We may seriously doubt that any of our youth are involved in dating violence, however we all are aware of the struggle teens have in using their cell phones. Digital boundaries need to be defined and you can help teens and their parents in establishing such boundaries. A site that addresses this topic is www.thatsnotcool.com. There are video clips, questions for serious consideration and links for help. A valuable site for initiating or supporting this latest concern of our communities.

NE Ohio Lutheran Resource Center
1890 Bailey Road
Cuyahoga Falls OH 44221

330-929-9020
330-929-9018 FAX

http://www.youthministry360.com/

Every leader experiences low points. There will be ministry seasons when the passion fades. The initial stages of this passion shift can be subtle, so it’s important to discern the warning signs before discontent takes permanent residence. Here are seven signs that we’ve personally experienced:

1. Ministry feels more like a CHORE than a CALLING.

The passion is fading when it’s difficult to get excited about showing up. Projects and tasks become monotonous and feel like obstacles rather than an opportunity to make an impact.

2. You become easily drained by people.

When passion shrinks…patience follows. A lowered tolerance unfairly transforms:

• Questions into criticism
• Personality quirks into character flaws
• Minor mistakes into major catastrophes
• People into problems

3. Bitterness and resentment.

You know you’re moving close to the passionless edge when invisible tally marks build up in your heart and you categorize and agonize over all the wrongs committed against you. Resentment begins to push out joy and contentment.

4. Fatal Fatigue.

Even passionate leaders eventually tire. There’s “normal tired” and what we refer to as “fatal fatigue”…it’s an exhaustion mixed with feelings of insignificance. When we’re regularly tired and wondering, “Does what I do even matter?”…that’s usually a strong indicator that something is going wrong and an important feeling to pay attention to.

5. More distracted than usual.

Without passion, filtering excess noise and trying to focus on what’s important becomes very difficult. In fact, passionless people are easily distracted and will turn to anything that’s exciting at the moment.

6. Less self control, more self indulgence.

When we lack passion, we lack fulfillment. Lacking fulfillment can lead to feelings of entitlement (i.e. “life isn’t good right now and I deserve [fill in the blank]…”). Self control soon erodes and indulgence appear when passion fades.

7. Burnout is lurking right around the corner.

Passion helps us to see beyond disappointments, but when the defeats pile up, it’s easy to begin caring less and less. Apathy arrives and calls out to burnout and when that happens you can be sure that quitting is close behind.

If you recognize some of these signs within your own life, don’t despair! YOU AREN’T ALONE. We have been there (and if you’re new to ministry…these signs are coming) and it’s important to know that there are some things that only God can do in our lives when our passion fades…and that’s what we’ll address tomorrow. Hang on!

When: Saturday, August 21, 2010

Time: 9:00 A.M.-2:45 P.M. (Lunch Provided)

Place: Grace Lutheran Church

146 High Street, Wadsworth

(330)335-6501

2nd Annual YL Workshop

by Margie Morris

Good training helps volunteers succeed. It equips them to tackle meaningful jobs with determination and skill. If we want to foster involvement and a sense of commitment that transcends the “good enough to get by” mentality, then our training will go beyond “how-to.” We want our volunteers to also consider “how might.” That means giving the people who work with us permission to do it their way.

It’s not always easy to let go of tried-and-true methods to allow for innovation. But by loosening our grasp, we allow volunteers to generate their own enthusiasm rather than asking them to be caretakers for our plans.

The following five suggestions will give both you and your volunteers more freedom and flexibility to do what you do best.

1. Foster Team Spirit

Train your volunteers to work together and to share ideas. Urge them to make decisions jointly. If possible, help volunteers determine their own specific responsibilities. Make a collective judgment about how best to build accountability into the program. Plan together. Play together. Pray together. Then help volunteers use these cooperative tools within their own subgroups.

It’s your job to keep the overall mission at the forefront of all activities. Your goals, tasks, and evaluations can then be measured according to your ministry’s mission. However, it’s also essential that you prod your volunteers to be detail-oriented–details make the difference between an ordinary and an extraordinary program. Provide volunteers with updated attendance lists. Stock a supply of funny birthday cards. Show how important caring connections are for everybody.

2. Delegate

Train your volunteers to involve people of all ages and backgrounds in your program. Teach them to look for helpers who have valuable skills and a servant mentality. Have them search within the congregation and outside in the community.

Even if you have one volunteer who can “do it all,” you’ll have a more vital, interesting ministry if you make delegation a priority. That’s why God refers to the church as a body, with parts that are radically different yet dependent upon one another. Delegation translates to better stewardship of time. And it cuts down the risk of burnout among your faithful workers.

3.  Seek Out Training

Train your volunteers to ask for what they need. Offer various learning opportunities–including workbooks, seminars, community courses, and videotape training. As you build skills, you increase confidence. If possible, set aside money in your youth budget to help pay tuition or registration fees for your volunteers. It’s a wise investment in your people and your programs.

4. Take Risks

Train your volunteers to break out of the mold. Although taking reasonable chances sometimes leads to disappointment, it more often heightens excitement and enthusiasm. Banish the words “But we’ve never done it that way!” Discipleship was never intended to be a predictable exercise.

You hold the keys to innovative thinking. If you shoot down every wild brainstorm your volunteers come up with, you’re teaching them to “stay within the lines.” They’ll simply stop thinking of new ideas. And you’ll have a brain-locked, gridlocked ministry. So ask your volunteers to rethink and reinvent even your most successful ideas. So you’ve always had okay success with carwash fund-raisers? Maybe your volunteers can think of some twists that’ll make this year’s fund-raiser a resounding success. Your willingness to try new ideas will encourage them to think up new ideas.

5. Celebrate Success

Train your volunteers to appreciate the work they do and the people they work with. Even though we take our ministry seriously, laughter and lightheartedness make it fun. We often train volunteers to watch for “teachable moments,” but we forget to be alert for joyful moments.

At the conclusion of every project, at the halfway point of an important campaign, or at the end of a productive meeting, find ways to celebrate. Bring balloons. Throw confetti. Pass out chocolate chip cookies. Award a plaque. Offer an affirmation. Say a prayer. Success is the result of careful planning, hard work, and loving attention. Never let it go unnoticed.

This article is excerpted from Group Magazine, the world’s most-read youth ministry resource. Margie Morris, of Texas, directs a training organization called Volunteer Impact. She is the author of the book, Volunteer Ministries: New Strategies for Today’s Church.

Some of these strategies, as well as many other helpful volunteer leadership ideas, will be covered during LifeServe 2010 in the workshop track titled Essential Tools for Volunteer Leadership. LifeServe National Conference 2010 will be held at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio from September 29 – October 1.

Copyright © 2010  Group Publishing, Inc.  All rights reserved.

So, have you read a good book recently pertaining to Youth Ministry?  I have started a series from Standard Publishing called, “Youth Ministry in the Trenches.” At the moment there are three books in the series, Building and Mobilizing Teams, Engaging Parents as Allies, and Reaching the Unchurched Teens. Each book is written by a different author. I have read the book on teams and am working on the book on making parents our allies.  I must say I am enjoying the series.  The books are short, easy reads packed with new insights and helpful hints on building quality teams. Furthermore, the format is great nice with major points highlighted and space at the back of each chapter for the reader’s own action plans and thoughts on what they have read.

The book, Building and Mobilizing Teams, was written by Marv Penner.  He started his book by having the reader envision teams that they have been on that have been a positive experience and what made them a good team to be on.  Then the reader was to remember bad team experiences and think why they were bad.  From there he leads the reader into the principles of good teams and how to put a good team together.

Many times as we build our youth ministry teams, Marv points out, that we build to just feel a space and we are not intentional in our team process.  Things move fast, people come and go and we just need someone to cover an activity now.  This, according to the author, can be counterproductive to building a good, stable youth ministry that meets the needs of our youth and our ministry program.

It gave me great pause when I read that we should start planning our ministry teams a year to six months before we need them.  This means we as ministry leaders need to be more deliberate in our team building process.  It also gives the person we ask more time for prayer and discernment.   Marv also talks about the importance of good job descriptions, taking the time to train your team, and how to gently release a team member who is not working out.

In conclusion, if you are having problems with your ministry teams, this is definitely a good resource book to read.  To purchase the book, try your local Christian bookstore, or go on line and order it through Standard Publishing at www.standardpub.com.  Happy reading from The Bookwoman!

Thanks to the support of our member colleges and universities and a grant from the Thrivent Foundation, LECNA is proud to host a site to help prospective students connect with institutions of Lutheran higher education. This Web site gives you access to all the resources you will need to be a champion of Lutheran higher education.

You can learn about our 41 member institutions, find language to describe the collective values of our coalition, brush up on statistics from LECNA’s in-depth research on the value of Lutheran higher education, and trade ideas with other Champions in our interactive forum. While doing so, remember the impact of Lutheran colleges and universities, and help us spread the word. It will be well worth your time.

http://www.lutherancolleges.org/champions

mascot scavenger hunt

Students will make their own mascot out of paper and pens (or more stuff if you want to get really creative) and then they will take their mascot around town and take pictures with it.  The pictures are at certain places, with certain people, or around certain objects.  Each picture is given a certain amount of points.  The most point wins.

Indiana Jones and the Empty Tomb

Then there was the time I got paid to let Harrison Ford almost run over me on a motorcycle about twenty times. It may not have been the smartest way to earn some extra cash.

One day a few years ago I saw a notice on the internet announcing that extras were needed for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, to be filmed partially at Yale University, not far, coincidentally, from where I live in the Kingdom of the Dented Skull (a tough neighborhood). Realizing that I had accomplished all I could that day to move forward the Middle East peace process, find a cure for cancer, and shrink the hole in the ozone layer, I decided to go sign up.

The movie takes place during the height of the Red Scare in the 1950s. I was given the role of a protester during a campus anti-Communism rally. A mob of us were supplied with placards and told to shout “Better dead than Red!” over and over.  Since I’d recently been spending my weekends on street corners holding a sign and yelling “The end is near!”, I felt well-prepared for the task.

The scene called for the hero Indiana Jones, on a Harley and being chased by a Chevy full of bad guys, to drive at full-speed through the middle of the crowd. Our job as extras was to dive out of the way like commitment-phobic wedding guests at a bouquet toss.

At first, while a production assistant worked with the actors to plot a course through the protest rally, the motorcycle and the car putt-putted along slowly. With each passing take, however, they picked up speed until we achieved a realistic semblance of chaos and danger. Now the vehicles were hurtling through the multitude like maniacs. A small group of extras, including me, were directed to be the final protesters to leap out of harm’s way. Over the span of a full day’s shoot, we got pretty good at timing our sidesteps so we’d escape at the last possible second from being tattooed with tire tread.

Finally the long day ended. It had been a sweltering shoot in 90-degree heat for thirteen hours, but fortunately, because I was costumed in a dark wool suit and tweed hat, it only felt like 280 degrees. We extras were told to return to the costume department to change into our street clothes and pick up our checks.

When I got home I examined the check and noticed that I had received a bonus under the category of “Hazard Pay”. This must have been to compensate for all the close shaves during the chase scene. I was being recognized for my daring commitment to this film, for my willingness to put my life on the line to ensure quality movie-making…

The bonus was for thirty bucks. That, I realized, is what my life is worth to Hollywood. Thirty dollars.

Easter reminds us of something much better. In the understatement of the year, you and I are worth far more to God than thirty bucks. To Him, we’re priceless. The cross proves that God’s love for us has no limits. The empty tomb proves that God desires for us to live joyfully with Him forever.

And my 0.04 seconds of screen time proves that I deserved an Oscar, if you ask me.

Happy Easter! He is risen!

Cuyler

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I hope that the Easter season went well for yuo, the family and the church.