CCV Worship Experience

CCV family, please take a few minutes and fill out this survey regarding your thoughts and feelings about our Sunday morning worship services. We're trying to make some serious decisions about the future direction of our Sunday services and we need your honest feedback.

You can access the survey by clicking HERE.
Thanks!
Matt

Parental Concerns...

As a student minister, I am used to receiving emails from parents with a concern they have about something that has happened at a youth service or event. Regardless of the content, each one provides a glimpse of how that parent perceives the ministry. Our response to that parent is a goldden opportunity to cast vision for the ministry. Sharing that email with your leaders provides a training opportunity. I would suggest doing both. Here was an email sent by a parent along with my response.

-----Original Message-----
From: XXXXX [mailto:@msn.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008
11:31 AM
To: Silver, Matt
Subject: hey Matt

Hi Matt:
My name
is XXXXX and I have a son, 12 who is in Impact--XXXXX. He loves coming to church at the Movie Church and he especially loves the youth group meeting every Sunday night. Last Sunday night, he was playing one of the video games with another boy about his age (sorry he couldn't remember the name--XXXXX thinks it may have been a visitor). Anyway, this kid used extreme amounts of profanity (including the F word) the entire time he and XXXXX were playing this game.

XXXXX told the boy not to swear and the kid said he could do and say and whatever he wanted to. I told XXXXX that he should have gone to one of the leaders to report this, but he felt uncomfortable. I know you shouldn't yell at 100 kids bc one of them is swearing, but I am concerned that my child should not be exposed to profanity at a church get-together.

Matt, I appreciate all that you do for the youth and want you to know that my son loves CCV. I just wanted to make you aware of this situation and I've told XXXXX to let an adult know the next time something like this happens.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and God bless you as you continue to serve Him.

Sincerely,
XXXXX
610-XXX-XXXX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey
XXXXX,

Thank you so much for taking the time to email me! I certainly wish a leader was in proximity to address that situation. I am going to forward this email on to them with all names removed to increase awareness. Through this email I am encouraged of two things:

1) XXXXX was willing to ask a student to stop using profanity. It takes a lot of guts to lead a peer and he showed it that day. Kudos to your parenting!
2) I am glad that a foul mouthed gamer felt comfortable coming to our church.

Please continue to pray for our students! I would guess that approximately 40% of them have parents that do not attend a church at any location. For them to keep coming is awesome! We as a ministry really go after a students consistency of character regardless of geographical location. We want our students that have a relationship with Jesus to integrate their Sunday night personality with their Monday - Friday school personality. We stress the same thing to those who are non-Christians. It is inappropriate to drop the F-bomb at any location whether it is at church, school, or at home well because it is a lame thing to do. It shows disrespect as well as a lack of vocabulary.

Thanks again for your email! Appreciate the feedback! See you Sunday!

Thanks!

Matt Silver
Director of
Student Ministries
Christ's Church of the Valley
1560 Yeager
RoadRoyersford, PA 19468
Ph: 610-792-0777 ext. 205
Fax: 610-792-1112
http://www.moviechurch.com/
http://www.studentministryhelp.com/

A Great Review????

Alright here's a pop quiz for you...

1) How many books are in the Bible? _____
2) What's the breakdown of those books:
Old Testament:
_____ # of Historical Books
_____ # of Poetical Books
_____ # of Prophetical Books
New Testament:
_____ # of Historical Books
_____ # of Pauline Epistles
_____ # of General Epistles
3) When the Israelites returned from Exile, who took on the task of spiritually rebuilding the Jewish People? __________________

Alright I'm done with the quiz but here are a few other questions. How would you score on an in depth Bible quiz? How well can you summarize the parts of the Bible? How about the leaders in your ministry, how well do they know the Bible? Are you the "go-to" person as biblical questions arise?

I have been working through Max Anders book, 30 Days to Understanding the Bible. This book is not only a great refresher from those Bible courses in college a long time ago, but provides short statements that will help you communicate more concisely about the Bible. This is also a great training tool for volunteers. Check it out!!!

Don't wait to change

So did you make a resolution? How are you doing with it?

For me New Year’s resolutions don’t cut it. I’m more of the spontaneous let’s start now kind of guy. For example, in the past I used to say, “I’m going to go on a diet at New Years.” The problem is I would eat like a pig all through Thanksgiving and Christmas and when the New Year finally came I would find myself 10 lbs heavier! New Year Resolutions are an excuse to continue bad habits for a continued portion of time. I bet some people have vowed already to make 2009 the year they go on a diet!

For youth ministers, the New Year typically occurs in September. That’s our big chance to start fresh, create momentum, and institute some new dynamics. We can have the same natural tendency to not re-evaluate or try anything new until the next calendar year continuing to forge ahead until the school years over.

I recently read Andy Stanley’s book the The Seven Checkpoints for Youth Leaders and it caused me to create some big changes in my teaching calendar. The need for reevaluation came from four questions posed by Andy and Hall:

If we could permanently imprint anything on students’ minds, what would it be?
What do they need to know? What is the irreducible minimum?
When everybody else is “doing it,” what’s going to keep them from joining in?
When they are sitting in a dorm room during their freshman year contemplating their options for the evening, what principles or truths should drift through their minds in that potentially defining moment?

After reading those, I was convicted that some of our topics were just too broad and not specific enough. I felt that I was trying to cram too much material in one calendar year. Perhaps those questions will encourage you as you review your teaching calendar for the upcoming months. Remember, you can begin a resolution today!

One liners from a forward

Here are some one liners from a forward... Maybe you can start a message with five of the "least funny"

• I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.
• Police were called to a day care where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.
• Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? He's all right now.
• The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference.
• The butcher backed up into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
• To write with a broken pencil is pointless.
• When fish are in schools they sometimes take debate.
• The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
• A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.
• A thief fell and broke his leg in wet cement. He became a hardened criminal.
• Thieves who steal corn from a garden could be charged with stalking.
• We'll never run out of math teachers because they always multiply.
• When the smog lifts in Los Angeles, U.C.L.A.
• The math professor went crazy with the blackboard. He did a number on it.
• The professor discovered that her theory of earthquakes was on shaky ground.
• The dead batteries were given out free of charge.
• If you take a laptop computer for a run you could jog your memory.
• A dentist and a manicurist fought tooth and nail.
• A bicycle can't stand alone; it is two tired.
• A will is a dead giveaway.
• Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
• A backward poet writes inverse.
• In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.
• A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.
• If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
• With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
• Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat miner.
• When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
• The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
• A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France, resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.
• You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
• Local Area Network in Australia: The LAN down under.
• He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
• A calendar's days are numbered.
• A boiled egg is hard to beat.
• He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
• A plateau is a high form of flattery.
• Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
• When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.
• If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine.
• When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.
• Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
• Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
• Acupuncture: a jab well done

Sorry :)

A MUST READ for Communicators

If you haven’t read Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley, do yourself a favor and pick yourself up a copy this week. Andy challenges communicators to limit their talk to one clear, easy to apply, one point message. I found it to be an easy read with tons of practical applications. Drop me a comment and let me know what you think. You won't be disappointed.

Living It

We all know that teaching principles is easier than living them. We also know that when a lesson is experienced it is much more impressionable on our lives. While at a retreat in October another youth minister shared how he brings those concepts together. Every month he has his students participate in a service project once a month. He selects the project for the following month by having students write ideas on flash cards and then drawing one from bowl. He uses the weeks leading up to the event to plan out all the logistical details for the event.

I have adopted this philosophy into our student leadership team. They submitted the following ideas: reading to students, visiting the elderly, yard work for neighbors, and a soup kitchen. Rather than drawing a card I had them vote on their choice for November. While planning the visit to the soup kitchen, a need was brought to my attention. Someone my wife new was put in a situation requiring her to move near her parents. As a result, the team and I decided to push back the soup kitchen to December and tomorrow we will be helping with the move.

I'm thrilled to be able to provide the students with an opportunity to help a family truly in need. This is a lesson they will never forget.

Do your students serve? If not, opportunities for service are only a relationship away.