Youth Ministry Ideas

So if you are looking for a fun way to add something to your youth group photos then check out BlingEasy.com for some cool/cheezy fun to add.

It took me about 10 min to do my family picture above and you can post them easy on your facebook or blog or website.

There is some Bling on there that most likely will not be used, but I thought this way a great useful tool to add some fun to some of your photos.

You can use thinking and word boxes, draw, write in text. Oh yeah, it’s FREE too - pretty cool stuff.

Check em out and send me a link of your pimped out youth group pictures!

This is an idea that I found on another youth ministry page and it definitely worked out really well for my group.

All you need is tea candles, a lighter, and something to put all the candles on just to be safe. If your youth are like mine were, they liked to put the hot wax on their fingers after we were done.  

Each night to close out youth group meetings this is a nice way to end everything. We’d turn out the lights just enough to have the first person light their candles. Having it almost pitch black is the best way to do it. You can crack a door if you need to do so.

Any one can start. The way we ended up doing it is that each person has 3 tea candles. Each candle represents a different prayer to them. The only thing that was ever asked was that they share one thing that they were praying for that week. If they wanted to share more than one, then they were more than welcome to do so, but if not, one prayer was offered up as they are lighting their candles. They don’t have to share a lot. Just simply saying, “I’m praying for _________” or “This is for __________” is enough. After everyone is finished let everyone blow out the candles together. 

As time went on, my youth didn’t want to go home until we had our candle light prayers. They always knew that youth was officially over for the night when we did this. Also, they started sharing more and more with each other of what their concerns were with either friends or family. Some nights we’d here to pray for teachers, classmates, soccer games, band events, up coming exams, family members, our group, youth events, and so forth.

It was really amazing seeing the kids open up like that with each other with such a simple idea.  

By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:7-9

This is a fun game that can be done throughout the school year or the summer time, or maybe it will never end.

Overview: The continuing game works by picking a challenging activity to do. The activity must be very hard to do (like a half court shot) and if a student can complete the activity they win the prize (whatever you want it to be). If nobody wins, which should be happening or your activity is too easy, then the next week there is a new activity with the prize from the first week and a new prize for the current week. What will happen is that the jackpot of prizes should begin to accumulate and the anticipation of winning should also until one lucky student wins the prizes and then you can start anew.

What You Need: Difficult Activity each week and a new prize each week.

Other Tips and Ideas:

• If you have a large group, you need to be more creative or break them up into smaller groups and have a leader for each group leading the challenge with that group for the week.
• Plan out the summer with the activity. That way you aren’t wondering what to do for the next week.
• Make sure that you try to equally do challenges that are non-strength oriented and strength oriented so that everyone gets a fair chance.
• Be creative with your prizes from cash to candy to gift certificates.
• Ask a church goer to contribute a prize for a particular week or month so you don’t dig into your budget.

Hopefully the game can build some fun anticipation from week to week.

Every day we communicate with others. We communicate with family, friends, people at work and so forth. We communicate with God and His Son too. We expect communication back from others when we are having discussion or when we work somewhere. This concept should be no different when it comes to Youth Leaders and heads of churches.

Here’s a story that goes with this:

A church got a new youth leader for their junior high youth program. This was the first time that this church was going to have a junior high youth program. The youth leader was excited to start her job. After a while, the youth became comfortable with their youth leader they started asking questions about the usual topics that they see and deal with everyday. Sex, drugs, alcohol, and so forth were some of the topics. As soon as this started happening, the youth leader would be in the pastors’ office asking what should be done and how it should be handled and if what she had said was appropriate. The pastors assured her that the answers she gave were appropriate and in line with how the church and their interpretation of the Bible felt about the subjects. The new youth leader would still come into the pastors office a few times every month to let the pastors know what was being talked about and asked in youth group. After a few meetings like this, the pastors tell her that they really have to mission statement or plan for Christian education for any age group. This was a shock to the youth leader but she continued to work with the youth and did not think anything about it all. Several months later, the youth leader was called in and told that she needed to step down as the junior high youth leader. No warning before hand. No discussion or questions about situations that happened.

This situation actually happened to me. The lack of communication I still find shocking and inexcusable.

In some aspects, churches have to be run like businesses. You have to find people that are going to make your organization look good. The church has to find someone who is going to a good influence on the youth of the church and so forth. At the same time, the church has to do their end of running the business. When they find the youth leader they have to go over different areas like job expectations, church expectations, and church dynamics. All these things can effect how a youth leader does his or her job.

Communicating job expectations is something that every business operation does. Churches are no exception to this. Different churches have different expectations of what the youth leader will be doing and not doing. An employee isn’t performing up to his or her ability or is breaking company policy. Most companies would pull the employee aside and let the employee know that they are not happy and try to figure out what is going on. Why should a church not handle things the same way? What makes the church any different from a business that is next door?

Church expectations and dynamics are another thing that needs to be considered and at least mentioned. This is a huge problem that I have personally run into at a church. When I would go into the pastors for advice and guidance, they gave me advice that was good, but apparently other people in the church did not agree. Sometimes what you want to happen is not what the church congregation wants to happen or agrees with.  Church’s have to take this into consideration too. If the congregation ain’t happy, then no body’s going to be happy! In a lot of ways, this statement is very true. The dynamics of the church can change what you do and don’t talk about or even possibly do as service projects. More conservative churches may completely different views than churches that are a little more liberal. This may change from church to church in any particular area of the country.

Again, when dealing with staff, even volunteer youth leaders, churches need to handle finding and dealing with them just like a business handles its employees. Handling church dealings like a business is not a bad thing. It can be extremely beneficial. You can gain so much respect and trust from people inside the church.

So, how can we fix this problem? Let your youth ministers know what is expected of them. This should be communicated as soon as the youth leader is hired. Constant meetings with the heads of the church and the youth leader is also a plus. At the same time, if the youth leader has certain ideas of how he or she would handle certain subjects, he or she should communicate that right away. For example, I tend to give every side of the story even on the tough issues, which it seems to have caused problems. If I would have been more up front about it, some problems could have been avoided. When problems do arise, DO NOT avoid letting the youth leader or ministers know what is going on. A lot of problems can be avoided by doing this.  

“So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”- Ephesians 3:17-19

I just received a couple emails this past weekend about both YouthMinistry.com and SimplyYouthMinistry.com lowering their products you use by 40%. This sale is only good from June 9th to June 11th and they have promised that they will cut you off.

Take advantage of stocking up on materials for your ministry this fall.

Here’s what each had to say (they must have the same marketing guy):

Simply Youth Ministry dot com:

Dear Steve Blanchard,
Simply Youth Ministry, the online resource designed as a place for youth workers to call home, invites you to maximize your affiliate earnings during this season!

It’s that time of year of again! With summer starting up, camp and mission trip details creeping up ever so quickly, everyone needs to stock up on the resources they’ll need from Simply Youth Ministry’s annual 40 40 40 sale! From June 9-11, select sermons, discipleship, small groups, training, and media titles will be 40% off at SimplyYouthMinistry.com. Customers can also take advantage off our $1 off book sale! Not only is this the biggest savings for customers, but our biggest week on the site the entire year.

Youth Ministry dot com:

Dear Steve Blanchard,
Our goal at YouthMinistry.com is to continually offer high quality articles, freebies, forums and tools relevant to this present generation of youth, their mentors, pastors and leaders. As an affiliate, you not only have the ability to utilize these tools yourself, but to refer those who also might want to tap into such a rich supply of resources.

With summer starting up, camp and mission trip details creeping up ever so quickly, everyone needs to stock up on the resources they’ll need from Youth Ministry’s annual 40 40 40 sale! From June 9-11, select sermons, discipleship, small groups, training, and media titles will be 40% off at YouthMinistry.com. Customers can also take advantage off our $1 off book sale! Not only is this the biggest savings for customers, but our biggest week on the site the entire year.

As you can see they are very similar, but the great news is that you can save the money on the products that many of you buy. I’m guessing you had about 50 mailings alerting you of this already if you have ever purchased anything from these guys, however, you can take advantage via the banners below:

Wow they even look the same - like I said same marketing guy?