Russell Bowlin is the youth director at my father-in-law’s church in Texarkana, TX. While my wife and I were visiting them a couple weeks ago, we hang out at their youth meetings. Russell led a significant discussion on how we live our lives as a show at church and youth group but outside in “real life” we live lives that are often completely void of God. (Tip: If you haven’t read Malachi from The Message yet, you need to! I dare anyone to just read that short little book in front of your congregation and then sit down. You’ll probably lose your job because it hits so close to home.)

Russell took Jon Foreman’s song (lead singer of Switchfoot), “Instead of a Show,” played the song for the teens with the lyrics overhead, and then lead the discussion. (Grab the song here in iTunes.”)

Here’s a copy of Russell’s notes:

1. Listen to “Instead of a Show” by Jon Foreman. If possible, use power point or some kind of media to project words. The power point I made has a slide for each of the lines in the song. This may seem odd or excessive, but I find that it helps to keep people focused on listening to the message of the song, instead of reading ahead. I also chose to have a plain black background with white letters in an attempt to make sure the focus is on the message, not the cool design, etc.

2. Open up with some discussion starters/clarifying questions

• Who is speaking in the song? Or, who is “I” referring to in the song?
• Who is God (”I”) speaking to?
• How did the song make you feel?
• What do you think “a show” is referring to?
• Does the problem come from the way we worship, or could it be that the problem is that the rest of our lives don’t always line up with the way we worship?
• Does God “need” us to worship?
• What does God desire from the church/Christians?
• Do you think that this song is speaking to a problem in the church today?

3. Use some scriptures

• The song comes from Isaiah 1:11-18
• Sections of Amos 5 have some striking similarities to the Isaiah passage.
• Matthew 6:1-8 Jesus talks about “shows” of religion
• Titus 3:3-8 We did not earn salvation, but we are commanded to do good

This can be a powerful discussion or Bible study as youth and adults explore the difference between going to church and living a life for Christ. Here’s a guest blog entry he wrote for worship leaders based on this song.

See the song’s lyrics here.

Download the lyrics to “Instead of a show” in 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.

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Been in youth ministry for 2 years or fewer? Life In Student Ministry has an outstanding team of youth ministry veterans waiting to mentor you one-on-one! [Mentorship made free for you thanks to YouthBytes video curriculum.]

Indoor Game; All Ages; 30 or more kids

Troy Young, student pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Danville, KY, sent me this game idea. I haven’t tried it yet, but can’t wait to do so!

Buy 3 or 4, 20″ bicycle inner-tubes. Split the youth up into groups and see how many students they can fit inside of the inner tube. You will be blown away! Our students were like, “There is no way we are getting in there.” We got over 30 students into each inner-tube. It sounds simple but they loved it, and they loved the competition against the different groups.

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.

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Been in youth ministry for 2 years or fewer? Life In Student Ministry has an outstanding team of youth ministry veterans waiting to mentor you one-on-one! [Mentorship made free for you thanks to YouthBytes video curriculum.]

Last week in our LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation we talked about the issues surrounding “youth group as a minichurch.” Youth ministries are becoming like their own little sub-church more and more: they have their own pastor, their own worship band, their own sermon and their own youth worship service. Opinions on the implications of such a structured ministry are many, from, “This is why teenagers are leaving the church after college” to, “There’s no better alternative because the adult church is totally irrelevant.” This past spring I blogged a bit about my view on how the mini-church approach can be dangerous and other’s have, too. Not everyone agrees, however. This LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation is probably one of the most stimulating discussions we’ve had yet. Listen to it below or grab it in iTunes.

 

 Problems with youth group as a "minichurch" [44:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

Subscribe to conversations in iTunes

Next Topic: Evaluating the spiritual depth of your youth ministry.

September 5th: How deep is your teenagers’ faith? To what extent do they interpret the world around them through a Biblical lens? Are our youth ministries playing a significant role in taking kids to the next level in their faith? There’s no Conversation this Friday (August 29), but next Friday (September 5) we’ll discuss ways we can evaluate our youth ministry’s spiritual impact and what we need to do to create ministries that challenge kids beyond the same old messages and Bible stories re-packaged with different flavors.

Join our next LIVE Youth Ministry Conversation!

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Been in youth ministry for 2 years or fewer? Life In Student Ministry has an outstanding team of youth ministry veterans waiting to mentor you one-on-one! [Mentorship made free for you thanks to YouthBytes video curriculum.]

Last March I explored the idea of developing a one-on-one mentorship program for those who have been in youth ministry for two years or fewer. The response was overwhelming! After sifting through over 200 applications, I choose two individuals and went through the one-on-one mentorship program with each of them. They were great guinea pigs because since then I’ve developed the program a bit further to create what I think is an incredible learning and growing experience for new youth workers.

The Mentor Team
The mentorship program is opening up once again starting right now! But this time I have a whole team of youth ministry veterans on board. I’m very excited about this Youth Ministry Mentor Team because most of them have been in youth ministry for over a decade and are passionate about teaching and training other youth workers like yourself. Their backgrounds range from volunteer to full-time paid youth pastors to even a sr. pastor.

Apply!
If you’ve been in youth ministry for 2 years or fewer and would like to have a FREE one-on-one youth ministry mentor for 10 weeks, read the official Youth Ministry Mentorship page. The link to the application is there. It’s open to anyone who serves in youth ministry in any capacity, whether that be on a volunteer basis or as a full-time youth pastor.

The application period is open for only 2 weeks. After Tuesday, September 9, no further applications will be accepted. Read an overview of the mentorship and apply there.

As you can understand, we have a limited number of mentors, so you may not be one of the 10 chosen this time around, but keep your eye on this site because we plan to make this an on-going program. The next round will be in January 2009 sometime. Subscribe to the RSS feed or by email to stay up-to-date.

The sponsor who makes this FREE!

Thanks to YouthBytes.org’s sponsorship, this program is offered free of charge to everyone who participates! They’re covering the cost of purchasing and shipping all the necessary books and resources you get as an accepted participant of the mentorship.

YouthBytes.org creates video curriculum for youth groups that contains some of the most outrageous stunts I’ve ever seen, all for the purpose of illustrating Biblical truth. Check out some of these crazy video clips to see what I mean.

Time Out (by Jerry Schmoyer)

We Americans say we love everything! We love pizza, football and our country. We love Mom, apple pie and American Idol. We love whatever is good and wholesome. But when we say we love everything, we really don’t love anything. That cheapens love and puts everything on the same level. Real love is sacrificial and costly, it is unconditional and unselfish. It is for the good of the other and not for our self. This kind of love is commanded by God. Jesus said in John 13:35: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:37 say: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

Where does this supernatural, unconditional, other-centered love come from? It certainly isn’t something we can just decide to start doing one day. Human love is conditional. We love “if” and “because.” To love “in spite of” comes from God. It is a fruit of His Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). He produces it in us as we let Him fill us and control us. It comes from Him. It is a response to His love. We love Him because He first loved us (I John 4:19). Loving God something He won’t force us to do. It’s a free will choice we make and that’s why our love is so important to Him. Still, His Spirit is the source of the love inside us.

I Corinthians 13 tells us that love is the greatest of all attributes. That’s why it is listed first among the fruit in Galatians 5:22-23. All these fruit (not fruits) describe one character, and love is the predominate trait in that character. That is God’s outstanding quality and that is also reflected in Jesus’ life. Donald Grey Barnhouse puts it this way: “Love is the key. Joy is love singing. Peace is love resting. Long-suffering is love enduring. Kindness is love’s touch. Goodness is love’s character. Faithfulness is love’s habit. Gentleness is love’s self-forgetfulness. Self-control is love holding the reins.”

To be like Jesus means to have His love flowing out to others. He makes it available for His people. It’s free for the asking, but you have to ask.

Scripture
1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13, “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…. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Reflect

• Read the above verses again, only instead of the word “love” insert “Jesus.” Does that describe Jesus?
• Now read it again and insert your name or “I” for the word love. How does it sound that way? How well does that describe you?
• Do those you minister to you know you love them? Would they use “loving” as one of the first words they choose to describe you?
• Pick out 1 or 2 of the places where you need improvement. Spend a few minutes praying about them, asking God to make you more like them. Plan some steps you can take to become more like Jesus in these areas.

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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!

Thanks to Trazy Richter of Home Acres Church in Kentwood, MI, for donating a boatload of ready-to-go youth group meetings! She pretty much has your youth meetings covered from now until Christmas! Each lesson includes:

• Game ideas
• Group activities
• Material/supply list
• Bible lesson/discussion talk-sheet
• And a nicely laid-out, timed agenda.

Here’s a list of the topics:

• Week 1: Finding meaning in life
• Week 2: Who is God?
• Week 3: Who is Jesus?
• Week 4: Who is the Holy Spirit?
• Week 5: Righteousness of God
• Week 6: Promises of God
• Week 7: Love
• Week 8: Friendship
• Week 9: Family
• Week 10: Silence
• Week 11: Service
• Week 12: Death and Dying
• Week 13: Our enemies
• Week 14: Salvation
• Week 15: Identity in Christ
• Week 16: Being a disciple of Christ

Download the 16 weeks of ready-to-go youth group meetings

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.

It seems odd to me that I find myself more and more having to defend why I give away all the youth ministry resources and services on this site for free. Wouldn’t you rather get something for free than have to pay for it? I’m a little tired of giving the same speech over and over, especially as I work with organizations toward the official launch of the Youth Ministry Mentorship Program (only a week or two away!) and work on another ebook. Free doesn’t mean it’s less valuable — free just means I have to be creative in finding other ways to cover my expenses. Here’s why I give everything away for free.

1. Free ideas travel faster and farther than non-free ideas.
None of my ideas or resources are really my own — they all belong to the Lord. He freely blessed me with them, so I have no problem freely sharing them with others. The best way for me to share the blessings He’s poured on me is to make the ideas, resources and services on this site available for free. They’ll go much further and bless more people if they’re not restricted by dollar signs.

2. I benefit from open source material all the time.
The very backbone of this website is powered by Wordpress, free software made available by a team of developers. Much of what I do and create is made on open source software, web services, programs and ideas of others. I’ve been the recipient of so many free things that the least I can do is return the favor for others.

3. I already have a full-time job.
Some ministries have to charge for their products because they have families to feed and support. They should charge for their services because invest their lives into creating outstanding youth ministry materials to support youth workers. However, I’m in a different boat because I earn a living as a full-time youth pastor. The Lord has already supplied an income for me and my family, so I don’t need to charge you for anything.

4. I know what it’s like to have no money and no youth ministry budget.
Perhaps the biggest reason, though, is because I remember what it’s like to be the part-time youth worker with no ministry budget, a secular job to make ends meet, and a burning passion to reach teenagers for Christ. I remember seeing so many resources that could enhance my ministry, only to be disappointed by a price that neither I nor my ministry could afford. There are so many of you who volunteer your time and love God’s kids, with no finances to equip or train yourself. I remember what that struggle feels like and want to serve you however I can. One way I can serve you is to give you everything I can for free.

I pray I can freely bless you all for your investment into teenagers just as the Lord has so richly and freely blessed me. Keep up the great work!

You know the books you’d like to read one day, but they always seem to be low enough on the reading priority list that you never really get around to reading them? “Ministry Mutiny: A Youth Leader Fable,” by Greg Stier was on that stack for me for about two years. But as I become more and more passionate about Deep & Wide and how that works in my youth ministry, I pulled it out and, Wow! Why did I wait so long to read this?! I picked up 10 copies of it and had all my adult youth workers pass the copies around to each other throughout the summer until almost everyone read it. Now I’m blogging about this book because you need to read it, too. In fact, every youth worker needs to read this book.

From a narrative perspective, the story line isn’t the most gripping one you’ll ever read. I can easily identify with the young youth leader who’s frustrated with youth ministry and is about to resign, but the veteran youth worker who comes to the rescue and mentors the young man for a week seems a bit too perfect to be believable. Nonetheless, it’s not the narrative that’s intended to keep you moving through the chapters as much as it is the advice, wisdom, and practical ideas that flow from the mentor in the story.

Through the mentor, Greg challenges the typical paradigm of youth ministry on all levels. Everything from curriculum, how we teach, youth events, outreach, spiritual growth, relevance, teen drop-out from church, the role of parents, and everything in between. He explains everything you always felt was somehow not quite right, but weren’t quite sure why.

But he doesn’t just point out the ineffectiveness and dangers of a typical approach to youth ministry — he builds a picture straight from the pages of scripture of what youth ministry should look like, what we all deep down inside really want it to be in the first place, but never articulated as clearly as Greg does.

There’s two things I especially love about the “mutiny from typical ministry” in this book. First, Greg focuses on exactly what I’ve always held to be true: Who we are in ministry should always determine what we do in ministry, never vice versa. As Ephesians so clearly states, identity “in Christ” comes first, function flows from that. And second, he doesn’t break down the youth ministry system without giving practical, down-to-earth ideas for how to implement the proposed ideas and changes in our youth groups. It’s as much a book of ideas as it is anything else.

At only 158 pages long, it’s a quick read, but, like I did, you’ll still find yourself highlighting and underlining many pages as you evaluate your own ministry in light of the wisdom Greg imparts from scripture. Read this book, even if you have to raid the vending machine at church to scrape together the $10 for it.

[ On Amazon: Ministry Mutiny: A Youth Leader Fable, by Greg Stier. ]

Jr. High Retreat
Whew! Had a crazy weekend! Thursday through Saturday I was on a jr. high retreat to Minneapolis (called MUUUCE) with a bunch of our jr. high kids. We had a great time! If you follow me on Twitter, you got a play-by-play of the weekend, complete with pictures, everything from pillow fights to decapitating monkey stuffed animals to worship to roller coasters and the Minnesota Twins.

The highlight of the weekend for me was this conversation with an incoming 7th grader:

Sitting next to each other on the grass, he looks at me with a very concerned expression and says, “I just felt the earth rumble!”

Me: “Are you sure?”

7th grade boy: “Yes! The earth just shook!”

Me: “Oh, I farted, that’s all.”

He looks at me in amazement for a second and then says, “WOW! That’s incredible!” lol He totally believed me! I didn’t have the heart to tell him that such a feat is absolutely impossible.

Check out the video of our trip and lots of pictures. (I made that sweet video at Animoto.com in about 5 minutes. You should seriously check out Animoto for your youth group highlight videos.)

Annual Parent/Student Info Meeting

Every year toward the end of the summer we have our annual parent/student youth ministry information meeting. Last Sunday evening was that time for us. A couple people saw me twittering about it as I pulled materials together and asked for an overview of what I do with parents and teenagers at this annual meeting. Here’s the outline of our agenda:

• Look back on last year’s ministry (reflections, ideas, events, highlights, lessons learned, etc.)
• Cast the vision for next year’s ministry (I taught an overview of Deep & Wide.)
• What that vision looks like in our ministry (a breakdown of every weekly meeting and event, who it’s for, where it’s at, what they’re studying, introducing leaders, etc).
• An overview of a couple big annual events we do each year.
• Communication (how the youth ministry communicates with students and parents, where to find info and stay up-to-date, how to get on mailing lists, overview of our youth group website, parent newsletter, etc.)
• Q&A

The meeting is mostly for families of incoming 7th graders and those transitioning from jr. high to high school. It’s also for new families who joined our ministry during the school year and want an overview of the whole ministry. Plus, it gives me an opportunity to communicate our vision and the movement of the ministry as a whole so people don’t get too lost in just their individual little area of it.

Time Out (by Jerry Schmoyer)

The concept behind a water wheel is very interesting because there are both overshot waterwheels and undershot waterwheels. In one case, the water falls from above the wheel to turn it. In the other case, water turns the wheel as it flows beneath it. Which is the more powerful? The first, or course.

We, like wheels, are turned by forces from various sources, but too often we move by the undercurrent — selfish desires drive us. However when we let God’s driving force fall from above we have power beyond anything we can produce on our own. The love God puts in us is far greater than any love we can come up with on our own. So is His joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self control (Galatians 5:22-23).

When we allow God to do His work within us, the result is that He reproduces His fruit. Notice Paul doesn’t say fruits (plural) although he does use the plural ‘acts’ for what the flesh produces (Galatians 5:19). The 9 traits listed in Galatians 5:22-23 are not 9 separate traits but all characteristics of one person – Jesus. They aren’t set out on a buffet table for us to walk by and choose which ones we want. They are one unit. When God is in control all 9 of these are producing themselves in us, when He isn’t in control none of them are there.

Because we have different personalities, different temperaments, and different strengths and weaknesses, some of these fruit will come more “naturally” to us and others will be more difficult to grow. Still, God makes all of them equally available. If we are naturally laid back and easy-going, we don’t want to mistake that for the fruit of patience. Likewise, if we have a problem with anger we can’t blame God for not giving us more self-control. We must make sure we allow Him to produce fruit in the areas of our strength as well as weakness. If the patience we have isn’t from Him then it isn’t Christ-like, its just another of the works/acts of the flesh disguised as fruit. It’s counterfeit. And just because we may see evidence of 8 of these fruit but find it very hard to allow God to produce the last one, doesn’t mean we can coast thinking that 8 out of 9 is pretty good! To be like Jesus we need all 9.

Scripture
Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Psalm 1:1-3, “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”

Psalm 92:12-14, “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green…”

Reflect

• Which of these 9 fruit do you find come more naturally to you? In other words, which do you try to do in your own strength? Confess the danger in that and ask God to forgive you for trying to counterfeit His fruit by your own flesh.
• Which of these 9 fruit do you most need? Which do you lack more than others? Do you make excuses for it, blame it on others, or just ignore it and live with it? If so, then confess that as well as the sin itself. Ask God to show you what you need to do for Him to reproduce Himself in this area as well.
• Do you focus on some of these fruit to the exclusion of others in your ministry?
• Pray and ask God to reproduce all His fruit in you, especially in the areas where you are least like Jesus. When situations arise during your day, pray again that He would help you respond as Jesus would have responded.

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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!