Church & School – Build the Bridge! (DIY9.10)

May 15, 2013 by Chris Parker 1 Comment

This is in response to a former article I wrote on DIY Student Ministry. This is the ninth of ten areas that I’m covering in this series.

Nothing says, “I want to be in your world” more than a visit to the student’s school. Whether it be for lunch in the cafeteria or sitting in the student section at a football game – when you approach the school you approach where they do most of their life. Now before I get into this, we must make an observation…some schools are open and some are closed, meaning some schools will let you and your volunteers into the building for lunch with your students while others will not. There are some loopholes. Some campuses would like to make you think they are closed…start asking questions of where they need help or how you can meet with an individual student. The administration may start by asking you to fill out a volunteer application or have a written letter on file from the parent of the student you are meeting with.

When you get into a student’s world at school, you will better understand the crowd you are trying to reach on a weekly basis. If you lose touch of this, you diminish your effectiveness as a student pastor. You might as well be teaching an empty hallway.

When I was in Chicago the campuses were closed but I was able to apply for a mentor program that allowed me to get on campus and meet with students that needed help thinking through the process of going to college. This allowed me to see some of my students but also meet students I didn’t already know.

Here in Austin it’s a little bit of both, it’s actually not even consistent within each school district. I had a regular habit of visiting the closest school this semester until things got ridiculously busy. One thing I quickly discovered was that my HS group of 60 students represented 16 different high schools in the Austin area. Knowing that I barely had the time to visit one school, I knew that do-it-yourself student ministry would not have the impact that these students and schools needed from the church. I currently have one HS volunteer visiting (going through the application process) the school I was visiting and one MS volunteer visiting a MS just down the road. Slowly but surely I hope to get more of my leaders and volunteers to help build the bridge between the church and school.

Here are some ways to get started:

Do a prayer walk. Pick a Saturday morning, invite your volunteers and walk the campus asking God to open doors (literally) for you and your team.
Just do it! Try to meet with one of your students with lunch. Make sure to check-in with the office.
Schedule a meeting with the principal, let him/her know that you and your volunteers are available for anything that they may need help with.
Go to the games. Students love to be supported, make a sign, paint your face, make it memorable!
Send a gift basket their way with a card in it on teacher appreciation day.
Offer to plant flowers or do landscaping to make the campus a more enjoyable place, see if the garden center in your town would donate flowers and plants to this.
Recruit specific volunteers to be the liaison for a specific campuses. Get this team together in the late summer to strategize and set goals for the school year. Talk about what success looks like.

How have you made a presence on your school campus? What is your success story of partnering with a local school?

This is in response to a former article I wrote on DIY Student Ministry. This is the ninth of ten areas that I’m covering in this series.

Supply Run! (DIY8.10)

May 8, 2013 by Chris Parker 2 Comments

This is in response to a former article I wrote on DIY Student Ministry. This is the eighth of ten areas that I’m covering in this series.

I’ll make this one short and sweet. You don’t need to do all of the shopping for your ministry. There are plenty of leaders and parents out there that are willing to swing by the store for you, just ask. Get away from do-it-yourself student ministry by delegating to others, allowing them to be a piece in the process of pulling your program or event together. Bringing others into your supply run outings can bring great benefits.

ALWAYS

Ask another leader or parent to do your supply run.
Encourage leaders to take students with them, it’s a great time to build community.
Have a supply list prepared, more time is wasted in the store if you don’t have a list.
Understand your method of payment and how reimbursements work at your church, be up front with your leaders/parents and make sure they get their reimbursement.

IDEAS

Amazon Prime – Free two day shipping on most items, delivered right to the church. Eliminates the time and money spent on an outing to the store.
The dollar store…hidden treasures await you and your students.
Old stuff in your youth storage space, you haven’t used this stuff in a year. Get creative with supplies you already have or bring back an old game.

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Create or maintain a student worship band! (DIY7.10)

May 3, 2013 by Chris Parker 1 Comment

This is in response to a former article I wrote on DIY Student Ministry. This is the seventh of ten areas that I’m covering in this series.

I’d be the first to say that I’m not a musician. I know some scales, a few chords on the guitar and have a singing voice that would scare young children. While I was in 7th grade, the best thing my youth pastor ever told me was, “Chris, you can’t sing – let’s find another area for you to serve.” I never again took the stage as a musician. Let’s face it, you have room full of students, who like me, want to be a part of something great like a worship band but should never make the cut. On the other hand, gifted and talented musicians are out there…perhaps they are students or maybe adults. Let’s explore some options together and weigh the pros & cons of arranging a band for your ministry.

The student band – When it comes down to strictly students you are in for a treat, potential student leadership, some drama and little bit of everything else. I have eye-witnessed amazing student bands that understand the heart of worship but lack musical ability. The opposite can also be true, amazing musical talent with a lack of reverence and understanding who we are singing to, these are the crowd pleasers. The turn over rate in a student band is almost unreasonable…students are graduating each year, a new sports season comes along, a student gets a job. There is always a position that needs to be filled, thus a tryout process is always being discussed. Some student pastors do their best to provide leadership or ownership in this area – it takes a lot of time, patience and can be distracting from the big picture of the program or ministry overall.

The student/adult band – This tends to be the most preferred and economical model for the student pastor and the church. You may still be dealing with some of the things same things from the ‘student band’ model mentioned above, but now you have an adult or a few adults involved as well – which are hopefully a bit more matured in their thinking and musicianship. Recruiting an adult volunteer(s) for this position get help maintain order, bring better organization, and overall develop better consistency for your students and your program. They may play/sing with the students or simply be there for practices and programs. This role can be a huge encourager for students and will allow the student pastor to be more hands off, giving attention and detail to other areas of the program and ministry. This is my current model.

The professional band – Make it a paid position. I was a bit uneasy when first hearing about this model, but then I saw the product and the results. Recently visiting NorthPoint church in Atlanta I discovered that they pay a group of rotating professional musicians to come and lead the music element of the program for both HS and MS students. They are never late, rarely cancel, and deliver an A+ performance for students and leaders. Two things happen here. One, the student’s primary aim is to participate by bringing their friends to a dynamic and engaging program. Secondly, you don’t have to worry about uneasy transitions, teen band drama, and wonder what the band will sound like this week. Perhaps you can’t afford to pay a whole band each week, but how about a few rotating lead vocalists?

If you aren’t musically gifted, surround yourself with people that are. If you are musically gifted, still – surround yourself with people who are also musically gifted. Get away from DIY student ministry by recruiting and budgeting for great musicians to better your program.

Final thoughts:

Help your students understand the aim, that its more than performance, they are playing for Jesus.
If the student or adult is not the grade musician you are looking for…be honest.
If your current band sounds bad to you, it sounds bad to others.
Partner with your worship/creative arts team at church, get their opinions.
Rotations are good! Get different people playing on a regular basis if you can. This prevents fallout.

Game Over! (DIY2.10)

April 17, 2013 by Chris Parker 3 Comments

This is in response to a former article I wrote on DIY Student Ministry. This is the second of ten areas that I’m covering in this series.

Once again you find yourself trying to transition from a messy game to a serious message. As you wipe the shaving cream off your hands you ask the student’s to bow their heads and pray with you. As you disconnect your mind from your prayer…you begin drifting into thinking about how much time you spent on that game, how hard it was to set up and realize that you invested so much more time into the fun factor of the program rather than preparing a message that students can relate to…as you say Amen, you think “Well, here goes nothing.”

I’m have been guilty of this more than once. Some could blame procrastination or a lack of creativity, but games for students can be down right hard! Planning, preparing and executing games for a program takes time, thought and energy. Though you can probably do both the teaching and games…DON’T DO IT! Sometimes this can come down to a trust issue, “They can’t do games the way I do games.” “They don’t understand all the logistics that go into a group game for 100 students.” “This volunteer is not capable of putting on the fun hat and really getting the students out of their comfort zone.” While all of this can be true, you need to teach them. Lead your leaders to be great at games. Share the burden of the program with other dedicated volunteers and get away from doing both games and teaching. You can be good at both, but better at one when you empower someone else to own the other. Doing this will only help you get away from a DIY student ministry.

With that being said, I’d ask you to consider your student ministry philosophy of the program. What’s the purpose of a program? What’s the purpose of the game? Is it essential that I have a game in every program? These are some good questions to ask.

A few ideas when it comes to games:

What leaders come to mind when you think games? Who can be recruited, trained, and own this?
Have a night without the game, do something different.
Flip that around and have a night of programming that is just fun and games.
Don’t give away a prize every time someone wins, this can get expensive! Let them just have the satisfaction of winning.
Do a current inventory on all supplies, what can you use for games, what needs to be tossed?
Have a healthy mix of both up front games and group games.
Messy games are memorable games.
Practice communicating the game with fellow staff members before an audience of students, asking them, “Does this make sense?”

Ready your room! (DIY1.10)

April 11, 2013 by Chris Parker 2 Comments

This is in response to a former article I wrote on DIY Student Ministry. This is the first of ten areas that I’m covering in this series.

It’s Sunday morning and students start pouring into your room for the program. The lights are stuck on some weird pink color, the woofer is pumping so loud that the gray haired people are coming and asking you to turn it down, and for whatever reason that projector keeps flashing “replace bulb”. So what do you do? Well, this isn’t the first Sunday all of this has happened, its actually a rut you find yourself in and you carry on like usual and yet somehow seem to “make it work” for your students and leaders.

I know the feeling all too well, this has happened to me in multiple environments and I’ve seen many student pastors fall victim to a room that is not functioning properly for them. Here’s the good news, this is not a DIY project! There is an army of students, parents, technicians, other staff, leaders, volunteers that are willing to help. Here is the secret of all secrets, “MAKE THE ASK!” Letting down your pride and letting others into your problem areas can only help the process get better, misery loves company right?! But seriously, you need to move away from these items so that you can connect with people.

Here are a few simple truths or common practices that have helped me:

Turn that music on! Music seems to make any set up better, whether you are rushed for time or not.
Setting up chairs. Don’t do this alone, there are too many people to help. Don’t waste your time.
Get off the ladder, and away from “isolation” projects. You need to be connecting with people.
If you are handcuffed to the sound booth, you just built a wall (literally) between you and the people you need to be connecting with. Think outside this box.
Students can run slides, cameras, lights, and even sound sometimes. They just need someone to invite them into the process, teach them how and then let them own it.
Take one day a month to spend in your space outside of programming time. Pray for creativity, tidy up the room, think about new ways you can use your space.
Set up for your program a day or days before. I use a shared space, the days that I can get in there before and prep the room for program I am WAY ahead of the game when it comes to the programming day for my students. My mind is clear of prep work and focused on equipping, encouraging, and empowering my leaders and students.
Recruit. Be specific when recruiting leaders/volunteers. Have one own stage design, another own Audio/Visual, yet another check-in process. When people’s responsibilities start to blur lines you will lose quality and assurance that the specific area is going to be taken care of.

DIY SM – Do it yourself student ministry!

April 8, 2013 by Chris Parker 23 Comments

Confession, I’m guilty of reading Popular Mechanics magazine. I love to find articles on do-it-yourself (DIY) projects around the house. Whether its staining the wood trim around our windows or changing the oil on my motorcycle, I find it fascinating to learn and do things on my own.

While time alone and DIY projects are life giving to me…I know that doing student ministry alone is not! I hope you would agree with me that student ministry was not created for the student pastor. The student ministry is not a DIY project for one to carry all alone.

Student ministry is not about you! It is not about what you accomplish, it is not about the best message you ever gave, and it is certainly not about the youth space or branding that you have created for students. At the end of your term as student pastor, you will eventually be forgotten and replaced. That might seem a little harsh, but its the truth. Remembering that student ministry is not about you, and keeping that in front of you, will only benefit your ministry and expand its reach. Only when you have this mindset are you able to truly empower your volunteers and students do some ministry of their own.

You may be thinking, “If I want things done right, then I need to do it myself.” Get over it. When you empower others to do ministry you relinquish your rights to be the “do-er” but you don’t relinquish your rights to be the visionary. Practice painting the picture for people, and let them do it! It won’t be done the way you would do it, but more is being accomplished overall through others than if you run a DIY SM. Many times I have found that when I empower someone else…whether it be a mom, dad, student, or fellow staff member…they do a far better job than what I could have done myself! The best memories in student ministry are made when many hands work together, making the job light, everyone is participating by putting their best foot forward in an area that needs attention. Healthy teamwork within your ministry is necessary in moving things forward.

Here is a list of to-do’s that many student pastors (including myself) are guilty of when it comes down to a DIY SM:

Readying the room. Setting out chairs, turning on lights, music, etc.
Finding or creating a game and leading it.
Stage design…hours can be spent doing this.
Creating and maintaining a visitor followup process.
Social media interaction – FB, Twitter, Instagram. Following & liking student posts.
Trip/Retreat research. Lodging, meals, travel.
Helping create or maintain a student band.
Supply run. Need I say more?
Liaisons between your church and local schools.
Project planning and recruiting for the BIG event.

…and the list could go on and on. As the student pastor you can’t do it all on your own. Empower your people!

After writing this article I feel compelled to write out a few thoughts on each item listed above. Stay tuned.

Question for you: What has been your biggest mistake or learning point in a DIY project? Whether in ministry or personally?