No one is perfect and we all make mistakes, but, as youth pastors, we seem to error in a couple common ways.

1. Only listening to the innovators. As I mentioned yesterday, we tend to only listen to the innovators and wonder why everyone else can’t follow and be exactly like them. If we base church ministry on a group that consists of 2.5% of the people, we’ll never make it. It’s imperative that we build relationships with the early adopters and early majority people, not just the innovators.

2. Starting too soon. What youth pastor hasn’t started in a new position and immediately started itching to make changes (and good ones, at that!)? We all have! But just because we’re ready for change doesn’t mean that everyone else is. Spend at least a year getting to know the current church system, earning trust and building relationships before making any changes at all. Being passionate about a vision is great, but don’t run ahead like a crazy man and later turn around to see that no one was genuinely following.

3. Failing to create a strong guiding coalition. When we move the church and the youth group in new directions, we need to do our best to bring along as many people as possible. Sure, there are the laggers who will always disagree, but at least give them the chance to hop on board. If we have to, there’s nothing wrong with taking extra time to implement something huge when it means gaining more support first.

4. Underestimating the power of vision. If we can’t articulate why something is a good idea because we have a vague sense of why it’s going be great, we’re not going to convince anyone.

5. Under-communicating the vision. We need to repeat the vision over and over again. Not in a way that’s redundant — that’s saying the same thing the same way several times. Redundancy is boring. Rather, repeat a simple message in a variety of different ways.

6. Being too optimistic. Just because we’re the cool youth pastor doesn’t mean everyone will blindly follow us. (Deep, I know.) We need to keep our heads out of the clouds and be realistic about the direction we’re taking the ministry and the pace that will get us there.

7. Not working the process. When we’re excited about something and believe in it 110%, it’s easy to run ahead of everyone and leave them behind. We have to remember that climbing the mountain to the pinnacle of our vision is a process of one step after another, not a single giant leap for one man.

8. Taking resistance personally. Most of the time, resistance to an idea is not about us personally. Often it’s about them. How tired are they? How often have they been burned in the past? Once we take the resistance personally, we can’t have a conversation anymore because the relationship changes.

Read the rest of this series:
Navigating the church system (1 of 5): Youth workers need help!
Navigating the church system (2 of 5): Leadership tensions
Navigating the church system (3 of 5): Why churches change slowly
Navigating the church system (4 of 5): Understanding the adoption curve

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The above material is based on Tiger McLuen’s seminar, “Surviving as a youth worker in an imperfect church.” Used and edited with permission. Thanks, Tiger!

In 1950 a group of television producers funded a research project to evaluate the effectiveness of TV commercials. Part of the project’s findings, conducted by the University of Chicago, was later generalized by Everett M. Rogers in his 1962 book, Diffusion of Innovations, where he describes five groups of people who adopt new ideas, products and technology. Although youth pastors aren’t trying to sell a product, being aware of these groups is helpful when understanding how to implement change and navigate the church system.

Rogers’ Adoption Curve

Innovators 2.5%. These are the brave people who are willing to jump into something head-first and think about it later. As youth workers, we tend to only listen to these people because they’re the ones that will support and agree with almost any idea we present. Although they like new ideas and are eager to follow, they don’t typically lead change. If we listen only to these people, we will be fired pretty quickly.

Early Adopters 13.5%. These are the respectable people with opinions. They like to try out new ideas, but are careful along the way. Even though they like to think through the new idea first, they’ll come on board and try it out even if no one else has tested it yet. Unlike the Innovators, they see the vision, acknowledge the benefits and are willing to work through any challenges it might present.

Early Majority 34%. These people are also careful about change and new ideas, but they’ll only give in after they’ve seen enough other people do it. They appreciate the benefits of the new idea and the change it suggests, but the risk factor makes them a little nervous, so they’re content to sit back a little and see how others fair before they jump on board.

Late Majority 34%. These people are skeptical and reluctant to move ahead. They’ll eventually adopt the new idea, but only after they’ve seen it be successful for a majority of other people. Even so, they still prefer their old ideas and would rather stick with them.

Laggards 16%. These are the traditional people who love their old ideas. They’re critical toward almost anything new and will only accept the new idea if it becomes mainstream or even tradition.

iPhone Example
To put this in current product terms, let’s use the iPhone for example. The Innovators are the ones who waited in line outside the Apple stores for two days just to be one of the first to get their hands on the new product. The Early Adopters wanted an iPhone pretty badly, but weren’t hardcore enough to spend two days sitting in line outside, so they waited a couple days for the lines to die down and then picked up their iPhone. By now, a lot of the Early Adopters have their iPhones, too, because they waited a longer while to read reviews, check reports and see how it worked for the others first. However, the Late Majority don’t feel like learning how to use a new product and will stick with their current phones for a couple more years. As for the Laggards, they are just now coming into the world of color TV, kicking and screaming all the way.

Ministry Application
To implement change, youth workers have to build relationships with the early adopters and early majority people, not just the innovators. These people will ask more questions and will require more from us, but it is critical to work with them if we are to navigate the church system and facilitate the changes necessary for promoting spiritual growth while keeping our jobs intact.

Read the rest of this series:
Navigating the church system (1 of 5): Youth workers need help!
Navigating the church system (2 of 5): Leadership tensions
Navigating the church system (3 of 5): Why churches change slowly
Navigating the church system (5 of 5): Common mistakes by youth pastors

———————————————————————————
The above material is based on Tiger McLuen’s seminar, “Surviving as a youth worker in an imperfect church.” Used and edited with permission. Thanks, Tiger!

It’s ironic that churches are all about promoting change in people’s lives, but change in its own ministry is often met with great resistance. The church strives for changing lives, but rarely for changing ministry. This often frustrates youth workers to no end because we’re typically young, arrogant, full of new ideas, adventurous and willing to take risks if for no other reason than to get a good adrenaline rush.

Youth ministry, more than any other area of ministry, continually changes. The faces in our youth groups change, the teenagers themselves are in a constant state of physical and emotional change, youth culture changes month to month, and often we spend a considerable amount of time thinking of ways to make this week’s youth meeting different from the last. It’s no wonder that youth ministries are naturally used to change, but we have to remember that youth ministry is unique from the rest of the church in this regard. Change is never neutral for the church. We cannot promote change without expecting some side affects.

Why do churches change so slowly?

• Churches view themselves as guardians of tradition. They see a lot of change around them and most of it is negative. Unfortunately, they become guardians of cultural traditions, not Biblical or doctrinal traditions. Whenever churches have a history that they appreciate, there is an emotional bond to hold on to that.
• We operate like “family” in church. When we’re hired, we sometimes feel like an outsider for a while because there’s a system in place that is unfamiliar to us. It takes some time to learn the system, just like we’d expect if we joined a new family. Families are weird sometimes.
• We have a fuzzy bottom line. Many churches are wrestling with big questions, like, “What does success look like?” The church’s vision is often weak, it’s sense of identity is unclear and it’s direction is stagnant. When they hire a new youth pastor, they do so with a certain set of criteria, but what criteria will they use in two years to say, “We’re really glad our new youth pastor is here.” The same criteria or something different? The bottom line is fuzzy.
• Church members are tired. “Church system people” are tired of change. Most people in their 50s and older are scared and tired of change. They want church, unlike their workplace, to feel stable. Youth pastors often don’t have enough track record to compel these people to invite change. When we say to someone, “I have a new idea,” we have to realize two things. First, change will require work from them and most people are already tired. Secondly, when we suggest change, it will require more work for us. We can only make it through the change if we believe that the short-term pain will be worth it in the end.
• Few pastors consider themselves gifted leaders. Interesting, but true. Pastors see themselves as caregivers, teachers, and relational ministers, not always as leaders. Thus, some pastors lack the courage and desire to implement change in the first place. They feel quite comfortable doing what they love and are best at — loving people.
• We have an intergenerational church. Some youth pastors become so frustrated that we leave the church, call ourselves church planters and start our own church thinking that we can finally build the church of our dreams without the older people who resist our ideas for change. What we fail to realize is that if the church actually lasts, in 20 years it’ll be intergenerational again. The church was meant to be intergenerational! We need to embrace the diversity and learn to work with our brothers and sisters in Christ rather than canning them in order to build an institution of our own ideologies. If we don’t like the diversity here, we’ll hate heaven!

Church people are guardians of tradition. If we inadvertently communicate that their old way is bad and that our new way is good, the resistance will skyrocket. Don’t do that! We need to be careful how we approach change. Both the process and communication are huge. As youth workers, we tend to be driven by the results, not the process. We’re excited and motivated to rush for the end result, but if we ever want to see that end result, we have to be willing to progress slowly down the path that will take us there, always communicating and expressing value and appreciation for the old idea while embracing the new. Remember, we’re not leaders if no one is following, so go slow.

Read the rest of this series:
Navigating the church system (1 of 5): Youth workers need help!
Navigating the church system (2 of 5): Leadership tensions
Navigating the church system (4 of 5): Understanding the adoption curve
Navigating the church system (5 of 5): Common mistakes by youth pastors

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The above material is based on Tiger McLuen’s seminar, “Surviving as a youth worker in an imperfect church.” Used and edited with permission. Thanks, Tiger!

In the summer of 2000 I was ecstatic to lead my very first youth group at a church in Virginia Beach, Virginia. With two years of Bible college and a 1-year internship under my belt, I thought I was ready to take this group by storm and radically change every life for Christ. I was pumped! Although it started well despite my unrealistic expectations, I quickly learned a very important lesson about ministry leadership: almost everyone has a different idea of what ministry looks like and how it should be done and somehow I needed to work with them all. Everyone in the church agreed with my game plan at the very beginning, but only a few short weeks later I was so frustrated, hurt and angry that I wanted to quit and go home. The pastor asked me to do all the “dirty work” he didn’t want to do, parents complained to the deacons that the group wasn’t growing larger yet, the kids wanted me to go play basketball, the elderly banned us from half the church building because we broke too much stuff, and no one thought I was putting in enough work hours. There was so much tension and opposing expectations from so many different people that I felt I might collapse under all the pressure.

The tensions of leadership
1. The tension of results. (What?) This tension comes from various sources. Some of it comes from the people in our ministry who want to know what we’re doing and what it’s going to produce. Other times it is self-inflicted, thinking, “I need to produce results so people think I’m worth something in this position.” Unfortunately, attendance growth become the default results we look for, but it could also be a myriad of other things, such as a perceived level of acceptance and approval from church members and other community youth workers. We need to lead with people who push for results, results, and more results.

2. The tension of relationships. (Who?) There’s also time that needs to be invested into people. Of course there’s students, but there’s also parents, our Sr. Pastor, church members, other co-workers, community organizations, businesses that offer donations, school teachers, athletic coaches, not to mention our own families. Spending adequate time building all these relationships could be a full-time job all by itself!

3. The tension of the process. (How?) Results are one thing, but getting those results is a tension of formulating a plan and getting others on board. Building relationships also takes a plan. Nothing just happens by itself. If the ministry is going exist at all, it will require that there’s a process for reaching goals, even if the goals aren’t explicitly stated.

A youth pastor’s relationships
As leaders it’s critical that we have a healthy self-image because others will often be more than happy to challenge it. If it’s dependent on what other people think and say, navigating the church system will be impossible. We’ll always be running around with our tail between our legs, trying to please everyone, saying YES to everything, and burning out faster than a cardboard match. That’s not being a leader — that’s following everyone else.

When our own self-identity is secure, all the other relationships surround it.

• Students. Most of the time when youth workers are released from their jobs it’s because we’re struggling in an area outside of the kids. We aren’t usually fired because we’re bad with students. Actually, this is usually where we excel because the reason we go into youth ministry in the first place is because we love kids so much. Most of our problems in ministry lie elsewhere.
• Parents. We have a unique relationship with parents because they pay our salary, they have a clear perception of what they want from the youth ministry and we try our best to partner with them. When one of those latter two aspects gets a little out of sync, it can be a big mess.
• Sr. Pastor. The greatest variable to a youth pastor’s long-term success is the relationship with the Sr. Pastor. They will either be our biggest ally or our worst enemy. Respect their wisdom and communicate often.
• Other staff. Hopefully our co-workers see us as professionals because we treat them with respect and handle ourselves with maturity. Sometimes we have to wear a different hat with each person, but that goes along with the ministry territory anyway.
• Other adults. There are committee members, parents, leadership team, board members, volunteers, senior citizens, etc. We speak at women’s meetings, board meetings, and annual meetings not because it’s just another “speed bump,” but because that’s where we earn respect and establish credibility in their eyes.
• Peers. Hopefully we all have personal friends whether they’re ministry related or not. If we don’t have those personal friendships, then we need to make some friends outside the church ASAP!
• Family. Perhaps of highest priority is the wife and then the children.
• Community. The impression you leave in the community is the impression they will develop about your church and its ministry.
• Christ. All of these relationships are encompassed by the most vital relationship of all — our personal relationship with Christ.

Navigating the church system requires that we keep the tensions in check and our relationships healthy.

Read the rest of this series:
Navigating the church system (1 of 5): Youth workers need help!
Navigating the church system (3 of 5): Why churches change slowly
Navigating the church system (4 of 5): Understanding the adoption curve
Navigating the church system (5 of 5): Common mistakes by youth pastors

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The above material is based on Tiger McLuen’s seminar, “Surviving as a youth worker in an imperfect church.” Used and edited with permission. Thanks, Tiger!

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve recommended new sites, blog posts and links to check out around the web. Here’s some recent stuff I came across that might benefit you and your ministry or are just plain ol’ fun.

The Body of Christ - a themed youth evening of icebreakers, games and talk!
Another great list of ideas from Grahame that explore what it means to be part of the body of Christ.

Mario and Halo video
Hilarious! Someone put a lot of time into combining Mario and Halo together in this video.

Most students in high school do NOT plan to leave the church
Ugh, I’m tired of all the hype and fear surrounding all the statistics about teens and the church. This article shows that teens stay in church because of its involvement in their lives.

Hide and go poop game
Oh man, this video had me laughing so hard I started crying! Maybe I can get my Sr. Pastor in on this and make it a staff game.

The Four Pillars of Youth Ministry 2008
Do you have a plan for 2008? Don’t steal this one — seek God’s unique vision for your ministry as these guys have done.

10 Proven Ideas for Fundraising Beyond the Car Wash
Audio recording of a lady sharing with youth workers how to do fundraising to meet your ministry goals.

Growing Up Online: Just how radically is the Internet transforming the experience of childhood?
A PBU Frontline report. You can watch the whole broadcast online, but be aware that some of the typical media hype about predators and risks pops up even though the facts say this kind of behavior just is not that common. Read Anastasia Goodstein’s review of it here.

Youth leaders need help! Most of us are just normal people who love kids and want to see lives changed for Christ, but that often means we have to get caught up in a church system that’s extremely political, confusing, demanding, stressful and sometimes even detrimental to the life-change we seek. When we, as youth workers, are fired, very rarely is it because we’re accused of being apathetic toward kids or mishandling the Word of God. Rather, it’s usually because of personal conflicts and ministry values that aren’t aligned with the church or the Sr. Pastor. We love kids, want to reach them for Christ and wish we didn’t have to deal with all the junk many churches throw at us. This week’s series won’t solve all our issues, but it will help us understand a little bit about how the church system works and how we can avoid the common pitfalls that short-circuit our dreams of life-long service in youth ministry.

Two views of youth ministry
Many youth workers have a speed bump approach to student ministry. We know we are called to youth ministry and we focus so intently on it that anything else along the way feels like a road bump. We hit the road bump and keep going except we’re a little more annoyed on the other side of the bump than we were before we hit it: committee meetings, board meetings, parents, paperwork, reports, etc.

Many churches have a light bulb approach to student ministry. To them, youth ministry is simply buying a light bulb from the youth ministry rack. The rack used to be empty, but now it’s filled with people from Bible colleges and seminaries. Every church wants a flood light youth minister, not a small 100 watt bulb. Eventually the bulb burns out, the church throws it away and buys another bulb until it also starts to flicker.

Youth workers need help:

• Our focus is on students, not church systems.
• We sometimes don’t stay focused on a task from start to finish.
• We often take on too much, making us look even more unorganized because we say YES to way too much.
• We are more people oriented than task oriented.
• We are cool, which is a problem for a lot of established churches. We are the edge. We’re the innovators. We prompt change and challenge the status quo.
• We often don’t follow through on menial tasks, such as cleaning the church van after a trip.
• We feel pressure from a variety of sources. There’s a lot of different expectations placed on us by a lot of different people and too often those expectations conflict! (”Get out of the office and hang with kids.” “Get in your office and return those phone calls.”)
• We often lack a clear vision. We tend to love kids and love Jesus and think that’s enough, but it’s not. Vagueness is killing the church: vague gospel, vague vision, vague direction, and we have no sense of when we get somewhere.)

Read the rest of the series:
Navigating the church system (2 of 5): Leadership tensions
Navigating the church system (3 of 5): Why churches change slowly
Navigating the church system (4 of 5): Understanding the adoption curve
Navigating the church system (5 of 5): Common mistakes by youth pastors

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The above material is based on Tiger McLuen’s seminar, “Surviving as a youth worker in an imperfect church.” Used and edited with permission. Thanks, Tiger!

Time Out (by Jerry Schmoyer)

There are all kinds of great resources available for those working with youth. There’s hardly enough time in a day to check them all out and keep up with what is new. The tools available to us are virtually unlimited. Yet we must remember they are just that – tools. There is one that stands head and shoulders above all the others, one that guarantees God’s power to flow when it is used, one that promises results and assures success. Yet sometimes we get so busy with all the fancy, tricky, flashy stuff that’s available that we neglect focusing on this most effective resource: the Word of God. It alone can touch a heart (Hebrews 4:12). It alone defeats sin, temptation and the enemy himself. It alone brings light into darkness, joy into sorrow and hope into despair. Fancy packaging can be okay, just as long as the message is clearly communicated. Do you want your youth to grow? Feed them the Word. Make sure they get good, healthy doses of God’s Word. It’ll do what none of the programs or curriculum alone can do.

Scripture
Ephesians 6:17, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Matthew 4:1-4, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”” (cf v 5-10)

John 21:15-17, “When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ he said, ‘you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’ Again Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you truly love me?’ He answered, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Take care of my sheep.’ The third time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ He said, ‘Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep.’”

Reflect

• Have you drifted a bit from focusing on teaching the Bible to programs and gimmicks that are okay but lack the nourishment only the Bible can bring?
• Are you nourishing yourself daily on God’s Word?
• What can you do to focus more clearly on God’s Word with your youth?
• Take some time right now to open your Bible and read, letting God feed your soul by His Spirit.

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Jerry Schmoyer has been a minister in Pennsylvania for over 25 years and has worked with teenagers for 14 years now, ever since I became one myself. He authors the weekly Time Out series here at Life in Student Ministry in hopes to spiritually refresh your soul as you continually pour so much of yourself into students. God bless!

I put this game together for my 7th-8th grade class on Sunday. There’s two variations to it.

Quick version for large groups
Have everyone grab a partner and spread out around the room with a piece of paper and a pencil. Instruct them to list the numbers 1 through 25 down the left side of the paper. Then play the mp3 file below. The team who identifies the most movies wins chocolate bars or something. I intentionally made most of the clips pretty easy, but you could always play it again to give them a chance to fill in any blanks they missed.

Download mp3 of all movie clips together (right-click, “Save Target/Link As”)
Downlaod the answer sheet

Long version for smaller groups
Split the group into two teams. On a big sheet of paper, overhead projector, whiteboard, or something similar, draw a big Connect Four or Tic-Tac-Toe chart. Play one audio clip. The first team to correctly identify the movie is awarded one move of their choice on the board. Play another audio clip and again award the first team who correctly identifies the movie with a move on the board. Repeat until one team wins Connect Four or Tic-Tac-Toe. If you still have a lot of movie clips left, feel free to play again until they’re all used up.

Download the 25 individual movie audio clips

If you want more movie audio clips, simply Google something like “movie audio clips” and download to your heart’s content. (Yes, this is completely legal.)

CONTRIBUTE TO FREEBIE FRIDAY: If you’ve benefited from others who have freely shared their youth ministry resources online, consider giving back to the community by sharing your own materials here. Send me your donations for review and if I publish them in a Freebie Friday, you’ll receive full credit, a link, lots of gratitude and a warm feeling inside that comes from sharing with others.

This video circulated the Internet about a year ago, so it’s quite possible that many of you have already seen it, but for those of you who haven’t, here’s a ton of encouragement for why we’re in youth ministry today. This man, Mike Yaconelli, the founder of Youth Specialties, passed away in a car accident 4 years ago, but his passion for students continues to contagiously infect people like me. Thanks, Mike!

I was thinking back over 2007 and realized that I have a lot of really neat ministry stories from this past year. Of course there’s been a lot of stretching times and growing experiences personally as my wife and I moved to this church in Minnesota last February, but it’s also been a year of seeing incredible life change in some of the most unexpected places. I had an encouraging story about a student last June, but another incredible story took place about two months ago that I’m still excited to share with anyone I can.

One of my stories
Two unchurched middle school girls were invited by a friend to come to our Wednesday night small group discipleship class. The discipleship small groups are pretty intense and dig fairly deep into the Word as they cover the entire Old Testament in one year and the entire New Testament the next year. By the time our jr. highers enter high school, they’re decently grounded in scripture and it’s interaction with daily life, which is incredible for our church kids, but not really the entry point you’d normally expect for unbelievers. Even so, these two girls started attending on a regular basis to listen to their small group’s discussion of Christ and the Bible. Soon they started asking questions (”You mean Mary had a kid without doing anything nasty?!”) and before long they even grew interested in the sermon notes the other jr. highers were taking as part of the discipleship program. On one Sunday morning, one of the girls tried to wake up her mom to get a ride to church, but her mom refused and went back to sleep. So, the girl called her small group leader instead and asked if she would pick her and her friend up and take them to church. Of course the small group leader was excited to do so and has been bringing them to church every Sunday since then. No formal profession of faith has taken place yet, but I’m confident that the interest these girls express for God and His Word will continue to grow and soon they’ll make decisions to trust Christ. It’s stories like this that keep me energized and passionate about youth ministry!

Your turn!
I’d love to hear your stories about how you’ve seen God work in students’ lives this past year or how God has worked in your life through them. Post in the comments below and share your stories with all of us. What did God do in your students during 2007? How did God use students to change YOU?