Tag: youth ministry

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THETACON 2012 – Youth Ministry Conference

Youthworks are hosting a new youth ministry conference, Thetacon in a couple of weeks. I’ve really benefited from Youthworks’ ministry conferences in the past and I’m really looking forward to this one. If you’re involved in youth ministry – you should come too!

Michael Jensen and Graham Stanton will be presenting papers on the Incarnation and youth ministry. I’m also looking forward to being part of the conversation by offering a brief response to Jensen’s paper.

If you’re keen to come, get on it quick, rego closes soon!

See more youth min related posts…

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STU ROBINSON // Magician + Evangelist

My friend, Stu Robinson, is a brilliant magician and evangelist. Check him out!

Here is an endorsement I wrote for him: “Stu’s magic show is dynamic, funny and well-crafted. After a few weeks of replaying the show in my head I still couldn’t figure out how he managed to pull off his astonishing tricks! Stu is equally good at interweaving a compelling and culturally relevant presentation of the good news of Jesus. Teenagers in our youth community wouldn’t have any problem in inviting their friends to a youth event featuring one of Stu’s performances.”

Check out his website. And here’s a video endorsement:

Stu didn’t pay me to write and say these things! So contact him with inquiries.

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ONE DIRECTION LIVE // “Remember when…”

At the end the video news I posted here, I welcomed ONE DIRECTION to the stage. Contrary to what some young girls at Soulies and some international friends thought, it wasn’t the real ONE DIRECTION! Sorry. But in my opinion our year 7 and 8 boy leaders (Dan Peters, Dan Malik, Nathan Bale, Luke Hutchinson and Luke Curnow) were just as classy! They did a lip-sync performance for 1 minute with the logo on the screen behind them and then they continued the show as the film clip played on screen. Here is the film clip recorded in bucketing rain at Collaroy Beach (skip to 1:10 for the action):

My aim in doing these things in our youth ministry is to create “remember when…” moments. Having 5 youth leaders pretend to be a boy band won’t see anyone converted. It won’t grow anyone in their faith. It won’t help them to know Jesus better. So it’s not essential.

BUT – part of life in a community is collectively sharing memories. This is one of them.

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5 Reasons to do Video News at Youth Group

The Green Door is a youth group news that we’ve produced 4 times during the past term at Soulies Youth Community. See them all here. Watch the latest one below:

Here are 5 reasons they are good to do in your youth ministry:

  1. It’s using a visual medium. Like it or hate it, young punks watch screens. Here’s a way to use a medium they know
  2. You can be much more concise with your announcements.
  3. People who miss a week of youth group can catch up with the news online.
  4. Production is cheap. With more money and resources we could do much better videos. BUT armed with a decent smart phone and some basic software anyone can produce ‘good enough’ quality vids.
  5. Production time is minimal. The video above took 50 minutes to produce. 10 mins to script. 10 mins to film. 30 minutes to edit and export.

Some more youth ministry posts // see more technology posts.

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Connecting Word To World

Graham Stanton has written a great chapter – Connecting Word To World – in Youth Ministry on the Front Foot. The chapter is seeking to counter the errors “…that all we need to know is what the Bible says and culture is unimportant, or, that we must be culturally relevant above all else.” The challenge is to let the Word of God help you to understand the world in which we live and minister.

We used the chapter as a training paper at a recent SOULIES Team Meeting. Our leaders found it a really useful exercise. Here’s what we did:

  1. Read the chapter
  2. Discussed where our youth ministry is on the spectrum of word to world (0 = word only, 10 = world only)
  3. Shared ways in which we are engaging well culturally
  4. Using 3 cultural touch points (KONY 2012, The Hunger Games, Peer Pressure) we brainstormed ways in which the word helps us to understand each of them. This final step was really useful. You can see some of our ideas on the whiteboard, but it was more about the process rather than any conclusive answers.

Find out how to buy the book etc here

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GROUP GAMES // iPhone App Giveaway!

My mate Calum Henderson has just created his first iPhone App. It’s a really well designed and functional app showcasing over 100 group games. I really like the different ways you are able to sort through the catalogue. A great resource for anyone involved in Youth Ministry.

Calum has given me 2 codes for free downloads of the app. Do you want them? Leave a comment below. The first two win. Simple.

If you don’t win? He has an introductory price of only $0.99 anyway, so it probably won’t break the bank. Download it now.

Had a play with it? What did you think? What’s your favourite youth group game?