DVD and almost every download video the have out.  But how they were this weekend, was just what I needed.  I have seen and watched several of the skits they performed over the weekend, but after being in authentic worship and transitioning to them I got more out of their skits than I ever have before.

The speakers this weekend were just amazing.  They covered every area that most of us youth workers are dealing with in our lives and ministries.  Talking with many fellow youth workers over the weekend they felt they same thing.  I just really loved watching them from a distance as outside of them on stage I saw them engage with youth workers, be in full worship, praying to the side, and not trying to be an “All-Star” “Super Star” main stage speaker.

Overall it was great to see the leadership of SYMC caring for youth workers. Kurt Johnston, Josh Griffin, Kami Gilmour, Matty McCage, Jake Rutenbar, Andy Brazleton, Rick Lawrence, Len Evans, and everyone else that is a part of leadership I want to thank you for being amazing and loving God and loving Youth workers.  You guys were real and it wasn’t about selling us anything or having vendors who were down our throat trying to sell us things.  It was all about taking care, encouraging, empowering, and getting to know us.  It was a fresh take on Conferences.  And almost think you should rename it the Simply Youth Workers Retreat.  Because that is what it really was.  It was a time for us to have our time being the campers more than it was being conference attendees!

Here is part of the email that I sent Matty McCage thanking him for inviting me to SYMC 2012.

It is so great to be part of something so authentic.  Between the amazing worship, talks that were perfect for anyone in their journey in ministry to seminars from youth workers in the trenches who were not about self promoting themselves or their products to being a part of soul care and mentoring younger youth workers.  It was truly the best conference/training/soulcare/time with God that I have experienced in 14 1/2 years of ministry. 

Over the past couple years I have lost my brother, my wife had a miscarriage, and at many times felt separated from the church.  During the past year at my new church I started to trust the church again.  And this past weekend put the icing in the cake with falling back in love with being in ministry.  I will never be able to repay you for your great friend or the invitation to SYMC but know I would if I could.  

And here is what I wrote to many of the leadership team of SYMC.

I want to thank all of you and your team for a great weekend at SYMC.  It was my first time ever going to SYMC. Matt McCage and I have known each other for over three years now and he has been trying to get me to come every since we met.  Last Fall, Matt talked me into going after talking up how great SYMC was.  I will let you know that going into the weekend I had very high expectations.  And you guys blew those expectations right out of the water!
I have been in ministry since I was a freshman in college.  I have been to many conferences from NYWC, Catalyst, YS One Day, Passion, and many one or two day trainings over these past 15 years.  I have been a seminar presenter and breakout group leader at many of them.  I have helped on design teams for UMC conference trainings.  I have been on both sides of all of this and I have never experienced what I did this past weekend.  

I talked with Matty on Sunday Night and Josh on Monday afternoon and the only word that summed up the weekend was Authentic!  
  • Authentic Worship
  • Authentic Speakers
  • Authentic Staff
  • Authentic Care
  • Authentic Leadership
  • Authentic Vision
I am very glad I finally listened to Matty and decided to come this past weekend.  I feel refreshed and have truly fallen in love with youth ministry…AGAIN!

I will  see you in Indy next March!!!

Filed Under: church, Friends, God, just sayin, Personal Care, Soul Care, UMC, Volunteers, Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry Ideas · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,

Live Curriculum Part II: the Format

February 14, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

LIVE Curriculm is made for YOU and YOUR GROUP.  If you decide to use it as your Youth Lesson, Sunday School Lesson, Small Group Setting, Adult Leadership, Student Leadership, College Ministry, Adult Sunday School or Adult Small Group setting…it works!  The best part about live is that you can customize it to fit YOUR GROUP’S needs!  You can make it as simple as you want or as in depth as you want.  You can be a first time substitute teacher or a twenty year veteran!

So the Lesson assignments are pretty straightforward and if you have plenty of choices.  If you go the High School route, you have 4 years of lessons!  And you can pick and choose.  You just click on the date you want to add a lesson, then click through the lesson selection screen and it to the appropriate calendar(s).  This is great if you have several groups going over the same material.  For our group, we have three types of groups that meet.  We are currently using Books of the Bible for our Small Groups on Wednesday nights, High School Curriculum for our High School Sunday School Classes, and Jr. High Curriculum for our Middle School Sunday School Class.

The really great thing is that you can go into each lesson and edit it to the needs of your group.  You can rearrange the format for the need of each group.  And you even add more questions, mixers, video clips, or whatever you need for the learning needs of your group.  You can even divide it in half if you don’t have the time.  Like I said earlier, it is up to you on how you want to teach it for the needs of your group!

This includes:

1. LEADER PREPARATION

  • LESSON OVERVIEW
  • LESSON OBJECTIVES:  The What, Why, and How
  • PRIMARY SCRIPTURE
  • SECONDARY SCRIPTURES
  • TEACHING PREP:  The short overview below is designed to help you prepare for your lesson. While you may not want to convey this information word-for-word with your teenagers, you’ll definitely want to refer to it as you lead.
  • THE BEFORE & AFTER   
    • Text Message Questions: They
    • provide a couple of different text message questions to send out to your students prior to your meeting. Feel free to use one or both of the questions below. As with the rest of the curriculum, edit these questions to fit the needs of your ministry.

    Parent Email:  They provide you with an email below that you can send to your parents following the lesson. Our hope is to encourage parents to continue the conversation at home. Feel free to edit and customize the email to fit your ministry needs.

  • 2.   LESSON GUIDE
  • GETTING THINGS STARTED [optional]
  • Before your meeting, send a text message or email (as listed above) to your students asking them to bring an item that reflects something they love. It may be an iPod that represents their love for music, a picture of their family, or a baseball glove to reflect their love for baseball.
  •  TEACHING POINTS
  • The goal of the Teaching Points is to help students capture the essence of each lesson with more discussion and less lecture-style teaching. The main points we have chosen here are (1) We are created in God’s image, (2) We reflect God’s love more by what we do that by what we say, (3) We reflect God’s love by putting others’ needs first, and (4) Accept the responsibility of reaching the people God has given you today.  Remember: All throughout these lessons, it’s up to you to choose (1) how many questions you use, and (2) the wording of the main points—keep ours, or change the wording to make it clearer for your students.
  •  ****SAY SOMETHING LIKE: I Love this!  They give your volunteers help here!  They help fill the awkward moments by giving them something to say!
  • ADDITIONAL DISCUSSION [optional]
  • SUMMARY
  • End your lesson here. Provide your teenagers with a quick summary or take-home challenge based on (1) the content of this lesson, (2) the dialogue that took place during the lesson, (3) your understanding of the issues and struggles your teenagers are facing, and (4) the big picture of your youth ministry and what your leadership team wants accomplished with the teaching and discussion time.
  •  
  • FOR KEEPS [MEMORY VERSE]
  • Encourage and challenge your teenagers to memorize the verse below.

 

 

And it doesn’t stop there!  You can even add your own lessons!  There is a great feature of File Upload.  You upload your word document or pdf and add it to your calendar.

And if you have no clue what you are doing, just go to the Help tab and watch the videos to help you walk through everything!  If you still can’t get it…just call Matty!  He’s a great help!  Or you can just call me!  I’ve actually helped several people walk through things…but really its not that hard!  The sky is the limit with LIVE!

Right now they offer 4 years of High School, 2 Years of JR High, 60 weeks of Adult and Student Leadership, 72 weeks of the Bible, several video series…and that’s just the beginning.  They are in the process of working on Children’s Curriculum and College Curriculum!   But in the mean time you can still use and customize any of the others for your group.  At my current church we have used the Books of the Bible for our College Small groups!  So take a test drive today and give Matty a call!

 

Filed Under: church, God, technology, UMC, Volunteers, Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry Ideas · Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Breaking the Silence

February 9, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

For the past couple months on and off I’ve stayed away from tweeting, Facebook, and blogging.  I mentioned in a previous blog that I just needed some time away from the noise of social media and being connected.  And for the most part I have.  I’ve stayed away from checking echo phone app  and Facebook app on my iPhone.  I haven’t logged into my google reader account for almost two months.  I just needed to get away from the noise and be still during my down times.

Without going into details, I’ve been hit by things personally and professionally that I have never had to deal with before.  I have needed time away and to be quiet and to listen to God.  I’ve alway taken the time to away from my social life and have kept in contact with only a handful of my close friends during this discernment and time of growth.  I’ve learned a lot about myself and others.  I’ve grown a lot personally and professionally during the past couple of months.  Some things were very hard to handle, but with the guidance of God and spending more time in the word, it has been easier than I thought when I first looked and started addressing the problems areas.

I feel more and more a new creation in Christ and have understood that scripture more and more as I have learned to carry my cross more and more every day and seek God for renewal and forgiveness.  I have seen a new outlook on life and daily seeing today as the best day of my life.  I’m no longer living in the past  but moving forward.

I have written over 40 blogs that I have not posted to help remain in silence.  By not posting it allowed me to keep myself away from the noise that is often caused on social media.  All the blogs have nothing to do with any of what I’ve been addressing, but I wanted to make sure I was true to myself and true to God in my much needed time of reflection and addressing issues that had been festering for a while in different areas.  In the past I have not taken the time to seek discernment and listen.  Instead as I was addressing issues I made myself more busy with social media and social life.  The biggest learning from this time, is that it is okay to be disconnected from time to time and not to clutter up your life with busyness when needing to address issues at hand.

 

Filed Under: church, Current Affairs, Friends, God, just sayin, Personal Care, technology, UMC, Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry Ideas · Tagged: , , , , , , ,

One is the loneliest number (Part I)

December 8, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

I grew up listening to the oldies station because that is what my parents had playing on the radio.  Because of that I love so many old songs that my dad grew up listening to.  I love listening to songs from the 60s and 70′s!  Three Dogs Night released the song One in 1969.  The funny thing is that it was only #5 on the charts!  I heard it the other day on XM Radio and I reflected on the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUlw3ACdN5s

For me ONE has been a very lonely number at times in ministry.  There have been times when I have been a lone ranger youth pastor and have done everything without any volunteer help.  That has been my crutch when things go bad, I seclude myself and cut myself off from the rest of the world and try to take everything on by myself.  In my past views, that has just been the easiest thing to do.  But I have now learned it is the worst thing to do.  Yes, we all need time for ourselves, but we cannot do it alone.  I’m so blessed to have so many great friends.  I have learned more and more that I need to lean on them when life throws me  a curve ball.  I’m also really blessed to have a great church family and great adult volunteers and parents.  And when ministry and life get crazy I’m going to lean on them more.

I believe that part of the problem with youth ministry turn over is that the church has let down youth workers when they are going through tough times or when they make a mistake.  The church has been guilty of making youth workers become alone and by themselves.  Instead they need to nurture them, give them time off, and help them instead of abandoning them.  I’m saying this because I have lived through it several times.  When I have made mistakes or did things I had no clue what I was doing, I got hung out to dry.  I’ve had pastors and church leaders say that they have my back and then was thrown to the wolves.  I have gone through several things and no one followed up on me or my family to check on me.

But as youth workers, we need to push our pride to the side and sometimes ask for help.  We need to ask for time off.  We need to ask for volunteers to step up when we are overwhelmed.  We need to take time to grow spiritually ourselves.  If that means saying no to teaching Sunday School or a small group so we can get fed, then it needs to be done.  If it means saying no to too many meetings and too many nights not at home with your family, then say no and let everyone know why.

I highly encourage you to have an accountability group, a network group, and an accountability partner to help make sure that you are not just one going alone in ministry.  And if you haven’t checked out Simply Youth Soul Care ….do it today!

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: church, family, Friends, God, just sayin, Personal Care, UMC, Youth Ministry, Youth Ministry Ideas · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Preparing for #Christmas

December 5, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Before the wrapping paper is taken off the many things from under the tree, our spirits should be in worship before our Savior. We construct many things we call worship. There are many Christmas services in churches, cathedrals, homes, shacks, huts, and buildings all over the world. As impressive or humble as the trappings of the services might be, true worship takes place when we see this Child born in a manger. True worship happens when we bring our gifts to Him. True worship happens in our hearts when we love Him while giving Him our all.

The Christmas story shows us a human response to Christ coming into the world. In this verse, we see the Magi in humble worship. The Magi were essentially the elite of their day. They represented wealth, power, and wisdom. Yet, we witness these Magi in humble adoration of the baby Jesus.   , As we celebrate this Christmas season, and before we give and receive our gifts on Christmas we need to stop and bow down to Him in the same humble adoration we see from the Magi.

“When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.”  – Matthew 2:10-11

 

Filed Under: church, family, God · Tagged: , , , , ,
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