Tag Archives: Student Ministry
#Orange10 Day 3: Perry Nobel
Posted on03. May, 2010 by Kenny.
I’ll admit it. I’m a pretty big fan of Perry Nobel. He’s fun and exciting and doing great things for the kingdom. In a lot of ways, he’s pushing new paradigms with his leadership in South Carolina. Going into this session, I knew it would be a very “quotable” session and he did not disappoint.- Family ministry has more potential than any other ministry in the church.
- A healthy family ministry must be supported by the Senior Pastor.
- Senior Pastors need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
- Environments matter. (Parents are going to ask two questions of their kids. What did you learn? Did you have fun? If you know that this is the question that eery parent is going to ask, then create environments to know that the kids are going to answer these questions correctly. They’ll be able to tell their parents what they learned and that they had SO MUCH FUN!)
- Keep it simple.
- Conflict and tension must be addressed no matter what.
- Have the right people in the right places.
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Site of the week: Youth Leader Stash
Posted on19. Apr, 2010 by Kenny.
Today I’m promoting a great new site that hit the interwebs a little over a month ago. It’s called YouthLeaderStash.com. It’s a site run by the Student Pastor, Chad Swanzy at my church. Chad and his lovely wife Cat have been doing student ministry for a long time and this site is a virtual archive of games, talks, ideas and stuff they’ve come up with over the years. I’ll tell you this, Chad is one of the more creative guys I’ve known in student ministry and he’s got some great stuff here.
I know, you’re probably thinking it. “But I’m not a ‘Youth Leader!’ What about a stash for kids?”
For that, visit my new site kidminleaderstash.com (just kidding Chad). 
Seriously, there’s some great stuff here that’s totally transferable to Kidmin. So many great games that would work great in kid environment. So, check out the “stash” and pass the word. Tell your student pastor about the site, they’ll be glad you did. Maybe he will buy you lunch becasue of this great find. Yum!
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Orange is EXPLODING!
Posted on26. Mar, 2010 by Kenny.
Have you ever had really high expectations for something and when you got there it was just… meh? Been there. But there’s something really cool about having a high level of anticipation about something that is GOING TO BE HUGE! Well my friends, that’s the 2010 Orange Conference for you. In spite of economic challenges and all the other things that could distract, Orange is BLOWING UP! Still being a month away, this year’s Orange Conference is smashing previous year’s registration. It’s going to be a year for the record books! If you’ve been in the past, you’re going to notice a difference. How exciting to be a part of a movement that’s got huge momentum. God’s certainly doing something through this strategy and this gathering of ideas to change families forever.
If you haven’t registered yet for Orange, it’s not too late. I’m serious, you DON’ WANT TO MISS THIS CONFERENCE! It very well could change your trajectory for life and ministry.
Added bonus: Anyone who registers before April 8th can get into the preconference for half price! That’s huge! I never miss a preconference! Click here to register right now or click on the badge to the right!
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Integrated Strategy: student and kids ministry getting along
Posted on17. Jan, 2010 by Kenny.
I know I’ve already posted about Integrated Strategy today, but I had to share this. If you don’t read any more of my post (but you want to, don’t you?) click over here and read this post. It’s a post Chad Swanzy, my Student Pastor wrote of the weekend. Probably the best post I’ve read dealing with the conflict between student ministry and children’s ministry. Hands down the best post I’ve read about this from the student ministry perspective (maybe the only). It’s raw and honest. He asks some very poignant questions worth wrestling to the ground. I’m surprised he hasn’t gotten more comments than he has already. So if you haven’t checked it out yet, do so now. My thoughts are below.
Chad verbalized the things student pastors and children’s pastors often think but never verbalize. His challenge at the end of the post was “Maybe as we get the junk out we can have real dialogue about it.”
He spoke of what we want versus what they want. They’re essentially the same. However, the junk comes in from differences in methodologies and points of view. I think my favorite line was:
You think we are irresponsible and reckless we think you’re over protective and hyper sensitive.
Integrated Strategy is about sitting down to the table and developing a strategy – together. However, it may be possible that some stuff needs to happen before we can start talking strategy. Maybe we need to try to see things from each others point of view. We don’t have to be best friends and do everything together, but I believe that we do need to trust each other. As a children’s pastor, I HAVE to trust my student pastor. I have to go beyond “giving him the benefit of the doubt” and believe in what he’s doing and his ability to do it. In the same respect, a student pastor has to respect me. He has to believe in me and trust that what I’m doing is effective and best for OUR kids. If any of that is missing, we’ll never do this strategy thing. We’ll never “integrate.”
This throws a lot more out there to be evaluated. If we truly believe that the best way to impact kids for the long haul is an integrated strategy, then what I said above has got to happen. If it can’t. If teams won’t play nice, then maybe it’s time to fine a place where you can. The next time your church is hiring a student pastor, demand to be a part of the interview process. Same for the student pastors.
Put that in you pipe and smoke it.
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Student ministry stereotypes
Posted on30. Aug, 2009 by Kenny.
We all know that Children’s Ministry has more than its share of stereotypes, both for the ministry as well as those who lead. Sometimes it can be embarrassing. But you have to admit, Student Ministry has plenty of stereotypes as well, just maybe not as dorky. I’ve worked with enough Student Pastors that I had a lot of fun watching this video.
All I can say is… Awkward Side Hug!
And what’s up with that creepy puppet at 2.24? Was that some kind of sub-conscious reference to Children’s Ministry?
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What I’m reading
Posted on12. Jun, 2009 by Kenny.
It’s been about a year ago since I posted what I’m reading. The last time I did it, I spent an hour typing out and linking all the blogs I read. I think that’s why it’s been a year since I’ve updated the list on this blog. However I just found out about Google Reader’s bundles. It made this process so much easier.
Right now I subscribe to 33 blogs about Children’s and Student Ministry. I subscribe to blog from different categories as well, but if I only have a limited amount of time to read blogs, I usually hit this list first. Here the are.
Here’s the beauty of the bundle. On the page I linked to, you can click on each blog in the list and go to that blog page or you can click the “subscribe” button and it will add all 33 blogs to your google reader account in a nice little folder called “Blogs Kenny’s Reading.” How cool is that?
This list has been trimmed down a little. I’m only subscribing to those who blog on a regular basis. So if someone stopped blogging two months ago, they’re probably off my list.
Who am I missing? What Children’s and Student Ministry blogs should I be reading?
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Chad Swanzy: Creativity is his middle name.
Posted on24. Apr, 2009 by Kenny.
I thought I’d introduce someone to you in case you didn’t already know him. Chad Swanzy is the Student Ministry Pastor here at Gateway. He came on staff about six weeks before me last year and I really enjoy working with him. Unfortunately for me I haven’t gotten to work as closely with him this last year as I would have liked (that’s changing this year though). One of the things I admire about Chad is his creative genius.
Perhaps it’s his need to be resourceful that sparks creativity, always maximizing resources on a shoe string budget. However, he connects very well to the students he leads and he connects through every medium possible. He’s constantly building sets, creating environments, designing totally insane games or filming promotion videos. He also connects to kids through every medium possible. He connects to the kids through the ministry blog and through facebook. Every message is published to iTunes and available via podcast and he’s streaming Wednesday night services through Mogulus. Actually one night there was supposed to be bad weather for small groups, so he broadcast the meeting over Mogulus and many from the group participated that way. Absolutely amazing.
The inspiration for this post was a recent video he pushed out to his kids promoting his next series. The video was very cool. Then a few days later how wrote a blog about how he made the video. Wow! I didn’t know he made it, I thought he got it from somewhere else. His blog post will show you how creative and resourceful he really is.
choices series intro from chad swanzy on Vimeo.
Here’s his blog post explaning how he made the video.
Here’s a video he made a few weeks ago to prep kids or baptism. Again, he connected to them through his blog, facebook and every other medium.
What is baptism? from chad swanzy on Vimeo.
Last of all, here are two of his camp promo video. One of them yo0u may have already seen on my blog, but it’s funny enough to be on here again. Enjoy.
Did somebody say Summer Camp?! from chad swanzy on Vimeo.
Uprising Presidential Camp Promo from chad swanzy on Vimeo.
You can follow Chad here:
Website
Twitter
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Orange 2008: Family Ministry Around the Table
Posted on28. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
This was the first pre-conference breakout I attended. It was led by Dave Fox, the Family Ministries director at “The Bridge Church” in Decatur, IN and Darren Kizer, the Family Ministry Director at Parker Hill Community Church in Scranton, PA.
The heading for this breakout were guided by these statements:
“We will be focusing on an integrated strategy for family ministry. In this strategy, leaders and parents are leading with the same end in mind.”
Darren started things off by bringing out a bottle of Diet Coke and a Mento. Yeah, we know what that does. He explained that the the Mento represents the influence of the church in 10 years. the Diet Coke represents the influence of the family in 1 year. This is very Orange-ish! What happens when you strategically and intentionally combine the influences of the church and family? Yeah, great point!
They spoke about several key ingredients for integrating strategy:
- Know you vision
- Direction: who is part of your team?
- Developing a “Espirit de Corps.” All for one and one for all… a pride of belonging to something.
- Defining “wins” for each area and ensuring that each area knows and understands the wins of each area.
- Plan collectively so we can impact specifically.
They also spoke about questions that invite teamwork and intentionality (great questions for a family ministry staff meeting)
- Are we connecting with parents?
- Are hand-offs crisp and tight? (The relay race is won or lost in the hand-off)
- Are small groups a big deal?
- Are we making volunteerism attractive?
- Are students serving strategically?
- Are we synchronizing the calendar
By asking these questions we:
- Fuel productive tension
- Reveal unstated expectations
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The Essence of Orange DVD (Part 3)
Posted on04. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
This is my last post on my little series about the “Essence of Orange” DVD from reThink. My other posts can be found here and here. This is a short piece about the last segment on the DVD.
Engaging Students
Reggie emphasized the importance of engaging students in ministry as an integral part of the discipleship process.
I remember reading an article from Dr. Dobson many years ago. It was about how many students walk away from their church (and even faith) once they leave the student ministry and go off to college. A portion of them will return once they are married and starting a family. Why are they leaving? Because once they leave the student ministry, there is no longer any “connection” to the church. A decade ago Dobson recommended integrating students into active ministry so that long after they graduate, they will feel connected (even needed) to the local church.
Why is it that a two week mission trip will do more for a student spiritually than four years of going to Wednesday night programming? Because a mission trip “engages” the student and they grow by doing? Why do we limit the level of their “ministry involvement” to summer mission trips?
In ever church I’ve worked, students were freely welcome to serve in the Children’s Ministry and other ministries. But is discipleship can happen through their engagement in active ministry, why isn’t there a greater push for students to serve? Not only do the other ministries appreciate the help, it may just change the student’s life!
Just something to think about.
Technorati Tags: Oragne Conference,Teaching the Bible to kids,Ministry Philosophy
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The Essence of Orange DVD (Part 2)
Posted on03. Apr, 2008 by Kenny.
Yesterday I began a short series on the “Essence of Orange” DVD from reThink. It’s a great DVD and it belongs in your library. My posts are by no means comprehensive, just little “Orange” treats to tempt your for more.
Family Ministry
Yesterday I shared how under the best circumstances, most kids will attend church for only 40 hours a year. That isn’t a lot of influence, is it. When I think back on my life, I see how my Children’s Pastor was the most influential person in my life. My situation must have been very unique. I’ve pastored thousands of kids in my short 11 years of ministry and I can only think of a handful that might say this about me. It’s unrealistic.
However, a parent will spend 3000 hours a year with the same child. I think it’s pretty obvious where I’m going with this.
Churches (Children’s Ministries) typically spend 100% (or close to it) of their time and resources on the 40 hours we’ll have with these kids. Wouldn’t it make sense to invest more time in the people who are truly influencing these kids? We won’t always be their pastors, but these adults will always be their parents. It’s just too simple, really.
I’ll leave you with these two statements from the DVD:
- Every parent needs somebody to help them be a spiritual leader.
- Every kid needs a parent to help them grow in faith.
Technorati Tags: Oragne Conference,Teaching the Bible to kids,Ministry Philosophy
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