Archive for Youth Ministry
Common Misconceptions About Movies in Church
Posted by: | CommentsI originally wrote the following post for Life In Student Ministry
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Ok, raise your hand if you’ve ever actually read that little FBI warning at the beginning of a movie! Well, lucky (and unlucky) for us that little warning has absolutely nothing to do with showing a movie in a youth ministry setting.
Over my years in youth ministry I have moved through the following progression when it comes to the issue of movies and copyrights.
- intentional ignorance on the matter of copyright law
- learning a little about it and then not really caring too much
- taking the copyright issue pretty seriously
About 7 or 8 years ago, when everyone was rocking Napster (the illegal predecessor to napster.com) I began to do some research on the reasons why breaking the music copyright was so bad. Hopefully, all of us are now on board with that issue by now, but that issue got me thinking about other areas of copyright law.
I’ve realized that as a representative of Christ in my community and as a model for my church, I need to “play by the rules” in order to not only live a “life that is above reproach,” but simply so I’m not stealing from others.
On to talking about movies, though…
Common Misconceptions
1. The FBI warning says that I can’t charge money for people to watch the movie so my event is ok.
The FBI warning actually pertains to an individual showing a movie within their home.
2. As long I am using the movie as a church event I am within the copyright laws.
This is a false statement because the only instance in which a movie may be screened, outside of a home, without a license, is in a non-profit educational setting with “face-to-face instruction.”
3. If I make a lesson out of the movie I want to show I will be within the copyright laws.
A non-profit educational setting has previously been specifically defined as a non-profit academic institution. The main activity of a church is not academics.
4. My church has the CVLI license, so we can show movies at any church event that we do.
This license only pertains to a church showing movies “in its facility(ies.)” This means that if you have a current CVLI license, you may show any legally obtained movie in your church property. (See points 1 and 4 on this page at CVLI.com.)
Also, the CVLI license only covers those movies “produced and/or distributed by CVLI affiliated motion picture companies only,” according to point 6. But you may be able to contact the motion picture company and get written permission to show the movie. As the copyright holder, if it is the copyright holder, it can waive its rights and grant a church or ministry permission to show the movie. If you want to do this, do it well in advance, the process is s l o w.
5. I can throw up a sheet, a PA system, and a projector to show the movie in the back yard of the church because I am within the church property.
The CVLI license specifically says that movies can be screened in its facilities. Upon speaking to a representative at CVLI, I pressed for clarification of “in facilities.” The answer that I got was that you would most likely be within the spirit of the agreement if the movie was screened outdoors only if in a secluded area where there was no chance that someone from the general public would see or hear any portion of the movie that was being screened.
6. Since I’m not charging a fee, I am showing the movie inside of my church, and I have the CVLI license, I can advertise my event in any fashion that I want.
In case you missed reading point 4 of the CVLI terms, “No specific titles, or any characters from such titles, or producers’ names will be advertised or publicized to the general public unless authorized by certain producers.”
Much more info on this topic can be found at:
So what should you do!?
- Make sure that your church has a current CVLI license.
- Only show movies at a youth ministry event within your church or at a camp location that has its own license since the license is restricted to a physical location.
- Invite a few students over to your house, where you show a movie inside, with out any advertising of any sort through your church.
It is possible to still do a movie event for the public, you’ll need to procure a license from mplc.org but make sure you follow their guidelines.
I hope this helps clear up some of the movie copyright confusion. Of course, there are a ton of other areas that I could have addressed, but I’m not a copyright lawyer, I’m a youth pastor. So, I am not giving you any legal advice on this matter, just a few tips and pointers. If you have questions about your situation it would be best to chat with your church’s attorney or speak directly with an attorney who specializes in copyright law since this is a very in depth area of law (which you noticed if you checked out copyright.gov).
The 4 Jobs of a Small Group Leader (4 of 4)
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Job #4 – Spiritual Application/Implication
Without a small group leader doing this fourth job the small group would simply be another club.
For there to be success for a small group leader in this job, they have had to be deeply invested in jobs #1 & #3. If a small group leader has not invested in building relationships and in the care of students the odds of there being a environment where spiritual application/implication can be taken seriously are slim to none. So what exactly is application and implication?
- Spiritual Application – The small group leaders job here is to help students learn what spiritual truth they can apply to their life at that time. What part is there to learn from and live out? Application is about what we see on the outside, important but not as important as…
- Spiritual Implication – The small group leaders job here is to guide students in understanding how their lives are tied to, implicated in, God’s story. How does the Scripture that was looked into today shed light on your part in the story of the Kingdom? Implication is about our hearts being tied to what God is doing in this world.
Is there anything that you would add too, subtract from, or change around when it comes to these 4 jobs of a small group leader?
[Photo by: Wiedmaier]
The 4 Jobs of a Small Group Leader (3 of 4)
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Job #3 – Relational Connection
This job is all about simply building relationships with the students in your small group. Relational connection is different from care in that relational connection goes 360 degrees in your group, it’s all about developing a real not only between you and your students but amongst the students themselves. Relational connection is about creating a real group, not just a conglomeration of individuals.
As I said in the first post in this series, all of these jobs are equally important but they don’t all get equal time. The reason for this is that some just need more time than others to take effect. Relational connection is the one that will most likely need to take the majority of your actual small group meeting time (think 80%.)
It is vital that a good deal of time be spent just getting to know each other, having fun, and seemingly “wasting time” together because that time will create the foundational relationships that are necessary so that the group can begin to care for its’ own members and accountability will be taken to heart and not just heard.
If you are the point person for the small groups in your ministry then it is your job to overly give relational connection permission to the individual small group leaders. A lot of the time it may seem like group time is being wasted in catching up on the week or talking about sports, guys, girls, school & parent drama, but that relationship time is vital to the group and can be a great jumping off point for the next job of a small group leader!
So, what are some great ways to work on relational connection within a small group?
[Photo Copyright: Mabyn Ludke - Used With Permission]
The 4 Jobs of a Small Group Leader (2 of 4)
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Job #2 – Accountability
This is perhaps the toughest of all of the jobs of a small group leader to get a handle on and master. Having an attitude of accountability between a teenager and a small group leader isn’t something that can be manufactured within or imposed upon the relationship. Accountability needs to bubble up organically.
You’ll want to stay tuned for the next two jobs because I feel that all of these small group leader jobs work together. For now let’s look at how the first job mentioned, care, can help in the accountability area.
This is actually straight forward. Put yourself in the place of a teenager for a moment, why would you put yourself in a vulnerable situation, such as accountability, with a person who hasn’t proved that they care about you?
Be sure that you are continually working at caring for the students in your group and looking for organic opportunities for accountability to bubble up.
[Photo by: Vermont Lenses]
The 4 Jobs of a Small Group Leader (1 of 4)
Posted by: | CommentsOver the next few days we are going to dive a little deeper into what it means to be a small group leader in a youth ministry setting. We’ll go through four basic “jobs,” in no particular order. A few things to keep in mind as we go through this:
- There is no hierarchy to these “jobs,” at least I don’t think there is one.
- All of these “jobs” are equally important, but they don’t all get equal time.
Job #1 – Care
You know the old saying, right? ”They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
It really is that simple, but how do we let them know how much we care? I’d like to suggest that we can break this down into two basic areas:
- Be There
Being there is… Well, it’s just that. We need to show up in the lives of the students that we are committed to leading. Is a student of yours involved in drama? Be there when the show goes on. Do you know a teenager who is a gamer? Take them out to the arcade to hang out with them in their element. One of your students is an athlete? Hang out and watch them at practice, everyone goes to the games! Simply proving to teenagers that you are willing to take time out of your day for them goes a long way in proving how much you care. This is so important but we also need to take another step in this area.
Be there in the little conversations that you have around church, I mean really be present to your students. So often I see people in the halls of church engaged in one conversation and totally drop it in favor of a conversation that they think will be more stimulating. When you are engaged in a conversation with a teenager, be there.
- Pray
This one should be obvious! Pray for your students! Find out what is weighing on their hearts, what is going on in their world and pray for it then let your students know that you are praying for them. Not only will your prayers have a huge impact on the lives of the students but the fact that they know that you have spent time talking to God about what is important in their lives will have an immeasurable impact in the lives of the students in your group!
[Photo by: mfajardo]
The Problem With Youth Ministry
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The other day Tim Schmoyer posted some thought provoking points about the current and future problems that we will face in youth ministry. Here is what he wrote (don’t worry, it’s all cool, Tim rocks the Creative Commons license):
[ This post is based on an interview I did last year. ]
These lists could be a lot longer, but here are a couple to get you started. I’d love for you guys to continue these lists in the comments below.
Current problems
1. Youth leaders are not internalizing the Word themselves before they teach it to others, and thus a disconnect between real life and faith is unintentionally communicated.
2. Parents are not being the spiritual role models their teenagers desperately need.
3. Youth ministries are too wrapped up in “doing” ministry rather than “being” ministry. Ministries find their identity in their function instead of seeking the Lord first for their identity and vision and then letting function flow from that.
4. Youth leader don’t pray enough. If we truly believed in the power of prayer, we’d spend more time in prayer than anything else.
Future challenges
1. Perhaps the biggest challenge for youth ministry in the next several years will be defining what community is, and then somehow enabling it to organically take place. The Internet and youth culture continue to change how people view relationships and how they interact. Since we are made in His image and one of the core essentials of that is relationships, we know that community will never go away, but the church’s ideology will either have to shift or be intentional about making a stance. Forming small groups and telling the participants to talk to each other for a couple years is not necessarily community.
2. Somewhat related is that our communication and teaching styles may need to change. Rather than lecturing from a stage or even discussing in a classroom small group, perhaps teaching will need to change to a community-driven experience that interacts with the real world.
What problems do we have? What future challenges do you see for youth ministry? Perhaps most importantly, how are you addressing these problems and challenges in your youth group?
As soon as I read this I knew that Tim’s points were right on but I could help but feeling a little unrest that those were really the problems. That’s when I just started typing in the comment section, here’s what came out:
I wonder if there is a deeper problem that is nudging youth workers toward sacrificing their time in prayer and in Scripture. If I’m right the problem is two-fold.
I’d say that this deeper problem is that for the most part most people in ministry still subscribe to the thinking that our value comes from what we produce. With this in mind the two pressures are: 1 – Within ourselves, striving to produce to attain self-worth. 2 – From sr. pastors and boards, pressure from above because those people are finding their value in the stats.When we fall victim to thinking that way we fall into a vicious cycle of producing for God instead of being with God.
So what do you think? Is there a problem with youth ministry? If there is just how would you articulate it?
BTW! If you aren’t following Tim’s blog, you should be!
[Photo by: jksimpson]
ONE DAY training event!
Posted by: | CommentsSome of you have been to the Youth Specialties CORE, one day training events in the past, well now it is simply called One Day. The theme of the training for this coming year is The Bible: Bring It On!
I am really excited about this seminar coming up because I have already been working within my youth ministry to implement some of the ideas behind this training event and it has been a lot of fun to introduce teenagers to storying and inductive Bible study! You should not be missing this event, it really is a bargain, especially if you follow my advice at the end of this post!
This is the one youth worker training event that you will not want to miss and you will definitly want to make sure the other adults on your youth ministry team are there!
I know that for my ministry team, this is the one main training event that we look forward to each and every year. Some of my volunteers have been to the Willow Creek SHIFT conference and the the National Youth Workers Convention but we always come back to this one day training event that Youth Specialties does every year because we believe it is such a great way to connect our team and it is so practical for our everyday ministry.
I know it is coming up quick but if you are in the Upstate New York area make sure you register for the Syracuse date (May 2), I’d love to have you out to my church! Plus, Fred Lynch is the presenter and he is a ton of fun! (Fred, if you see this take it as a reminder to remember to bring the $$ for the bookstore this year!)
Oh, rumor has it that if you register at NNYM.com and you use their discount code, you get a sweet discount on registration! 
Anxiety = Youth Ministry!?
Posted by: | CommentsHere is a question for you, why do you think most youth ministries get started?
I tend to fall on the side of those that think that many churches started youth ministries or are starting youth ministries out of the shear anxiety that many adults feel when it comes to teenagers.
The different clothes, the different music, the haircuts, the drama of high school, the relationship issues, the developing bodies, etc. All these things add up to many adults feeling a great sense of anxiety when it comes to being with teenagers. Therefore, the church goes out and hires an expert to recruit a couple of odd people from within the congregation to work with these anxiety causing people on their own, a youth ministry is born.
Of course there are also many churches that have started youth ministries for all the right reasons, I just thought that I would share the above thought as a simple way of saying that anxiety isn’t always bad.
This series on anxiety vs. love could lead someone to believe that we need to avoid anxiety at all costs. Well, if we were to try to do that not only would that be pretty anxiety producing, 
it just would be true. Yes, we need to work toward living on the side of love but it is true that anxiety is sometimes what it takes for us to actually get something done. After all, there are a lot of people out there that can say that they are living a life of following Jesus today because of one of those youth ministries that was born out of anxiety.
Anxiety vs. Love – Part 3
Posted by: | CommentsAnxiety vs. Love
Products ———-People
Control ————-Contemplation
Experts ————-Process
There is an over-abundance of people that are ready to step up and offer us all of the answers to all of our youth ministry questions (and spiritual questions in general!) We know exactly where to turn when we need an answer.
Q: How do I organize small groups?
A: Purchase this book.
Q: What material should I be teaching my students?
A: Just follow this curriculum.
Q: What should the youth room look like?
A: Go check out the mega-church a couple cities over (don’t go too close for fear of being “found out.”)
Q: How do I train my volunteers?
A: Attend this conference.
I am not saying there is anything wrong with any of the solutions above or any of the solutions that we didn’t come up with on our own. What I am saying is that we tend to naturally gravitate toward toward finding an “expert” that is already in possession of an answer instead of going through a process of discovery. When we take the time to value the process of coming to our conclusion I think we’ll be operating much more out of love than out of anxiety. Anxiety drives us to find an answer and to find it quick so we can alleviate the anxiety.
Guys’ Weekend
Posted by: | CommentsThis past weekend I had a chance to team up with my jr. high guys ministry director for a “guys’ weekend.” We each brought a small group, one jr. high & one sr. high.
What we were really trying to do was just have some great “guy fun” and have a few engaging discussion discussions from the Bible.
So, what exactly did we do?
- 2, 2-bedroom suites at a local hotel
- a secret guy weekend “tradition” (if you really want to know, track me down on twitter)
- a couple hours a horse play in the hotel pool
- finishing off 150 wings at Buffalo Wild Wings
- a discussion on a few Bible verses on secret sin after exploding eggs in a microwave oven
- playing poker with swedish fish
- playing Mafia
- a discussion on having friends that help us avoid the “traps of life” and being a friend that helps others avoid them after “playing” with rat traps (those things can do some nice damage!)
- 3 games of laser tag
- chilling out in our youth room before getting picked up
We got the ideas for the devotions/Bible based discussions from a book called Dangerous Devotions For Guys.
I wasn’t quite sure what to think about the book at first, but then I cracked it open and found some ideas that seemed really fun for guys and some pretty easy directions to follow to pull the activities off.
As always we customized our lesson to our group of guys but the framework was great and there was plenty of info to pull from. I would highly recommend this resource to any youth worker that is thinking of doing something special like this for guys or even if you just want to throw something a little more “guy friendly” into the mix here and there.
I know we are going to be hitting this book up for more ideas in the future!
