JCISONLINE – Resources for Tween and Preteen Ministry | Effectively Resourcing Parents and Leaders with Teaching, Communication, Creativity and Leadership in order to reach Tweens and Preteens

Systems

September 14, 2011 in Tween Ministry 1

I love Pocket Watches!!

Awesome pocket watch gears FTW!!!

I love the idea of systems for preteen ministry. If you haven’t figured it out already, preteen ministry is sort of a mutant. Some would describe the tweens that inhabit your ministry as such. However, I think in order to structure for growth you must get your systems in order. I will be talking about what are some systems that we’ve tweaked this year and want to know what your systems are for your ministry at your church.

Assimilation

This includes the assimilation of volunteers and first time guests into your ministry. A few questions to answer:

How does someone indicate interest in volunteering?
How do they sign up?
What information do we give them when they sign up?
How long does this process take?
Do they immediately start volunteering after paperwork or is there some training involved?
How do we know when a tween visits our ministry for the first time?
How do we let them and their parent know that we are thankful that they came?

Facilities

What do they look like?
Do they make people feel welcome or overwhelmed?
What is your maximum capacity?
How can you adjust for less volunteers?
How can you adjust for more volunteers?

Communication

This is one of my favorites. Our admin is out on maternity leave right now and so I’ve gotten to see a whole new arena of communications for our Student Ministry. 3 questions I always want to know:

How often?
To whom?
What method(s)?

If you can answer those three effectively, you would be surprised at how well you can communicate to your intended audience.

Bonus Key: Say what you want to say, how you would say it, as efficiently as possible.

What systems are you tweaking and what systems are core to what you do? There are many more that I haven’t listed but I want to know what is core to you and your ministry?

Making Ideas Happen Book Review

September 7, 2011 in Lead 2

Ever struggle with your ideas not becoming a reality? Have you ever wanted to complete more tasks? Have you ever had the desire to look back on things accomplished with satisfaction and not regret? Then this book is for you. Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky
, is by far an incredible resource for you to make progress towards making your ideas happen.

Monday Morning Recap – Vol. 2

September 5, 2011 in Programming, Tween Ministry 0

Graphic from seeds.churchonthemove.com

Series: This is my Story 3 of 3

Summary: Your story is significant because it’s a part of God’s continuing story to redeem this world.

Meat: Romans 5:6-10 the only thing that makes us right in God’s sight is the blood of Christ. Our story finds significance in the story of Jesus Christ. The only thing that connects us to God’s story is Jesus and His life and death.

Veggies (the extras): We had a couple of awesome videos, including a very funny Skate Night promo video. And I pulled a string from my favorite tee and explained how insignificant that string is until it’s connected with the bigger picture.

Dessert (best part of the week): Seeing our students connect with the balloon illustration of the gospel. You can read more about this old-school illustration over on the fourfivesix.org

On Deck: New Series – Open Skies from stufficanuse.com

Dreams

August 31, 2011 in Lead 7

Wow I haven’t blogged in awhile. So much has been going on with ministry and life and everything that the blog has kind of fallen behind, but I’m going to let you into my brain for the next few posts.

Have you ever thought about where you are going? Seriously. I remember being 18 and a freshman in college and having the next 10 years of my life completely planned out. Really. My plan was to graduate from the University of Memphis with a BBA in Marketing and then find a job in the field. Then I wanted to go back to school for what I really wanted to do with my life and that was work in a church. I wanted to be a pastor. Not a senior pastor, but pastor nonetheless. Somewhere between those two things I wanted to get married and be heavily involved in a thriving youth ministry.

Volunteer Appreciation

August 20, 2011 in Leading Volunteers 0

Here is a video that we made for our Volunteers. I think it was a BSM way of thinking them for the time that they give.

I’m pumped for this year. We’ve doubled our volunteer base and 80% of them showed up to our Volunteer Night that we hosted. We are so excited for this year and for all that God has in store for our ministries, students, parents, and us!! It’s going to be awesome.

You Need A GoPro For Your Ministry

August 18, 2011 in Resources 0

Picture taken from a Go-Pro

This is a guest post from my co-worker and friend, Chris Brank. Besides being a phenomenal influence on our students, Chris runs a side business that you can check out at chrisbrankfilms.com and his blog at chrisbrank.com

You need a GoPro for Your Ministry.

And here’s four reasons why:

BUT FIRST…what is a GoPro? Well, it’s very small. It’s waterproof. It’s 1080p at 30 frames per second or 720P with 60 frames per second for slow-motion stuff. There are a million attachments to put it on anything..bikes, surfboards, helmets, cars. People have dropped them out of airplanes and they hit the ground still recording. It has a beautiful, ultra wide fish-eye perspective…in fact, 5 different settings of fish-eye, depending on how wide you want to go! You can get a screen to go on the back so you can see menus and see what you’re shooting. It’s very awesome.

Now, here’s those reasons:

1) It’s super cheap. I got the Motorsports edition on Amazon plus a screen, surf-mount, and tripod adapter for under $350. And you know what’s crazy? In the video I’m about to link to, I shot with a GoPro and a Canon 7D with a L-quality lens…and if you just casually watch, you won’t be able to tell the difference. Just know I didn’t take the 7D underwater! http://youtu.be/_ghPVix68hY (PS, I colored the 7D footage, but didn’t even have to color the GoPro footage because it already had the saturated vintage feel that I wanted!)

2) It really does have a completely waterproof / shockproof casing. I’ve never been afraid to take that thing anywhere! Mud, sand, snow, it just rocks it out. Lauren Germann, the Elementary Production Coordinator at Brookwood, just took it to their “So Long Summer” event at a local waterpark. Check out her highlight reel: http://youtu.be/XqUHm_6vTvU

3) It’s crazy easy to use. There are two buttons. It takes approx. 15 minutes to memorize the instruction manual…then you are good to go! In fact, during Adventure Week (the VBS at Brookwood Church) I handed to a student (Mary Erny) and she carried it around all week with no prior experience and put together this video in iMovie: http://youtu.be/oHfbnBlRafs

4) Just look over the previous three reasons again.

Now, one quick thing before I wrap that you need to know: Do not expect good audio quality. Especially with the waterproof case…it protects everything from getting to the camera, including sound! Without the case, it’s not horrible, but I rarely use the audio.

Get one, and put together some videos with angles that were just impossible before now. Hand it to students, take it on trips, throw together a million highlight videos. And throw IT everywhere!

Want to buy a GoPro for your Ministry? Here is where we say buy it. GoPro HD Helmet HERO Camera(affiliate link)

Volunteer Night

August 17, 2011 in Leading Volunteers 3

Tonight we are hosting our first annual BSM Volunteer Kickoff. We are expecting 75% of our leaders to be there!!! Normally 40%-50% attendance for a meeting such as this is a really good percentage. We are pumped for what God is doing in our midst and as busy as we have been the past few weeks, we are more thankful for the opportunity God is giving us to awaken student to his glory.

Tonight we cast vision, train, appreciate, feed, have fun with, and chill with our leaders for the next year. It’s going to be an absolute blast and I can’t wait.

Leaders are the hands and feet of your ministry, without them we would like a bit like Jersey Shore in terms of our complete uselessness, only kidding of course.

Pray for tonight as we cast the vision for Student Ministry and that our leaders come away filled and ready to turn this thing upside down.

25 things I learned before I turned 25

August 4, 2011 in Life 4

I still have such a long way to go....

Tomorrow I turn 25 years old. I’m psyched, scared, nervous, and freaked out. To you, 25 may seem like life is just beginning. To me, 25 is another reminder that I am going to die one day. I want to make a huge difference for the kingdom of Christ, for people and for my family. But I have learned a ton from some incredible people. Here are 25 lessons that I’ve learned in my life, broken down by 3 sections of my life: Continue Reading…

Got some new pictures done….

August 3, 2011 in Life 2

Yeah that’s some great photography!!! One of the things that was noted in my reader survey was that I don’t talk enough about me and my family. A few people wanted to see some more pictures. That has always been in the back of my mind and not only that, but my wife loves, loves, loves pictures. So it worked out perfect when one of our friends told us that she wanted to take some pictures of us and she had a killer location!!

So the above picture is one of those shots!! Ruth Russell took them and set them up and told us what to do and made us smile!! She’s so good!!! Anyway, I’m trying to get her website going, but if you are looking for pictures for an event or just some family pictures, then shoot her a message on FB or shoot her an email at rrussell718 [at] hotmail.com

Here are some more pics to whet your appetite:

Our Happy Family

Yeah, that's my wife

So you should definitely check her out!! But look for some new pics all over the place!!! What do you think of the pics?

Monday Morning Recap on Tuesday!!

August 2, 2011 in Programming, Tween Ministry 0

After a weekend at camp, which I can’t wait to talk to you about, we continued with week 2 of our series called “Get Your But out of the Way”. A series that is a part of the Junior High Teaching Outlines Vol. 2 from Simply Youth Ministry…

Takeaway:

You are not TOO young to be USED by God.

Application:

Challenged your tween to understand God used young people and they can make a difference right now!

Key Verse:

Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. -1 Timothy 4:12

Do not only apply the first part of this verse!!! The second part of this verse is important to teach your youth. It’s more difficult for people to look down of you if you live like an example. Be beyond reproach.

Notes:

Your tween’s ability to make a difference for God is going to be related to the amount that you believe in them to make a difference. Not only that, but without models of people making a difference your tween won’t know how to do it. Make it a point to be one of those models and to find other models that would make an impact on your tween.

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