Life of a youth pastor .

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Watch Orange Conference LIVE here!

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This week is going to be awesome! What am I looking forward to the most? Glad you asked. The people. There are over 8,000 ministry leaders here who give much of their life to the next generation. The amount of influence in this place is awesome. I look forward to exchanging learnings, failures and successes with other ministry leaders. Want to learn with us this week but couldn’t make it? No worries, check out the LIVE feed here or come back for updates.

If you’re at #OC16 and want to stay connect this week hit me up on Twitter.

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Get off the stage, you talk too much!

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shh2If the statement upsets you it could be a deeper conviction or perhaps I’m right. However, I’m not here to guilt trip you, but rather offer up one of the best kept secrets I have run into this past year. The method has benefited my student ministry tremendously.

You and I both know that even the most gifted and rehearsed speaker won’t connect with every student. I receive compliments and encouragement from some students while getting blank stares from others. Your audience needs different voices offering up the same truth in different tones. Just as there are a kazillion love songs on the radio, some prefer country music while others like the fat beat of a heavy rap song with a similar story…in both songs someone is stealing the girl or running off with their high school sweetheart  (I understand country music lyrics a little bit more clearly than rap…but maybe that’s just me?).

I found that asking guest speakers to take on a speaking series is beneficial to everyone involved in the equation. A couple of quick thoughts:

  • Give your audience another voice to connect with.
  • Rather than spend time on message prep that week, solve other problems in your ministry.
  • Allow a speaker/teacher to grow in their gifting.
  • Taking off a Sunday in the future will be much more possible when you share the stage with others.
  • Pastoral staff and those with the gift of teaching are selected guest speakers. BE SELECTIVE.
  • One day when you leave your position students will be more receptive to hearing from other voices…even the next youth pastor.

How often should you share the stage? The old-school youth pastor and even some modern day yp’s will speak every single Sunday. If you want to burn out and hate your job…then continue this method. Even if you LOVE speaking…your ministry needs your attention in other places other than the stage. I have done some math and it appears over the past year that I speak 40-50% of the time. That means that I am one of if not the most consistent faces on stage but not appearing every Sunday.

Getting off the stage has allowed me to recruit, train and cast vision for my leaders like never before. This year we have a full volunteer staff of almost 60 showing up every Sunday to lead small groups, greet students and serve up a meal for our high school program. This would not have been possible if it weren’t for the team of speakers I have around me that pour in their time to teach our students while I work on other “behind the scenes stuff” during the week.

In case the question came to mind. We use Orange’s Xp3 curriculum as our foundation for a teaching manuscript and small group questions. I allow the guest speaker to add their own stories and even some main points, but they have to stick to the bottom line and use the scripture given.

So, I leave you with this question: Who are you sharing the stage with?

Lead Small App: IT’S FREE!

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Give some love to those hardworking small group leaders, get this app in their hands ASAP! We (student pastors) have been waiting for something like this for years and now those over at Orange have gone and done it, they have created the  “Lead Small” app free for small group leaders to use. My leaders are using it every week!

  • Small Group Questions? Check.
  • Database for all my students info and prayer requests? Check.
  • One click to send a text to everyone in my small group? Check.
  • Additional training to make me a better leader? Check.

I use the app during every SGL meeting to review the topic for the day and the small group questions. This thing is synced with our curriculum months in advance, it’s a time saver and super clear on what the SGL needs to do.

Churches have the option to subscribe for a small fee to customize and make content and newsfeed their own. Even if your small group leaders simply use this as database to keep in touch with their few and their parents, this thing is a game changer! Go download it and geek out with me on what we’ve all been waiting for!

Insane deal for you! Go get it.

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DealsI think I own almost every book that Orange has put out, and they just keep getting better. These are some of the best reads for student and children’s ministry. You won’t be disappointed to add some of their hot-off-the-press books to your library. Buy some for you, buy some for a friend, read and discuss with your church staff.

Orange Books is sponsoring a week of special deals. This week only until August 22, you can get five different special offers on select Orange Books.

When you purchase one of the five different “Deals,” you will receive $50–$100 of bonus content!

Plus, if you post the Deals (using the hasthtag #OrangeBooks), you will be entered to win five different Prizes (no purchase necessary). You can get all the details at Orange Books.

Go get that deal! #OrangeBooks

Can I watch Orange Conference 2014 online?

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Next week thousands, literally thousands, will assemble in Atlanta, Georgia for Orange Conference 2014. Perhaps you didn’t buy a ticket, you were skeptical or waited too late or took a year off, or maybe prefer a different conference?! Regardless of the reason, you are in for a treat, the folks at Orange are very considerate and are making the main sessions available for LIVE online viewing next week!

  • Can I really watch for free? YES.
  • Can I still buy a last minute ticket for the main sessions and attend in Atlanta? YES.
  • Will you be blogging your thoughts and ideas on things learned next week? YES.
  • If my team and I can’t make it to #OC14 should we watch main sessions together? YES.

Orange Conference will provide some great discussion and ideas for you, your staff, and leaders. Grab some popcorn, pen and paper, take some notes and chat it up!

Watch the main sessions LIVE stream for free or check out the Orange conference website.

Set reminders on your calendar/phone, main session times are as follows:

Wednesday, April 30
Session#1 7:30PM-10:30PM

Thursday, May 1
Session #2 9:00AM-10:45AM
Session #3 7:30PM-8:30PM

Friday, May 2
Session #4 9:00AM-10:30AM
Session #5 11:15AM-12:30PM
Session #6 2:00PM-3:15PM
Session #7 4:00PM-6:00PM

Yippeee!!! Can’t wait, see you all in Atlanta next week!

My Breakouts for OC 2014!

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I’m super excited about Orange Conference this year! I always appreciate the main sessions but LOVE the breakouts. I like hearing about the niche things in ministry, but love seeing the dozens of others in ministry struggling through the same things. It’s places like this that a mere conversation can totally alter the state of your ministry or vision. I’m not completely sure what I will walk away with this year but ready to find out.

Here are the breakouts I have chosen to attend. Hope to see you there!

  • MEASURING WHAT’S IMPORTANT IN FAMILY MINISTRY (Next Gen)
  • UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON KIDS AND STUDENTS
  • LEADING THROUGH CRISIS, TRAGEDY AND TRAUMA (STUDENTS)
  • ORANGE STRATEGY TO BUILD AND ALIGN MULTI-SITE CAMPUSES
  • STARTING A CHURCH FOR UNCHURCHED FAMILIES
  • ORANGE INTERACTIVE: STUDENT MINISTRY

XP3 – Free 3 week series!

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One of the first questions I get when hanging out with another student pastor is, “What curriculum do you use?” I have gone a few different routes in the past, but have been using XP3 for about a year now. Here’s what I love most…they give you EVERYTHING you would ever need for a series and then some more. For every series you get small group questions, large group manuscript, access to bumper videos, logos, leader email templates, etc. The content seems to always be relevant, I take the manuscript and make it my own. XP3 gives both the young and well seasoned youth pastor a great platform to engage students with God’s word.

Take a quick look at this for your group, and try a free 3 week series!

Orange Tour Dallas

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I had a great opportunity to invest into some of my leaders by taking them to the Orange Tour in Dallas this past week. It was an awarding experience, including some great bonding moments with my volunteers and staff. If you are familiar with the Orange strategy you know what kind of stuff we studied, if you aren’t it’s rather simple – “What if church leaders and parents synchronized their efforts to fuel wonder, discovery and passion in the next generation?” By combining the critical influences of the light of the church (yellow) and the love of the family (red) the Orange Strategy shows a generation who God is more effectively than either could alone.” –www.whatisorange.org

The main focus of the conference was “Lead Small” – what a great focus for my volunteer team, seeing that we don’t have a functioning small group model to offer all of our students currently. This helped pioneer some great discussion and what we will be trying to achieve for our ministry in the year ahead.

My greatest takeaway –

“When you lead change, you decide to make adjustments to present methods for the sake of a sacred mission.”

I love the story that was shared at Orange of a current lead pastor, Carey Nieuwhof, who started ministry in a relatively old church setting. When he came on staff, he walked into one of his first staff meetings and asked the question, “I’ve been driving around Toronto all day trying to tune in on some organ music, I can’t seem to find any, why are we playing organ music on Sunday mornings?” He knew something needed to change in order to reach the current culture – not change the message nor the mission, but rather the method, the style of music being offered.

I pray for all those pastors and ministry leaders that are timid to change programs and think differently about current structure in order to reach the next generation, especially those that don’t have a church home. While the gospel message will always be the aim in my ministry and should continually be our foundation, this generation and culture is changing at a pace that we must keep up with.

Will you lead change for the sake of a sacred mission? For the sake of the next generation in the church?