Student Ministry Connection

Please visit my new blog

2010-10-28T19:40:00.002-05:00

www.wilsonashirley.com

Please visit my new blog

2010-10-28T19:39:00.002-05:00

www.wilsonashirley.com

How Important is Social Media for Today's Youth?

2010-10-19T20:52:00.002-05:00

Check out this video. It is fascinating. We try to make the distinction between the virtual world and the world but to youth, it's the world.

Sustainable Youth Ministry

2010-06-10T10:48:00.000-05:00

Mark DeVries made a name for himself through his work Family-Based Youth Ministry. Although I do not agree with all of Devries conclusions and methods I do appreciated his new work, Sustainable Youth Ministry. This is a must read for those in youth ministry. It is a refresher to veterans and workbook for those just beginning in youth ministry.

His chapter on "Building Right" is worth the price of the book alone. This chapter truly will help you architect the "structures of sustainability" that you need to have an effective and well-engineered ministry.

There are many other practical applications in the book and perhaps nothing new but nice to have all these ideas in one place that can be accessed. I appreciate this veteran imparting years of wisdom in the trenches.

ReThink - A Serious Call to Think Through 21st Century Student Ministry

2010-03-01T21:15:00.000-06:00

I never pay much attention to post cards that come in the mail to the church but this one time I'm glad I did. It was an advertisement for a book called reThink by Steve Wright. Steve is the founder of InQuest Ministries and author of reThink, ApParent Privilege, and Becoming An Eagle. He is also Assistant Pastor of Student Ministries at Providence Baptist Church. I have also found out that Providence is a reformed Baptist church so that is a good thing when it comes to these matters. I recommend that you check out www.inquest.org to learn more. There are some good resources there.

One resource that I'm really glad I found was reThink. I must warn you that reading this book will hurt and challenge you to the core. It truly has got me to "rethink" what I'm doing as a student pastor and how I'm doing it. It hasn't made me want to throw away everything I've been doing for the past 10+ years but it has challenged me to think through how can we, as the local church, do things better - especially when it comes to having the maximum impact on students.

What am I thinking? Well recently a parent said something to me that best sums up what I’m thinking. The parent said, “We love our church, but out church has almost missed the boat in one area – the parenting class for dads has been one of the best things I have been a part of and their has been some real growth in my life and the lives of the dads in the group.”

This conversation and other conversations I had with parents helped me to realize, I want to help and facilitate ministry that trains our parents to be the primary disciplers of their children. Why? Because the stats show that a parent has way more influence in their child's life that a youth pastor. Don't get me wrong, we play a crucial role but we can make our roles so much more effective if we are willing to "rethink" the way we are doing things in the local church.

I really would like to see my church start making an effort to minister to our families – specifically the parenting of teens. Student ministers probably need to start thinking through how they can play a part of this.

I’m not suggesting we need to change the way we do things – just some ideas to make things better. This involves bringing parents into what we are doing with student ministry and equipping them to disciple their children. I do not necessarily agree with everything that Wright says but I do think there is much here to explore – especially when it comes to equipping our parents.

Points from the book:

There are two institutions championed in the Word of God, the family and the Church. How does the church champion the family? How does the family champion the church? What is the student pastor's role in supporting this? Please read chapter 2 – a biblical framework of student ministry to explore more.
To have the greatest impact and influence on a student we must continue to offer quality discipleship but also making sure our church is spending adequate time equipping and encouraging its parents to disciple them because they are the ones who spend a majority of time with their kids and they are the ones that will have a godly effect on them long after they leave the youth ministry. Consider this, the average student spends approximately two hours per week at church – that is less than 2 percent of a teens time per week. To consider more read chapter 5 – locking arms with parents.

Chapter 6 has some great suggestions on implementing a Parent Leadership Team that I think would be very helpful as we implement our new team: pp.175-180.

Get the book. Read it. Let me know what you think.

Your Limited Influence

2010-02-10T15:51:00.001-06:00

One trait all students have in common is they will leave our student ministries.... Our influence is limited to a few years, and this fact must drive our ministry philosophy and actions.

From reThink by Steve Wright

Recommended Books

2010-02-05T11:13:00.000-06:00

Lately I'm reading/using a lot of books for teaching that have been a big help. I wanted to share them with you.

God's Big Picture - by Vaughn Roberts. Great book on taking students through the "big picture" of the Bible using the kingdom of God theme.

The Walk - by Stephen Smallman. This is an excellent book to teach students what it means to walk with Christ, to be His disciple. I'm currently writing a student discipleship manual to go along with it (I haven't asked Smallman's permission yet - I will show it to him when I'm done). It has been awesome using it with some of our small groups. If you are interested in seeing a few of my sample lessons - shoot me an email.

The Space Between - by Walt Mueller. Mueller's stuff and cpyu.org is golden. Great, short guide to teenagers.

The Gospel and Personal Evangelism - by Mark Dever. Literally you can pick this book up and teach it to youth on how to evangelize.

That should keep you busy for now!

The Barnabas Connection

2009-10-26T23:03:00.000-05:00

I am blessed to be a part of an organization called The Barnabas Connection. The Barnabas Connection is a ministry that exists to encourage and connect youth workers in the Presbyterian Church in America. The Barnabas Connection conference will be in Atlanta in the Spring of 2010. A new website will be launched on November 1st so stay tuned for more info!

www.barnabasconnection.org

Metaphors of Grace: A Teaching Idea

2009-05-11T21:34:00.001-05:00

I don't know about you but I'm always looking for things to teach on or better ways to teach on the same things.

While at the Gospel Coalition in Chicago this spring I heard Tim Keller mention the phrase, "metaphors of the gospel," or something like that.

Well I came up with my only little phrase, "Metaphors of Grace." Basically this idea alludes to the different words or better yet the word pictures that Paul uses to describe the gospel.

Rather than giving them all to you I will encourage you to visit Romans 3:21-26 and immerse yourself there for about a week. What are the words that are present or implied that describe the gospel? Where did Paul get these words? What were these words used for in the original culture that he was writing to?

This will be an amazing means of grace for you. Enjoy!

Pastors Conference

2009-03-10T15:36:00.001-05:00

This conference is not directly about student ministry but I will be attending because of the pastoral nature of the conference as it will relate to student ministry. Also, some pastors/authors that I highly respect and that I have found to be a valuable resource to student ministry will be speaking at the conference. Check it out.

My New Favorite Book on Predestination

2009-03-03T15:26:00.000-06:00

I'm digging this book because of the way in which it approaches the issue both topically and expositionally. It is easy to teach predestination from a topical and theological point but the most effective way is to put a figure on the very Word of God straight from the text.

I have a seminary professor who was once an Arminian Baptist Preacher and God "converted" him to Calvinism through his very on preaching and study of Ephesians chapter 1.

I highly recommend using this book for teaching and to pass along with to others struggling with the doctrine. After all, if they don't believe the Bible and can see it for themselves straight from Scripture, then that is another issue all-together now isn't it?

Enjoy!

Some Thoughts on Developing a Philosophy of Ministry

2009-02-13T21:52:00.000-06:00

There are three main areas to keep in mind as you develop a POM:

1) Vision/Mission Statement - should work in conjunction with the church's overall statement. To often youth ministries try to become a church within the church (not intentional), but by coming up with some grandiose POM that does not work along side with the overall vision and discipleship process of the church body. Here is a revolutionary idea - develop and craft your vision to work along side with and in conjunction with your church's vision/mission statement.

2) Values/Principles - what are the most important things in ministering to youth. One of the greatest lack in the church today is ministry that is not guided by principle. So you must decide what are the core values, the key principles that you want to guide your ministry. Maybe start with the means of grace?

3) Vehicles/Programs - how you are going to accomplish 2 and 3? What will be the programs that will drive you in the direction of your vision and core principles. This would be everything from your regular weekly programs all the way down to coffee with a student.

Please visit www.hpcym.org to see more about what we do. Hope that helps. Send me an email if you have any questions.

Parenting Blog

2008-12-05T13:35:00.000-06:00

I've launched a new blog on parenting. Check it out: The Duties of Christian Parents. Hope you can find some things on there to help you out.

Two Short Books You Can Read Tonight Before You Go to Bed That Will Bless Your Ministry

2008-11-18T19:48:00.001-06:00

In the 19th century J.C. Ryle wrote "Holiness," which is believed to be the most important book on the Christian Life ever written. I have yet to tackle the read but I have read parts of it and it is definitely on my short list. As great as I'm sure this book is, there are two other books that I think are extremely helpful for youth ministry. "Thoughts for Young Men" and "The Duties of Parents" are awesome short reads that are very practical.

If you are looking for material that is ready to use for small group material or material that is ready for you to read, dissect, then teach - then I would get these two books ASAP. I know they are available at www.cvbbs.com for a great price. However I have found them online as well at: http://www.gracegems.org/Ryle/books.htm.

Check these books out now! You'll be glad you did.

On another note I'm starting a new blog called "The Duties of Christian Parents." It will be based upon the inspiriation that have received from Ryle's "The Duties of Parents." Check it out at www.theduitesofchristianparents.blogspot.com.

Semper Reforma!

2008-08-17T09:07:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but just when I think I got it all figured out and ministry is rolling right along - WHAMO! things need to be changed AGAIN!

My last post involved building a ministry plan (which I still strongly believe in) but what I've come to realize over the years is that if I'm not willing to tweak the plan, grow the plan, work the plan then ministry will dry up. Now my ministry has not dried up but it did come to a point to where major tweaking had to be done - and it seemingly was happening against my will.

Semper Reforma (always reforming)! As ministers of the gospel, as those called to carry out ministry in the kingdom of God and in His Church we must be open to change and to always reforming what we think is "the best show in town." If you and I are not willing to honestly look at our programing, retreats, discipleship plan at least once a year and ask "how can I make it better," or "what's missing," then our model of discipleship will become staginant and ineffective.

So, semper reforma this Fall! What needs to be improved?

Do You Have A Ministry Plan?

2008-03-07T17:59:00.000-06:00

So it has been too long since I have blogged but I want the two of you who have told me that you have read my blog before and it has encouraged you that I have not forgotten about you. Okay on to the topic...

Do you have a ministry plan? Whether you are a seasoned student ministry veteran, staff, or volunteer, it can never be over-estimated the importance of a ministry plan. So do you have one for leading your small group, directing your entire student ministry, teaching Sunday School (I hate, sorry dislike, what Sunday School implies). You know the ole adage: Have a plan, stick to the plan, work the plan. It is very true in student ministry.

So what is your plan? If you don't have one, email me and I will send you an example of one that you can begin to work off of. Trust me your senior pastor or immediate supervisor will think you are a genius for going putting one of these together. It is too much to put on this blog so email me if you want it: wilsonashirley@gmail.com.

Christian Doctrine / Systematic Theology for Students

2007-11-06T15:02:00.000-06:00

If you have not discovered Louis Berkhof's "Summary of Christian Doctrine" then I must ask, "Where have you been for the last 80 years?" This fine work has been around since 1938 and was written, and I quote from Berkhof, "the ordinary high school student." This work is amazing for introducing systematic theology in a succinct and clear way. All "detailed explanations and controversial material" has been omitted leaving it very accessible and practical. It included review question and abundant scripture references.

It truly is an amazing "aid to keep alive the knowledge of our precious heritage" and to strengthen the faith. Buy it and use it!

Volunteers!

2007-08-23T20:41:00.000-05:00

One of the ways that God continues to amaze me year after year is how he provides our ministry with volunteers or small group leaders who are as passionate about discipling teenagers as I am.

The question that I am constantly asked by various youth worker is "How in the world do you get all those volunteers to help out with the student ministry?" My simple answer is - I would be out of the job if I did not have those voluteers. This simple truth is I would be completely ineffective in reaching and equiping students if I was doing it all by my self.

"So how do I recruit volunteers to help out?"

1) Recruit young! Honestly mature college students and young adults make the best leaders for many reasons - namely they have more time to devote to the ministry and junior high and high school are not to distant in their memories. They can simply relate better.

2) Don't be afraid to employ the "guilt trip" - I mean assert the call of God to serve. All the saints are called to serve the Church of the living God. Don't hesitate to ask the simple question - "How are you serving your church?" If the answer is, "Well, I'm not," then bingo do I have a plan for your life.

3) Have clear avenues to plug volunteers in. These days volunteers aren't too content with just standing around and "volunteering." By plug volunteers in to clear ministry programs you are increasing your capacity for ministry 2-fold. For example, do you have a small group ministry? If you do - clear avenue for bring in the calvary. If you don't have a small group ministry then I HIGHLY encourage you to start one (I'll write more on this later). If you want some ideas on starting up a small group ministry no matter whether you have 12 kids or 120 kids - contact me.

4) Expect great things. Expect great things from your volunteers. You can never pat your volunteers on the back too much. Take them to lunch and fire them up - "You have no idea how much ministry you are doing around here."

If you ever need any encouragement in getting this ball rolling - please contact me.

"Real" Sex

2007-02-22T10:01:00.000-06:00

Sorry - I've been out for a while. I think that I forgot that I had this thing and then the my two readers remind me that I have posted in a while. I really want to keep this thing up - so give me grace.

Real Sex is a book by a gal named Lauren F. Winner. I highly recommend her - she is a fun read. Her style is in line with Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz (forgive me Lauren - I read him first).

The subtitle for Winner's book is "The Naked Truth About Chastity." It is a refreshing look at chasity, purity, sexual intergrity - what that looks like for the church for the the believer. This book is a wonderful teaching tool and excellent to hand to students.

I'm currently teaching a series to Sr. High students called "Lies We Believe About God and Sex." I'm pulling most of my material from Winner and I must say parents are excited and students are interested b/c we are having some great turnout and amazing discussions.

Get the book, read it - let me know what you think.

Facebook

2006-12-12T09:23:00.000-06:00

Well I have finally gotten a Facebook - not that I felt that I was insignificant because I did not have one. Actually I think that it was just open to the "rest of the world" - that is people who are not students.

Anyway - WOW! Facebook is a total other dimension of life for all students, junior high through college. Some may joke that "student live, and move, and have their being in Facebook." They are on it hours everyday and it truly has become a dimension of social structure. It is fascinating to peek into this world.

I encourage you to get one and waste hours of your life every week like I have, but only for the reason of ministry. If you have a lot of students in your group to keep up with, it really is a good way to see what is going on in their lives.

Check it out: www.facebook.com.

Youth and Worship

2006-10-29T21:45:00.000-06:00

One of the things that I was tasked to do when I started this student ministry thing was to build and cultivate the spirit of worship in the lives of my students. Specifically the youth committee wanted me to build a worship team make of students. No problem right? Big promblem - it is a lot of work and if you go down this road you are in for about 20-30% of your week. Is it worth it? Yes!

Some questions you may have:

1) What if I'm not musical and don't have any students that are?

Chances are you wish you were a little musical. If you don't chances are you have some students who are or really want to be. I have a youth pastor friend who really wanted to incorporate worship and singing into his youth ministry and singing along to the CD thing was just not cutting it. What did he do? He took action. Two of his students bought guitars and so did he. They sat down twice a week and learned guitar and worship music together. Within three months he had two students leading worship with his group. These students went on to lead music for their college ministry. This is just one example but you can find your on avenue - all it takes is a little effort and purpose.

2) What if I am musical and have a few students who are - where do I start?

Practice, practice, prayer, and practice. I suggest a meeting with your leaders and one on ones with those who are going to be on your team to cast a vision and look at what the Bible says about worship and what these students are entering into to lead their peers. What I'm learning is that this one time meeting is not enough - you got to keep it going and keep communicating with your team. You got to build the team.

3) Where do I find music?

There are tons of places online. I highly recommend the online RUF hymn book at www.ruf.org. Buy CDs and practice on your own to learn new stuff. This is where that 20-30% of your work week comes in. After about a year it will fall off when you get used to process.

If you have 8 or 80, worship with your students will pay huge dividends in discipleship and growth in grace.

My Boy is here!

2006-09-14T12:28:00.000-05:00

We'll I'm officially a Dad and loving it. My son, Wilson "Andrew" Shirley, Jr. was born September 11th at 3:03pm. He is beautiful and very healthy - 8 lbs., 9 oz., 21 inches long. We love him so much and we are very greatful to the Lord!

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!" ~ 1 John 3:1

WWW = Youth Culture

2006-09-05T21:29:00.000-05:00

Does your ministry have a website? If it doesn't you are seriously missing out. You kids are not studying, they are not having a quiet time, they are playing on the internet about 3 hours a day. So the question is, "Are you engaing them in some small way during that 3 hours?"

Might I recommend to you that you get a website for your youth ministry and get it fast. One site that I highly recommend is www.msites.com. They are the company that I use for my ministry: www.hpcym.org. It is incredible - completely online and you can do tons of things with it like online registeration, PayPal, pictures, and a broadcast emailing system that is worth the price per month alone. If you would like to use them let me know and I can send you a recommendation. You can also take advantage of some deceit free sites like this eBloggger by Google.

You need to plug in with your youth and their culture and a website is a KEY place to begin. Granted, we can't do it all: I don't like text-messaging much, I don't IM, and I don't have a Facebook, but I can still engage them with some good content and fun stuff.

Soli Deo Gloria

Use These Resources!

2006-08-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

If you have not discovered TH1NK® Books (an imprint of NavPress) then you are missing out!

TH1NK® resources are geared toward teen and college students. They have excellent inductive Bible studies that based on NavPress' popular and ledgendary LifeChange series. They also have tons of other books that are applicable and helpful for small groups and discipleship.

Check them out at www.thinkbooks.com

Has Your Sunday School Hour Gone From Lame to Lamer?

2006-08-16T15:03:00.000-05:00

Well mine sure did. I will tell you why too - "lack of vision." Or to put it another lack of my involvement.

If Sunday School for you was for like it was for me - then you were not there and had no idea what was going on. All you knew was that you need to find teachers, material, and then stir. I just wasn't there and that was not good. The fact that I might have called SS lame was not because of my teachers or the material it was because my focus was on Sunday Night and Wednesday Night programs and Sunday morning was not even on my radar. This was not good.

Sunday Morning is definitely on my radar now b/c by conviction of the Holy Spirit and some other mentors, I have come to realize that Sunday Morning is the front door to student/youth ministry. Yes we are reformed, yes we are covenantal, therefore, yes, Sunday morning is the most important time for worship and outreach because that is when your new families are coming to visit. Sunday morning is going to be their first impression of your church.

So what did we do? "What should I do?" you may be asking.

1) Vision: You have to recast the vision for Sunday morning. You must ask, "What is the purpose of Sunday morning? What do I want Sunday morning to look like? How can we make it better? Am I involved? Who is coming?" I know this is a lot to think about but it is important. We live in the 21st century and the traditional Sunday School model is probably not the best. O, BTW, SS is not mandated in the Bible - yes I said that.

2) Name: Consider renaming the Sunday School hour. Do all your other programs have different, cool names and your Sunday School hour is still called Sunday School? Well ours did and boy doesn't Sunday School have a sound that gets you excited. Simply changing the name could be huge.

3) Discipleship: Decide what the purpose in the path of discipleship is in all your other programs and see what's missing. When you find what's missing, let's say worship, then trying making worship a key element in the program.

4) Format: If your program is still called Sunday School then I bet you have 45 minutes of teaching (hard core I might add) and 15 minutes of prayer. Think about it, they are about to go get a sermon from the guy who is most skilled and teaching the Bible, your Sr. Pastor. So don't make them listen to 2 in a row and they will also probably get another one that night. Consider adding in more fellowship time, music, maybe even try something edgy. We are trying a new, edgy format. We are using more audio/visual stimulation to reach this xbox 360/iPod world. We are using a DVD series called Nooma that are 10-14 minutes teaching parables and then having discussion afterwards - so far so good and nobody has gone to sleep yet. I will let you know more about it later.

5) Change: If is lame - change it. Remember you are the problem that it is lame and you need to do something about it. Pray about it, then change it and don't be afraid. If it is Christ-centered and well thought out then it will go over great with every one.

After our change we had the largest Sunday morning attendance ever.

"Simple Church" = Simple Youth Ministry

2006-07-02T16:38:00.000-05:00

I'm also currently reading "Simple Church" by the church stats/church vitality guru Thom Rainer. Thom is onto something here, I must admit. My Asst. Pastor Bob Brunson is reading this book as he re-thinks the way we do church at Highlands. I'm liking it and it is stretching me to really hash out - "what are we doing in youth ministry at Highlands?" Are we simply providing a bunch of programs and activities or are we truly discipling students. Also, are we over-complicating things by "too many" programs and activities. The answer is, unless you have less that 15 people in your youth group, yes! Rainer is right on: simple ideas/products/programs work and work well: iPod, Google, etc.... Think about it.

"Growing Up Christian" - A Review and Recommendation

2006-07-01T15:54:00.000-05:00

I'm currently reading this book with my staff. It is a timely book and "huge" for ministry to covenant kids. I highly recommend that student workers use if for their ministry.

Graustein does an excellent job of challenging the hearts of teenagers to take ownership of their faith and the blessings that come with being a "church kid."

A critique: The book is seemingly addressed to grade school students, however its language tone suits adults and those who work with students more than it does youth. This is not a bad thing - like I said read it; it will help you in your ministry to the heart's of covenant kids no doubt.

There is nothing new under the sun in this book but this book is extremely resourceful in putting all these ideas together in the book. The first section, "Recognizing Blessings and Dangers," is work the read as Graustein explores these avenues in "church kids."

More to come as I finish reading the book...

Welcome!

2006-06-28T00:58:00.000-05:00

So I just started this blogging thing and I'm going to use it for something I've been praying about and interested in for quite some time and this will be a resource for those involved in youth ministry. I hope this blog proves helpful for resource and connection. Any ideas - shoot'em over.