Ever heard of Group Magazine? Sure you have! It’s THE youth ministry industry magazine. So if you know about the mag, you’ve chatted with Rick Lawrence or at least you’ve heard his voice over the rustle of pages.

Rick has a new book, Shrewd, which came out today. You and I need to read it. Why? Because its written by Rick.

Still not enough? I will tell you what I know. I’ve known Rick for 20 years. At first I was intimidated by him; after all he was the editor of my fave magazine. A magazine that felt like a life saver to me and in his workshops, I’d get all tongue-tied around him.

Then little by little I got to know him. I discovered that he was as down to earth and real as I’d hoped he’d be. He could even have his “less than cool youth dude” moments. I liked that.

When I first got a glimpse into his God-heart was at breakfast one morning in the Fairfield Inn in Loveland. He probably doesn’t remember the convo…but I do. I learned how much he loves God and wants to lift him up.

Rick is really identified by who he is within God and not by his job. I have seen it exemplified over and over. He is on my list of the top ten people I would turn to for spiritual shrewdness.

That’s why you should read his new book.

http://amazon.com/Shrewd-Daring-

Stephanie

• BIG NEWS! Jason Ostrander has officially joined the Simply Youth Ministry staff. He is taking over the helm from Andy Brazelton who moved back to SoCal to be near family. Here is a little more info about Jason. His email is jostrander@group.com; lets flood his box with welcome notes!
  
  Jason

  Stuff

  What superpower do you currently possess?

  The ability to guess anyone’s age/weight/social security number (unfortunately if I reveal anyone’s info I lose my superpower).

  If you were a word, what would you be?

  Propinquitous

  What’s the best thing ever?

  A used bookstore in a tiny town that has no idea how many great books they have on their shelves.

  What’s your favorite website or blog?

  Pixelpeach.com

FOR SUMMER YOUTH TRIP FIRST-TIMERS:

First time on a youth trip? Still looking forward to that newbie joyous event? I hope each of these items comes outta your suitcase at the end of your adventure. I wrote this for my Youth Ministry Architects blog (http://ymarchitects.com) and also thought it made a nice after book-end from my “what to pack” post last week.

A hole-less air mattress

A journal full of God-sightings

Lots of dirty clothes!             (Gives TSA something to think about) 

This is the dumbest blog I’ve ever written. So why am I writing it? I have no idea… but here’s what’s in my suitcase. Hopefully, it will jog your memory for something you may have forgotten.

earplugs – for me and my neighbors

personal size fan – for a good night’s sleep

Advil PM – also for a good night’s sleep

a good pillow – its all about the pillow

enough clean underwear for everyday – its the little things

magazine – one that has nothing to do with anything youth or mission related for the travel home

one sweatshirt – even in this heat, can still been caught freezing all night

Summer 2012 travel music – eclectic collection includes Kelly C., Adele, Toby Mac, Jethro Tull, Mandisa, Maroon 5, etc.

flavored creamer packets  - to improve nasty mission trip coffee

a night light – don’t judge me

a hat – for the days no one should see my hair

an extension cord – for my night light, fan and phone charger

an extra pair of glasses – stuff gets broken on a mission trip

pain relievers – every possible kind for every possible situation since I’m not as young as I used to be.

vitamin C – spending the week with400 increasingly germy teenagers

Crystal Light packets – to make drinking lots of water enjoyable

baby wipes – no reason to shower everyday on a mission trip

the pillow pet I got from a youth group last year

t-shirts and pants

WHAT I’M NOT BRINGING: hair appliances, good clothes, my big heavy Bible, candy, snacks, any work, worries.

THE WEIRDEST ITEM? I have this tiny little sachet pillow of pine needles I bought on a mission trip to Maine in 2001 and its now every year with me since then.  A comfy fragrance of memories when I lay my head down each night.

More posts and pics to come from the trip. Oh, I’m going to Buffalo, NY.

Stephanie

I already posted about why reports about your summer mission trips is important. This is a ditto plug for VBS and what your youth are doing.

I’m thinking there are two schools of thought about YM and VBS. The official word is “Our youth LOVE helping at VBS.” Street-level reality? You’re either a “VBS Eye-roller” or  a “VBS I’m on it!” kinda youth worker.

If you’re the first, too bad for you and especially too bad for your youth. A bad attitude about VBS costs you and your student ministry PRIME summer coverage.

Here’s reasons and ways to make VBS a “first priority” week in your summer planning:

1) Kill two birds with one stone…so to speak. You and your youth will be coming anyway; so why not add some “youth only” pieces to the week, leaving more room on your calendar other weeks. VBS week can be the time you do the new 6th graders welcome pool party, a special summer Bible study based on the VBS themes, or a youth only breakfast before the VBS day begins (or for you night VBS people, nightly youth VBS helper-only ice cream cone at McD’s).

2) Small Church VBS is Inter-generational Ministry at its best!  So don’t let the youth get stuck doing just the grunt work in places that others don’t w

ant to do. Guard your kids to make sure there’s a good mixing of age levels. Be pro-active in making sure youth are at the training events; all part of the age-levels mixing. At the same time, make it clear that during VBS week, you’re just one of the team. If there are youth helper issues, the VBS chain of command deals with the transgressors.

3) The Rumor is True: A small church can’t pull off a VBS without the youth. So if you’re reluctant, you may be putting a small church’s key summer outreach event in jeopardy.

4) So post the pictures! Let’s folks know what your kids are up. Hit up your church’s website with them because people want to see a church where the generations are integrated.

Stephanie

Simply Youth Ministry has some really smart people working for them…and one of THE sharpest may just be Matty McCage. I’m not really sure exactly what Matty’s job title is (Matty, do you even know?). What I know now, that I didn’t know till yesterday, is that Matty knows small churches.

So Matty and I had this phone chat set up so Matty could school me in all things Live Curriculum. I like to keep up with what’s available because so many churches ask me what would work best for them. Here’s what I didn’t know:

1) Did you know LIVE had 6 different lines now? (I lost track somewhere around 4, I think. Sorry, SYM.)

2) Did you know they have a new College version now? Me neither!

3) Did you know that each lesson cost like only $3.46 one time? (I kinda knew that. No matter how many people use it.)

4) Did you know that the biggest customer base for using LIVE is the small church? (Think about it; the scope and sequence is there. Its so user friendly with the dashboard; small church teams don’t get to meet a lot since they’re volunteers. )

5) Matty has really cool hair and is allergic to peppers? (That I knew. Feed him one and you’ll be giving him mouth-to-mouth.)

There’s more but you already think I’m getting some fat endorsement check from this blog; I’m not, btw.

I just really think this could be a great solution for churches who don’t have a CE person or a youth director or a lot of time trying to figure out what to use.  Call Matty at 615-349-7111 for yourself and let him school you. That’s his job…I think. http://live.simplyyouthministry.com/

Stephanie

I am stalking you. Yes, I am! Well, not all of you…just you, my youth ministry peeps who are on youth trips with your kids.

Whenever I need a break and a pick-me-up, I go to FB and live vicariously through what you’re up to: the people you’re serving, those skits you’re creating, your hands raised in praise.  I am grateful for the latest updates of where you’ve been and what you’re working on. Even the the travel stories and flat tire news makes me smile.

I love the pictures the best. Whoever the camera freak is? Keep doing that. It really means something to us folks

back home. Families are watching to see their sons and daughters actually working! Church members have a vested interest, too. After all, they ate a lot of spaghetti to get your group wherever you are. Pictures like Mr. Bill working with Greg Stier to share the Gospel. Pix of my friend, Jeff Dunn Rankin and his kids at Mission Birmingham are just great stuff to me. These are people I know and I love seeing them in  action. This is why we do what we do! What a blessing to see this effort spread out over the summer time. Fun in the Son, for sure.

As for me? I have two mission trips coming up in July. Now that I’ve brought the subject up, guess I’ll have to do a better job at posting the Joy of Jesus, won’t I?

Stephanie

…so I did on Monday to get ready for Tuesday. Then Justin told me to take it down because the site wasn’t ready yet on Monday so I took it down. Then two family members had surgery and so I forgot. The Justin told me how to set my blogs to automatically post and so I did…but then it didn’t. #firstworldbloggerproblems

Isn’t this a loooooooooooong boring story? Anyway, here’s the good news:

This week is Simply Youth Ministries annual 404040 Sale – OUR BIGGEST SALE OF THE YEAR!
40 Hours
40 FREE Backgrounds
40% off almost everything!
Everything begins Tuesday (6.12) morning and comes to an end Thursday (6.14) at 3pm pdt.
Be on the look out for the Simply Olympics videos to cheer of the Gorilla man during this weeks big sale!!

**An amazing secondary item this week would be the NEW LIVE College Curriculum! Hit up Matty McCage for FREE access, blog interview, hair tips, etc!

And that’s all I have to say about that!

Stephanie 

From my youth worker friend, Austin McCann. Austin is currently the student pastor at Courtney Baptist Church in Yadkinville, NC. 

Summer is one of my favorite times to do student ministry. During the summer, students have a lot more time and they are always looking for something to do. But what kind of ministry can a small church student ministry do during the summer? Often times we don’t have the money and resources other larger churches do to put on a large camp or go over seas for a mission trip. Here are some things to think about if you’re doing student ministry in a small church this summer.

Make relationships a priority. Building relationships with students doesn’t have to cost you money. During the summer, focus on hanging out with your students. Don’t spend all day, everyday in your office. Go visit students at their house or meet some of them in a park. Summer is a great time for relationship building so make that a priority this summer.

Switch between camp and a missions trip each summer. Two things I love in student ministry are camp and mission trips. Doing both of these in one summer can be expensive as well as time consuming. A great idea to save money and time would be to switch between camp and a missions trip each summer.