Time Out (by Jerry Schmoyer)

You’ve worked really hard on a great devotional or Bible study. You think its one of the best you’ve ever put together and are excited to share it with the kids, but when you’ve finished delivering it, you walk away from the youth meeting confused because it just seemed to lay there, flat, without life. Or, how about the time you deliver a lesson you felt God wanted you to share, but despite not expecting much from it, several teens say your words touched them and changed their lives. What’s up with these situations? There’s great danger in evaluating what we do just by the results we see. If our audience likes our Bible lessons and responds well, we feel we did a good job. If they don’t — failure.

What we do is similar to being a quarterback. A quarterback’s job is to deliver the ball to the receivers and move it down the field. He is rated by how many passes he completes, but if you know anything about football you know that isn’t a true measurement of his skill. Passes can be dropped, receivers run wrong routes, or they may let the ball bounce out of their hands into the hands of a defender. Once the quarterback lets go of the ball, if it is caught or not is not up to him. He can’t throw it then run down the field and catch it. Of course he has to throw the best pass he can, a right spiral right into the receiver’s hands. Even so, they aren’t always caught, but that’s not the quarterback’s fault.

The opposite is also true. Sometimes the quarterback throws a wobbly pass that isn’t very accurate, but the receiver will make a great adjustment and end up with a miraculous catch. All a quarterback can do is try to throw the best pass he can making it as easy as possible for the receiver to catch it, but the catch is up to the recipient.

Do you see my point? We are the quarterback. We are responsible to deliver the message in the best possible manner, making it as easy as possible for our recipients to catch it, but God does not hold us accountable if they miss it. Sometimes we don’t pass as well, but a listener will come away with a miraculous change inside anyway.

Focus on delivering the message in the best way you know how and let the Holy Spirit work in their lives to do the rest. What happens after that is between them and God. Don’t put extra pressure on yourself. Don’t manipulate for results. Just put it out there and leave the rest up to God.

Scripture
2 Timothy 2:15, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

Reflect

• Do you put extra pressure on yourself to get certain results from your ministry?
• Do you have a hard time patiently letting God work?
• Do you find yourself frustrated with the teens you lead because they just don’t seem to be getting it fast enough? That’s a sure-fire recipe for discouragement. Take a few moments and turn it over to God. Ask Him to help you just focus on faithfully ministering to your kids, and let the results to Him and them.

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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!

A friend of mine compiled many of our camp songs into one easy-to-use PowerPoint show. Essentially, there’s a home page that lists every song and links the title of each song to the slide that contains its lyrics. When you’re finished singing the song, there’s another link at the end of the lyrics that sends you right back to the song menu, making it simple to choose which song you want next and hop straight to the words for it. Not only does it save us a lot of time in no having to prepare a new slideshow for every worship set, but it allows the campers to see a list of available songs and shout for which one they want to sing next.

The PowerPoint includes 51 songs, both worship songs and fun and wild nonsense songs. Our camp has motions that go along with almost every song that makes it interactive with the people around them, but obviously I have no way of teaching you those without a video, which I don’t have.

Feel free to edit the slideshow however you want. Take out songs you don’t know, add ones you do know but aren’t listed, whatever. Click the “Song Menu” thumbnail to the right to see the listing of songs included in this PowerPoint.

Download “Camp Songs” compilation PowerPoint

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.

Every couple weeks I get an email from someone asking me to check out their new church website. Most of the time they only want to show it off and receive a pat on the back for their hard work, but sometimes they ask for feedback, too. I’m certainly no church web-design expert, but I put together a list of what I think should encompass a good church website, not that a site should overwhelm visitors with everything on this list, but that this be a reference point for new ideas. If you’d like to evaluate your church’s website, here’s a tool to help you do so (found via churchrelevance.com)

What the website should do:

• Welcome and attract new visitors
• Be a tool for members to invite others
• Communication vehicle for current members
• Get people involved in ministry
• Be a 24/7 info resource about our church
• Be a center of spiritual resources for members throughout the week
• Interact with members throughout the week about spiritual and life issues
• Share the gospel with seekers
• Be graphically and visually stimulating (good design = perceived credibility)

Audience:

• Potential visitors between 18-45 years old (primary)
• Regular attenders between 18-45 years old (secondary)

Possible information:

• Service times
• Driving directions/map
• Building floor-plan
• Nursery/childcare info
• Staff directory
• Info about the church
• What we believe
• Gospel presentation
• What to expect (visitors)
• Current ministry opportunities
• Current news
• FAQs
• Calendar
• Newsletters (email and print)
• Weekly bulletins
• Contact form
• Denominational news
• Missionary updates

Media

• Sermon podcasts (video/audio)
• Sermon archives
• Sermon transcripts
• File and document sharing/downloads
• Event promotional tools (e-invites, postcards, flyers)
• Photo galleries

Interaction

• Pastor, director and missionary blogs (sermon teasers, additional sermon thoughts, family discussion questions, etc.)
• Small group discussions
• Scripture reading lists
• “Ask the pastor”
• Share prayer requests
• Testimonies
• Sermon Q&A
• Polls/surveys

Miscellaneous

• Online giving
• Online registration for events/classes
• Volunteer screening process

I accidentally came across this on my computer the other day. It’s a presentation I made back in seminary for one of my Family Life classes. It makes a great follow-up from my post last week about what parents actions often teach kids about God. Kind of ironic that I do some of this in my ministry already, but never defined it as well as I did several years ago in this presentation.

The Need
Teenagers can sometimes be difficult for parents to understand. A teen’s entire generation functions differently from any of the ones before them: different attitudes, ideas, dreams, values, goals, and spiritual disciplines. With each emerging generation comes a culture that is unique from the rest, providing its own resources and new thinking, but it also comes with new challenges for the ones guiding them toward maturity. A disconnect often takes place between the generation gaps due to a lack of understanding and commitment to knowing each other better, how they think, how they act, and the reasons behind such actions.

In more concrete terms, it’s nearly impossible to fix something you don’t understand, like a computer, a car, or a dishwasher. Personally, I would never attempt to open my watch and fix the little components and gears inside because I have no understanding of those parts or how they work. Even if I tried for days, it would be unlikely that I could ever make a broken watch function properly again simply because I do not understand it. Likewise, it is essential that we understand the parts that make up our teenagers, their culture, and the things that make them “tick” so parents can intelligently work with them on their playing field as teammates.

The Putty
Silly Putty is a lot of fun! It is very impressionable and can be manipulated and flexed to take almost any shape the user wants. It can be stretched very thin, but fortunately it can also be returned to its normal state as a rolled up ball.

Teenagers are like Silly Putty – they are at a very impressionable time in their lives. The values they adopt now will be the ones they often hold to for the rest of their lives. Thus, it is essential that these teenagers have parents and older adults around who will mold them and shape them into the spiritually mature individuals they are called to be. We want whatever rubs off us to stick to them and to become a part of who they are.

However, often stretched-out parents feel that they’re probably better related to Silly Putty. As they raise their teens, issues arise that they’ve never dealt with before. New culture values, new dress standards and new attitudes can cause parents to feel pretty lost when it comes to relating to their teenager.

The Bible
Scripture has much to say about a parent’s ministry to their students. This is what forms the foundation of the youth ministry’s desire to equip parents.

Colossians 2:2, “My goal is that they will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love.” (NLT)

Our goal is that all families would look like this. As the youth ministry encourages families we want them to develop a greater understanding of each other that leads to “strong ties of love.” Not just casual cohabitation, but a strong love that is knit and interwoven together.

1 Corinthians 12:27, “Now all of you together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it.” (NLT)

The body of Christ is made up both of the group of believers collectively as well as the individual members in it. We see the family as a picture of this body, formed to function together as a body but also as individual members who contribute to that body. Thus it is important to minister to the parents and teenagers on an individual level, providing resources to the parents to better lead and nourish the body of their family.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7, “And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up.”

Colossians 2:7, “Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught.” (NLT)

It is the responsibility of the parents to teach and train their teenagers in the works of God. The youth ministry is here to make sure that they are well-equipped and that they have all they need to be successful at their calling.

So then how can stretched-out parents begin to bridge all the gaps that sometimes exist between them and their student in order to be most effective in their rolls as parents? How can they become the effective Godly parents the Lord has called them to be? This is where the youth ministry wants to help.

The Strategy: E3
As the primary ministry in the church that works with teenagers, part of our responsibility becomes to Equip, Encourage, and Excite the parents and adults of the church to be effective in their relationships with teenagers.

• Equip: No parent is perfect. Every parent out there has the potential to improve and somehow become a better parent to their teenagers in some way or another. For those seeking to grow in parenthood, we want to have material to give them, sources to lead them to, and even other parents to talk to in order for them to receive the necessary instruction.
• Encourage: Many parents are facing difficult times with their students. Teenagers often rebel, make bad decisions, and heed to ungodly wisdom, all making a parent’s job that much harder. When things like this take place in the life of a teenager, a parent’s heart just breaks. They need to be encouraged that bad things that happen to their kids are not always their fault and that they’re still doing a great job as parents. Even the parents who seem to have “perfect families” need to be encouraged and motivated to continue what they’re doing and encouraged to make it stronger.
• Excite: The youth ministry wants the parenting stage in life to be an exciting time, both for the parents and for the students. Family relationships do not have to be stressful and negative. We would love to see families having fun together, taking adventures, and enjoying each other the way God intended.

The Name
Taking after the putty analogy, it is fitting to call this branch of the youth ministry P.U.T.T.Y.

Parents
Understanding
Their
Teenager’s
Youth

The Mission
“To encourage healthy family relationships through resources that unite teenagers with their families, both inside the church and out.”

• To encourage healthy family relationships: A family approach always keeps in focus the teenager’s family and explores ways to support individual family members along with the teen.
• Through resources that unite teenagers with their families: Resources that encourage communication, equip with understanding, and excite cooperation between youth group members and their individual family members are the primary weapons in the family battle plan.
• Both inside the church and out. Successful relationships and resources should be expressed in the home and in the community, as well as in the church. It is our belief that healthier families in the church will result in healthier communities. A teenage girl whose friends see her demonstrate a clear love for her parents will undoubtedly create a ripple effect in those other families.

The Plan
The youth pastor, as overseer and implementer of P.U.T.T.Y., will make the following plan available to all parents in the church:

• Youth culture newsletters: Either bi-monthly or monthly updates into the lives of the teenage world. It will consist of music reviews, movie briefings, culture trends, shifts in values and attitudes, and more.
• Family Bible Studies: The youth ministry will make available Bible studies for families to do together that intentionally promote stronger relationships. For those families who cannot find time to get the family together during the week, they will be given opportunity to do so on Sunday morning in place of breaking up the family for Sunday School.
• Parenting helps: Articles will be made available on various parenting topics, such as, “How to talk with your teenager about sex” or “What to do when you think your student is depressed.” These articles will provide practical advice on how parents can best handle situations that may arise.
• Counseling network: The youth ministry will also develop a list of recommended Christian counselors to make available to parents who experience issues outside the scope of the church’s resources and training.
• Share stories: Families need a way to share what God’s doing with their lives, what they’re struggling with, and to find encouragement and input from other families. This can either take place in a small group setting or on an online discussion forum.
• Frequent communication between youth leaders and parents: Youth leaders will take the responsibility of making frequent contact with parents. The youth ministry’s small group leaders will share with the parents what is being discussed in their groups and the parents can share with the youth leader what’s going on in the home. In this way the youth ministry and parents can team together.

The Cost
The specific resources we plan to provide:

• Youth culture newsletters: TheParentLink.com $99/12 months
• Family Bible Studies: Written in-house, so they’re FREE
• Parenting helps: FREE articles and resources from around the Internet
• Counseling network: FREE
• Share stories: FREE
• Frequent communication between youth leaders and parents: PRICELESS

Time Out (by Jerry Schmoyer)

Sometimes when I’m busy driving errands around town I put off things that feel like a hindrance, like putting gas in the car. I have too much to do to stop for gas so I tell myself I’ll just do it later. Obviously, you can figure out what happens if I put it off for too long. It’s like skipping meal after meal because I’m too busy to eat. That will quickly catch up with me, as well. The same is true spiritually. It’s easy to be so busy that we neglect regular time alone with the Lord. After all, we deal with spiritual things all day. We plan Bible studies, pray with people and give Biblical counsel, but unless we have a daily personal intake of God’s Word and a time of close connection with God we will soon be running on empty. We can be so focused on what we DO that we start to neglect who we ARE. Then we start to become discouraged, drained, impatient and frustrated because we are trying to operate without the proper fuel. Let God fill you with His presence. As any worthwhile relationship, it takes time, quality time, with the other person listening and talking. We don’t want to become like the religious rulers in Jesus’ day — so busy doing godly acts that they missed out on their personal connection with God. Remember, its all about relationship, and that means our own relationship with God.

Scripture
1 Corinthians 9:24-27, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

2 Timothy 4:7-8, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Reflect

• Do you find yourself looking for a Bible lesson on line or in your files because you don’t have time to do something fresh from your own relationship with God? (See “Free small group curriculum: My life.”)
• Do you find yourself spiritually empty without anything new to say to those you minister to?
• What’s your plan? When do you try to schedule regular time with God?
• What gives you the most difficulty in spending time with God each day? Is it business, laziness, unconfessed sin, poor priorities, etc.?
• Who is your accountability partner? Who will ask you the tough questions about your relationship with God? If you don’t have someone (and your mate doesn’t count) then get someone now.

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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!

One of the things I love about doing Freebie Friday every week is that it often forces me to dig back into my computer’s archive of lessons, games, and resources and brings back old memories that are associated with each one. Here’s a lesson I wrote back in 2004 that explores what discipleship is really all about based on Luke 14:25-35. To this day I still remember sitting in a circle on cold metal folding chairs in a damp classroom. A blinking florescent light drove me crazy at first, but I soon forgot about it as the students took seriously our discussion of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Good times.

I hope you can make sense of my rough notes here!

Download “Defining Discipleship” lesson notes

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.

Actions speak louder than words. Whether parents like it or not, kids see the priorities and values they set for the family and it makes a difference on how kids live their lives.

All the hype over the past couple years about the student drop-out rate from church seems to be focused at the church, specifically the youth workers. Almost every other week I see a new Chicken Little article about how the sky is falling and that youth ministry is failing miserably. However, the biblical structure of raising kids is through the parents, not church youth workers. Statistically, the kids who graduate from high school and stay in the church are not those who had a super-dynamic youth group. Rather, it’s those whose parents have intentionally passed on the faith. Of course, this assumes that parents have a living and vital faith that’s worth passing on. As much as we hate to admit it, we have a lot of parents who are sold out to the world and give lip-service in church, so their kids see that and do the same. Teenagers reflect what they see in the church.

According to the Family Driven Faith audio series by Dr. Voddie Baucham Jr., 92% of families don’t have devotions together even once a year. He also says that the average Christian family has less than 30 minutes of spiritual discussion each week. Maybe the church should focus more on discipling parents who will in turn pass that on to their kids.

I wish we heard more Deuteronomy 6:1-9 values being passed along to students by parents, but instead youth workers hear, “We won’t be at church for the next couple weeks because Jonny made the traveling baseball team.” Actions speak louder than words! Students learn that sports trump God so they can collect trophies that will collect dust in the basement in 40 years. And then we say idolatry isn’t alive in our churches? No wonder church is often a student’s last priority.

Even our homes communicate something about priorities. In most American families, the TV is the focal point of the living room. Notice that all the furniture is arranged around the room to focus on it, as if it’s the alter of our homes. Maybe family priorities need to change, not just “We go to church once a week unless something better comes up,” thinking that will somehow teach our kids that God is important, but in integrating God into daily life and decisions.

Lest I be misunderstood, I am not trying to blame parents as many have done to youth workers. Rather, youth workers need to consider parents as a vital contact for reaching students for Christ knowing that they have a much bigger impact in their lives than we ever will.

My Personal Story
My parents definitely didn’t do everything right, but one thing they did get right: they communicated by their actions and decisions that God always comes first. As kids, we noticed that and learn valuable lessons from it. When my brother was invited to join the travel soccer team, my parents made him turn it down because their games were on Sunday mornings. When we had wrestling matches on Sunday mornings, we’d always go to church instead. We often saw financial priorities when they spent money on helping other people even though we knew money was very tight at home. My dad taught us the Bible almost every day, including lots of scripture memorization (that I still use today!). Now that we’re grown and out of the house, every one of us are leaders in either vocational or volunteer ministry. Coincidence?

I understand this is all by God’s grace, not a formula with guaranteed results, but following God’s family principles definitely seems to have a better rate of return than any other alternative.

Ben Schnipper of Mexico, Missouri submitted this game. Sounds hilarious! Thanks, Ben!

Indoor Game; All Ages; 10 or more kids

Supplies: Twinkies, babyfood, food injector (preferably one with a a sharp pointed end)

Unwrap all the twinkies and fill the food injector with baby food. Insert the food injector 3/4 of the way into the Twinkie long ways and at the same time inject the baby food and pull the injector out. Do this to all of the Twinkies except four leaving those normal. Place an equal number of Twinkies on two plates placing two of the normal ones on each plate and place in the fridge for a couple hours.

Split your students into two teams and tell them you are going to have a Twinkie eating contest. When you say go one member of each team must race to their plate eat a Twinkie completely and then race back and tag the next person. First team to clean their plate wins.

SUBMIT YOUR GAME: If you have a favorite youth group game, tell me about it. If I publish it, you’ll receive full credit, a link, lots of gratitude and a warm feeling inside that comes from sharing with others.

Time Out (by Jerry Schmoyer)

It’s important to have goals for your youth ministry. Although they may encompass many things, is one of the main ones to love students? Loving each youth with the love of Jesus should be a top goal for each one working with youth. Numbers, statistics, accomplishments – these are all important, but what they need more than anything is love. Knowing you love them means more to them than any fancy program or creative Bible study. It’s been said that people don’t care what you know until they know that you care, and that’s especially true of teens. Loving them is the easiest thing you can do, but it also can be the hardest things to do. Some are naturally very easy to love, but it’s the other ones, the ones who are hardest to love, that really need your love the most. Seeing God’s unconditional love in operation through you is the only way they’ll really be attracted to Him. Jesus emphasized His love for His disciples over and over, and He showed it by washing their feet when they least deserved it. There are many ways in which we influence the youth we minister to, but loving them has the greatest and longest lasting impact of anything. You are never more like Jesus than when you are loving your kids!

Scripture
1 Timothy 1:5-6, “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 15:12, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-8, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

1 John 3:11, 18, “This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another…. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

Reflect

• Who do you have the hardest time loving in your group? Ask God to live you His love for them, to see them through His eyes.
• When is the last time you have “washed the feet’” of those you minister to? What are some ways you can do that this week?
• Look at the character traits in 1 Corinthians 13 (patience, kindness, etc.) and pray individually for each one, asking God to help you in specific areas of need in your life.

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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!

Here’s a lesson I wrote a couple years ago about growing in Christ, based on Philippians 1:1-11. The main idea is that life transformation is possible through Christ. It’s a continuous work of God in our lives, moving us toward perfection. It brings eternal results as continue to love Him and grow in knowledge of Him.

It’s not a particularly deep lesson or anything, but sometimes it’s good to be reminded that God interacts with our lives on a daily basis. Enjoy!

Download “Growing in Christ” lesson notes
Download “Growing in Christ” PowerPoint

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.