This Friday we’re scheduled to resume our weekly Skypecast conversation at 2:00 PM EST, but due to all the technical difficulties I’ve decided to move our discussions to Talkshoe.com instead. There are several advantages: it works on the first try every time, it’s much more user-friendly, Mac users can now join us, and there’s easy telephone access for those who want to call in to talk instead of using a computer microphone. A chat room is integrated for those who just want to listen online and participate via text.

How do I join the conversation?

When Friday at 2:00 PM EST roles around each week, here’s how you can join the LIVE youth ministry conversation.

1. Call (724) 444-7444 and enter ID number 19105#. If you’re a registered Talkshoe user, enter your pin number at the prompt. Otherwise, just press 1#. (Long distance charges may apply.) OR…
2. Visit our Talkshoe page to listen and join the chat. You can also use Talkshoe’s optional free software to talk in high quality with your computer mic.

This Week’s Topic: Balancing “fun” and Bible study in youth group

We all struggle with trying to balance “entertainment” and Bible study in youth group. What balance have you found works best for your group? What “fun” elements should be included in youth group? Or should we disregard the entertainment side altogether? Come prepared to share your thoughts or just to listen to what others have to say.

We also have a lot of catching up to do. Let’s talk about what’s been happening in your ministry so far this summer. How has God been working? What are you excited about? What issues have come up that you’d like to bounce off other youth workers? We want to hear all your stories from this summer so far.

Upcoming Schedule

The schedule and topics are maintained on our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversations page, but here’s a glance at what’s coming up.

• August 1: The balance between “fun” and Bible study in youth group.
• August 8: Getting parents involved in the spiritual lives of their teens.
• August 15: No conversation.
• August 22: Problems with youth group as a “minichurch.”
• August 29: No conversation.
• September 5: Evaluating the spiritual depth of our youth ministries.
• September 12: Working with students who suffer from depression and eating disorders (special guest, TBA).

What is the Life In Student Ministry Conversation?

Join us every Friday at 2:00 PM Eastern Time for a LIVE conversation between me and many other youth workers from around the country. Together we talk about anything and everything pertaining to “life in student ministry” and you’re invited to join the conversation! Although we usually set the topics beforehand, there’s always time for you to chime in, ask for input on an issue, share your advice with others, or just tell us about something exciting in your ministry, all LIVE via voice and video feeds!

More information can be found on our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation page.

TheParentLink.com gave me a one-year free subscription to give away to a Life In Student Ministry reader, a $99 value! They’ve been a huge part of my youth group’s parent ministry for almost 3 years now, so I’m excited to help one of you benefit from them as much as I have. In fact, you can read one year of my archived ParentLink newsletters here.

Get a 1 year subscription for FREE

There are several ways you can enter to win a FREE one-year subscription to TheParentLink Newsletter. Each one will enter your name into the drawing a certain number of times. You’re welcome to enter as many times as you’d like. Here’s how to enter:

• Send me a youth ministry resource you’ve created and give me written permission to distribute it as a Freebie Friday. Send it to tim@schmoyer.net with your name, city and state, ministry name and website if applicable. Each freebie you submit enters your name into the drawing 10 times.
• Write a blog post on one of the unclaimed “100 blog topics I hope YOU write” and link back to the list. Each post enters your name into the drawing 5 times.
• If your youth group has a special game that you made up (not like Hide and Seek or something), send it to me and give me written permission to post it here. Include your name, city and state, ministry name and website if applicable. Each game idea enters your name into the drawing 3 times.
• Send me your youth ministry blooper stories. Please keep them brief and to-the-point and give me permission to share it here on this site. Again, include your name, city and state, ministry name and website. Each story enters your name into the drawing 3 times.
• Write a blog post review of Life In Student Ministry with a link back to us. Only 1 review per blog. It will enter your name into the drawing 5 times.
• Adding a link to Life In Student Ministry in your blog’s sidebar will enter your name into the drawing 1 time.

IMPORTANT:
After you’ve completed one or more of the above, email me at tim@schmoyer.net so I can ensure that your name is entered into the drawing the correct amount of times and so I can contact you if you win.

The drawing will take place on Monday, August 18, 2008, so you have plenty of time to get your submissions turned in, blog posts written and ideas sent. [ drawing is over. ] The winner will be contacted via email and announced on Twitter and the Life In Student Ministry Facebook page.

Get 1 month of TheParentLink FREE!

For a limited time, you can get a trial month of The ParentLink for free here.

I’ve written several reviews of The ParentLink Newsletter here and here because it’s such a great resource for partnering with parents. They write all the content you need for an excellent parent newsletter that is full of both practical tips and educational insights. They format it professionally and then give it to you to edit and distribute however you want. It’s easy to add your own articles, enter your youth group calendar events, save it as a PDF, Word document, or HTML for sending as a rich email or posting on your website. See this page for more on how it works.

Last week Dana and I celebrated our 2-year wedding anniversary! We were on vacation at a resort in Oklahoma with her family, but after a day on her father’s farm, we had some time to relax and reflect on our two years of marriage. Our journey started out with a lot of big transitions all at once. Most people usually advise against such big changes all at once on a marriage that is only a couple months old, but looking back we can see the Lord’s hand in it all — it was exactly what we needed to solidify our marriage and commitment to each other.

Throughout the years I’ve grown to not only love Dana more and more, but to appreciate many things about her (in no particular order).

1. She helps remind me that my relationship with God comes before anything else. Not only by asking me about it, but by setting an example. Often I come to bed at night to find her reading her Bible or asking to do devotions together when I’m preoccupied with something less important (which is everything at that point).

2. She loves youth ministry! As long as I’ve known her she’s been serving teenagers in church ministries, both as the paid leader and as a volunteer. She does very well in both roles and is one of the best small group leaders I’ve ever seen. Her passion for her jr. high girls is very contagious. Often we go to orchestra concerts and games together at her initiative.

3. One look at my desk will prove very decisively that I’m not the most organized person in the world. I lose important papers, toss things on the floor, and hate doing administrative work. However, Dana actually excels in these areas. I don’t know where I’d be without her!

4. She is always 100% supportive of me and all my dreams and ideas for youth ministry, even when other people have their doubts. She listens intently, prays with me, and most importantly, prays for me all the time.

5. Many times I’ve brought paperwork home from the church office for Dana to do for me, which she does gladly. She’s so much better at balancing budget sheets and organizing supply lists than I am. Plus, then it actually gets done on time, which makes me look good.

6. She thinks I’m funny (sometimes)! Even when I try to be funny and am totally not, she at least roles her eyes and gives me a smile that’s something a bit more than a sympathy laugh.

7. I’m excited about having children one day because she’s going to be the world’s best super-mom. She has a degree in Elementary Education and loves teaching children. My kids are gonna be the smartest kids in the world and it’s not because they have a smart daddy.

8. Dana works hard to keep herself in shape for me. She works out, reads health books and tries to eat right, not because she likes exercise and nutrition (she hates it!), but because she loves me and understands that, like all men, I am physically oriented. And it pays off. She’s hot! (Hold on, I’ll brb…)

9. Dana is incredibly fun! She likes some nerdy computer stuff, many of the same TV shows I enjoy, and she’ll kick your butt in Halo and most other Xbox games. She even wrestles me in our living room, but always looses no matter what moves I try to teach her. (We differ on country music, though. Ugh, it’s awful!)

10. When Dana and I were first married, I did all of the cooking because she didn’t know how. But now, two years later, she’s digging out cookbooks and creating some great meals for us! I know she does it because she loves me, not because I made her sick too many times.

If you’re interested, my wife blogs at A Child of God Educating Other Children. You can also follow her on Twitter.

One of the things that worked really well on our missions trip to Belize last month was assigning a responsibility to every teenager on the team. We made these assignments based on gifts and talents of each student. I highly recommend doing something like this for your future mission trips. Most of these responsibilities had at least one guy and one girl working together. This really helped streamline our communication, made sure items were in the right spot at the right time, and made everyone feel like they were part of the team. Our teens did an awesome job at taking ownership for each area they were assigned to. I’m really proud of them!

Communicator: Keep the team current on what is needed at the meetings, keep the church updated on the progress of the team, and maintain home contact during the trip. (That was my job.)

Work Coordinators: Make sure all the stuff gets done in order for us to live. Organize efforts for bag lunches, clean-up, and make sure we have everything we need before going to a ministry site and again when leaving.

Encouragers: Make sure we “do everything without grumbling or complaining” and be available to team members when needed. Let them know they are appreciated and valued. Guard the morale of the team.

Team Assistants: Assist adult leaders by leading tasks and communicating for them as asked.

Ministry Coordinators: Make sure presentation and programs are planned and executed in an orderly and excellent fashion.

Photographers: Record images that capture the spirit of the team, the people, the culture and the sights of Belize to help us remember and to share the experiences with those back home.

Prayer Coordinators: Make sure the team is “praying without ceasing.” Take the initiative to bring the team together for prayer. Keep a prayer journal for the team, including requests, praises and answers to prayer.

Public Relations: Make sure we leave a good impression wherever we go. Prepare “thank you” notes for people we visit.

Sound Coordinator: Oversee sound equipment, including transportation from location to location, as well as projectors, setup, tear-down, etc.

Drama Assistant: Organize dramas and practices. Oversee equipment transportation, organizing props, setup, putting them away afterwards, etc.

Puppet Assistant: Organize puppet shows and practices, including puppet and stage transportation, setup, tear down.

Song Leader Assistant: Assist the music leaders. Help lead music, teach hand motions, generate excitement for the songs.

Crafts Assistant: Organize VBS crafts, including materials transportation. Make sure everyone has the proper materials, teach others on the team how to lead the crafts, check inventory, etc.

Time Out (by Jerry Schmoyer)

Everyone is required to share the good news of Jesus with those they come in contact with, but some seem to be much better at it than others. These few are relaxed, positive, motivated and seem to enjoy each opportunity to share. What makes them different than the rest of us? God has included evangelism as part of their spiritual gift mix.

Do you like to talk to people about Jesus, especially those who don’t know Him? Are you able to share the gospel in a way that is clear and understandable for others? Do you look for opportunities to share the plan of salvation? Has God used you to help bring unbelievers to salvation? Do you come away from times of sharing the gospel with great encouragement and enthusiasm? If you do, evangelism is part of your spiritual gift mix.

What if you don’t have this gift? Can you still minister with youth and others? Of course! If God didn’t give you this gift He didn’t want you to have it! No gift is better than any other gift. We thank God for those with the gift of evangelism for they are the spiritual obstetricians that bring new life into the church. But we need pediatric doctors, family doctors, etc., to help these new ones grow. If evangelism isn’t your gift, don’t feel left out. According to scripture, there are some things all believers are commanded to do whether it’s a spiritual gift or not. Serving, giving, and evangelism all fall into that category. We are responsible to share the gospel with others. I find the best way to do this is to be just what God tells us to be – a witness. A witness doesn’t argue a point, he just relates what he knows. He shares personal experience. When I realize that is what God wants me to do then I find it is much easier than acting like a lawyer trying to argue people into the truth. I share what Jesus has done for me and God uses that in mighty ways. After all, He does promise that He will use His Word for His glory.

Scripture
Ephesians 4:7, 11, “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it…. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers…”

Matthew 28:18-20, “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

Reflect

• Do you have evangelism as part of your spiritual gift mix? If so, what are you doing to develop it? How do you use it?
• If you don’t have the gift of evangelism, are you using that a an excuse to not share the gospel as often as you can? If you struggle with this, write out your testimony (your witness) so you can say it in 2 to 3 minutes. God will take it from there.
• Write down the names of several people you have spoken to about Jesus in the last year. Pray for them now and continue to remember them when you pray.
• If you have the gift or not, ask God to give you opportunities to speak for Him this day. Then be alert for them. Even be intentional about creating opportunities, too.

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Jerry Schmoyer has been a minister in Pennsylvania for over 25 years and has worked with teenagers for 14 years, 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 really hope I’m not violating someone’s copyrighted material here, but I honestly cannot figure out where I got these documents from nor can I find any sort of license or author that might go along with them, so I’m going to assume they’re open source. I found them sitting on my computer from January 2005. Who knows how they got there.

As we gear up for the fall, some of us may have college students returning to our churches who want to do internships in our youth ministries. This packet includes 4 documents to help you plan an excellent and meaningful internship both for the intern and for your ministry. The documents are:

• Developing an intern job description
• Intern reference letter
• Intern self-evaluation form
• Intern’s supervisor evaluation

Obviously your ministry may not require all the formality found in these documents, but the job description form includes a lot of great questions you should think through before bringing on a new intern. At the very least, as you would with any adult volunteer, make sure you’re comfortable with the intern’s spiritual and emotional maturity before putting them in a position of a role model for the teenagers.

Download the Youth Ministry Internship Packet

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.

I love interacting with youth workers online! I’m often challenged with new perspectives, the stories of how God’s working through other people energizes me, and new ideas abound. Not only does my ministry benefit from the input of lots of other youth workers, but my personal life does, as well.

If you’re looking for ways to interact with other youth workers online, here’s where I am online. Feel free to join me or comment below with other places online you’ve found to be significantly beneficial.

Facebook “Youth Pastors Only” group

Unlike most groups of Facebook, Rob Kashow, the creator of Facebook’s “Youth Pastors Only” group (and an old college friend of mine), does a great job of keeping the group alive and active. There’s always new forum posts of questions, struggles and ideas. If you need input about something, this is a great place to start. Just remember, like anything else you post online, this group is open to the public, so don’t write anything you don’t want your kids or other church people to potentially read.

Twitter

The thing I love about Twitter is that I can ask a question from anywhere via txt message and within minutes several people respond with great ideas, insights, or stories to make me laugh. Just last week I asked for a movie recommendation, input on upcoming blog posts, WordPress help, and more. Even cooler, though, is the opportunity to answer other people’s questions, too, and just generally keep up with what other youth workers are up to during the day. If you’re on Twitter, follow me here. I recommend following these youth guys, too:

• Mike Kupferer
• Josh Griffin
• Adam McLane
• Mark Matlock
• Mike Lovato
• Doug Fields
• Youth Ministry
• Brian Eberly
• Youth Specialties
• Kevin Twombly
• Brian Ford
• Dana Schmoyer, my wife

Skype

I prefer Skype as my choice for instant communication because it’s so versatile: text chat, voice chat, video conferencing, SMS, even telephone calls, and it does it all better than any other communication client out there. Since the Life In Student Ministry Skypecasts started, my contact list has grown to include a lot of youth workers from around the world, which makes for a lot of great conversations during the week. Add me to your Skype contact list: rockinyp. If you join our Skypecasts on Fridays, you’ll also start making a lot of these connections, too, which is exactly why I use Skype for our youth ministry conversations over other voice conference-call technologies.

Youth Ministry Blogs

Since you’re already reading this site, you obviously know the value of connecting with the ideas and stories of other youth workers through blogs. I’ve formed great relationships with many youth workers around the world just through simple comments and linking back to others posts.

Here’s a couple of my favorite youth ministry blogs:

• GregStier.org - President of Dare 2 Share Ministries
• Insight - by Grahame Knox, a veteran youth worker in the U.K.
• More Than Dodge Ball - by Joshua Griffin, high school pastor at Saddleback Church.
• Youth Ministry Ideas - Resources and ideas by Steve Blanchard
• Youthblog.org - by Ian, a Anglican youth worker in Oxford.
• YSMarko.com - by Mark Oestreicher, president of Youth Specialties
• Married To A Youth Pastor - Just started reading this one. Fun YM stories!
• Rethinking Youth Ministry - Two guys exploring different approaches to youth ministry
• Thoughts of a Student Pastor - A student pastor in the ATL
• BrianEberly.com - by a youth pastor in Oregon who started blogging around the same time I did.
• The Poulette Family in Mexico - by Dennis Poulette, a youth ministry professor in Mexico

If you use Google Reader and want to share RSS items with me, add rockinyp@gmail.com to your friends list. Or, for non-Google Reader users, grab my shared items here.

Youth Ministry Exchange

Although I’m not a very active participant at YMExchange.com anymore, they still have the best youth ministry forum on the Internet. There’s lot of great youth workers there who love discussing youth ministry and issues therein, so if you want an online community of youth workers all in one spot, that’s probably the site you’ll want to check out first.

Connect with me personally

Here’s a list of where you can connect with me personally through many different social media sites and services.

Connect with other youth workers personally

Do you want to find more youth ministry friends? Do you want to find other bloggers to follow and network with? If so, here’s an opportunity to do just that. In comments below, leave links to any of your social media profiles that you want to promote (Twitter, Facebook, blog, Skype, Google Chat, etc.). Once you’ve done so, add the other people who post their info in the comments. This will only work if you make connections rather than just promote yourself.

Youth ministry budgets are often slim, but that doesn’t mean your youth group fun has to be. Summer events are great for building relationships, earning trust, and meeting pre-Christians. Here are five summer youth events I’ve done that cost $5 or less total.

1. Movie night on the big screen
Hang a big white sheet on the side of your house and setup a projector and sound system from church in the grass or driveway. Invite kids to come over at dusk and watch a movie on the BIG screen with their own lawn chairs, blankets, bug spray and snacks. I did this last week. Here’s a picture of my setup I posted on Twitter. Always fun!

2. Swim party
My wife and I are blessed enough to live on a great swimming lake, so youth kids swim here pretty often to cool off during the summer. A guy in our church even made volleyball poles for us to use in the lake, too. Suh-weet!

3. Photo scavenger hunt
Get a bunch of adults to drive teams of teenagers around town with their digital cameras taking pictures of things on a predetermined list. Meet up someplace afterwards where the group can watch all the pictures together on a TV or projection screen. Here’s the list I used with my group this year, along with all the pictures they took.

4. Night games
If your church, a family you know or a park near you has a lot of wooded area, meet up at dusk to play some night games, like Capture the Flag, Sardines, Mission Impossible or even Hide and Seek. Encourage them to come dressed up in camouflage gear and dark clothes. Afterwards have a bonfire and a time of worship.

5. Mall madness
Mall Madness events are great if it’s unbearably hot outside and you all want to be in air conditioning. I already blogged four Mall Madness ideas. All four of them are dirt cheap or free.

Other ideas from the community

I asked on Twitter for other people’s ideas for good summer youth events that cost $5 or less. Here are their suggestions:

ruthEbabes: waterfight…. huge pile of water balloons and some buckets and tada!!!! Mad cheap summer fun!

Shelby_Craig: Laser Tag…we just did a laser tag at $5 a game and then went to a local gymnastics and took over the place for $5.Total trip $10

Saraeden: we do all-nighters at the church. Guitar Hero, movies, contests, games . everyone brings snack - 7pm to 7am … free … awesome. and parents volunteer to come in and cook us breakfast.

Briandurr: It’s still tough to beat the old stand-by video scavenger hunt & watch the videos afterwards over pizza. or the “Dive-In Movie” watching Jaws from the pool. (& grab Jr. High girls feet when the shark shows up)

mikelovato: we’re doing an event next friday called Frisbee Friday (not original to us) just show up at a park to play ultimate frisbee - free

lilkup: park, ultimate frisbee, wiffle ball, (should be more, but can’t think)

Josh Cook on my Facebook wall: Going to the park is often our best cheap outing. Picnic. Bring a lunch.

What ideas do you have that could be added to this list?

Time Out (by Jerry Schmoyer)

Like many pastors, I first cut my teeth in ministry by being a youth pastor. While God has graciously gifted me in several ways, leadership and people skills were not among them. I was not a good motivator, nor did I easily draw people to me and my cause. That made it quite hard to lead the youth in the church where I worked. I attracted the serious youth and could disciple them, but I envied those who could be cool with all the kids and attract their admiration and loyalty. Maybe you understand how I felt.

Is leadership part of your spiritual gift mix? Do you enjoy inspiring and leading others for the sake of Christ’s work? Are you quick to sense when a group needs direction and then able to step up and do something about it? Do others look to you for leadership and guidance? Are you able to motivate others to strive for goals you feel are important? Do you think of future accomplishments and how to bring them about? If so, you have leadership gifts.

The gift of leadership is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to set goals in accordance with God’s purpose and to communicate those goals to others so that they harmoniously work together to accomplish them for the glory of God. Often administration/organization accompanies this gift so the leader is better able to move forward in his plans. As with any privilege God gives, however, there is a responsibility to use it for Him and an accountability factor as well. 1 Timothy 3 lists characteristics a leader must have: without fault, sober, self-controlled, orderly, welcoming of strangers, gentle and peaceful, not greedy, able to manage his family and children, mature in the faith and respected by others. This gift must always be exercised under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We must at all times remember they are HIS sheep, not ours. We are just the under shepherd. But isn’t it a great privilege to be on God’s leadership team?

Scripture
Romans 12:8, “…if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”

1 Thessalonians 5:12, “Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you.”

John 21:16, “Jesus said to Peter, ‘”Take care of my sheep.’”

Reflect

• What is your plan to keep your focus on Jesus and not let your ego needs rise to the surface? How do you keep from using your leadership ability feed your own pride?
• Who is your example as a leader? Find someone in life, in the Bible, or in history whom you admire as a leader and study their life.
• What are you doing to further develop your leadership abilities? There are many fine books, web sites and workshops available. We are responsible to develop our abilities, not coast on them.
• Ask God to show you how you an be a better leader to those who follow you. Sit quietly for a few moments and listen to what He would say to you.

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Jerry Schmoyer has been a minister in Pennsylvania for over 25 years and has worked with teenagers for 14 years, 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!

Youth Specialties has a free Bible lesson based on Pixar’s latest movie, Wall-E. I haven’t used it myself, but it looks like it could spark some good small group discussions. You could use it now or save it to use later once Wall-E comes out on DVD.

Wall-E Bible lesson by Youth Specialties

(Thanks to Justin Ross for the tip via Twitter.)

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.