A few days ago I was hanging out with Matt Godkin (Menai’s amazing youth pastor).
A few of us were looking out at the reserve that is attached to the hall.
One wall had been grafftied. Someone had written these words clearly: ‘Someone take the time’.
Maybe they know they need help but don’t feel like anyone cares.
Maybe they feel like they’ve got more to offer than people assume.
Maybe they’re crying out for some quality time with parents who are always busy.
I am convinced that the heart cry of thousands of Australian young people is: ‘Will someone take the time?’
I believe that one of the most valuable things we can give our young people is time and attention.
When was the last time you set aside an hour just to listen to a young person – to hear their heart, to give them your undivided focus and full attention?
Youth Alive are primo. For 25 years they’ve been finding awesome ways to support local youth leaders as we reach the youth in our community. They’re the guys that pull off Exo Day (the biggest youth outreach event in Australia) and spend the rest of the year supporting and encouraging youth pastors all around the country.
Feb 29th – March 1st they’re holding their annual Youth Pastors retreat at Bondi. It’s 24hrs of some seriously quality teaching plus the chance to network with other youth leaders who are right in the game with you.
I’ve been for a couple of years now and can tell you that if you’re somewhere near Sydney it’s totally worth getting there. Check out the website for more info! (Click here)
There are some things in life where it’s really helpful for people to tell you stuff…
– if you’ve tucked your shirt into your underwear
– if you’re about to pay a small fortune to see a very, very, bad movie
– if you’re actually a good enough singer to try out for X Factor (let’s be honest, encouraging mums have a lot of broken hearts to answer for)
There are also things in life where it’s really helpful for people to NOT to tell you stuff…
– the ending to a good movie
– how to drive
– your nose is huge
In Kenya I was reminded how important it is to let people learn stuff for themselves. There were plenty of times that I could have pre-empted a character-building moment by letting everyone know what was about to happen and how they should respond but I’m really glad I didn’t. Letting the team go through the experience and letting God reveal the truths to them personally was so much for beneficial for everyone.
Here’s what I learned: a truth heard is not nearly as powerful as a truth experienced.
The challenge for us as leaders is to be continually guiding our young people into situations that will cause them to think / learn / process. From there we need to shut up and let God reveal his truth in his time.
Things that can help make an average games segment sensational:
1. Have teams Rather than just running one game after the other – all independent of each other – have teams. Try to be smart about how you divide people up. You want to make sure they are pretty balanced in terms of brain & brawn. Smart team compilation can also lead to great opportunities for people to bond with someone new.
2. Give them a team colour Give your teams facepaint and strips of material in their designated colour. Some will wear their strip on their wrist/head/ankle.
Benefits?
Most of them will love the fashion statement
Painting each others faces and getting all ready in their team colours will help them bond with each other
When the games get crazy and spectators can just see a blur of young people in a pack it’ll be much easier for them to identify and cheer on their fellow team mates if they’re wearing a coloured band
It’s heaps easier for the judges to see who has won each round when every competitor is wearing their team band
3. Incorporate ‘random dancing’
At the start of the games time introduce your group to the ‘random dancing’ song. (Any great song that is easy to dance to will work). Let them know that it will be played at random moments throughout the night. When they hear the song their team should drop what they’re doing and dance! Points will be given to the team who are most impressive. (You can award great dancing, great energy, or great co-operation with each other)
4. Have games that appeal to different skills/gift
This means don’t do:
All disgusting food-eating challenges
All sports-inspired ball games
All trivia-focused games
All math challenges (Ha. Maybe don’t do any maths challenges!)
Mix it up so that everyone has a chance to feel like they are contributing to their team’s progress
5. Have good hosts!
This isn’t a job for those who are shakey on the microphone.
They’ll need ideally to be charismatic and good at judging what the room needs at any given time (e.g. humour, order, hype, calm).
At least 2 hosts is ideal (and then someone else who is scoring up on a big whiteboard).
Your 2 hosts will need to explain rules, build excitement, run to the group that didn’t listen and re-explain the rules, etc
Oh – and I believe that it is ideal for the hosts to wear matching silly outfits – or at least hats. ;)
So I’ve just returned from leading a mission team to Kenya where our team served in a local church community for a couple of weeks: working, preaching, encouraging, painting etc. I love and hate leadership in this context (or any intense team environment) because it is so revealing. You’re not just turning up and working off a meeting lead for an hour or 2, you’re living with the people you’re leading. They get to see you on the mountain and they’re also privy to your every leadership struggle.
One of the simple leadership lessons I learned in Kenya is that privileges are to be given, not taken.
When a leader takes a privilege they deem themselves worthy of receiving it more than those around them. Arrogant to say the least.
When a leader is given a privilege their followers have deemed them worthy of receiving it above themselves. Humility rewarded.
Needless to say I learned this the hard way. I took a privilege and it earned me nothing but grief. Seeing the ugly nature of my actions I immediately retracted them and had my feet placed firmly back on the ground.
Humility will always win over pride, God’s pretty clear about that. If you raise yourself he’ll bring you low, if you lower yourself he’ll raise you up.
Since it was released on January 10th it’s received over 17 million hits!
The guy who delivers the message is named Jefferson Bethke. He says he created the clip: “to highlight the difference between Jesus and false religion.”
Well produced clip – with a strong message.
The clip has some great lines in it like:
“Not a museum for good people, a hospital for the broken”
“Religion says ‘do’, Jesus says ‘done’”
The clip has caused quite a bit of controversy amongst Christian bloggers. I think the disgareements centre around what Bethke is referring to when he talks about ‘religion’.
Worth pulling apart at your next life group perhaps?
Some of our posts over the years have garnered a lot more attention than others.
Here are the posts that have received the most comments over the last 2 years.
Maybe you missed them the first time around. Maybe they’re worth a revisit. Maybe you want to add your own thoughts to the conversation.
Don’t feel you can only comment if:
1. You have something super-intelligent sounding to say
OR
2. You agree
Whether you disagree, agree, have a question or want to add something that’s only vaguely related to the topic – we always love hearing your from you guys. :)
That’s a question we’re asking ourselves all the time, so we started a blog to collect our thoughts and hopefully include you in the conversation too.
We – Claire, Nate, Shandri and Jarrod – work together at The Salvation Army’s Territorial Headquarters in Sydney, Australia, and are responsible for supporting and resourcing Salvation Army youth ministries throughout NSW, QLD and ACT.
Youth Alive are primo. For 25 years they’ve been finding awesome ways to support local youth leaders as we reach the youth in our community. They’re the guys that pull off Exo Day (the biggest youth outreach event in Australia) and spend the rest of the year supporting and encouraging youth pastors all around the country.
