Pharaoh was intimidated by the Israelites and knew they would become an overwhelming force to deal with if they grew too large.  So what did he do?  He made them work so much that they did not have time to focus on their families.  At the same time this tedious schedule would take away their time for prayer and worship given to God.  As you may already know, this didn’t stop the growth as God was with them.

This is a harsh reality in our work as youth ministers.  We definitely become overworked and are taken away from doing the things that we know we must not forget to do.  But who is your Pharoah?  Many would say their priest or their parish council.  In my work as a youth minister, I would say it’s myself.  Do you demand too much of yourself? Here are a few quick tips.

Trim the Fat

Make a list of the things you give time to and prioritize that list.  I wrote another post about a year ago on this same topic.

Recognize the Grace in Ministry

The Israelites were obedient and God was with them.  It’s funny how they had no time to pro-create but God made it happen anyway.  Recognize the beautiful graces that God gives you as a youth minister.  He will make things happen His way, so get out of the way.

Focus on Why You Are Doing This

Moses was pulled out of this mess and given a special role in saving God’s people.  You are called to do the same.  Be Moses to the youth and volunteers in your parish and get rid of Pharaoh that exists in you.

If you discover that it is your priest, parish council, or parents in your parish that are applying the pressure, be sure to refrain from calling them Pharaoh to their face.  You may want to develop a more professional approach in asking them to let up a little.  In most cases an honest conversation with these individuals will be plenty to get the ball rolling, allowing you to bring life into your family and ministry.  Heck, you may find that the Pharaoh you are dealing with really isn’t a Pharaoh after all!

It seem like I have done a lot of name calling in this post.  I am not an advocate of name calling (just thought I would throw that out there).

Enjoy!

Think Big

Projector, Screen, and Audio

This is almost a must.  I would make this a priority in your parish even if you don’t have money.  And yes, you need all three.  A sweet video clip is not sweet to the youth if you have it on a flickering TV screen that took 10 minutes to get going and is playing sound out of two 10 year old computer speakers.  Sorry to say it, but I often think when it comes to these three things, you need to go BIG or go home.    It would be pretty hard for a youth minister to tell me that it just is not possible to get these for your church.  One advantage you have in acquiring these is that just about every ministry in your parish will agree that they are needed as well.

Many youth rooms are mounting them on the ceiling and hooking up sound in the room.  This is a great thing because it keeps it in one spot and usually only the youth leader knows how to use it!

I travel with a projector and a small sound system.  Once you have all the right hook-ups and you don’t lose them it is extremely easy to set up and use.

Presentations

These don’t necessarily cost money but do cost time.  If you have the money, I would recommend buying ProPresenter.  You can use it to easily display and play all video, song lyrics, presentations, and play music from your computer in one spot.

During gathering time and any free time I enjoy putting slideshows with random trivia, upcoming events, and just about anything I can think of.  You can set it up so it just plays and repeats until you shut it off.

Banners, T-Shirts, Etc.

Marketing your youth ministry is extremely important and really does require a full attack on things.  I have seen some youth ministers market a theme for each year.  It is great to keep things fresh and to be blunt, we lost a lot of youth each summer and new year.  Giving them something to look forward to each year is great! So how do you do this?

Web Site - If you do not have a parish web site or even a youth web site.  This would be a great place to start.  You can get lots of free web sites from places like Google, WordPress, Blogger, etc but you are very limited and honestly most places that I have seen use this actually create a site that is so boring it is no wonder youth choose to go.  It can be done if you have the time AND the creativity to make it happen.  We recommend Parish Web Assistant.  They will do all of the updates for you!  It takes a little bit of cost to set up, but a small monthly fee and it’s like you have your own staff person there to do the work for you.  Mention this article when you contact Parish Web Assistant and they will give $150 off of the set-up fee!

You can post your theme all over the web site along with an explanation for parents and the youth!

T-Shirts – Use your money to give FREE t-shirts to all of the youth in your youth group.  Or buy them and sell them.  But what better way to get the name of your group out to the community!.  You can create Custom T-Shirts at Customink.  We have dealt with them several times.  Be sure to plan ahead and don’t expect things in less than two weeks and they will work with you to come out with a great product.

Post your theme on your Facebook youth group page and plan to include bits and pieces of that theme each time you gather together.

Think Small

Volunteer Training

Why not ask your finance council to pay for your volunteers to go to a national training conference.  You could ask the church to pay the registration and mileage and then raise the rest or ask if you volunteers would help pay.

Curriculum

Lifeteen offers a great curriculum for high school and junior high.  They typically are used for CCD programs, but if your CCD program is not using it, I would recommend it.  $1500 will get you both junior high and senior high curriculum along with a registration to one of their conferences.

We also obviously recommend Simply Youth Ministry resources.  If you click the banner below you can save 20% on your order.  Buy tons of resources and just go through them.  Adjust them to your group.

There are also tons of sites that offer great video clips and ideas for lessons.

Thank You’s, Etc.

One year I was given a larger than expected stipend for putting on a retreat for one of our parishes.  I used the money to give one year subscriptions of the Magnificat to all of our volunteers.  It was taken very well.  Be sure to PLAN thank you ideas and make it very intentional.  An annual supper is not enough for your volunteers.  In most cases I find that youth ministry volunteer commit up to 5 hours per week on average and they do it every single week.  Be sure they know that you support them.

Another idea would be to buy them subscriptions to Formed Magazine or Group Magazine.

So that is a few ideas.  I could go on and on, but wanted to give you the basics.  Please comment below if you have found other great investments that took a lot of money or a lot of time but were worthwhile!

Enjoy!

They approved the budget very quickly and asked if there was anything else I thought I could use.  I was stumped.  I had budgeted X amount of dollars per week, some continuing education money, and extra in case trips were not covered by fees from youth.  I replied “I don’t think so?” and they gave me a few more seconds to think about it.  So I responded “I have never really spent time thinking big about our ministry money-wise because I never thought there would be any.”  I had worked for so long either buying it myself or not buying it at all.  So I spent some time thinking about it so I could prepare for next year.

I wanted to write a couple of articles to help you as a youth ministry worker/volunteer to dream big things about your ministry and be ready for a time when you have some money to spend.

So this first post will be about thinking big AND small and the second post will be some practical ideas with prices that can help you budget out a bit.

Think Big

I have recently moved to a bigger city and one day was with a group of friends.  We were driving by one of the biggest and most well known churches in our city and noticed that lots of people were heading in and noticed on their sign that they were having the Wednesday evening service.  We decided to go.  It was not a Catholic Church but we wanted to see what the big deal was.

This church was doing many things right and I was very impressed with how well they welcomed, entertained, and educated each person that was there.  There was music playing outside and lots of youth playing games, we were greeted by an adult and several of the youth.  We walked in to the gathering area, were handed a program for the service and greeted several more times.  When we entered the area of worship there was a great praise and worship group, four large screens with fancy graphics and lyrics, and lots of energy in the room.  It was like each Wednesday night was a conference for them.  Their service included lots of video clips and entertainment and was very well presented.  The sermon was very focused, they were on a special theme for a number of weeks, and it is doubtful that anyone left without learning something or being challenged in some way.

Many people wish that Mass could be like this, but the Catholic Mass is a much different experience.  The service at this church is basically an educational experience.  So the question I thought of is “why can’t we offer fun, moving ways to educate our youth about the faith?”

So think big.  What would it take to get people to wonder “what is this all about?”  A place where the youth feel welcomed, are given opportunities to grow, and become fired up about their faith.  There are tons of things you can do without any money, but why not set up an atmosphere similar to this church that I visited.

Take a look at what other big churches have and model that.  Have a great web site, have lots of food, give out great prizes for random things, and find the most creative ways to educate that you can.

Think Small

It is easy to think about huge possibilities if you have the money, but what about the small things.  The small things really are the big things.  Simple things like training opportunities for your volunteers, software programs that simplify your day-t0-day office routines, curriculum that can easily be used on a last minute basis.  Try spending money in a way that opens the youth up to opportunities for relationships with the mentors and with our Lord in the Eucharist.

Simple things that cost money like thank you meals and gifts for helpers will add up and really bring things together.

In conclusion, think big AND small and every time you think of something neat that you wish you could do, write it down.  Compile that list so one day when the finance council has gone crazy and decides to open the door, you will be ready to greet them!

Part 2 of 2 will focus on practical ideas that can be costly but really helpful in this vision.

Our focus on this post is to talk about starting out with networking and communication, it’s importance, and how effective it can be for your ministry.

Why Is It Important?

I assume I will write several more posts in the coming days about networking because it is so important.  Networking and communicating with others is ministry.  You can type up all of the lessons you want, come up with your own crazy games, and put in all of the bulletin announcements possible.  Without a greater sense of networking, you will end up dry.  Networking brings people together, keeps them informed, and makes them a part of a group.  There are four ways of networking that I will talk about.  Networking with the youth, parents, other youth ministers, and parish staff.

Networking With Parish Staff

I will start with the easiest one.  You must also be working towards good communication and networking with your parish staff.  They are the ones who are paid to back to you up.   Find ways to get them involved in your ministry and how they can help, share resources with them, and keep them informed.  Our parish went from being in offices that were not in the same building, priests that could not get along, and staff that were absolutely clueless about the other ministries to the complete opposite.  We now have our new parish office building and everyone is just down the hall from each other, our priests are great spiritual leaders, and we meet weekly to discuss our ministries and upcoming events.  It has made a huge difference in our ministry.

Networking With Other Youth Ministers

I would like to be able to say everything you need is here at Prepared Catholic, but it is a good start.  Please bleed us dry of anything you can to get what you need.  There are so many other helpful ways to network though. Here are a few.

• Connect with youth minister in your Diocese - I have two youth ministers from my Diocese that I through ideas at all of the time and get feedback.  Most of the stuff on our site is looked over by them first.  They also send me stuff to look over.  Call the Diocese and get names and numbers and just make a few calls
• Connect with local youth ministers - If you have other Catholic Youth Ministers in your town/city great! You can also connect with non-Catholic youth ministers and get great ideas.  Check www.nnym.com to get signed up as part of a network of youth ministers in your area.  Find out if there are meetings for youth ministers and get involved.
• Connect Online – There are tons of great resources out there.  Sign up for automatic updates through blogs and resource sites.  Chances are you do not have much of a budget just starting off, so get as much free stuff as you can and save it to your computer.  Find groups on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites.  You just have look a minute or two and you will find so much more than you can take in.

Networking With Parents

If you are able to be involved in programs in the parish that are for adults, please do.  We need our spiritual nourishment too.  Volunteer to help with breakfasts and concessions at games.  This varies by community, but just find some program for adults that is young and vibrant.

Keep parents and other parishioners informed by putting out monthly calendars or keeping everything updated online.  Do not just announce events in the bulletin but thank people and praise things that have happened.  Have youth group nights where parents are specifically invited.  Thank parents for allowing their child to be involved.

Send out emails once a month just to parents with all of the upcoming dates, times, costs, etc.

Start a Youth Group Booster Club for parents to organize and be involved in it.

Networking With Youth

This will probably be outdated in no time, but here is how I have networked for the past couple of years with the youth. With this generation of kids, there is one thing to know.  Give them short bursts of information with the option of clicking to learn more.

• Weekly Emails – Each week I send out an email with a teaser for youth group, upcoming dates, and any other random info I can think of.  I try to keep them very short with lots of links to more information.  If they are too long, kids will stop reading them.  Have links to your website if you have one.
• Website – We have a discussion forum and online sign-ups on our web site.  Also kids can sign up for automatic emails when we have updates or news.  We have another post dedicated to this called Youth Group Web Site – Not Just PDF’s.
• Facebook – Set up a FAN page immediately for your group.  Suggest the page to all of the kids that you can.  Put random stuff on there all of the time.  Again, short bursts of info that lead them to a place full of information.  I also think it is great if you can set aside time to be available on Facebook, like after school and some Friday or Saturday afternoons.  Those times when kids are home and are ‘thinking.’  Facebook is a great place to meet the kids where they are at.  We have another article written on Protecting Yourself – Facebook In Youth Ministry.
• Twitter – Youth are not using twitter yet, but for those that are, you can easily connect a twitter account to Facebook, so each time you post something in Facebook, it is automatically posts in to your twitter account.

Again, I am sure I will write plenty more on social networking with youth in other posts.  But these are the main that I use.  Networking will help you connect with those youth that are lonely and struggling.  It also makes you much more available.  Although these things can be very time consuming, it is well worth it.  Check out the next post in this series to learn how to stay sane and organized within your ministry.

View Part 5 of 10!

This time around we are talking about getting parents on your side and helping you out from the beginning.  I put this number three because I truly think that after the initial connection with the youth, the parents comes next.  Not necessarily getting the parents involved, but developing program around the care and concern of the parents.  If you have the parents on your side from the beginning, it will make life much easier for you down the road.

Be Careful What You Do With The Youth

Now that you are working on the core group of students and you are spending a lot of time with them.  Be very careful with it.  You are still new to the parents and they may not completely trust you yet.  Do not stay up too late with the kids, work to never be alone with them for long periods of time.  Also, be cautious of what you are inviting them to do.  Will other people be around?  Are you inviting others? These are questions the parents will ask.  Lastly, be cautious of how much time they spend away from home.  Parents should be the primary teachers to their children.  Help the youth to make efforts to be home with their families.  Purposely tell the youth that our event tonight is to spend it at home with our parents or siblings.

Do not do anything that, if a parent found out, they would be disappointed in you.  If you do once, they will assume you are not mature enough yet.

Slowly Get Parents Involved

A great way to let parents know that you are comfortable with them knowing what you are doing with their children is to invite them.  Ask a parent to provide a snack each week (ask the parent, not the student).   Have a late night event or an out of town event and ask a parent to drive or chaperone.   Your involvement with parents must be intentional.  Most want to help, but not be committed.  There are not many parents who say no when you call and ask them to do a one time thing.  Through this time, parents and volunteers that want to be more involved will sprout out and you will soon find your weekly committed leaders.

You Will Disappoint

Since what you are doing is new, there will be parents who are not happy with it.  Whether you are adding to the kids busy schedule, taking the place of the parent, or do simply do something you shouldn’t have, parents will let you know about it.  Take them seriously, apologize, and discern what they have said.  The majority of things a parent says will not change anything you do, but that’s ok.   If you are unsure, talk to your pastor.  If you have his backing, the parents will likely be ok also.

Communication

Be sure to advertise consistently.  Collect parent emails and include them in your weekly email to the youth.  Be sure to have an end time for events posted so parents know.  If it goes longer than expected, make an announcement for the youth to call home and ask to stay longer.   I will be doing a whole post on Networking and Communication, so I will leave it at that.

If parents know what you are doing, how long it will take, they will be much more comfortable with it.  DO NOT expect the youth to communicate this to parents.  You are kidding yourself if you think you can tell a parent “I told your son to tell you” or “I sent a note home” so you should have known.  They will laugh in your face.

Networking and communication is huge.  Check out our next post to learn how!

View Part 4 of 10!

The idea of forming a core group is actually very scriptural.  Christ chose 12 apostles and worked primarily with them to leave his legacy behind.  He trained them and taught them allowing them to become the future leaders.  We want to do something similar as we start working to start something new in the parish.  I will focus on ways to find this core group and what to do with them when you find them.

In a sense this core group is going to be your very own small group.  Where I am right now with our youth group is that I am working to develop a youth group that contains about 8 of these small groups, leaders that care for them, and youth that are taking ownership of it.

How to Find Them

One easy thing to do is just start some sort of group.  You can call it a youth council, prayer group, or ministry team.  Just be sure to not call it the youth group or the same name of what you will be using later on.  This intimate group can be labeled very quickly and that can affect things later when you want to start branching out.

I will use youth council as the example because that is what we had.  We started a youth council that strictly consisted of two people from each grade.  Of those two people, one had to be a boy and the other a girl.  Also they had to be from different schools.  Youth council meetings were held every other week.  We used the council to plan for upcoming events and bring out ideas, but mostly to have food and hang out.  The diversity of the group broke walls down right away.  It was ok to do this because in the sense of a youth council, the diversity was a good idea and people understood. There were of course times when youth could bring their friends.

There were two ways to pick these youth.  One way is to advertise in the bulletin or make an announcement at Mass.  Another is look for parents that you know or that have reached out to you that have kids.  You know you have their support and the youth will be committed to the group.  If more show up right away to be on the council and the formula doesn’t work, who cares!  You already go several kids involved in planning and leading activities.

What To Do With Them

This is key.  Your time with these youth must be intentional, caring and loving.  Make an effort to call all of them a couple of days before the meeting, talk about what they would like the meetings to be about, what their goals are for the ministry, etc.  Although the meetings are a good hang out for the kids, why plan a youth council bowling night.  Just another opportunity to hang out with them.

Be Christ to them.  As a young youth minister it was hard for me to balance being cool and finding times to challenge the kids.  Be careful how much you talk about the other youth group kids, parents, staff, etc.  Just focus on getting to know the youth.  Any bad habits you have will haunt you as your group matures because you will find that they will do the littlest things that you do because they think it is ok.

These are your future leaders.  Constantly be asking them how they think they could improve the program and get more people involved.  Do not be afraid to ask them to step up and lead parts of programs.  Ultimately, this will lead to starting a youth group that will already have 8 leaders and people who are invested in the program.

Now you just have to get the parents on your side!  Read article three for that!

View Part 3 of 10

Why It’s Important

Our youth live in a culture where things shout at them from all different angles.  I have found three things to be successful in my thinking about media with youth group.  They need something to catch their attention, they need to be able to make it their choice to learn more, and they will ignore anything that they think is going to require too much of them.  This is not true for some, but when I use ideas that follow these understandings, my work with media in all areas seems to work.  It is the ROI in youth ministry.  We are responsible for being another one of those voices that is trying to pull them a certain direction and we want to win.  How do we do that?  Subtly and Humbly.

There are two aspects of media I’m going to talk about.  The media that is used to get kids to youth group and the media used while kids are at youth group.

Getting Kids To Youth Group

I have to say, our website is key to informing kids of the opportunities available to them.  Do I ever advertise the website? A little.  I put the web address as part of my signature in emails and on promo videos.  But I spend most of my time setting up links on networking sites that lead them to the web site.  Recently, I made a discussion on our website that showed a YouTube video of a youth minister that acted like the staff on the T.V. the office.  I titled it something like “What does your youth minister really do during the day?”  The post had nothing to do with any of our programs but answered a common question that the kids have….well not really.   I went to Facebook and put the question in our status with a link that said “Find out here” and it let to our web site with an embedded YouTube video.  After the kids watch the video, they discuss it, and end up browsing around the site.

Promo Videos

This a great way to get the word out there.  Have a big event, take tons of pictures and videos, and put together a 3 minute video of what happened.   Have current music that gets the kids excited and include the web address for your site of Facebook page at the end of it.  Here an example of one we did using Windows Movie Maker.

There are tons of ways to make a video for free or very cheap.  To be blunt, it is a little time consuming and the first time will probably be a major headache, but get the hang of it and use it often.

You can easily start your own youth group channel on YouTube and upload your videos online.  I would recommend using programs like muvee Revealor Pinnacle Studio for a cheaper software program that works great.

Kids spend way too much time on the internet and we have little control over it.  Use it to your advantage and at least give them good positive content to view and get excited about.

A Projector, Screen, and Sound are essential

Once your group gets to decent size these are three things you should be looking for.  It is essential to have screen that 20-50 kids can easily see and hear for when you want to use media during youth group.  We probably show at least one short video clip every week we have a lesson at youth group.  It breaks things up and give them a very strong visual.  If your parish does not have one, work to get one.  The kids want to be entertained and when games get old, they will be glad they have media in their lessons also.  Not to mention there are tons of games that can be played on a big screen.  Get a Wii and go crazy!

Showing YouTube on the big screen.

There are several subscriptions you can buy that give you great themed video clips.  BlufishTV, CVLI, and MovieShare are just a few.  These are great, but are usually pretty expensive, and expire after a year. I probably use YouTube and Tangle at least a couple of times a month to get video clips.  It is free and fairly easy to implement.

But how do you show YouTube on the big screen?  There are many options, but I use a program called Save2pc.  I believe I paid $20 for it, but it has been one of the best investments I have made.  It basically makes it possible to save online videos to your computer.  I use it and then play my videos through iTunes.  Our goal is to buy a program like MediaShout in the future, but iTunes works great for now.  If you just Google ‘save youtube videos’ you will find lots of options.  Save2Pc is reliable though and there are many bad ones out there.

If you are saving these videos to your computer, it also allows you to be able to use them at another time without having to search for them and most of all, not needing the internet.

Sound System

If you do not have a room that has sound included in it.  Throw away the tape player and the little boom box.  Get something with some Umpph.  Anything that comes across as the youth minister ‘trying to be cool’ just turns kids away.  It gives them something to laugh about later that will only bring a negative impact on their attendance.  Provide the kids with the best you can and think big.  You can buy great little sound system that can easily be used with an iPod or computer that will blow your kids away.  Again, they have come to be entertained.   Adding loud music to a crazy game, makes it an extremely crazy game.  A good sound system will make a video clip 10x more worth showing when it envelops the kids.

Look for Talent

The generation that is coming up is going to be incredibly computer savvy.  Take advantage of it.  Let them play around.  If it isn’t that great the first time around, do not worry about it.  Show it off and encourage them, give them ideas, and challenge them.  You should have seen my first web page!

Media is something that will jumpstart your lessons and bring them to a whole new level.  The kids become interested in what you are saying and become involved in the process.  Get them involved in implementing the media and you will soon have a program with structure that entertains and leaves kids wanting more.

So what do you do when you feel like you have so many kids that you can no longer keep track.  Get some help!  Check out our last post on working with an adult team!

View Part 10 of 10!

As mentioned in a previous post I must spend a great deal of time on recruitment and retention for our youth group because the program is not required nor really pushed by the parents. I would say 90%-95% of the kids are there because they they came on their own will. We do it on Sunday nights, which means youth also need to make sure their homework is done before they arrive. Bluntly, games have been essential to initially get kids there. At the same time games have also been the result of losing some active members of our group. Here are my suggestions.

When you have a smaller group of youth and are just starting out, don’t be too creative. Find a board game or card game that everyone enjoys and stick to it. Have someone bring their favorite game each week and learn it and play. Make sure the game is able to be played by more if more show up and break up cliques when deciding teams if needed. If possible, do games that require getting to know other people. Try to stay away from really competitive games that people can take WAY too seriously. Keep putting little bugs in the ears of the youth saying that there are lots more games and ideas that can be used if ‘we just had a few more people!’

Spice Things Up

There are two things I think of when I say this.  First is to make sure you are not playing the same game ALL THE TIME.  I learned the hard way with this.  We had permission from the school to use the gym on Sunday nights and started to play pinguard.  The numbers in our group exploded and we had finally reached out to the young boys in our church.  We noticed an increase in numbers, but also lost about four youth that were once very active.  Even though pinguard was only used for part of the time, it added a very boring part to the evening.  Kids were not surprised and those who did not enjoy it, left.  Still today, the impression they have of youth group is ‘pinguard.’

The other thing is to play different types of games.  We are blessed with access to the gym, but only use it now about every other week.  We also use a mix of powerpoint games, card games, etc.  There are benefits to all types of games so take a good look at it and balance it the best that you can.

We do games around tables, in circles of chairs, in the gym, and all around town.  Keep it interesting an current and the kids will come.

Make It A Surprise

Do not let the kids know what games you will be playing that week.  Some kids show up only for games (which is ok) and if you tell them what’s going on they will make their decision.  It takes one week that you planned a game that everyone talks about and they were not there to get them committed to each week.

Also try to change up when you do the games.  If you do it at the end of youth group, again, you will have kids only showing up at the end.  Plan an awesome game at the beginning of youth group a couple times and they will sure remember to show up on time in the future.  Also since you have them there for the second half, plan the prayer time in that section!

If they ask you if you will be playing outside or running around, just tell them you ‘may’ need shorts and running shoes.  They will get used to it and show up prepared for anything.

Bigger Games

A few hints for bigger games.

• Keep instructions short and to the point
• Have a demonstration if possible
• Do not force anyone to play
• Test the game beforehand – have youth test it with you!
• Have a ‘just as good’ back-up plan if no one likes your cool game
• Keep the costs low
• YOU pick the teams when necessary and break them up by size and ability
• If two people want to be on the same team let them
• If someone cheats in a game talk to them afterwards about cheating
• Keep records of the games you play, how you played them, and the response you received
• Be sure to remove anything from the room that may break
• Make the kids clean up!

My Top Ten Games

I will not put these in any order and only some of them are available on our site.  If I found the game in a book or know that someone else is making money off of it, I try to not to put it on our site.

This list is of games that are great for 10 or more people and have proven to be successful.  I have used them several times, with different groups and received the same results.

1. The Shoe Game
2. Mafia
3. Ships and Sailors
4. Boppity Bop Bop Bop
5. Whap Em’
6. Where’s The Leader
7. Towel Throw
8. Dice Game
9. Johnny Whoop
10. Signs

Hope that gives you a good start for games!

View Part 9 of 10!

I agree, it is very hard to plan for a small group of people, especially if you are unsure if there will be 2 or 20 kids that show up.  Before a youth group grows to about 15 kids each week on average, it is hard to expect what to do.  Here are my tips.

I heard it once said (and I’m not sure if I have this right)….If:

1 kids show up – you go for ice cream

2 kids show up – you go for pizza

3 kids show up – you go to walmart and play games

I am sure it is much different than that, but it makes a good point.  The first steps of your program should involve developing relationships.  Do not worry much about a lesson or prayer activity right away.  Get to know the kids, find out what they are interested in, develop their trust, and they will walk with you until the day they graduate.

Wait until you have a good solid crew of at least 5 or 6 kids before you take anything too seriously.  Once you got them then start talking about developing a more structured group.  Start by planning a monthly game night where they can invite all of their friends.  Get a good group of them involved and then start talking about a youth group or something that is more organized.

Hints of Lessons

While you are working with this small group of people it is important to have a handful of little topics to discuss.  Watch a lot of movies, read the news, and keep up to date on the topics they enjoy.  Have meaningful conversations with them and LISTEN more than you talk.  These are mini lessons where you will give your 1 cent of teaching to them as they learn to respect you and follow you.

Next Bigger Group = Next Bigger Lessons

Once you are able to get a group of 10-12 kids coming for a game night.  Start with a prayer, have a time in the evening when everything stops and you go in to the chapel for a bit for some short improv prayer.   Have some times where you read the gospel for the upcoming Sunday liturgy and discuss it for a few minutes.  Again, the prayer and structured time is great, but continue to focus on relationships.

Starting a regular youth group

Once you have a solid youth group set up and at least 6-8 kids coming a week, then you can set some structure.  Start by only having one hour of actual youth group, allowing for time after youth group to hang out.  For example, the kids know that youth group only goes from 7pm-8pm, but that they can stay and hang out from 8pm-9pm and do whatever they want.  Start the hour with some hang out time and a cool game, talk for about 5-10 minutes on something, and end your hour in the church or chapel in prayer.  Find many ways for them to pray but also provide many opportunities for them to offer their own prayers.  If you are able, include music and worship in to the prayer time.

The committed prayer time each week will create a very intimate environment.  That tag teamed with plenty of time to hang out afterwards will start a fire in your youth that will get things rolling.  Yes, some youth will not be excited to pray.  Keep it short, serious, and be ready for the spirit to move and prayer time to often go longer than expected.

Full Group

Once you are ready to get serious and have a full group of kids that come often, then everything opens up.  Now you need to start coming up with quality lessons, quality discussions, and more, which is what the last posts in this series talks about.   The biggest thing to know about organizing your curriculum for a larger group is to have a plan.  As mentioned in the first post, plan out your year and what you want to cover.  Try to think of 20 lesson themes you want to get across and set that as a goal.

If you are looking for good prepare curriculum.  I have heard great things about Lifeteen, Grapple, and the LIVE Curriculum.  We do not use a regular curriculum, but use a lot of Quick Discussions and Lessons that you can find on our site.  I will typically write my own lessons and discussion questions.  I look around for the freebies from sites like Simply Youth Ministry and make them my own.  I try to find a lot of current videos on YouTube and Tangle and use them also.

Until you get a set thing that you know you will be able to use for the whole year, do not commit too heavily to one thing.  I have invested a good deal of money in curriculum that I did not like at all.   I would mention some but would hate for one of my readers to hear me tearing down a curriculum that they wrote!

I will use my next posts to discuss what types of things I use to really grab the attention of the kids and do lessons that are current and taught how the kids appreciate them.

View Part 8 of 10!

I wanted to focus on this topic a little bit because of a situation I was in not long ago.  Our pastor decided to allow a group of people from the parish work to make our parish a more professional business environment.  They came out with an employee manual.  There were a few things that I could talk about from this manual but there is one that I wanted to focus on.  The manual required that any full-time paid employees were required to have at least 30 hours of set office hour time through out the week.  Before this time, I was not required to be in the office any set time.  I did my job, kept the program active, and came when I needed something.

Right after the meeting we had to implement this new policy, I requested to meet with our pastor to discuss it.  To be blunt, I was not going to sit in my office for 30 hours a week.   I met with my boss and a lady from the parish who was heading up these new changes.   In discussing my regular weekly hours and what I did, I mentioned taking kids out to eat and going to sporting events.  Right away I was stopped and told that “those extra leisure activities do not count as work.”  I fought the battle a bit and won, but that initial misconception of what my job really is helped me understand a bit more about the average joe in the parish who has no idea what youth ministry really is.  Do they really pay someone to hang out with kids?  Well it’s much more than that, but many see it as that.  I am going to focus on three things; the best ways to be involved, being involved without being ‘involved’, and non-youth parish involvement.

The Best Ways To Be Involved

There are so many ways to be involved.  Going to sporting events, plays, and school concerts are a few ways to be seen.  Taking kids out to eat, calling them to check up, and engaging in conversation with them when you them are also great ways.  To figure the best ways to be involved think of these things:

• Am I showing that I care by doing this?
• Is it something regular that will help build relationships with youth and/or parents?
• How big of a time commitment is it?
• Will I be able to take a break from it if other things come up?
• Is it necessary for me to get involved?
• Will I keep a good balance in my life between work and home if I get involved?
• How personal will I be able to connect with those involved?

If you can weigh these things out, it will help you much more.  I play guitar and was very involved in helping with the school Mass at our private Catholic school in town.  Since I was there every week, kids were used to being able to hand in applications, talk to me, and expect me there.  I was also able to connect with new youth each week because of there being different singers and musicians as time went on.  Unfortunately, it was requiring about 3 hours a week when I boiled it down.  We practiced for about an hour, Mass was an hour long, and in between there I was stuck at the school because it wasn’t enough time for me to get anything else done.  Ultimately I realized I only had about 20 minutes where I was talking and being able to connect with kids.  Those 20 minutes were very valuable, but I was able to find other things that were a better investment of my time.

I would recommend writing down two new ways every six months to try and be involved and test them out.  If it ends up really being helpful, than consider doing it regularly.

One big thing to help is to think about ways to be involved that do not add things to your plate.  If you enjoy going to plays, then capitalize on that.  If you are going out to eat for lunch every Wednesday anyway, then why not stop at the school and have lunch there.  Sometimes it is not about planning more activities to connect with kids, but allowing kids to be part of your life.

Being Involved Without Really Being ‘Involved’

This is a hard one to swallow for some.  We can NOT be involved in the life of all of our youth group.  I recently learned at a conference about engaging in some students and be involved in others.  They talked about hand picking students that are ready for the relationship of a mature Catholic adult in their life that will challenge them.   They said if you have a small group of 6-8 people, you should have a goal of being involved in 1-3 of their lives and engaging the others.  Meaning, when you make an intentional effort to connect with 1-3 of the kids outside of your regular meetings but when you see the others you are totally engaged in conversation with them.  Jesus did this with the apostles.  He had 12 in his group and hand picked the ones who were truly ready for relationship and the challenges that came with it.

Engaging in the others is the most important part of this.  Yes you are sort of picking favorites, but if you truly give your attention to everyone who comes your way, they will notice that.  Some of the youth will need your involvement to be the people that will become.  At the same time, there will be great kids that have enough support and involvement in their lives and do not require your extra efforts.

Non-Youth Parish Involvement

I bring this one up because the funny thing is about my beginning story of office hours is that once I did talk them down to 20 hours a week,  I would bet that I spend at least five hours a week helping the staff out in the office with duties that do not apply to my job.  Since I proficient with computers I am called out of my office at least 2-3 times a day to help them with something.   I just thought it was humorous how those were counted as youth ministry hours but going somewhere to connect with youth was not.

Be careful what you say yes to in the parish.  Since you are so close to the other staff that are always looking for help, you will be asked.  Whenever you are asked to be involved in something, ask yourself the same questions above.  Will this take away from your duties as a youth director?  It is important to work together as a staff, but I have found that if it has nothing to do with youth, they understand if you say no.  Just don’t expect their help in similar situation!

Last thing on this topic is about calls on community service and projects.  You will get TONS of calls from people who need lawns raked or their dishes done after a big event.   I got to the point where I just told the person that I would send a quick email out with their information and opportunity.  I was not going to be a hire-a-kid service and let that consume my job.   You may get some grief about it, but you are setting yourself for a long and painful ride if you start something like that.

Set yourself up for what is important and that is connecting with youth and teaching them about Christ.  Our next post will be on Curriculum.  What do you start with when beginning a new youth group?

View Part 7 of 10!