Day 21, Loving the fundraisers

It seems that my 30 days of blogging is failing big time.  I haven't blogged in a few days becomes my world has been consumed by our Turkey Dinner fundraiser this weekend.  This fundraiser takes over 600 people to make happen.  Over 450 people make/deliver over 600 items of food and 150+ work the day of the event.  Planning for this event started in March or April and we started advertising in September.  Currently we have sold over 300 tickets and given away 130-150 tickets to our community.  We are hoping to feed over 700 people by the time it is done.  This is a major event for our church, one of the biggest we do, so we have to make sure it is done right.


This event has been a 30+ year tradition at this church.  I am thankful for the opportunity that the youth ministry has to put this event together.  All that to say that I have been busy this week, not doing anything major but just taking care of the little things.  I am not the biggest fan of fundraisers but I know they are important in most ministries.  Our ministry is lucky enough to only have two fundraisers to do.  These events have been a part of the church for many years and we greatly benefit by getting about $15,000 per year from our two events.  I know most youth ministries don't have this kind of opportunity but I think with the right mixture and help, you can pull off a great fundraiser.


Here are a few tips that I have learned in working with churches of various size and budgets.

1. Get parents involved.  This may seem like a no-brainer (or something you hadn't thought of) but I know many youth pastors who take on the full responsibility to raise money for students who need it.  Most of the time all the money goes to the students who help, so why not get the parents involved.  I mean, involved as in leading the fund raiser.  A friend of mine got tired of having no help at fundraisers, so he told his parents that he wouldn't be doing another one, ever.  His parents got the idea and now all the fundraisers are done by parents and he helps when he can.
2. Involve the Community.  Both fundraisers we do involve the church and the community to make them happen.  By expanding your base to include your community, you expand your opportunity to make more money.  This can be anything from car washes at a local fast-food place to a garage sale.  Involving the community also takes pressure off the church to help the youth ministry beyond their normal tithes.
3. Determine the Most Bang For Your Buck.  When we think of fundraisers, we normally think of fast and easy.  Things like bake sales, car washes, etc are events that are easy to organize and easy to run but are not always the most effective when it comes to raising money.  Remember, you get out what you put into a fundraiser.  Do some research to find out what other groups might be doing fundraisers, what kind are they doing and what has worked best.  I remember at our last church we did a car wash on a Saturday in the summer and within a 1 mile radius, there was 6-7 other car washes going on and one less than a block from us.  We made a total of $60 that day.  Doing some prior planning will go a long way in making a successful event.
4. Create a Tradition.  I have said already that each of our fundraisers bring in a good bit of money, but that is only because they have been going on for 30+ years.  Find a fundraiser that you can do each year around the same time and build on that.  Our two fundraisers are summer garage sale called Trash-n-Treasure and a Turkey Dinner.  Both of these started out small and grew over time.  By creating a tradition you build anticipation during the year, people begin to look forward to your fundraiser.
5. Most importantly, Do Something People Need.  Todays students have been turned into little Amway sales people.  Between school, sports, clubs and church, they spend a good deal of time asking people for money.  When planning your fundraiser, try to create an event where people need what you have or create something they will normally do.  Our Turkey Dinner fundraiser works because everyone eats and we provide a good meal at a reasonable price.  Work with your senior pastor to talk about the needs of the church and plug your group in.  Maybe you have a church with an older generation that needs help doing things around the house, create a Student Auction where students are "sold" for a per hour fee.  People are more likely to help when they get something good in return.

Fundraisers can be great events or they can be horror stories for youth pastors.  There are very few churches that don't have to do fundraisers.  If you are that church, great for you, enjoy it.  Churches from the smallest groups to the largest usually need some extra help for their students.  We can serve our ministry well by having well-planned fundraisers.  Be creative.  Make the fundraiser fit your group and your setting.  I remember one summer I did two car washes, one made around $50 per student, the other made $5.  

Youth Pastors fight all the time with parents over money.  I have had parents tell me they didn't have money for a specific event, but then the next week their student comes in with an iPod they just bought.  We need to help educate our parents that youth ministry events are just as important, if not more, than the other activities their students are involved in.  Good luck to you all.

Day 8, Twittering

I do everything I can to stay on top of technology.  In my previous life I was a programmer and was learning new languages every couple of years because it was changing so fast.  As a youth pastor, my need to learn is just as great because I have to keep up with what my students are doing online, via text message or however they might communicate.  Back in the day I jumped on Myspace to see what my students were up to, I joined Facebook once the Myspace fad started fading and a few months ago I joined Twitter to keep up with other youth pastors.

Twitter is an interesting tool to use because most students don't use it.  I have 1 college student that is on it, but no Sr/Jr Highers.  I use Twitter to keep up with mostly youth pastors and friends who might have one.  If  you aren't sure what Twitter is, it is micro-blogging.  You can write in 140 character increments, usually just enough to state a single point or idea.  I follow people who use it for personal updates of what they are doing in their life or they use it to talk about what is going on in their ministry.  I am mixed on how I use Twitter.  I write stuff that I am doing at the moment, promote my blog and also talk about ministry.  Twitter also updates my Facebook status through an application in Facebook.

I talk about Twitter because of a link I found that talked about different ways that people have used Twitter to get help, products, etc.  Here is the link from Mashable, http://mashable.com/2008/10/31/great-twitter-moments/

I got a kick out of some of the stories.  It is amazing that something that seems to be very early in its growth, can be used to do some great things for people.

How do you use Twitter in ministry or in life?
Do you feel it works for you or do you use it just because?

Day 14, Radical Hospitality

When I originally started working on the Five Practices with our church there were a tons of ideas that came to my mind.  I looked around at our church and remembered my own first Sunday there and the trouble we had finding the children's area (no one seemed to know).  Since our church is larger than most, we have different problems because the building is more spread out, different groups meet all over the place and you are less likely to know everyone.  In his book, Bishop Schnase defines Christian Hospitality as "the active desire to invite, welcome, receive, and care for those who are strangers so that they find a spiritual home and discover for themselves the unending richness of life in Christ".  This gives us a good idea of the direction he is going.  Radical Hospitality is more than just having coffee and donuts for visitors but having an attitude whenever we think about our church, we are focused on how to make visitors feel more welcome and safe.  Jesus says, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me" (Matthew 25:35).  "Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40).  When looking at Radical Hospitality, we need to remember that we were all visitors once and our goal is to make EVERYONE feel more than welcome in our church.

When you take Radical Hospitality into a youth group, it almost changes the way you think because most of the time you can't control the way the building looks, signage, or where your youth room is.  Since you don't have as much control, you really need to be creative in how you practice Radical Hospitality.  Let me also point out, Radical Hospitality isn't just how people see you when they walk into the door of your church, but also how they see you in the community.  As a youth group, do you market yourself?  Do you have t-shirts that you students wear?  Buttons, fliers or other marketing material?  Do you have a good logo for your group?  What about a website or Facebook?  

Marketing is something that churches don't seem to always embrace.  Churches think it is for business' only but we must remember that todays generation, especially teenagers, will do their research before they get to your group whether it be hitting your website for more information or looking at who is on your Facebook group.  When I was interviewing for the job here at Platte Woods, I immediately went to their website and tried to find information, pictures of staff and ministry information before I came to interview.  I can tell you, our website needs a lot of help because finding information was difficult.

When I first started at Platte Woods, even before we started talking about the 5 Practices, one of the first changes I made was to move the youth ministry from having 3 separate rooms (Jr High, Sr High and a game room) in two different parts of the building to having a single meeting place (or wing) for our group.  We have our own entrance so students aren't wandering around looking for where the youth group meets.  I know that not everyone can do this but we need to think BIG first, then the little things are easier to accomplish.  You can also start looking around at small things you can do to make your youth group meeting place more inviting to students.  As we talk, we are going to have hundreds of scenario's because each of our churches are different but I will try to make any suggestion generic enough to be adaptable to everyone.

Radical Hospitality is more than marketing and building looks but also about how students are accepted when they come to your church.  Is your group inviting their friends?  Do new students know where to go and what to do?  Are you students social enough to talk with visitors they don't know?  Are your adults willing to talk to new students or do they huddle together?  I have found, for us, that this was a problem, not because my kids weren't friendly but because they weren't used to looking for new people.

All that said, how can we practice Radical Hospitality in our youth groups?

1. Get your adults/church staff/student leaders on board.  Radical Hospitality takes a whole youth group.  Talk to your leaders and brainstorm the best way to practice radical hospitality.  Make sure you have the help you need.  You can't do this alone.  Radical Hospitality is an attitude change that must occur in every member of your youth group, from the adult leaders to the youngest student.  This may include changing some job descriptions (or writing some), asking adult leaders and students to be specific about looking for newcomers to your group.  This may take some training sessions, use your teaching time to talk about hospitality and getting out of your comfort zone and educating everyone involved.  Once you get everyone together, lay out a plan for what Radical Hospitality will look like.  Use "secret shoppers" to give your feedback on how your group is doing.
2. Market Yourself Online & Offline.  In youth ministry, we compete with a world that spends billions of dollars to make itself look good to teenagers, but with a little creativity we can do our best to capture the attention of our students.  When you send out postcards or letters to perspective students, make sure they are well thought out and visually appealing.  If you aren't a creative person (like I am not) then find a parent, student or church member that is and let them help you.  There are many free tools out there to help you do this.  Programs like Paint.net, Gimp and Scribus replace tools like Adobe Photoshop and Publisher.  Besides print materials, get online and work every angle.  Websites, Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are all tools that students will use to find out more about a group.  Again, if you aren't good at using these tools, find someone who is.  Students are great at being online, so utilize them the best you can.  There are many free website templates and hosting companies out there that can help you have a visually appealing website that students will want to come back to.  MAKE SURE YOU KEEP IT UP TO DATE.  This is my biggest pet peave, to go to a site with information on it that is days, weeks or months old.
3. Make your youth room as inviting as possible.  This can have the most impact of all.  Youth Rooms are notorious for being some hole in the wall room that no one else wanted.  Sometimes they have outdated equipment, couches and ugly paint on the wall.  When designing the youth area for Radical Hospitality, start by making sure that students can get there.  If you need to post signs or change some verbiage, then do it.  Students can't join your group if they can't find the room.  Make sure also that your meeting times are posted in all the right places around the church or in your bulletins.  Once students get to your room, make sure it doesn't smell and has decent furniture.  Paint is relatively cheap, so paint the room (if possible) in a way that draws students in.  You would be amazed at how much a coat of paint can change the attitude of a room.  Put some posters on the wall of Christian bands or upcoming events.  Ditch the old couches...  I know this seems cool to some but it isn't.  Having a 15 year old hand me down couch isn't cool, its cheap.  If you can, buy some decent couches or have someone in the church make couch covers or visit garage sales and look for GOOD used couches in a single color.  Make sure to have publications in your area that promote your group.  Information about upcoming events, different ministry teams and registration forms can be used to draw students into conversation.
4. Create a Hospitality team.  We are still in the process of putting this together, so I am going to give you my dream idea.  When students enter the door they are greeted by an adult or student leader that welcomes them and takes their information for follow-up use.  We give away lanyards with the youth group name on them to each visitor, so they have a reminder of their visit.  Once that student have been signed in, they are handed off to a student leader who then takes the student around and introduces them to other students, the student leader stays with the new person for the remainder of the night and helps them through the service.  While the student leader is with the newcomer, they are trying to find out as much information as possible in order to help connect that student to the youth group.  Our follow-up would be 3-fold.  First, would be a phone call/email/postcard from the youth pastor.  Second would be a phone call/email/postcard from someone on the hospitality team, preferably a person who met the student.  Third, a student at the school of the new student would try to track them down and thank them for coming to their group.  This might not be possible for every school but you probably will cover most.  Each of these contacts will let the students know they have connections for the next time they visit your youth group.  Our hospitality team is also responsible for remembering birthdays and special occasions.  There is great benefit in having student on student contact.  Students are more able to talk with one another and share their joys/excitement for the youth group and what is going on.

These are just a few ideas of ways that you can use to build Radical Hospitality.  Each church is different and will need to adjust them for your own situation.  We must do everything we can to build welcoming youth groups.  And this goes beyond newcomers.  We must continually work to make our group welcoming to everyone who steps through the doors, whether they are brand new or have been in your group for years.  Work with your senior pastor and staff to see what changes the church is making and maybe get them to adjust, if it helps the youth group also.

Our group took on the task of painting the original church sanctuary because that was where we worshiped.  We worked with the staff on coloring and how it could be done since we shared that room with many other groups.  When we redid the student area, we renovated that area to work for all groups that might use it but still had our own little touch on it.  Remember to be creative.  Talk with your students about what will attract their friends.  They are your best resource for ideas.

What ways does your group exhibit radical hospitality?  What areas can you improve on to make students feel welcomed?

Day 13, The 5 Practices of a Fruitful Congregation

There is a book that has been written that is making the rounds in the Methodist church here in Missouri and beyond.  Bishop Schnase is in charge of all the churches in the state of Missouri.  The 5 Practices of a Fruitful Congregation is a book that talking about the 5 areas that a church needs to be excellent at if they are wanting to reach unchurched or underchurched people.  Like all books of this type, I think this is a good start and our church has really taken this book to heart and has worked in each of the 5 areas.  I don't believe this is the end all but I know that you can change your church for the better by putting these practices into place.


Since our church has started working on the 5 Practices, we as a youth group has also been making adjustments to put these 5 Practices into place.   Over the next 5 days I will be blogging about each specific practice and how we have adjusted our youth ministry to become better at each practice.  Let me talk a little about each practice.

1. Radical Hospitality - How people feel when they walk into your building
   
2. Passionate Worship - Creating an environment that allows people to worship God in the best way possible without distraction or pressure
3. Intentional Faith Development - Creating a path for church members to become deeper in their faith with God
4. Risk-taking Missions and Service - Doing everything possible to reach the poor and needy locally, country-wide and worldwide
5. Extravagant Generosity - Giving as much as you can, not because of a request from the church or pastor but because God is asking you to.

Each of these practices can help a church become a place where visitors want to come and members want to come back.  The Bishop has some great ideas and for our ministry is was almost a no-brainer to adopt these practices and do everything we can to put them into place.  I have taught these practices and they work for a youth group of 2 students to over 2000 students.  You might read these and think they are common sense, but once you start looking around your church, you will be surprised at how bad some churches do at each of these practices.

Day 11 - What happens when you get yelled at?

(this is in response to Tim Schmoyer's 100 Things I hope you write)

If you have spent anytime in youth ministry, you have probably been yelled at by someone.  It could be your senior pastor for not turning the lights off after an event, or a parent for not being home on time, from the janitor for leaving a mess in the fellowship hall or from your spouse for being out too many nights last week.  Youth Ministry just breeds itself to have others tell you what you are doing wrong.  I have been in youth ministries that weren't much more than babysitting jobs, so whenever I tried to do something with students, I was yelled at.  Right now, I am at a church that knows the importance of youth ministry in the lives of students, so I am given a much longer leash in which to mess up.  I have been in the middle also.

Criticism is something the church isn't short of.  Everyone has an opinion of how you should be doing your job, whether good or bad.  Our biggest job is discerning what to do with that criticism and how to keep it from dragging us down.  Youth Pastors are known as risk-takers and that leaves us open to more criticism.  We might not think that is fair but it is the nature of the beast.  Most youth pastors are younger, so that also adds to it.  So how do we handle criticism?  What is the best course of action when someone comes into your office and lets their opinion fly?

1. Be Courteous - Bite your tongue.  The person in your office has a passion for what they are talking about, so listen to them.  Whether you agree or not, let them get things off their chest.  You won't win by arguing or telling them they are wrong, even if they are.  If you become combative, the person will only get more upset.  Listen to them intently, take notes if you have to, be responsive to what they are saying and thank them for coming to talk to you.
   
2. Pray for God's Help - Once you are done talking, get on your knees and pray.  Bring the matter to God and get His guidance.  Resist the urge to email, twitter or text out bad things about the person or to complain to fellow co-workers about that specific person.  Remember, we are the body and we need to act like it.  Ask God to help you work with that person, to change yourself if need be or to work to change the person who criticized you.  Only God can fix this, so let Him fix it
   
3. Talk to a Senior Pastor/Mentor/Friend/Adult Leader - Talk with your close friends about the issue.  Let them give you their honest opinions.  This will help you filter through any pain or hurt in the person who criticized you.  Talking with a friend will help you get a handle on the criticism and give you an outside opinion. 
   
4. Make Changes If Necessary - Once you have brought the issue before God and talked with friends, make changes if necessary.  If there was something you did wrong, apologize and promise to never do it again.  If it is a ministry change, make a plan to change for the good.  Not all criticism is about change.  If possible, bring the person who criticized you into the planning process.  Maybe it is a program you aren't offering, let that person help lead it.  Turn your "enemies" into ministry partners.
5. Let All Criticism Bounce Off You - This is the biggest thing you need to remember.  Criticism is a part of being a youth pastor (or senior pastor).  It is sad that people in the church can be mean about things but we must respond with love.  Do you best to let any issues become motivation to do a better job.  You can't let criticism bring you down.  Know that most of the time, people really are trying to help but can't express themselves correctly.  Do your best to deal with the situation and then forget it.

When I lived in Nashville I would meet weekly with my best friend who was also a youth pastor and we would sit and complain, laugh and plan the entire time.  We would both bring issues to the table to get help on.  He was a great sounding board for me and help me deal with tons of criticism.  Do your best to keep your Senior Pastor in the loop also, they hate not knowing what is going on.  Don't bog them down with details but give them a heads up email or voice mail.  You will earn brownie points for it.  My pastor is always great full when I let him know of any potential issues that might come up.

Remember that God is in charge and knows what you are going through.  His power will help us overcome any problems, criticism or obstacles in our ministry.  Keep Him first and the rest will fall into place.