Summer Youth Ministry

Hey found this great article and thought I would just copy it here for you all to read.

BB

Luke McFadden writes asking, "From what I have seen from your [youth group's] site, your summer schedule is different than your in school schedule? Just curious of the reasons for this, and how you feel the church/youth take this as well."

It's actually not just me — our entire church shifts it's ministry programming dramatically during the summer for a couple reasons.

1. Attendance is usually pretty low during the summer since so many people are traveling, at camp, visiting family, etc. We never stop events just because numbers are down. It's more because this is the most natural time for reason #2 to happen.

2. Our volunteers deserve a well-earned break so they're refreshed and ready to go in the fall. That doesn't mean that the relationships and personal ministry to students stop — only that there's not as many "official" events on the calendar.

3. It allows us, as church leaders, to take a step back from the normal ministry grind and reflect, evaluate and cast vision for the next school year. Otherwise we become so entrenched in the same ol' stuff that we never take time to critically evaluate properly and implement changes for the next year.

Our calendar doesn't reflect the actual ministry taking place (it never does!). We're not "shutting down" the youth ministry — it just takes on a different form. It's the perfect time for more personal hang-outs and building relationships to take place, especially when everyone's schedules are not as conducive for programming and calendar events.

Monday Miscellaneous

- Vacation is soooo good. We just got away for 3 days on Whidbey Island and it was great. I learned that it is hard for me to do nothing. So we hung out read books took a few walks on the beach.

- This was a great weekend in our HS ministry. We kicked off our "Esther...Risking it all". Lots of good elements, great music and a pretty good lesson. We had students totally engaged from start to finish.

- I'm sure I'll see Indiana Jones this Thursday even though I'm not a huge fan. We have our DVR set to record the first three because they are on TV this week. I'm guessing we will do a Indy marathon on Thursday (Our day off).

- Yard project's are fun when you can see imagine family and friends enjoying the space. Hopefully backyard Bocce Ball court and new seating area will be done for Memorial Day.

- Not sure which I'm more excited about: Freshman moving up into HS ministry or Summer Camp. Both are really exciting.

Week in Review

Lesson Topic: Week Four of a our series A New Way To Be Human: Live Selflessly
Attendance: LOW Lots of students spending mother's day with Mom.
'Fun Factor': Low
Volunteer Involvement: Ok (I would love to get some volunteers on stage.)
Worship: Good Lesson Quality: Average
Length of Lesson: 42 minutes
Student Response: Average

Good Sunday just hard because of mothers day. Teaching was good but I wish I could have had signups with service opportunities for students directly after service so that they could have had a chance to apply things right away.