Youth Ministry

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3
Aug 09

Injury Report

I led worship for RVC Fresno’s Youth Retreat this past weekend at Shaver Lake.  I had a great time seeing some of my old students, hearing my man Tim throw down some word, and attempting to wakeboard after a 10 year hiatus.

Whenever we do trips like these, we pray a lot for the safety of our students because, well, it seems like a student always breaks something.  However, this time around I was the one who left with injuries:

  • Right Thumb: tore back the nail carrying luggage.
  • Left Ring Finger: pinched in a mic stand, leaving a blood blister.
  • Right Knee: skinned and bruised from a wrestling match.
  • Right Knuckles: scrapped… this one’s a mystery.
  • Upper Body: sunburned in blotchy patterns (NEVER LET HIGH SCHOOLERS APPLY SUNSCREEN)
  • Lower Back: sore from being pulled behind a boat.
  • Left Thumb: tore back the nail on the tow rope.
  • Face/Sinuses: sore from impact with water.  Lots of impact.
  • Right Foot: various splinters from lake plants.
  • Right Big Toe: nasty cut from lake rocks.
  • Brain: damage from lack of sleep!
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19
Jun 08

Midweek Reflection #16

Here’s the haps at RVC Youth:

Since it’s still my first year of youth ministry, I feel like I’m learning lots of things that are sort of “duh-isms” for seasoned youth workers or people who grew up attending functioning youth groups.  Things like “kids like to text message” and “most jr high students don’t read AW Tozer” are just a couple examples of the incredible lessons I’ve learned.

This week I got just a glimmer of a lesson that I’m hoping to grasp: winning over parents is key to a successful youth ministry.

I’ll be honest, over the past year I’ve done little nothing to involve parents in the life of our group and I’ve done a really really bad job of communicating with them about events, current programs, etc.  To all the parents who find this by googling “luke mundy,” I apologize for that… I promise to improve.

Last night we had our first BBQ/swim party of the summer.  One of the families in our group opened up their home and well… we took over.  In the midst of all the hot dogs, marco polo, and texting (it never ends) I got to spend some time talking to both host parents and it just all of the sudden clicked–these parents have the same goal I do. They want their kids studying the bible.  They want their kids learning to worship.  They want their kids to make their faith their own.  They want their kids to invite all their friends to church.  They want their kids to have fun.  And, most importantly, they want all this much more that I do.

Maybe that’s a simple realization, but it stuck me last night.  For my part, I want to work to partner with parents.  To include them in planning and implementing our events. To inform them of the things that are happening with our group. To share ministry to their kids.

Because they care about them the most.

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5
Jun 08

Creative Chaos: Wacky Weekend

Last Sunday I did my first “Wacky Weekend.”  Now, those of you who are involved “behind the scenes” at your church are thinking isn’t every weekend wacky?

Wacky Weekend happens every 6th Sunday as we take time to look back over the past 5 weeks of teaching, quizing students on what they’ve learned, celebrating the things that God’s showing us, and generally just having a good time.

Our children’s ministry has been doing this for awhile, but this last week was the first time that RVC Youth joined in on the same schedule.

It went great.  The students really enjoyed it, our volunteers got to take a week “off,” and I got the benefit of learning how much our students retain.  They’ve learned alot over the last 5 weeks and I’m proud of them!

Does your youth group/children’s ministry/bible study do anything to review?  to have fun?  to celebrate?

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30
May 08

Midweek Reflection #15

Here’s the haps at RVC Youth:

  • The three weeks I spent without fulltime employment were lots of fun.  I was visiting campuses weekly, spending lots of time preparing for weekend and midweek services and generally just had a lot of time to think about YM.  Alas, I’m working again.  It’s been a bit of a transition, trying to get back into the groove of planning and preparing while working hard all day.  (Ha, reading that makes me realize what a spoiled youth worker I am!)  Anyway, I feel like I’ve got a good rhythm back.
  • On Wednesday nights we’ve been encouraging students to purchase the One-Minute Bible for Students to use as a guide for their devotional studies.  Not my favorite way to study, but the students have been really excited about it and they’re reading scripture–that’s all I ask for!  So, on Wednesday nights, we’ve been going a bit deeper on the themes for the week, looking at some additional passages, and asking how we can apply our readings to our lives.
  • Two of our youth leaders got married last weekend.  We’re excited for them, but I can’t wait until they’re back in town… we miss them!
  • I’m hoping to make some changes to our midweek program by Back2School.  This means training leaders (and recruiting new leaders) over the summer.  Please be in prayer for that!
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19
May 08

Tim Says “Yes”

Tim is great.  I was leading worship in “big church” this Sunday, so he took over in youth.  He was teaching on how crazy busy our lives can be and how we need to intentionally make time to focus on our relationship with God.

He used this to illustrate his point:

YouTube Preview Image

I’m thankful to have the opportunity to work with funny, talented people who love the Lord!

For more Tim-themed fun, visit his blog today!

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6
May 08

Youth Group Games: LifeLibs

Okay… now, fun, catchy youth group games are not my forte.  I have to work at it.  I have to stretch myself to find them and implement them.  But this week I did the unthinkable.  I made one up.  All by myself.  And I think it’s pretty good.

We’re currently teaching Simply Youth Ministry’s Simplify Your Life series and I wanted to do a game that highlights how crazy busy our everyday lives can be.  Couldn’t find anything good online, so I invented LifeLibs.

The idea is simple:

  • Have kids write down activities they do during their day on slips of paper.
  • Invite two students up front.
  • You read a pre-written “Mad-Lib” script.
  • One student draws slips and inserts activities into the story.
  • The other student acts out the day.
  • Everyone laughs as Johnny acts like he’s brushing his teeth while taking a nap.

I’ve linked to the two scripts we used this week below.  You could change things up to make the game fit your group!  Be sure to encourage goofy answers!

Here are the scripts we used.
Here are the slips we had students fill out.

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25
Apr 08

Midweek Reflection #14

Here’s the haps at RVC Youth:

  • Losing the day job has opened up a ton of time to concentrate on youth ministry.  I’m trying not to spend all 40 hours of my week at the church, but let’s be honest–I’m addicted to the place.  Being in the office has been great!  I get to bounce ideas off other staff members, stay more connected to the big picture at RVC, and drink lots of espresso.  So… I’m working on ways to keep my face time up at the office while keeping bills paid.  More on that another time…
  • On Sunday mornings we’ve been using Simply Youth Ministry’s “God’s Extreme Makeover” curriculum.  I’m not much of a curriculum guy so this has been new for me, but it’s worked out pretty well.  There was a lot of re-tooling that needed to be done for it to work for our group, but I think it’s been a pretty good series overall.
  • This weekend we’re closing the series with an overview of the other fruit of the Spirit (GEM only covers Peace, Patience, and Self-Control).  We’re going to try some creative things by having students work through worksheets and then sharing what they’ve learned about the fruit of the Spirit.  I’m excited to see how it works out!
  • On Wednesday night we had one of our biggest turnouts for our bible study!  If we grow anymore we’ll need to split into two study groups (which will be great!)
  • Speaking of numerical growth, the group is getting to the size where I need to start thinking of my role more as a facilitator.  I know I talk about it alot, but I really need to be intentional about recruiting and developing volunteers.  I can have a superficial impact on all our students or I can invest in volunteers who will go deep (which impacts both volunteers and students).
  • That being said, I called out a friend who I thought would be a great volunteer and got shut down.  Can’t say I didn’t try!

I think that’s about it!  Please keep RVC Youth in your prayers this weekend!

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13
Apr 08

Tips For Growing Facial Hair

I need ‘em. Let me know what works for you.

Because according to this post every youth pastor needs some facial hair.

And I lack the skills:

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10
Apr 08

Midweek Reflection #13

Another week, another reflection!  I’m gonna bend the rules on this one and look forward.  Yes, I’m aware that that’s a “projection” and not a “reflection,” but–once again, it’s A Case of The Mundys, not… whatever your last name is.

So, here’s what I’m looking forward to in the next few months:

  • My first summer as a youth pastor! Debbie and I spent some time yesterday planning out our summer event schedule.  I’m pretty sure our youth group has never really had a fun summer with camp and barbecues, sleepovers and events.  Should be exciting!
  • Youth worship team. The bulk of my ministry experience has been in leading worship, so I’m excited to actually get a youth team put together.  I’ve been procrastinating because… well… it’s a lot of work!  We’ve got some students who are pretty talented on their instruments, so it should be fun to get them all together!
  • More volunteers. I feel like summer’s going to be a time for us to really focus on attracting, training, and retaining new volunteers.  I’m losing a few to busy schedules and weddings, so there’s a huge need!  I’m excited to see who God has in store for our ministry!

Please be in prayer for RVC Youth as we head into the summer!

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8
Apr 08

Youth Room Redesign

Our youth room got repainted this week!

I can’t take credit for any of it since Brittney (our Administrative Assistant), Debbie (our Family Ministry Director) and Makayla (Family Ministry Assistant) did all the work.

I “helped” with design.  The conversation went something like this:

Debbie: “What do you think about fun stripes?”

Me: “Yeah!  That’d be cool.  Can we have Newsboys posters?”

Debbie: “No.”

Me: “Ummm… Okay.”

Anyway, now our room looks awesome.

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