Stay ConnectedWelcome to the Youth Ministry Booster podcast! The most honest and hilarious podcast in student ministry. Hosted by Zac Workun and Chad Higgins. We are the biggest fans of youth ministry leaders like you!
We are here for you with the humor and the help to engage, entertain, equip, and encourage.
Youth ministry is better together. Learn more @ http://www.youthministrybooster.com
In episode 178 Zac sits down with Daniel IM to talk about the importance of vision, strategy, and values for leading in a church and a youth ministry.
Get Grow Curriculum + Booster for one low price!
Our Guest: Learn more about Daniel IM
Daniel Sangi Im is the Director of Church Multiplication for NewChurches.com at LifeWay Christian Resources. He also serves as a Teaching Pastor at The Fellowship, a multisite church in Nashville.
Daniel is the the author of No Silver Bullets: Five Small Shifts that will Transform Your Ministryand Planting Missional Churches: Your Guide to Starting Churches that Multiply (2nd Ed).
He also co-hosts the New Churches Q&A Podcast, the 5 Leadership Questions Podcast, and a brand new podcast with his wife on marriage and parenting called the IMbetween Podcast.
Daniel has served and pastored in church plants and multisite churches ranging from 100 people to 50,000 people in Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Korea, Edmonton, and Nashville. His experience and strength is in creating alignment and momentum within teams and churches by implementing strategies and systems to move the church towards multiplication. Which is why you are going to love today's episode!
Follow Daniel On Twitter
Show Notes:
Let's Talk About Where Vision Fits In:
Vision
Strategy
Values
What is the difference between Vision and Mission (5:01) (way less than you think)
A Vision statement simply answers, "Where are we going?"
Vision is probably not the place for the youth ministry to differentiate
6:26 "Vision is the contextualized version of the
Great Commandment and Great Commission"
Beulah Alliance Church
“Reach 1% of Edmondton”
A strategy is the stuff you do to get your vision done.
2 Strands of Strategy
Leadership Pipeline
Discipleship Pathway
8:10 The reason that every church does ministry
We do things differently because of our set of values.
“If everyone can agree with the value then it is not clear enough”
11:10 “The values of your church should be so clear that a newcomer should read them and be able to opt out”
13:30 Where does the Strategy get decided?
Everything the church does fits within the strategy (either knowingly or not)
Leadership Pipeline: equipping the saints for ministry
Discipleship Pathway: pointing them to Christ, maturing for faith
15:10 Can’t it be both?
16:24 "The shift to a growing larger church is the move to develop the leadership pipeline
"You can’t be a doer, you must become equippers"
Get Grow Curriculum + Booster for one low price!
Conviction
In order to move from doers to equippers.
Ephesians 4 for Biblical conviction
Culture
What gets celebrated? What gets resourced?
Constructs
Installing what it will take to make more of our community
2015 Fighting for the right visionary things in your church&nb
In this positive, challenging, and encouraging bonus episode, Will and Zac talk about the importance of self-care, alignment, and reflection.
We love you youth ministry friend! Be encouraged, stay motivated, do the hard work of self-examination for healthy leadership. Pull the car in the shop and do the evaluation before your big summer road trip.
Get the Grow curriculum and strategy everyone is talking about, and a year of YMB for free! Visit https://www.youthministrybooster.com/grow to charge up your ministry plans, strategy, and alignment!
#177 Show Notes:
Thanks for listening.
Hey everybody! Chad is back! And Easter is almost here! Prepare yourself for the season and the rest will follow! Celebrate in your heart the resurrection of our Lord and allow the hope of the season to restore you from exhaustion, frustration, and despair.
HE IS RISEN!
HE IS RISEN INDEED!
Join a membership community of care. A national network of youth ministers meeting in masterminds, and leading the way for healthy youth ministry!
https://www.youthministrybooster.com/
Get the greatest youth ministry curriculum on the planet + a free year of youth ministry booster and digital goodie bag!
https://www.youthministrybooster.com/grow
It's like 2 for the price of one.
Show Moments & Notes:
"make the most of the mundane"
"the hard work happens in bridging the gap"
"Find space beyond the morning to connect with your students"
"Automate your processes towards a personal and meaningful connection"
ConnectX: A Flow for No-Fail Followup
Care: The first words should always be, "hi how are you, not "hi, please fill out this card."
Lead with care. Ask questions about their life, interests, and passions.
Collect: However, you are going to need some relevant details in order to contact them, but don't collect contact data that you aren't going to use right away. If you aren't going to mail them something, then don't get bogged down in mailing addresses, and do you really need Dad's work fax number in your database?
Learn their name and one super specific unique factoid that is true to them. Everyone hates math class, but do you know this middle school student's record score on their favorite app? (187K on temple run)
Their favorite pokemon? (VenusSaur)
Do you know this high school student's system for naming their spotify playlists (by mood associated with color words: Blue Study)
This specific fact will tell you way more than their feelings about Social studies, and it will help you remember their name and when you make contact to connect it feel extremely personal.
Contact: Within 5 days after meeting, connecting, or reconnecting with a student make contact via the info you collected. This is a great chance to write an old school handwritten note, make an old fashioned phone call, or an appropriate social media message.
Connect: Help the student know in a personal and specific way how you would like them to connect.
Don't just ask to see them around more, work on what you want from them. "Hey come join a home group! They meet on Wednesdays and I know some other Anime lovers that will be there."
Commit: In your daily prayers to care for this student. The transformative work that motivates a student to deeply root to a faith community is above your pay grade. It's God's work. The Holy Spirit moving in their life is the real agent of waking them on Sunday mornings and making a biblical community a priority.
Compassion: In the meantime, always regard the situations of your students with kindness beyond logic. They don't always get a say in their schedule, and those that do, don't always use time management well. Just because a couple of teams, church activities, and a job were no problem for you to juggle, doesn't mean that your student isn't super overwhelmed.
Whatever a student is feeling, they are feeling. They should not be judged for how they are feeling about their situation. This is your chance to encourage with wise words.
Celebrate: Whenever you see them again (next week or next Easter), celebrate them for showing up. Seeing your face, walking through the threshold of wherever you meet should always be met with warmth, excitement, and l
Episode 175 is a big fun crossover with our pals the Youth Ministry Sherpas Matthew and Steve! These guys remind us of who we want to be when we grow up in youth ministry. Kind, thoughtful, caring, and wise these Sherpas are great guides for who to aspire towards in youth ministry.
You are going to love their show. You gotta check it out.
https://youthministrysherpas.com/
Thanks Steve and Matthew you guys are awesome!
It was also great to spend some time reviewing the history of where Youth Ministry Booster first got started.
We say this and we don't say it lightly. You need a good biblical community of peer-ministry leaders that will speak truth and life into you, friend. Don't go it alone!
Visit https://community.youthministrybooster.com/ and let us help you get connected!
In episode 174 Zac, Kristen, and Will chat about the importance of alignment in leadership. An important and effective team requires the constant work of adjustment and alignment. We are going to spend the next few episodes on this invaluable topic.
Get yourself and your team together. Visit https://community.youthministrybooster.com to learn how a community of care is waiting to hear from you and stand by you.
"Good is done alone. Great is done together."
Alignment:
Alignment comes from finding ways to humanize our team beyond the title they hold or position or for which they were hired.
3 Cs of Great Team Members:
Attention Youth Pastors! You need the wisdom of this episode more than you know.
Mike King is a 44 year veteran of youth ministry and he has wisdom for you.
There is a deep truth in blooming where you are planted and valuing the work of your place as much as the work of your position.
Enjoy this fun and wise episode with Mike!
Key Moments:
In episode 171 Zac and Ben Trueblood of Lifeway Students talk about ministry after student ministry.
With 2 new books of research and pastoral concern Ben presents some of the findings and hopes for youth pastors hoping to do right and better.
Need Prayer? Help? Support?
Email the YMB team here.
Check out Ben's Books
Within Reach
A Different College Experience
Key Moments:
Original Dropout Study 2008
70% of active students drop out
New Findings: Within Reach 2019
66% of active students drop out
Defining Active Student Ministry: 2x or more a month
Hey-oh! It's episode 170 of the YMB podcast with special guest Heather Lea Kenison. Heather is a YM who knows the value of connecting with other YMs and we love her heart for connecting with other leaders in that way.
This interview is solid, zesty, and insightful and you will love hearing Heather's story of coming up in youth ministry and now leading and learning youth ministry for a bright new future.
Heather Lea Kenison serves at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, serving 5th-8th grade students and her families. A newlywed, Heather spends a lot of time with her husband and their one-eyed cat child. Heather believes that middle school ministry's purpose is to create a safe space for students to grow closer in relationship with God and others, and feels blessed to work with a dynamic team of volunteer leaders who make it their mission to live this out.
Key Takeaways:
Measuring an Invite Night
Connect With Heather:
Twitter
https://twitter.com/heatherlea17?lang=en
Blog
https://heatherleakenison.blog/
Facebook
We are back! After a much needed holiday hiatus the most honest podcast in youth ministry is back with a powerful interview featuring our friend, blogger, minister, father, husband, and good dude Dan Istvanik.
You probably recognize Danny-I's name from a number places where he writes, curates, and contributes (he's very prolific!), but Dan recommends you start at Middle Year Ministry.
Dan's Blog Central
http://www.middleyearsministry.com/
Youth Ministry Booster Intensives (Next Way For You To Grow!)
https://www.youthministrybooster.com/intensives
Key Takeaways:
“When I was young, there was no junior high ministry for me”
“I use my counseling degree everyday”
Ducks, Bottle Rockets, and Underwater Explosive Training
"Networking has always been an important part of our longevity"
One of the first things we did when we got here was we sought out and built a network to be available to other youth ministry leaders.
"You need a network that will go with you beyond the address of the church you currently serve"
"Sometimes we wait so long to find a network of care that when we share, people only know how to offer you pity"
"Part of your job is finding care for your job"
"Sometimes network meetings are necessary group therapy”
“Parents can make amazing small group leaders they come pre-packaged with respect, life experiences, resources, and bring a lot to the table”
"You can be young and be a great youth minister, just don't make young mistakes"
"The greatest thing for you is when one parent compliments and defends you to another parent"
"Your greatest defenders and advocates are parents in your youth ministry”
This one gets really good really fast!
In episode 168 Karl Romeus, Will Cumby, and Zac Workun talk about what it means to have the honest talks in youth ministry, with ministry peers, mentors, and younger leaders. Who are you honest with? What are the questions you are asking?
Who Are Your Honesty People?
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
