My friend Neely McQueen over at MorethanGoship.com always has some great advice on girl ministries and more.  I really liked this post because it always hurts when a students leaves, especially a student we have invested in.

"It’s bound to happen the longer you are in youth ministry…a student that you have invested in will stop showing up. They might slowly disengage from you and the ministry or maybe it happens suddenly. It can be heartbreaking, right?

What can you do?

I am strong believer in a follow up plan. Facebook, email, text, snail mail…a phone call. It’s important to make contact. The point is to follow up on the student – to provide care for them…but it’s easy to make it about their absence from our programs. I believe students can tell if we care about them or if we just care about the attendance."

Read the rest of the blog here

Going Retro: He's still working on me...

This was posted on 08/08/06


Over the last few months, God has really been working on me. I have struggled with where my place is in my life. Now, that might seem strange to some of you, but in Roy's world it makes perfect sense. You see, I know that God has called me to be a Youth Pastor. I know it beyond a shadow of a doubt. The question comes when I ask myself if I am doing what He has called me to do. Most of you know I am a Youth Pastor. I have about 30 teens that I am responsible for. I love doing this.  I mean, I truly do Love doing this. My students are great. I have a great time talking to them. BUT, am I doing what God has called me to do.

The Job Process Update...

I just wanted to give all my fans out there an update on what is going on in my job search. I know there are a lot of people paying and wondering what is going on, so I figured I would let everyone know.

Nov. 2nd, Pray for our leaders: Election Prayer Stations

Today we are 2 days away from electing the next president of the United States. Some say this is the most important election because we will either have a black president or female vice-president. I think that is important but this isn't the most important election ever, in my opinion. My youth group has no one who is able to vote, student wise, but we have talked about the election and even had a mock debate with some of the students. I know that some students don't care because they don't see any implications to their own life but we have talked about it none the less.

Tonight we are doing something different than our normal worship service, we are doing prayer stations for this years election. Each station we have will last 5 minutes and focus on different aspects of the elections. I hope that students understand the importance of praying for our government officials. Whether we like the person who is the president or not we must pray for them. Our world is dictated by the laws they sign and the actions of their life. We may not like that bit it is the truth.

Below you will find the 12 Prayer Stations and what each station represented and a short description of the supplies needed.  I know this is late in the election season, but maybe you can use it for something similar.

1. Obama & Family - Printed out pictures of all for candidates (and their families), list of policies & stances, pens & notepads
- Have students hold each picture and pray for that specific candidate and their families
- Have students read each policy and pray for each stance the candidate is taking, whether they agree or not.
- have the students write letters to the candidate letting them know that they prayed for them

2. President/Congress/Senate/States - Print out of Congressional and Senate Members, Governors, etc

- Have students read through the name of the members and pray for each one, the upcoming election and decision they might have to make

- Possible ideas might be staffing, foreign policy, war and local issues

3. Economy - Monopoly money, house pieces, and game pieces (car, dog, etc)

- Have the students hold the money and think about the financial issues going along

- Pray for their parents who might be struggling

- Use the houses and game pieces to pray for specific pieces of the economy

- Ex. gas prices, stock market, housing market

3. USA - small puzzle of the United States

- Have the students put the puzzle together and pray for each state as they do it.

4. God Bless - Bibles, Candles, various prayers of blessing

- Print out 5 or so prayers of Blessing for students to read 

- Use candles for students to light to represent their life in the whole world

- Have the Bibles open to Matthew 5 and have students read the sermon on the mount

5. World - world map or globe, push pins or sticky notes

- Tell students to choose a place on the globe that may be going through a natural disaster, political trouble or just a place where friends and family live

- Let them know that we are not an independent country but one connected to the whole world

6. Church & Youth Ministry - directory for church & youth group, symbols of the church, pictures of pastoral staff

- Tell students to flip through the directories, pictures, symbols and pray for the church and youth ministry (could also use other ministries in the church)

- You could highlight the ideas of the church, how they might differ from the candidates

7. Self - mirrors, dry erase markers, markers and erasers

- Have each student look at the mirror and either circle or write out things they don't like about themselves or traits that they believe holds them back

- Once they are done, have them erase the marks and pray to God to use them in spite of their perceived problems.  Remind them that God uses everyone and all of us have problem areas

8. Worship -  ipods/mp3 player/CD player,  worship music, headphones (over the ear)

- Tell students to put the headphones on and listen to the music, allow the music to relax them and let them listen to how much God loves them.

9. Braided Life - string to be braided, many different colors

- Have students create a bracelet out of the string on the table

- Tell them to pray for everyone they are connected to (ie family, facebook/myspace, school)

I ended the night with Jesus for President: Litany of Resistance.  I think it gives a great idea of how we should be living our life.  This is a responsive reading that you can either put on a projector or use a handout.  I did the projector but think the handout would be good because the students can take it home and think about it.

I want you to know that I didn't come up with all of these by myself.  Some of them I got from CreativePrayer.com.  They have some great ideas that you can use and modify like I did.  My kids really enjoyed this and took it seriously.  I had fun watching the way the Jr High went through the prayer stations and then how our Sr High did it.  I was impressed with both groups and glad they liked it.  

Why is is called Fast Food, when it isn't...

The image to the right is something I might normally eat for lunch. A burger, a taco, french fries, Chinese, or any other fast-food/restaurant that is around my work. Today I didn't, and hopefully that will start a trend. You see last night Pastor Don asked us if we would fast for revival to come to our church. He didn't ask anyone to raise their hands or anything but just wanted to know if anyone would. Well, I thought about it briefly and then kind of dismissed it and let it go.

I have tried to fast in the past, but have always given in. Most of my day is spent sitting at a computer, so if I am hungry I know it and can dwell on it all day long. So when he mentioned it, I just pushed it aside and let other people worry about it. I mean, I want revival to come to our church, and I would love for it to happen within our youth group, but not eating all day is hard work. Well, I know now that God wasn't going to let me off that easy. By the time I went to bed last night, I had decided that I will fast today, no matter what. From breakfast to lunch to dinner.

I don't want to sound arrogant or egotistical for blogging about something like this, but I want it to be a witness to my teens and those that read my blog. God has been working in my life over the last several years. I know that sounds weird because any Christian will tell you that God is working in their life, but for me the work is very pointed and direct. There are areas in my life that God has focused on and help me to change or to overcome what I was doing. He has guided me, shaped me and helped me to be more direct and focused when I study his word, or pray or even worship because for years I had been playing church and going through the motions of Christianity. It has taken years for God to work through and help me to stop doing that.

Yesterday at a Bible study, I taught my students about spending time with God and some things that happen when we do, and that continues through today. I was tempted to go ahead and order lunch today, knowing that no one would know that I didn't fast, but then I thought "what if Jesus decided not to get up on that cross". Now I know that is a pretty bold comparison, but it works. We are too comfortable in our dealings with God and each other. Most of our lives are spent just doing what is easy and feels right. We don't want to stress too much, because we really don't have to. If it is too hot outside, we just wait until it cools off and enjoy the air conditioning. If the work might be too hard and we aren't getting paid a lot, well we just tend to let the job go.

I enjoy most of my life in a comfortable air conditioned cubicle. Being outside is too much, it is too hot, or too muggy. Well, today instead of eating I walked around a little track we have outside our office and talked with God. Asking questions, giving him praise and just trying to be still and let him talk to me. I am still hungry, and will be until tomorrow morning. I have made a sacrifice today, but it is in no comparison to the sacrifice that God made for me and no matter how hard I try, I will never get to that point. God wants to be glorified in our lives today, and hopefully you will see Him in me.

"Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10