Here is the new Soulies logo. I like it. Props to Fi for helping make it happen!
Tag Archive - youth ministry
Staying Hip
Youth Ministry blog posts have been fairly sporadic over the past month. Stay tuned for some fresh gear in 2012. In the meantime this vid will help you stay hip with young punks ;)
See more Dear Jeffery Dallas vids.
We’re launching a new camp in January
Bring. It. On. soulies.net/summercamp
Video Bible Reading
Check out the following two vids from my mate Matt Sparks and MBM Youth. They’ve started producing video Bible readings. The public reading of scripture ought to be central to our Christian gatherings. Some might argue differently, but I think that the videos actually help to show the significance of the Bible. What do you think?
Online Youth Ministry – Resources
“A ‘Digital Native’ is someone who has grown up in a digital and web-connected world. How do we effectively minister to ‘Digital Natives’? The Internet brings with it great dangers as well as incredible opportunities. How can we teach our young people to avoid the harmful while leveraging it for good? This seminar will not just raise the questions; it will give you an achievable strategy for developing an effective web presence for your youth ministry. This includes creating a website, using social media and protecting children online.”
The above is a blurb for a 3 hour workshop I ran today at National Youth Ministry Convention (NYMC). Did I deliver? You might need to ask someone else! But it seemed to be a useful time for people with plenty of good interaction. I really appreciate the collective wisdom that can be gleaned from that type of forum. My prayer is that youth ministries would unleash the internet for good that Jesus would be made famous and God glorified
HERE ARE MY SLIDES FROM THE WORKSHOP
Here are websites I referred to that aren’t on the slides:
- melindatankardreist.com
- collectiveshout.org
- noisetrade.com
- comeandlive.com
- matthiasmedia.com.au/little-black-books-sex
- statcounter.com
- www.google.com/analytics
- docs.google.com
- youthworks.net/safeministry
Talks will be available for download from the NYMC website.
If there’s anything else I said that I’d put on line that I haven’t… let me know!
If you’ve got any questions, feel free to contact me, or if they might be helpful for other people – leave them in the comments below.
See more of my posts on technology.
See more of my posts on youth ministry.
Help young punks to read the Bible
Here’s a youth ministry idea: help young punks to read the Bible. That’s one of the goals behind our DAILY BIBLE JOURNAL. For these school holidays we’re encouraging our crew to read through some of the Psalms.
I was going to have a crack at writing some school holiday reading notes, but in the end thought I’d use a brilliant new resource from Matt Jacobs. It’s a project called SixtySixBooks. Basically it provides an intro to different books of the Bible in a way that youth can understand along with a sample reading plan.
We’re using Graham Stanton’s notes on the Psalms.
What strategies do you use to help young people dig into God’s word?
SOULIES Leadership Crew 2011
Soulies recently went away on our youth camp, Mission Impossible. It was a sweet, sweet, encouraging time in Philippians. Here’s a pic of our youth leaders. They’re legends:
I’ve been writing less on this blog this month, but increasing content on our youth website. Here are the latest 10 posts:
- MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2011 RECAP VID
- I AM SECOND
- Operation World: Pray for New Caledonia
- SOULIES UNITED + MI 2011 GROUP PHOTO
- SOULIES UNITED // Bring. Your. Friends.
- HSC STUDY HALL 2011 – Rego is Now Open!
- To Live is Christ – Trip Lee
- Daily Bible Journal: I Must Become Less – John 3:22-36
- Daily Bible Journal: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE PREP
- God loves your friends – bring them to Soulies!!
Life with the Grain of the Universe: Proverbs
Row and I are currently reading through Proverbs each evening. So much wisdom! But, particularly in the big chunk in the middle, it’s difficult to discern any connected between each saying. I was excited to see that my friend Andrew Errington has just linked to a bunch of studies he’s written taking a thematic approach to the book. They look really useful. Download the PDF here.
Coincidentally (are there ever coincidences?) a different friend recently asked if I had any resources that would be useful for teaching Proverbs in a youth ministry setting. I don’t, but I do now! While these weren’t written for a youth ministry setting, if they are too difficult for your group, they’d serve as a really useful tool for a leader to use in prep.
Got a favourite Proverb? Share it in the comments…
Rice Rally // 20th August 2011
RICE Rally is back again this coming Saturday. God has brought many young people to himself through this ministry over the last 10 years. I wasn’t able to make it last year, so I’m looking forward to joining in the action again this year.
Still deciding whether to take your crew along? Do it. It will be epic. Check out the website for some rad promo vids, tickets and any more info.
Blog readers – pray for this sucker! Pray that 100′s of peeps will put their trust in Jesus’ death for their sin and resurrection to new life. Pray that God would keep using youth ministry to change the world.
UNASHAMED // 19th August 2011
I’m noticing around Sydney lots of Youth Ministries getting together with others in their region. This is really cool. Some great momentum is being gained at the grass roots level that is helping to fuel discipleship and evangelism among teenagers. Here on the Northern Beaches we have a combined youth event coming up on August 19: UNASHAMED.
Historically combined events have happened on the beaches, but it’s been a few years. There are a bunch of youth pastors who get together every couple of months to hang out, encourage and pray. And last year a local leadership training event began that continued again this year. There seems to be some good momentum.
It felt like the time was right to try and do something together. We should get 250-300 young people this Friday. My hope is that the event will encourage Christian teenagers to be unashamed to follow Jesus on the Northern Beaches, and that those that aren’t already following Jesus will be challenged to consider following Him.
We’ve got Ross Ciano speaking and the band from St Paul’s Castle Hill leading the music. If you’re local – come along! If you’re not, we’d value your prayers.
Are you doing some grass roots combined youth events in your area? What works well? What lessons have you learnt? What value does it add to your own ministry?
GOD HAS COME // Soulies Teaching Plan
The latest series at SOULIES is called GOD HAS COME. We will be studying the first 3 chapters of John’s Gospel. I thought it might be useful to share some of the strategy in how we are approaching the teaching at SOULIES this term. (Props to creationswap for art)
- It’s from a gospel – any book of the bible would have been good! But, I’m keen to give a more evangelistic edge to our Friday night talks. The gospels are easy to do that because Jesus is speaking and when he’s not it’s about him.
- Manageable chunks – rather than 3 chapters at a time we’re looking at approx 1/2 a chapter per week.
- Junior and Senior Crew are doing the same series – this may not be the pattern forever, however, I’ve been trying to create an identity larger than just the junior group or senior group by themselves. Even if we’re in two locations, the same series helps us to identify with that larger youth community.
- Soulies Small Groups are studying the same section – this helps to create continuity between Friday night and our Sunday small groups. While I value the principle of having leaders write their own studies, I’m also aware that that’s a big job! So I hope that having the series written will be a good service and model to small group leaders.
- We are producing the ‘DAILY BIBLE JOURNAL‘ – this is a small booklet that encourages young punks to spend 5 minutes a day in the Bible. It includes: daily reading notes, sermon notes space and Bible study. It seemed to be received well on Friday and Sunday. I’m praying it will help to develop a hunger for the Word among our community.
- There’s an Online component – I’m keen to use new media to encourage people to dig into the Bible. So each week, we will have a Sunday (no later than Monday) blog post with a video intro for the week’s readings as well as the daily reading notes and a link to an online Bible. I hope that this helps more people to participate.
See this blog post for a copy of the Daily Bible Journey.
See below for the first Bible intro, as well as our bumper vid
Hunger for the WORD + Pray for the WORLD
SOULIES UNDERGROUND is on this Friday night. As I’ve learnt more about the persecuted church, I’ve been struck by the hunger for the Word of God of underground/secret church members. So SOULIES UNDERGROUND will be an opportunity to be BOUND WITH our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church by learn from their hunger for the Word and also spend time praying for them and for our world. We’ll be looking at Romans 8.
If you’re not part of our youth community, you’re more than welcome to join us online!
We’ve just launched www.souliesunderground.com which will include a live video stream and the opportunity to interact via twitter and facebook. Check it out for details.
Why broadcast it online? There probably aren’t many ‘real’ underground churches broadcasting their gatherings via webcam!!
Here are 3 reasons:
- I first read about running an event like this in David Platt’s book Radical. And then Secret Church was simulcast to over 50,000 people around the world in April this year. Our aims are smaller scale, but I like the idea and that leads to point 2…
- The technology is fairly straightforward. Livestream is free. LIVE THEME is relatively cheap and easy to customise. And it’s brilliant! (Affiliate link)
- If a few more people can be encouraged from God’s Word (in Romans 8 ) and spend some time praying for the persecuted church, then why not?! I’m keen to keep leveraging new technology for good things. I think this is a good thing.
National Youth Ministry Convention 2011
NYMC is back for 2011. It’s a youth ministry conference held every two years in Australia. Here are my blog posts from the 2007 event (I couldn’t make it in 2009). It has speakers and participants from a spectrum of different youth ministries and theological camps. I think it’s a valuable conference and would encourage you to come along and join in the conversation! Register by June 30 for the early bird spesh.
I’ll be running an elective and a professional development seminar. Details below…
Continue Reading…
Sharing Your Faith in a Dangerous Place
I’m so encouraged by the work of Thirteen Three. They’re the youth arm of Voice of the Martyrs Australia. (You can see some of my previous posts related to 13:3 under the ‘persecution’ tag). Brad Konemann is doing an amazing job at encouraging youth ministries to stand with and be encouraged by our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. I’m personally looking forward to working closely with Brad on some upcoming projects. More info coming soon.
In the meantime, I want to encourage any youth ministers within an achievable distance of Western Sydney or Sutherland Shire to take your group along to Thirteen Three’s two upcoming June events. I’m guessing you’re finalising your term 2 program now – so make sure you leave some room for this event!! I believe that under God it will have a profound impact on your youth community.
Thirteen Three is bringing out Pastor Victor, an international youth speaker and frontline evangelist with a dangerous, covert ministry to Muslims in Malaysia!
Are you nervous about sharing your faith?
This event is for you! Thirteen Three is helping to equip Australian youth to share their faith in their local communities. Learn from ordinary Christians who speak up for Jesus even if it means being beaten or going to jail and be BOUND WITH THEM as an everyday part of following Jesus.
Save these dates now!
Western Sydney
7PM Friday 17 June 2011
MBM Rooty Hill
20 Westminster Street
Rooty Hill NSWThe Shire
7PM Friday 24 June 2011
Menai Anglican Church
Broughton Place
Barden Ridge NSWYou don’t want to miss this unique opportunity to meet a persecuted Christian firsthand and to be challenged to live out Hebrews 13:3!
Check out the website for more details and some resources to help you promote the event.
Also, see below the jump for highlights vid from last year’s event:
Youth Ministry Papers: Small Groups Part 1
I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.
The Aim of Soulies Small Groups
Soulies comes in 3 handy sized packages: Large (Soulies United yr 7-12); Medium (Soulies Junior Crew yr 7-9 + Soulies Senior Crew yr10-12); and Small (Soulies Small Groups). How do we roll at Soulies? Whether we’re small, medium or large, we want to be a community who: Love Jesus; Love Jesus’ People; Love Jesus’ World. Small Groups are an amazing opportunity for young punks to grow in their 3 loves. The medium and large gatherings are great, but so much can be done in smaller intimate groups! Our small groups are: an opportunity to grow in our worship and discipleship of Jesus; a great chance to actively serve and love fellow brothers and sisters; and encourage each other to love Jesus’ world through evangelism and social justice.
Our Small Groups Aren’t “Bible Studies”
…but we do study the Bible! While spending time studying the Bible is at the heart of what we do together, it’s not all that we do. God’s Word is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17 NIV) – so we want to let God’s Spirit do His work as we study the Bible. But we also want to make sure that our small group time is not just an academic exercise. So there are 3 others things we want to be doing regularly: SHARING, SUPPLICATING, SOCIALISING.
10 Family-Friendly Youth Ministry Ideas
Doug Fields has been a long time champion of creating family-friendly youth ministry. I’ve valued gleaning wisdom from his books. He has just completed a 3 part series with 10 ideas on how to keep your youth ministry friendly for families. Good stuff. Check it out:
- Give em dates
- End on time
- Get em talking
- Keep em home
- Talk em up
- Speak good words
- Teach em more
- Keep costs down
- Watch their calendar
- Invite em along
Check out the 3 posts for an explanation of each: one; two; three.
Youth Ministry Papers: Preparing a Bible Talk
I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.
This week’s paper is basically a summary of John Chapman’s method of preparing a Bible Talk. For a much more comprehensive treatment, check out his brilliant book – Setting Hearts on Fire – from Matthias Media. “Chappo” is one of the most experienced and gifted evangelists in Australia during the last 50 years. The book particularly focuses on preparing an evangelistic message, but I use his structure as the basis for all of my talks.
Preaching matters. According to Romans 10:13-15, if people don’t preach, people won’t hear the good news of Jesus, they won’t believe the good news of Jesus and they won’t call on the name of the Lord to be saved. Preaching is a big deal! Not all preaching is done from behind a pulpit, or black music stand, preaching is much more than delivering a sermon. However this paper will focus on how to prepare a short Bible talk.
What follows are the 10 steps involved in preparing to preach from the Bible.
JC and the Cool Gang
The Weekend Australian Magazine featured an article on the relationship between Christianity and “cool” in Australia. Basically it’s about a variety of Gen Y peeps that don’t fit the Ned Flanders (or any other traditional understanding) template of a Christian. These guys and girls are cool and yet unashamed to be into Jesus.
It includes some interesting comments on the decline in mainline denominations.
The highlight for me were the quotes from Mark Sayers on the danger of crafting a “cool” Jesus and the drift towards man-centred theology:
“When, in their quest to remain relevant to young people, churches begin to turn him into a cool Australian, latte-loving guy who hangs out with his surfboard and is cool with everything we do… kids will come [to church] because they are attracted to that. But then they discover they’re not going to be turned into a superstar and they read the Bible and they discover Jesus dies at the end.”
Along with a consumerist ideology in which ‘cool’ is the motivating force, Sayers says another dominant culture factor troubling the church is the triumph of the self-help movement, which preaches a message that life should be about self-fulfilment, not suffering.
“So the quest for salvation has been replaced by the quest for wellbeing. And the danger is Christianity will end up looking like the empire of Oprah, in which God is a sort of cosmic butler who delivers things for us… We need to return to a biblical world view that grapples with suffering, rather than avoids or denies it, and that recognises that man is not the focus. God is. And that God is not going to transform you into this buff entrepreneur with a beautiful wife. There is a much deeper reality than that.”
Go read the article and let me know what you think.
One of the things I love about Christianity is that you don’t have to be cool to follow Jesus. I love seeing awkward, uncool people (me?? you?? haha) that don’t fit in anywhere else, accepted and included into the people of God.
We’ve got to keep calling all people (cool or otherwise!) to make counter-cultural commitments in response to the gospel of Jesus – we don’t just fit Jesus around the cool stuff in our lives, but Jesus is to shape all of life!
(h/t Mark Sayers for the heads-up on the article)
Youth Ministry Papers: Don’t Water it Down
I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.
Vegemite is delicious. There wouldn’t be many weeks in my life that I haven’t enjoyed its salty yeasty goodness. Not everyone thinks that Vegemite is delicious. It is definitely an acquired taste, but a taste none-the-less worth acquiring! So I was shocked to recently read that “Kraft has been forced to launch a milder tasting version to woo a new generation of Australians.” My First Vegemite is part of a strategy used by Kraft to “wean people onto the traditional spread, sales of which are flat.” The hope is that as children get older they will graduate onto the heavier stuff. I think it’s a terrible idea.
I also think that sometimes we try and run youth ministry like it is ‘My First Vegemite’. We try and water things down in such a way to make it more palatable for teenagers. A branding expert has suggested that watering down Vegemite actually “robs it of its unique qualities”. That is likewise the problem with watering down the gospel of Jesus for a teenage audience.
Even when “sales are flat”, we continue to preach a message that is full of salt as we declare the “unique qualities” of Jesus.
I’m not saying that contextualisation is a bad thing. It’s a good thing to share the gospel with teenagers in a language that they will understand. It’s appropriate to use cultural artefacts and illustrations from their world to help explain the profound truths of the Bible. The problem though is when we misunderstand relevance. Our job is not to make the message of Jesus relevant for teenagers, rather it is to show how the message of Jesus is already relevant to all people in all places.
Youth Ministry Papers: Disciples Making Disciples
I’m planning on producing a youth ministry training paper most Wednesday’s throughout the year. These papers will be discussed at our Soulies weekly leaders meeting. Anyone is welcome to interact in the comments. Click here to access archive.
The Christian youth leader can have an endless number of roles in the life of young punks. Friend, encourager, example, skateboard instructor, Bible teacher, prayer partner, motivator, maths tutor, mentor, guitar teacher. I’m sure there’s more! That’s cool. What an exciting thing to be involved in so many different ways in young lives! But among the many things a youth leader can do, what should be their primary responsibility?
What is the primary role of a youth leader?
This paper will argue that fundamental to the role of youth leadership is making disciples who will then go on to make disciples. The Great Commission is a key text in this regard: “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.”” (Mat 28:18-20 NIV)
Disciples are to be made “of all nations” with an agenda of “teaching them to obey” Jesus. This is the pattern “to the very end of the age”. According to Marshall & Payne, “The commission is not fundamentally about mission out there somewhere else in another country. It’s a commission that makes disciple-making the normal agenda and priority of every church and every Christian disciple.” (The Trellis & the Vine, p.13)
Disciples making disciples is the bread and butter of Christian life and ministry. It is therefore the foundation of Biblical youth ministry. Discipleship doesn’t just include work with Christian young people, but it includes getting them (evangelism) and then growing them (edification).
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