My wife, Heather, told me I needed to get on Facebook the other day and see what one the students from our church had posted. I have to confess, I tensed up, logged on … and it absolutely made my day! I love being part of a team of amazing leaders that impact kids in this way and make church a place they love to be – even to the point of blasting it out on their social media for all to see!
I just saw this and I’m not sure how long it will last, but the following fourteen (14!) books are free for Kindle for a limited time, all by R.C. Sproul, his ‘Crucial Questions’ series! They normally range in price from $4-$7, grab them while you can:
This past weekend I snuck off to a Star Trek convention in New Jersey … which Micah started begging me to come along to. I honestly don’t think he would enjoy it or I would have brought him. Finally, I said to him, look – this thing isn’t whatever it is you’re picturing. Basically, I’m going to sit in a room all day and listen to actors talk about what it was like making a show 20-50 years ago (depending on the series). They’ll talk about how they did it, what the scripts were like, tell some stories about hanging out with the crew and answer questions from the audience. It will be like that ALL DAY.
Micah was mystified – he told me it sounded boring and why didn’t I just go, get the autographs I wanted and come back home. Wouldn’t that be more fun?
I responded ‘no way!’ I love hearing that stuff! It honestly never gets old to me, even the stories I hear over and over! Micah decided he would pursue other activities for the day.
This is a strange post for me because I don’t usually reveal this level of geekdom, but I was thinking about it and it hit me that it’s really true that when you love something you never get tired of learning more about it. All of the little details, the stories, etc. It’s why we read about our favorite bands or actors, research our favorite moments in history, know every detail of every player on our favorite sports team. If we love something, we love knowing it more and more.
Which makes me wonder, if we call ourselves Christians and don’t enjoy the Bible, faith and the pursuit of God … if it gets old, or we don’t enjoy the same stories from the Bible, if we don’t want to know the background of the stories, we aren’t interested in hearing about it … are we just kidding ourselves? Shouldn’t a real faith in God prompt the same kind of joy in discovery that our earthly interests trigger?
Sticky Faith is an amazing, amazing resource for parents and youth leaders. For a while now I’ve been talking a lot about the research by Christian Smith and his team on spirituality in young people. Kara Powell and her team have also done similar research, and while Smith does a great job of pointing a lens at the issue, Powell takes it a step farther and gives practical ideas and resources to do something about it with, hence the name – Sticky Faith, in other words, building a faith in your kids that will stick. For a limited time, they are doing a huge sale – the lowest price ever – on the Kindle versions of the books and curriculum:
Sticky Faith: Youth Worker Edition, $2.99
Sticky Faith Teen Curriculum: 10 Lessons to Nurture Faith Beyond High School, $6.64
For parents with kids of all ages, and youth workers, this is a MUST read. Grab it while it’s cheap!
Was totally caught off guard the other day in the best kind of way when one of the eighth graders in our church posted this video to his Facebook. I thought it was awesome – and I love that he blasted it out there for everyone he knows to see and hear about his faith in Christ.
One of my favorite moments in it, though, comes part way through when he calls his small group leader his pastor and then corrects himself. The reality is, small group leaders do function as a pastor, and I love that a part of him views his leader that way! Leaders shepherd, guide, love, instruct, and disciple the people in their group. Sounds like a pastor to me!
We had a blast at Planet Wisdom, the conference for teens in Washington DC a few weeks ago. Here are a couple videos that some of the kids shot; the first one is by Tommy Neilson (I had no idea he was filming all this!), the other one was shot with Rachael’s phone in the van ride. It’s a goat/weird internet thing that’s apparently hilarious.
I love this TED style talk from Amanda Drury on congregations where teenagers have a voice. Some really great stuff in it; I was particularly challenged by the questions she posed about teaching teens to articulate their faith … but our tendency to do so only when they come back from something away. While we do have some opportunities for teens to share about what God is doing HERE, there isn’t enough!
The talk was part of the Summit, a fantastic event put together by the Youth Cartel. You can find all the videos/media from the event here; check ‘em out! I’ve listened to the audio from all 19 talks and absolutely loved them. I’m thinking about buying the videos as a training resource for my youth leaders; at 10-15 minutes each, they’re the perfect length for watching together as a team and then discussing them.
A little music video from our mission trip to Jamaica last summer … that I finally finished putting together! It is no exaggeration to say that every where we went these guys started dancing around. Not only was it an amazing, exhausting, moving, spiritually challenging experience … there was also a lot of joy and fun!
And yes, they call me Big Bird. Because I had a yellow work shirt that I will never wear in public again!
This past weekend a couple van loads of us went down to Washington DC to the Planet Wisdom conference … and it was amazing. If I’m honest, I went into it with a lot of high expectations; a lot of my personal philosophy of youth ministry has been heavily influenced by the team behind the event, I love their books, their training, and the goals of the event itself. And the reality is, part of me thought it probably wasn’t possible for it to live up to what I thought it would be. I was absolutely wrong. It was an amazing balance of teaching (our teens experienced six plus hours of preaching … and ate every minute of it up), worship (HOURS of worship with The Digital Age), comedy (the Skit Guys – do I need to say more?).
There is something truly, truly moving to stand in a room with thousands of teens worshiping God at the top of their lungs. The messages were great; while designed to be heard by middle school and high school students, as an adult I thought there was tremendous content. I loved that the theme for the weekend moved through all the sessions, with a larger picture being painted and completed (as opposed to other conferences where the sessions are generally stand alone one shots).
On Sunday I spent some time debriefing with a bunch of the students who went; they loved it, they want to do it again, and their only wish is that we would have had more time on the weekend to debrief and process together all that we heard!
All that to say, if you’re a youth worker … check out Planet Wisdom. They host the conference in eight cities each year. It is an amazing value, miles ahead of anything else I’ve experienced for teens, and a great, great catalyst for discipleship in teens. And if you’er wondering, that’s our group below with The Digital Age. That poor, poor band ended the weekend with us attacking them …
Instagram is the ‘it’ social media go to place for teens these days, which means lately I have been trying to use it more and more. Here’s what I’m thinking and playing with …
I created an account for our student ministry separate from my personal account. You can find it here. I would like to get to the point where we’re uploading content to it all the time – it’s a little challenging since that can only be done from a smartphone. I have it linked to our student ministry Facebook page so everything we upload also gets posted there (as well as our Twitter account).
The thumbnails above (click ‘em to get a bigger picture) are something I’ve started doing recently. I create an image, either with an app or on my computer (I have an Instagram folder setup that automatically syncs with my phone – whatever I click and drag into that folder transfers to my phone when I sync, and then I can use it in Instagram), which I then post with details about the event or the Sunday morning teaching. It only takes a few minutes, but seems like a good way to get kids thinking about upcoming events. Some of the more popular ones get reposted and shared by kids which is GREAT. If I’m honest, using it this way to promote regular events as well as special events is what has finally made Instagram something worth putting time into in my opinion.
I would like to get in the habit of posting photos every Sunday and Wednesday night from our church meeting times – kids love getting photos out there and it seems like a great way to use the app. I just need to remember better!
I do use it to post photos from events and trips, which has been popular.
I intentionally setup the account with an easy password with the thought that I could give access to other leaders and trusted students so at certain times or events we could really go to town with uploading photos and generating excitement.
What other ways are people using Instagram with their student ministries? I’d love to get more ideas!
I'm Matthew, and you've found my blog! I'm married to Heather, a father of four boys, the Youth Pastor at Brandywine Valley Baptist Church, and former contestant on NBC's Biggest Loser.
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