Wednesday, February 27, 2008

NEED YOUR HELP!

I have been mating with a couple other youth pastors in the community. We all share the same ideals about youth ministry. In the south (Bible Belt) we have a HUGE problem of "MY church is better than your church." It is nothing like I have ever seen up north. So here is what me and these two other your pastors are trying to pull off. We are going to have a big rally with all our youth groups together once a quarter and then have Mission Mondays a few Mondays this summer to get all of our kids together. Mainly to show all of our kids that we are all on the same team and to show them other Christians that go to their schools.
HERE'S WHERE YOU COME IN!!!
What are some ideas you have to help this go smoothly?
Do you have any ideas for a name for these rallies?
What are the red flags we may encounter? (theology doesn't count, we are all on the same page)

Thanks for your help!!!
Love you all :)

-Z

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Right off of the bat, one of the best things I could think of is to split up the groups as much as you can from their youth group, to a different meeting group with members of different youth groups all in one bundle. Secondly, make sure team-building excersizes are a part of your program. Thirdly, stress Church unity by explaining the Oneness of God and His people, but also by acts of service. Maybe you can have a footwashing ceremony, or have the youth serve one another in some way, like an agape meal. Before you do any of that, pray :).

Marc Buwalda said...

Sounds like a wonderful idea man. Its tough to have to combat that kind of mentality between churches but it sounds like you have a good start by getting a couple other leaders on the same page.

Mission Mondays sound cool. Maybe you could organize it similarly to how Group Workcamps are run. Bring all the groups together but divide them up before they head out to their projects for the day. This gets them doing something productive and team building with kids they wouldn't otherwise interact with.

Other ideas...I dont know really. I'd imagine you can find enough mission opportunities. Maybe you could use the Extreme Makeover Home Improvement idea and slam a house with tons of work on one day. Nothing crazy, but if you could find a family with a run down property, a good mow, window cleaning, weed pulling, raking, gutter cleaning, maybe painting, garage cleaning/organizing...this would really make a world of difference for a family that would have otherwise seen such renovations as too much to tackle by themselves. and you're not talking about major construction (unless you want to) so the kids wouldn't need any real training and could find plenty of ways to help out. (man, all this is starting to sound pretty good. maybe i'll use this too!)

Luke said...

I'm a little late on the post but...

Sounds like a cool idea.

I have some quick thoughts:

1) Make sure your goals for the event are clearly defined. What exactly are you trying to accomplish...

2)...and is it a worthy goal. Read, is it necessary. Why is it being done? I notice churches having events for events sake and the only thing it accomplishes is tired pastors and sub par events.

Skyline is going through very drastic steps of simplification and these are just two prominent items in the discussion.

I love to hear people seeing needs/niches and trying to fill them. Forward thinking, innovative thinking. very good for the brain.