Events

If you want expert advice on event planning you should probably go to Jonathan's website http://www.blogger.com/www.thescource4ym.com. On his site you will find a book and a podcast addressing the issue as well as some event ideas.

If you want my two cents, read on. Regardless of the size of your ministry events are a great way to get students to show up. This is true if you have 4 students or 400. Here is a quick list of some things to consider as you plan your event.

• Determine the Purpose - Every event doesn't need to have a theological component. Don't try to spiritualize your middle school trip to the corn maze.
• Pick a Strategic Time - Push to have your event either during your regular youth group time or if you meet on Sunday mornings, immediately following your youth group time. We used to do our events on Friday night in order to get students to show up for something fun. The problem was they already had fun plans for Friday night. Our youth group time is on Sunday nights for the convenience factor. If a student can show up on Sunday for an event, they can certainly show up the following week for group.
• Get Them to Return - Give them a reason to come back after the event. This is not budget dependent! If you have a budget that allows you to give out t-shirts to every student who shows up the following week do it! Showing pictures or a video of the event the following week, that's free!
• Count the Cost - The larger the number of attendees for events, the more planning you need to do. There will come a time when you can't do an event every month of the year. When I first started, we had a fun event for every month: Jan - Ski Trip, Feb - PCTC Conference, Mar - Camp Tockwagh (Service Project), Apr - Movie Night, May - Bowling, Jun - MS Camp Out/HS Graduation Service, Jul - MS Mini Golf/HS CIY Conference, Aug - Movie night, Sep - Amusement Park, Oct - MS Corn Maze and Bonfire/HS Haunted House (the following week we would teach on Demons), Nov - Shady Maple (All You Can Eat Smorgasbord), Dec - Mall Scavenger Hunt and Christmas Party. Currently we do a large scale quarterly event.
• Big Yellow School Bus - Contact a local bus company for transportation. You will be surprised how affordable they are and here are three benefits: you get a professional driver, you can easily accommodate a wide number of attendees (from 1 to 72), you can actually talk to students and not have to drive!
• Cell Phone List - Put parents at ease by giving them several leaders phone numbers.
• Event Release Form - Keep a form on hand for the entire year that works as a waiver and insurance purposes.
• Split the Groups - If you want HS Students to invite their friends, don't have MS students be a part of the event.
• Bring a Friend Incentive - We've done this two ways in the past; first, the kid who brings the most friends gets a prize like an (ipod shuffle) or gets to (shave Sally's head). The second option was "for every two friends you bring you get (a movie ticket) gets a chance to win (four movie tickets). Whoever brings the most friends seems to be going better for us now because we have some powerful bringers. In the past, an incintive for everyone to bring others was better because the same kid was winning every time.
• Hang out before and after - Before and after your event, depending on the time, encourage your leaders to get together with the students. Sleepovers the night before or after the event were huge for the students.

That's all I got for now. If you have any other great tips please leave them as comments. If you have any specific questions email me!

Summer Heat…Evaluating Dress-Code

Last weekend was a scorcher! It was nice to have a day full of sunshine and heat (especially after several weekends of unseasonably cool temperatures)! Just like your favorite four legged friend sheds as summer approaches, it seems that some of the students that attend our youth group do the same.

We have an interesting demographic at our church because approximately 50% of our students come to our youth group without the support of their parents and without any church background. We have always followed a distraction policy. Unless a student is “hanging out” or wearing something see-through we do not comment initially. Our hope is that the student will get to the place where they develop relationships with other students, adult volunteers, and ultimately God. I am convinced that through those relationships life change will happen and the dress issue will take care of itself.

I sent this issue out to some youth ministers via email. Check out some of their responses…

- Aaron Thomas - "Well, it’s 85 in January out here and the West Coast is…let’s say, a little more liberal in their dress. I have quite a diverse crowd at youth, about 40% churched students and 60% very unchurched (which is my target audience). If I see a churched girl dressed like a hooker, I’m going to tell her that. However, unchurched students should “come as they are” and once I feel there is a trust and connection there, I (with a female leader present) will address her clothing."

– Tim Schmoyer - "Personally, I require that girls wear one-piece bathing suits or wear a non-white shirt on top of a two-piece suit. Other than that, it's kinda like an ambiguous distraction policy. If it's distracting to me or someone else by diverting attention away from the point of the meeting (like, a Bible study or something), then it's addressed. I'm not really a fan of legalistic "skirts no shorter than 6 inches above the knees" sorta rules.

However, unchurched students are a different story. I like Aaron's response. It's a good principle to follow, depending on how far you allow the "come as they are" thing to go. There are some lines that just must be drawn even for unchurched kids. Like, is a bra-less girl wearing a see-through t-shirt acceptable? I think I'd address that one right away even if she's straight off the street. It's not too much to expect students to follow certain rules. That's just a part of life: school has rules, families have them, even driving on the roads have rules. I want to create an environment where students' attention is drawn to the Lord, so if someone's inappropriate dress or behavior is severely hindering that, I'm going to address it. There's a difference between criticizing someone's dress and criticizing them personally. I think most students can tell the difference."

So... What do you think?

Closing Shop

How do you handle the ministry shutdown at the end of the evening?

Do you simply kick everyone out at a set time and it’s over? Every ministry, regardless of size and scale of programming, has to deal with the shutdown process. Maybe you deal with some of the same issues that I have. No one is passionate about cleaning up, everyone wants to be a relational superstar during the clean-up time period, the same people seem to be doing all the work and then complain about it.

I’m a firm believer that despite the program shutting down some of the best ministry happens during the time frame after the "program" has finished. About a year ago our High School Ministry met in our church office because our main services were in a movie theater. We basically had one large room full of couches, video games, AV equipment etc. Our program was from 7:30 till 9:00 and students could hang out as long as they desired up until their driving curfew. It amazed me how many students didn’t leave until 10:00, 10:30, up until 10:45. During this time frame leaders had the ability to connect with students at a deep level. They were able to pray for students and challenge the students’ relationships with God. The great thing about that office is that you could clean the entire meeting area in 15 minutes with only one or two people.

Over the summer of 06 we left the movie theater and built our first building. This greatly enhanced our ability to connect with students as we are able to offer more “stuff” for them to get involved with as well as create a higher level of ministry programming. The down side is that it would take one or two people an hour and a half to clean it all up on their own. I didn’t want to discourage the hangout time that we once had at the office but many leaders are understandably ready to leave at 10:00 in order to prepare for a long work week.

We have adopted a strategy over the past couple of months that seems to be working well for us. Maybe this will help you and perhaps you can contribute something that works well for you!

Here’s the timeline of our ministry:
4:30-6:00 Set-up
6:00-7:00 Middle School Hang Out Time
7:00-8:00 Combined Teaching for Middle School and High School
8:00-9:00 High School Hang Out Time

At 9:00, just like the old days many people are not ready to leave. Just like the old days, this is still awesome relational time! Not wanting to waste that time, we put the following timeline into practice.

9:15-9:30 Evening Recap. Four of us (myself, our arts leader, a volunteer Administrative Assistant, and a volunteer Volunteer Coordinator) get together at this time to recap the evening. We discuss every detail including set-up, the programming elements, and the hang out time. From that meeting each of us gets a task list that we will work on the following week. This meeting is great because it is weekly! We are able to recap both positive (things to keep doing) and negative (things to improve) elements. Everyone else is free to do as they please. Some people begin the clean-up process while others continue to be solely relational.

9:30-9:45 At this time we call all remaining leaders and students to come together into the large room to do a recap. At this time I ask basic questions such as “What was the God moment for you tonight?” “What was a meaningful conversation that you had with a student?” “Who interacted with (new student)?" “What is God doing in your life now?” This is also the time I share a short training tip and we pray for one another.

9:45- 10:00/10:15 This is the time we initiate the clean up sequence. It is at this time I thank everyone for being a part of the ministry and say goodnight to those that are exhausted. This goodbye time is key because I never want leaders to feel bad for leaving, they have been there for hours already! Those that remain are given direction on cleaning up. It is a beautiful thing to see students and leaders unite to accomplish a common goal, leaving ASAP to grab a bite to eat!

10:00/10:15 Optional time to eat and hangout. Although I rarely “feel” like going out after such a long day it is a lot of fun and culminates huge relational payback. We either go to Applebee’s (half price appetizers) or McDonalds. Just like the old days, we kick students out at driving curfew.

12:00 Go to sleep!

Monday – Vegetation and recovery!

I will close with these two questions:
How often do you and your volunteers get together to review the services?
Do people want to leave as soon as your programming is over or do you have to kick them out?