eZine 01.06.2003

TheSource4YM.com
	Jonathan’s Resource Ezine

Weekly Resources, Ideas and Articles from The Source for Youth Ministry
Tuesday, January 6, 2003

In This Issue

• TEST YOUR YOUTH GROUP. Students Assessing the Youth Program. From the eyes of “A New Kid”
  
  

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TEST YOUR YOUTH GROUP. Students Assessing the Youth Program. From the eyes of “A New Kid”.

by Jonathan McKee
January 6, 2003

One of the most common questions I’m asked by youth workers is "How can we make visiting students feel like they belong?" Most of us want to reach out beyond our youth room walls . . . but are new students really going to like what they "feel" when they walk in?

If you’ve wondered this- you’re not alone. The most common training I do across the U.S. is Understanding and Reaching the Unchurched Teen. Reaching out . . . without repelling them!

My buddy Tim is a youthworker in a small one-high-school town. Tim runs a great youth ministry with a successful student leadership program. Tim writes with a great idea for developing student leaders AND meddling with the issue of "making students feel welcome!"


Jonathan,

I just had a great event last weekend. I made arrangements with another Youth Pastor in a neighboring town to allow my leadership students to join their youth group for one program. What we did was we took our 11 leadership students to the farthest side of the visiting church’s parking lot and sent our students one at a time to go and find the youth meeting. (Our adult leaders then went to Starbucks for a nice treat.)

The rules for my students were simple:

• Don’t sit by or talk to any other of the student leaders from our church.
• Remember what it’s like to be scared and new.
• Notice how they welcome or don’t welcome new people and how you felt.

Questions to ponder were:

• What did they do or not do to help you understand what was happening or expected of you?
• What was the atmosphere and environment?
• How friendly were they to you before-during-after the program?
• Did you feel welcome to come back the next week?

After the adventure we picked up our students and took them to lunch and then had them write half a page about their experience while it was still fresh in their minds. The next day I mailed the pages to the other youth pastor so he could learn how he and his group were doing. Both groups learned from this experience! We are now making plans to better reach out to our visitors. Our leadership students know first hand what it’s like to be the visitor and now know what it takes to help ease the fear of visiting.

Always for Him,

Tim

Great work Tim! And don’t forget to reverse roles and allow his student leaders to do the same for you. Good for the students to experience both ends of the coin. -Jonathan-

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JANUARY KICKED OFF BIG SPENDING
What? . . . did everyone get a new budget for 2003? On January 1st everyone started buying books again! So I decided to help you out and knock 20% off mine, U.S., CANADA, down under . . . anywhere!

Use this link to check out what people are saying about Jonathan’s book or to take advantage of 20% off: https://thesource4ym.comhttp://www.jonathansresources.com/Books/default.aspx

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Thanks for being an EZINE subscriber. Enjoy the free resource . . . and you know where to find even more free resources at www.TheSourceForYouthMinistry.com

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

God Bless,

Jonathan

If you have any other youth ministry ideas you want to share, please email me at jon@thesource4ym.com

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Do you have a speaker for your next camp or retreat?

Check out Jonathan’s speaker page and who’s recommending him!

/speakers/jonathan.aspx

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Jonathan R. McKee
THE SOURCE
for Youth Ministry
https://thesource4ym.com/