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Some changes coming to Student Ministry at Brookwood Church
I’m honored to be a part of such an incredible team. After months of praying and seeking the face of God. We believe he has given us a new direction for the Students of Brookwood Church. It’s time to crank it up! Can’t wait for Axis and Crave to begin and for Switch to kick it up a notch!! Gonna be a great year!!
Update: Totally didn’t give props to our boy Chris Brank who cranked this out. You can check out his work here and here. Chris is our Student Worship and Production Director. He’s incredible.
What is the most important thing in your ministry programming?
Besides Jesus Christ being lifted up every single time through example and word, there is only one other thing that is necessary in your ministry programming.
That thing is change.
So here is my quote:
“The only thing that should be constant in your ministry programming is change.” -J.C. Thompson
I’ve thought so much about this over and over. This rings true for Youth, Preteen, and Children’s Ministry and even adults (especially if you want to reach a younger generation).
I really don’t think anything besides those two are essential: Worship (eh?), Games (nah), or Giveaways (hmm). I think that you could say teaching at this point, but is there a way to lift Jesus up through word and deed without the teaching segment? Maybe not.
Before I spill all of my thoughts, what do you think? Is something else essential in ministry programming?
Student Ministry Parents – Spiritual Thermostat
As someone who has spent some time in Student Ministry and in Children’s Ministry, one thing is incredibly different. Sure the programming, graphics, strategy and sometimes even personalities of the two are way different but none more different than this one element: Parents.
I’m not a parent. However, I deal with parents everyday. In recent conversations I’ve had with parents, one thing has become apparent. There is a shift that happens in the mind of parents when their student moves into middle school. I’m not sure why.
Talking to one parent their thought is that the barriers to entry that were few and far between in Elementary School are now everywhere in Middle School. Communication, parent led activities, and interaction between parent and teacher are so dramatically different.
One thing remains the same for you as a parent. You hold in your hands an important tool for the spiritual development of your student. You hold their Spiritual Thermostat.
What is the Spiritual Thermostat?
It’s simple, it works a lot like the thermostat in your home does. It tells you the exact temperature in your home and then you make a decision to turn up the heat or chill it down. It works the same with your student. By taking note of their thermostat, you can determine what to do.
- Is your child not having a hard time making friends? Plan some activities at your home for them to invite some friends or neighbors
- Is your child being selfish? Throw some service opportunities at them. Maybe a mission trip with mom and dad
- Is your child being lazy? How about you exercise some spiritual discipline. Click here for an idea from Proverbs 20:4
Parents your role does need to change as your child moves to being a preteen and then a teenager and then makes it to successful adult status. But, your role is not to disappear.
- Don’t lose hope.
- Don’t give up.
- Don’t quit.
- Don’t expect someone else to parent for you.
- Do grow into your new role.
- Do be responsible for your student’s spiritual development.
- Do the role that God gave to you and no one else for your student.
- Do be authentic and truthful allowing your student to trust what you say even when you say I don’t have the answer.
Your child’s world depends on you.
Are you giving up when it gets tough and different or Are you paying attention to the spiritual thermostat and making some adjustments?
Things I wish Parents knew about Student Ministry
So I confess, I stole this idea from Johnathan Cliff. He is writing a series called Dear Parents, where he writes a letter to parents urging them to pay attention to specific areas in their child’s spiritual life.
So I am going to do the same thing this week. I just want to write some things that you need to know about Student Ministry.
First I want you to tell you that 72%-75% of our students at Brookwood Church come from a difficult home situation. We want to do everything in our power to teach our kids that there is a family here that loves them and cares for them.
This Sunday the 30th of January we will be having our first C-Group leader meeting. We have been praying and working and brainstorming and creating to help dramatically reduce that crazy 75% number. We need couples, yes couples, to show our students what a healthy God-loving, God-fearing, life-living, Christian marriage looks like. To show them that it is possible to live a life of faith for the long haul not just in high school and to love those students like they were their own children.
We fully believe this verse in Titus 2:3-5:
3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
Our young people need mentors. It’s why Brookwood supports programs like Kids Hope USA and takes very seriously the people that we put into our young people’s lives to guide them in the way they should live.
If I could tell you one thing it’s that our kids need to see what Godliness is in the example of a human being. It’s why I will never be shy in recruiting someone for student ministry. I fully believe that what we are doing is pointing people to the cross of Jesus and saying students, this is the gospel. These students need adults that are living in an authentic way to love on them and pray for them and bring them into their family.
It’s not a small task. It’s difficult. It’s why we are praying consistently for God to give us people sold out to providing a family for students in their C-Groups for those that don’t have one.
We have a great work ahead of us. Programming, Events, or any amount of money will not fix it. Only the love from the people of God mentoring young students will.
Will you pray for our students consistently?
Student Ministry Money plus Giveaway
cash-stack-piles-hundreds-bills, originally uploaded by welendcashhouston.
Ok so today I thought we would play a fun little game. I’ve got some questions about money. We all say we want more of it. But would you know what to do with it if you got it?
So today answer these questions. By the end of this week, Friday at 5:30pm EST, I will give away a $20 Starbucks Card to the person with the most creative/inspiring comment.
If you were given $20 for your student ministry, what would you spend it on?
If you were given $100 for your student ministry, what would you spend it on?
If you were given $1000 for your student ministry, what would you spend it on?
If you had all the money in the world, what would you do for your student ministry?
Must answer all four and really make the most of it.
Proclaim – Church Presentation Software
The Choices
You know I love pointing people to things that might work for them. This is no different. Most student ministries by now have found some sort of presentation software for their venues. A few of the options that they might be using:
- MediaShout (church oriented)
- ProPresenter4 (church oriented)
- PowerPoint (all purpose office use)
All these programs accomplish the goal. PowerPoint in my experience hasn’t been powerful enough for worship settings but for speakers and presenters it’s great entry level, if you know how to use PowerPoint . So for most worship environments PP4 and MS work wonders. But there are some things that both programs just don’t have.
The Problems
I know that MS and PP4 are both designed for those that have the responsibility of being behind the screen, keeping up with the pastor. There are some necessary things about the layout. It’s geared towards linear styles of worship. One slide to the next. Built for one specific machine to specialize. Also for those of you with multiple worship venues are always traveling to different machines, exporting, downloading, importing to each of your areas of responsibility.
- Elementary & Preschool
- Middle School & High School
- Preteen and your other responsibilities
- Multiple campuses
And what about your teaching notes. Most of these softwares are designed to allow the techs to push a note to the pastor. The note update in PP4 was a welcome addition but is designed more for those behind the screens to let the pastor know that they need to stop talking
A Solution?
That’s why I am excited when I saw Proclaim. I am pumped about the software because I feel as if it’s being designed with the Pastor in mind, rather than the worship producer. It might not be exactly what you need but I hope the others are watching what they are doing.
Some of the features that they claim to pour into their build:
- Web Based Presentations
- Mac and PC
- Notes Integration w/ Slides Overview (THANK YOU)
Tough market to get into. I know a ton of faithful on both sides. I really love ProPresenter but am so excited about the notes and slide integration and being able to build a presentation on the web and then download onto a machine.
Should be fun to see anyway. Click here and watch the video, then enter your email for a free trial version when it releases.
What is missing in your presentation software?
Be the Church better in 2011
worship, originally uploaded by kterwilliger.
Student Ministry is full of attraction based models for church growth. It’s something that a ton of student ministry people are searching for:
That new hot topic.
New way of communicating that we’re awesome
New technologically savvy cool thing.
But I think there is something that might just be better in the long run for your student ministry in 2011.
Be the Church….Better
Do that and I think you’ll see some things that you never thought possible.
Pray-better
Worship-better
Give-better
Serve-better
Love-better
Live-better
What could happen in your student ministry this year, if you could Be the Church-better?
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