Our biggest passion is to be able to provide help, resources and more to Youth Pastors. In order to get to where we need in helping each other we need you to pioneer our online community.  That means you may be the first to join but in joining you will be able to share your ministry, ideas, messages, resources to youth pastors all over.  Start a group to promote your ministry.  Share a blog to build a following of people that need your wisdom.   In order to be the community God desires in our lives it takes an investment and we want you to be a part of what God is going to be doing at iYouthPastor.com.  Take a moment and help us to do that.   Go to: http://iyouthpastor.circlebuilder.com

Thanks

Hey..

If you had a chance to go to Orange Conference then you know how great it has been.  Reggie Joyner has shared from his heart on how our picture perfect view of families is not what we think it is.   Families look at our stock photos of what a Family should look like and feel overwhelmed with the idea that families should strive to be just like that.  We need to seek to realize God uses the broken pieces from our lives to do big things.

Francis Chan spoke with incredible Passion on how we should live Boldly.  Oftentimes in churches we tend to try to calm down the passionate and pat ourselves on the back for doing the expected and norm, when in reality we should be called to live out our faith in Boldness with passion.

Nancy Beach spoke about how too often we have Pastors and staff in churches that are driven by men and that women do not have much influence.  She challenged the men in the room to seek to be more inviting to women in ministry and see the how valuable thier ideas, gifts and abilities are.  She encouraged the women to encourage and empower other women as they seek to live out God’s calling in their lives.

I pray that the conference has been great for you.  If you were not able to attend check out:  www.theorangeconference.com

Hey,

A great new site that I would love to see people take the time to check out is: http://www.ym411.com This website is a website that allows you to submit questions and give answers to ministry questions such as:

Take some time and help out fellow ministers and people in ministry, as well as, ask your questions about ministry!

Thanks!

I was in PA the other day and met with a youth pastor there and we were talking about outreach events. We asked ourselves the question, “What is the purpose of an outreach event and how do we make sure we are successful at it?” We thought about several outreach events we have done in the past. I told him there was a Lock-in that I had done a few years ago in a youth group of around 50 or so kids and we had 120 people show up. We had almost 60 first time guests and we had guests bringing guests. Now on the surface almost everyone would say that it was a huge successful outreach event.

Here is the problem. What was our goal of having the outreach event? Our goal was to be able to reach friends and new people and have them get plugged into our youth ministry on a deeper level. This might just include getting them to come on a Sunday Morning or to our Mid-week youth program and have some of them stay connected.

One of the ways we made sure we got to have further contact with these students was that we got everyone’s name, address, phone number and info and had giveways to make sure we did it. Well, we got everyone’s info. Success, right? If you don’t do anything with that information then it wouldn’t be a success would it? Well, we did.

This is what we did. We had our intern and some students help send out a postcard to every guest thanking them for coming and inviting them to what we were doing in the youth ministry. Then we had them make a personal phone call to every single person and invite them personally to the next big thing we had planned.

Wow! Another success, right? Wrong. The funny thing about this was that of the 60 or so guests we sent postcards to and all of the personal phone calls, not one of these students came back. They had a blast, they met people, they got a postcard, they got a phone call. They still didn’t come back.

So knowing that, was this outreach event successful. The answer is NO! Not at all. Our goal was to make connections with students and get them connected to our ministry so we could walk alongside of them and help them know God and grow in their relationship with him more. Our Success rate was 0%. Wow! Not good!

So as I talked with this youth pastor, I shared this story and we talked about if the reason for having them come wast to move them further into the process of connecting in our youth ministry what more could we have done.

Here is a simple plan and strategy for your next outreach. Follow these steps, then let me know if it worked for you.

1. Know the reason you want people to come to this event. Define it and know what it is.

2. *** This is key**** Only give the students the right reason to come. Don’t sell them on pizza and soda and then try to make them memorize scripture. If you tell them to come for pizza give them pizza. Remember this: The way that people come to Jesus is the reason they stay with Jesus. You get them to come to Jesus by free pizza, what happens when the free pizza runs out?

3. Now that you know what the goal of the outreach event is design it in such a way that will produce these results. Spend the majority of your focus and energy in doing this. Ie. What a lot of people do is they put on an awesome event, tons of people show up, they pass out flyers or give announcement about then next Bible Study and then they go home. They wonder why they don’t come to the Bible study.

An example of an outreach plan:

Event: Lock-in
Goal: Help students feel welcome and accepted and want to return.
Plan:

*Games throughout night - Fun

*Giveaways to all registered - Get information to follow up with them.

*Incentive to students who bring most friends (must bring at least 2) - Encourages them to remember this is for their friends.

* Organize groups to compete in games all night. Key Adults and students in each group that is designed to connect with every student.

* Have 20 min. of discussion with groups about life. Ask questions like, “What are the biggest issues that you guys face as teenagers? How do you handle these difficulties?” You don’t have to pull out a bible and have Bible study (I know this is hard for some) and you definitely don’t have to give everyone an answer. Remember, curiosity is what keeps their attention. If you just give them the answer they may not feel the need to return b/c they know the answer or don’t like it.

* Have Each key student call the students the next week and invite them to something at youth group. Could be another fun event or a Bible Study. But make sure you let them know what it is they are coming to. If they think it is going to be just like the Lock-in and it is a youth worship service then they may be turned off. One way to invite them is to say, “Hey, you know when we were talking about things in life we have to deal with, well, we talk about some of those issues at our youth group and we would love for you to come so we can talk more about them and help you answer any questions you might have.”

What you have done is now you have made a more personal connection with each guest. My recommendation is that you have in those groups the guest and whoever brought them or someone who shares common interests with them. Don’t worry so much about even teams and connecting people.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have had success from this article!

~Kevin Deming

Hey,

Everyone is looking for a deal somewhere tomorrow. Many are going to leave their homes at 4am to get a great deal for Christmas. Sometimes we spend our entire lives looking for the next best thing. My prayer for each of us this season is to remember that it is important to keep a right perspective on what is important. Get your Black Friday Deal online:

Black Friday Deals

Shop from home and enjoy time with your family and avoid the mad rush at the stores!

I have been reading a book titled, “The Big Idea” by Dave Ferguson and I highly recommend every church leader to read this book.

Dave starts off looking at how we need to have a bigger distinction between non-Christians and Christians. There are too many people that call themselves Christians that really don’t understand what being a Christ Follower is. One way that he suggests that we can do this is by being Churches that focus on the BIG IDEA rather than a ton of little ideas. “We have bombarded our people with too many competing little ideas, and the result is a church with more information and less clarity than perhaps ever before.” He continues to point out that “it is the one Big Idea at a time that brings clarity to the confusion that comes from too many little ideas.”

Just stop and think about the average person who comes to church on even one Sunday how many little ideas they get from scriptures in the bulletin, sermon, Sunday School Classes, each song that we sing in worship, announcements, Special Music, prayers. Each one of these has a different idea that we are trying to teach. Now imagine if we began teaching God’s Truths with more clarity by creating an atmosphere when people come to our church building they have one main concept or truth rather than 20.

Dave continues to look at how your church can be a community that transforms and how to be a missional church! If you don’t have a copy of this book get one and see how God can transform your little ideas to a BIG IDEA!

Thanks!

Kevin

Hey..

We had some tech issues with iyouthpastor.com but will be looking forward to being able to partner with many of your churches in helping you really make a big impact in your church, community, and the world. We are in the process of putting together a plan that will really give you some resources that you didn’t think you would be able to have. We are going to be targeting helping small and young churches that are really looking to find resources they need but may lack the money to do it. We look forward to hearing from you on how we can do that better.

Thanks!!

iYouthPastor.com is going to be coming soon. It will have youth resources that are designed by youth pastors for youth pastors. It will be a website where you will have as a bookmark and use on a regular basis to allow you to be more effective in youth ministry.

We will be blogging there at http://www.iyouthpastor.com/blog/

Check us out as we look to grow in the next few months!

Let us know if you want to partner with us.

Kevin

There are several ways to approach the hiring of a youth pastor. First, I would say have a clear vision of what your expectations, job description and vision for the youth pastor who is coming in. Remember, that leaders are attracted to places where they see they will have the freedom to lead and the potential to succeed without the worry of failing. What I mean by that is sometimes our churches don’t allow our leaders to fail and that doesn’t allow them the freedom to take risks and improve. You will have to determine what those expectations are as a church.

Secondly, have a clear picture of what experience you are looking for in a youth pastor and what qualities, gifts, strengths you see as valuable. Also, have your team or staff who hires the new youth pastor make clear they type of person you are looking for. If you need a little help in what are some difference to look for or how to do that a little more let me know.

Thirdly, Post your job on the web. I have close ties to http://www.staffyourchurch.com it is free to post and only 9.99 to have premium posts and resume search. You can post as much as you want for free or as many premium posts for the 9.99. The posts on this website give great response in the search engines without the big costs of some of the major ones. If the costs don’t matter then post in as many places as you can.

Forthly, Consider an interim Youth pastor. This can be a strong leader from your church or another person that lives in the area that would want to help out. However, this is a must: Do not hire the interim youth pastor. Tell them up front if they want to be considered for the position to not be the interim. The reason for this is that if you open the door for hiring an interim youth pastor then you can settle for them because it is comfortable and you don’t hire the best for the position.

Fifthly, and probably could be the best plan if it works out. Call the churches that are doing things well and talk to the youth pastors there. Ask them if they know anyone that is interested in a youth ministry job. If you have all the other things in place then you can call youth pastors who you believe posses the things your looking for.

Now How do you woo a youth pastor? Well, think about it like sports free agency. When a team wants to get a player who they feel are high quality. I would say one of the most important things for you to do is to keep in contact with everyone who applies. If someone sends you a resume put them on an email list and send them an email with your time frame. If they do not fit the qualities that you are looking for notify them right away. Don’t hesitate on letting them know and don’t just not tell them. It is an awful feeling to be in limbo on what a church is thinking and not knowing their next steps. People would much rather move on to the next opportunity than to be wondering about one that they don’t have.

Be sure that when you find people you are really interested in you need to keep the communication very open. Email them weekly on what is the status of your search. If you have 10 people you are still looking at don’t go 2 - 3 weeks without letting them know where you are. If they are still a possibility let them know that. Nothing is more frustrating for a leader than a church who doesn’t communicate well. I know that we often times in churches want our search team to be very secretive and I think out of respect for the people you are talking to you shouldn’t give their names, but it is fine to let people know where you are in the process and especially let those who are looking to be hired need to know. If there are 3 people who you really want to focus on be careful not to narrow down to 1 until you know they are going to say yes.

I have seen many churches get sold on a guy that they end up saying no and the Church has to start the process over. Another reason for hiring an interim person. The church I currently work with had 2 guys all the way until the end of the line that they were deciding on before they offered me the job. If I would have said no they hand another guy who they thought would have done a great job too ready to say yes. They also kept great communication lines open with me and I knew exactly where they were in the process.

I hope this was helpful and if you have any more questions about hiring staff go to: http://www.staffyourchurch.com and send a comment or email.

My plan is over the next week to take some time and give some thoughts on the Orange Conference in Atlanta GA. I had the chance to go with 4000 or so other children’s and youth leaders. It was a great conference and the main sessions were really good. I love getting a chance to talk with the exhibitors there and seeing how I can connect with what I am doing to what resources they can provide.

I hope each of you take the time to go to conferences or at least get CD’s to listen to that can help you in growing more effectively in ministry. It is worth it to be around people who really want to grow.