Review: Group Mission Trip's Week of Hope

As I sit on my couch still processing everything that has happened this week, I really fell compelled to write a review of my experience. Which you can gather from the title, is on Group Mission Trip's Week of Hope. We just returned from a 5 day mission trip to Nashville TN. It was an amazing week that I'm still wrapping my head around.

I say that because my group of teenagers really surprised me. I went in with the preconceived notion that my kids would huddle up in a corner, keep to themselves, and I would spend the majority of my week begging them to work. That was not the case! My kids went right to work and built great relationships with the kids we served. I attribute that to one thing, the staff and programming.

First things first, the staff or 'Red Shirts' that we had were awesome. They were not only really energetic which helped keep the kids energy up and keep the motivated, but they also built relationships with the students and were there in the middle laughing, smiling, joking, and even singing them to bed and night. I don't know if they will ever read my blog post but Leah, Laura. Rachel, and Giny; you girls were awesome! From the bottom of my heart I want to thank you each. You made our experience extra special. Leah, I'm sure your future in youth ministry will be bright and pray for your continued success in college. Laura, you were awesome! I hope we see each other at SYMC and can catch up.

Another thing that was cool is there was room for everyone. When we left I grabbed my bongo's just in case there was room on the worship team for me or one of my students. I didn't expect there to be though, I mean I'm from a small church in rural Kentucky, surely there will be a mega church there with an entire praise band etc. Not only was I encouraged to play but they staff were excited that we had a drummer in addition to the guitar player. It was awesome to see one of my students also participate in the praise band with me too.

I won't get into the other things that made the week awesome, great work site, decent food for a mission trip, the fact that we had a shower trailer, awesome host site, etc. but there were so many factors.

The programming was top notch! The lessons were great, interactive, the messages and devotionals supported each other, the students were encouraged to interact. Like any typical youth event we had crazy games awesome songs and videos, and the "Care Card" videos were hilarious! Plus looking ahead at next years programming it appears that there will be a lead up series on the LIVE platform that will lead in to the trip, that alone = epicness!

The only suggestion that I could even make is an off the wall one. Being that parent ministry is my sweet spot, it would have been cool to have a logo embossed follow up questions. Just 3-5 easy to answer discussion starters for post trip for the parents. This handed out at the end would be awesome! But thats not even a complaint, just an idea I had. When I talked to the staff they even thought it was a great idea and would pass it along, so if it happens, you can say thank you to me.

If you are looking for the most bang for your mission trip buck, do yourself a favor. Seriously, put the iPad down and go to http://www.groupmissiontrips.com. Check them out! Now...Go..put the doughnut down and go. I'll wait and until next time!


Just Keep Swimming!

Parent Ministry: Mission Trip Ideas

Hey guys and gals! I'm writing this from my camp cot. We are at Group's Week of Hope mission trip in Nashville TN. It's the last night and I'm prepping for our Parent Connect meeting when we return. Which got me to thinking about what are some parent ministry things we did before, during, and after the mission trip. So here are some of the ideas we used, some were original to me, some were given to me by Jeremy Lee from Parentministry.net. All are great!

1: I printed off and gave every parent a copy of "Helping Parents Connect" by Leader Trex. It is an excellent before, during, and after parents guide to mission trips.

2: I gave the parents a prayer guide with some specific ideas to pray for us during our trip.

3: I OVER communicated our plans, eta's, details, times, etc. I want my parents to be over informed. We communicate with our parents via text, email, Facebook, church announcements, parent ministry website, and print news letters.

4: Prior to leaving, I set up a Week of Hope Parents Group on my Groups app on my iPhone. This allowed me to send off large group mass texts every day to keep our parents informed about what we were doing, who we were serving, and how the camp itself was. I also sent out a text twice during the week to parents individually telling them something their child had done, wether it was a God Sighting or just something funny that their parent would get a laugh out of.

5: I took my lap top with me to camp, wrote and printed off a Parent Connect form. It's a follow up form that gives the parents 3-5 simple easy questions on the trip home.

6: I also printed up a larger page with deeper follow up questions. During the camp I sent the parents a text encouraging them to take the students out to their favorite restaurant or to cook their favorite meal. These questions could be asked during the meal.

7: During the camp, the students wrote "Care Cards" to each other. These are simple encouraging messages to help affirm other students. I informed the parents during the Parent Connect meeting what these were. Prior to leaving I had the students write "Care Cards" to the parents. These were a little larger than normal and included; an affirmation of the students love for the parent, a thank you for letting them come to camp, and something specific that they did and learned at camp.

8: I am leaving one hour earlier than our group. I am returning early to have a Parent Connect meeting. I will set up and inform our parents of many different thing that our students did at camp, etc (I will have a more in depth post on it later). I also loaded the students luggage into my vehicle and marked each piece. So when I arrive the parents can off load and the students won't have to wait to unload.

Our parents have commented that they felt informed, cared about, and really felt invested into our mission trip. So all in all it was a outstanding trip for everyone! As always!


Just Keep Swimming!

Attendance Lesson

I consider myself a fairly smart and well trained youth minister. I'm no expert, but I am constantly learning about youth ministry. I hold youth ministry certificates, I am studying youth ministry in college, I constantly read youth ministry magazines and books, I attend conferences, and I consistently participate in youth ministry conversations online. One lesson I learned in youth ministry though I learned the hard way.

This year I decided to take my students on a week long mission trip this summer instead of the normal church camp. While the camp we attend is great, I wanted my students to meet Jesus through serving others. I noticed a trend while attending camp, where the students were more concerned with playing bazooka ball and swimming than focusing on Christ. I thought that could be remedied by making service the focus of our summer. The turn out was terrible. I wanted 5 students for every one adult. I didn't even come close. So I started recruiting students, begging students, and almost went so far as to bribe a student to go (okay I made that last one up but you get the point). We have a GREAT group going but I was stressed out about it.

Why was I so stressed out? I thought I had to get the adult/student ratio from the trip organizers! I didn't set my own expectations. I found out later if we had gone to church camp instead there were a bunch of students that would have signed up right away. As I thought about our smaller number going to the mission trip, I thought about the benefits to taking a smaller group. Easier to manage, lower cost, and the most important factor, the mentor factor. The fewer numbers the easier it is for me to pour into the students that do go.

Next year we've decided to do a 40 hour summer camp at our local camp (we did this last year) and a week long mission trip. It stinks being bi-vocational and having to work around my vacation days from my 'other job'. But this set up will keep both numbers lower, and all students will get to go to something.

Until next time my friends!
Just keep swimming!

Ministryplace.net Guest Post

I was recently asked by my friend Brent Lacy from Ministryplace.net and the author of Rural Youth Ministry part of Simply Youth Ministry's Everyday Youth Ministry line, to do some guest posts on his blog. My first guest post went up today. Check it out at:

http://ministryplace.net/guest-post-rural-ministry-iffrom-kevin/

Until next time!

Just Keep Swimming!

Youth Ministry Innovation

I had a youth ministry friend ask me the other day what I thought being a youth ministry innovator meant. Apparently he thought I was fairly innovative and wanted to know what made me so creative.

The first thing that crossed my mind is that I'm not that creative. However, when I thought about it I guess I am creative to a point. If you are a youth pastor, please don't think you have to have this huge platform to be innovative. Josh Griffin, from Saddleback Church in Lakewood CA, is this super creative guy. God has blessed him with a huge platform from which to push the youth ministry innovative envelope. His resources he puts out are cutting edge and great stuff. I have this great suspicion that if Griff was to take over in Dawson Springs KY at my church, he would be just as innovative, his distribution platform may be limited but that does not mean he wouldn't be able to be just as creative. All that to say, don't let your current platform be a crutch, let it be a launching pad!

So what are three things I do to be innovative?

1: Look to the past.
What has worked for me in the past? We always have a really good turn out for our Nerf Wars. When I need a instant shot of life in our Midweek, I insert a Nerf War. But don't limit yourself to what has worked for you. What has worked for past youth ministers at your church? I have a great rapport with the younger adults in our church, I constantly ask them, Hey what did you enjoy about youth group under So and So? I may not use the exact idea but I'll examine the principle and adapt it.

2: Look to the present.
What do you currently do thats working really well? What are ways you can improve on it or adapt the principle into a new idea? Our Sex series is always a big hit, but I don't do the same talk every year, I take the principle (the sex talk) and then breath new life in it by putting in new content. Also evaluate whats not working. Whats an idea, program, or event that needs the axe? I attempted to institute a HABITS program from PDYM at our church, what I didn't see was that our students lacked the spiritual maturity for a self driven discipleship program to work. I noticed it wasn't working, no harm no foul, so I axed it after a half year run. It's okay to fail, it you never try anything you'll never accomplish anything.

3: Look to the future.
Ahh the old think outside the box! What is something brand new that has never been done in your ministry? When I took over at our church the Midweek program was like most Midweek programs in our area. Small devotional or lesson, fellowship time, and games. I envisioned more, a big production with music, a stage, sound system, games, and a larger lesson/sermonette done by series. Sounds like most larger churches right? We're a little smaller, but why couldn't we pull it off? All I heard from people was, it'll never work, we're to small to do it, the students won't like it. Guess what? It worked for us! Because no one in our town was doing a big production like that it took off. The students love it, have a blast inviting their friends and know they are part of something special. Was I scared it will fail, yeah. Did the voices tell me it could fail, absolutely! So what if it failed! I learn and I move on, but what if it doesn't fail? What if this idea is God's will for your ministry and all it is waiting on is for you to act on it?

Being creative and innovative in youth ministry is something anyone can do, it's not something thats for a select few 'gifted' youth ministers. Just don't be scared to fail and follow where God is leading you. Until next time!

Just Keep Swimming!