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!

Organization of Events

This is a big one for me.   I created a form that I fill out for every event that we do.  It is separate then my lesson plans, but anything that is not in  a lesson format, I used this form for.  It has a preparation page and an evaluation page.  The form helps me make sure that I have covered all areas of the event.   It includes reserving the facilities, to creating event on facebook, all the way to writing thank you’s and making notes for improvements next time.

I keep all of these forms in a binder that I go through at least twice a week.  I keep dates that everything is done and people that I talked to.  It has been very helpful against bus companies that forget your call and reservation for an upcoming trip.

Try to have all major summer events planned before January.  Include dates, times, and cost for all parents to see.  Then try to plan smaller events quarterly if possible, running all plans by your pastor first.  DO NOT forget to look at school schedules before you plan.  It is practically a mortal sin to parents if you plan a huge event during prom or state athletics.

Attendance

We have developed a simple spreadsheet that I use to keep track of who has been to youth group.  Each week kids come and sign in.  We use our trading cards to get kids there on time.  They must be signed in on time in order to get a card at the end of the night.  I track attendance and we done a whole mix of things to keep up with kids.  Every youth has a mentor and is in charge of checking up on them once in awhile.  We have sent out “We Miss You” cards to kids who have not been there for two weeks.

There is great attendance software out there but I think it would take a pretty big group before something like that is needed.  Keeping track of attendance in the beginning stages is just a great way to see who has not been coming for awhile, give them a call and ask why.  95% of the time they will say “because people there don’t like me.”  Use it as a time to tell them about how we need someone like ‘you’ there to help open the group up a little more.

Lessons

I have always been a web savvy person so I just save things to my web page and archive them there.  Set up a file organization structure on your computer that you can get used to.  Set up paper files in your office that you will be able to look back on and remember what you have done.

For every single lesson type up a sheet.  I will post the one I use soon.  Include on the sheet what you want the youth to walk away with, scripture used, and all resources that you include.  Try to map out your lesson ideas for the whole year making sure you are covering all of the areas you can.  If you really want to be serious about it, plan for the next four years.  Plan some things to be taught each year and others just once in a four year time frame.  You do not need to schedule it out, but start with 20 things.  It is good to leave some room for current events and things that come up.  We will talk more about curriculum in another post.

Structure and Youth Group?

Try to have a good structure set up for youth group where youth can pretty much know what is going on, but are always open to change.  We have a certain way we set up chairs, registration table, overhead, and the time outline of the lesson.  While we keep it about half of the time, we like to throw in things to mix it up often.  The volunteers know what to expect and the kids are kept on the edge of their seat.  I have a 7th grade boy who texts me every week and asks what we are doing that week.  Every week I say ‘come and find out’ or something like that and every week he responds “fine.”  He knows about we will be doing each week, but doesn’t know the details.  He wants to know the details, so he comes.

Stability

Last thing on this topic is to try something for about 6 months at a time.  Changing the way you do things often will cause a huge headache to parents and the youth.  It gets tiring following a chicken with it’s head cut off.  Think long and hard about implementing something new and make sure it is something you are supposed to try.  When you do, give good warning, and get as many people as you can to back you.  If someone does not like your new ideas, tell them that you are committed to it for the next so many months and that they can re-evaluate with you when that time is up.

This way people know what to expect and will communicate new ideas with you, when they know that you are willing to try them.  Struggles open up communication and builds leaders.  Once you have screwed things up, be sure to check that attendance list and call those who stopped coming and have them help you build a better idea!

If you noticed I did not say anything about a clean office.  There are certain things that need to be organized, but the uneaten pizza in the corner is actually cool to some kids so don’t fret too much about it!

View Part 6 of 10!

I was 22 years, still going to school, and had no idea what I was getting in to.  I have been at the parish now for about seven years and am ready to share my advice on what I would do if I were to start over in another parish somewhere else.  I will hopefully make this fitting for any size parish or youth leader role.

This first section will be on setting goals and a mission.

Oftentimes, one of the only questions I get asked by people from the parish (especially the finance and parish council) is “how many youth are involved in youth group?”  I am often hesitant to answer because I know they are expecting a bigger number than I give them.    Our church has a Religious Education program that is separate from the youth group so kids are not required or expected to go by their parents.  Recruitment and retention is a big part of my job.

Numbers

There is a great quote from the song Everything by Lifehouse which says “how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?”   The main goal of any youth minister should be to lead youth to Christ and to get them fired up about Christ.  What does that mean?  You must reflect Christ and create opportunities for youth to connect with you.  From there you point them to Christ and to our heavenly mother Mary.  The quote from Lifehouse is true.  How the heck can youth not be moved and fall in love with Christ if we are there beside them.  If you want to set a number goal in the first two years of developing a youth group, set a goal of how many youth you have started a conversation with and followed up with.  How many times have stepped out of your comfort to talk to youth.  Not just the easy outgoing ones, but the quiet ones that you are scared of because you think that they do not like you.   The recent movie “to save a life’ has a great part in it when the main character says something like ‘what good are crazy games if this youth group isn’t changing you.’  Yes games, lessons and music are important, but your group is worthless if you have 50 kids there and no one’s life is being changed by your ministry.

Mission

Write a list of ten things that you want to happen through your youth group.  Here are a few we are striving for.

• Provide a positive and safe environment where youth can be themselves and not feel judged
• Develop student leaders of the faith that live honest lives
• Set youth up for life after high school and the pressures that go along with it
• Build a youth group of character
• Provide a comfortable sharing environment where youth know there is always someone to talk to
• Connect youth with the larger church, getting them involved in parish
• Offer opportunities for youth to receive the sacraments

These are a few of my general goals that I set in the beginning.  I like to look at them at least a few times a year and make sure I am meeting all of them.  If not, I talk with my leaders and figure out ways we can do better.

Your youth group should have a mission statement.  It should be simple and to the point.  It should be able to be memorized and recited at gunpoint if needed.  Come up with it and live by it.

Our youth group sat at about 4-5 kids weekly for about the first two years, then bumped to about 8-12 for another year.  Although people in the parish would have liked to have seen more kids coming, those first years were essential in developing leaders to lead the ones that were to come.  Just about all of the youth that were involved in the first two years are still active in the church and doing well.  It was because of the time I was able to spend with them.  Now that the group has grown I work to develop adult leaders to do what I was able to do when I first started.  I will write more about this in later posts.

View Part 2 of 10

Every time someone new comes to youth group we take their picture, have them fill out the info, and have their card thrown into the mix the next week.  Every week who ever is on time to youth group and stays until the end gets a random card.  If they have the card they can trade to others for one they do not have.

Every once in awhile we remind the kids that these can be used as prayer cards.  Bring them wherever you go, pray for their family members, through the favorite saints intercession, and say their favorite prayer for them.

The kids still love it and we have enough kids in the the group that no one has all of them yet.  Each week we add more to the mix.  Youth come back a second week just to see their card.  It is also good for the volunteers to be able to take them home and learn and remember names.

It does take some work, we are looking for ways to make the cards a bit easier to make, but it is well worth the investment.  There is always a volunteer to help with the crafty projects.

If anyone would like the editable file that we use, I can email it to you.  Please do two things:

1. Make sure you are our fan on Facebook.

2. Let me know you are in the comments of this post.

I will send you a .png file of a card along with some other things we have done to make the cards a bit fancier.  You will need software that can edit the file, but that is not too  hard to find.

God Bless!