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Hello World! We are Back...

iYouthPastor.com is Back after having a website attacked with virus’s and a delay of nearly a year, we have regrouped and look to enhance and impact youth pastors across the country. Our partner sites that will be up and running and improving over the year are:

http://www.iyouthpastor.com - Because Students Matter.

http://www.youthministryhelper.com - Resources that Change Lives.

http://www.ym411.com - Your Questions. Your Answers.

http://www.youthministry411.com - Giving Resources to Youth Pastors and Leaders.

http://www.ymhelper.com - Training and Equipping Youth Pastors and Leaders.

http://www.staffyourchurch.com - Connecting People with Careers.

Help us come together and make a difference. We are looking for authors who would like to help us narrow our focus on each of these sites.

Thanks!

The iYouthPastor Team

Facebook: Christmas Facebook Sermon Discussion

We want a discussion about what creative ways you are teaching the Christmas message but still remaining biblically faithful. It is so hard for youth pastors to stay fresh for students yet make sure we don’t water down the significance of the Christmas message. Please leave your thoughts and ideas on what you will be teaching during the Christmas Season. Any catchy and relevant titles would be fun too!

Christmas Facebook Discussion

Creating a Contagious Youth Ministry

Outbreak Youth Ministry..... (Order Book)

Editorial Reviews From the Back Cover

Are you waiting to see the students in your youth ministry make a difference for Jesus Christ? Go viral. Teenagers everywhere are crying out for authentic Christianity. They want a relevant mission and passionate purpose. They need a cause worth living and dying for. In a culture tainted by faulty ideas about Jesus Christ,God is raising up carriers of the pure, powerful gospel. Enter the youth leader, ready to unleash a holy epidemic through the life-changing message of God's love and grace. This updated guide shows you how to give relevant, infectious invitations and provides tried-and-true strategies to equip your students for viral evangelism. Drawing from the successes and failures of the early church, Outbreak shows how a tribe of youth can become a contagious force that can bring revival to the church, the community, and the ends of the earth. Ready to sneeze?

About the Author

GREG STIER is the founder and executive director of Dare 2 Share Ministries International. Since 1991, Dare 2 Share has trained over 30,000 Christian teenagers across the United States and Canada how to share their faith clearly and confidently. He has been a guest speaker for Youth for Christ’s DC/LA Superconferences in 1997 and 2000, and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Greg has authored several evangelism training curricula. He and his wife, Debbie, live in the Denver area and have one son.

(Click Here to Order Book)

Grace & Truth in Ministry

I was watching a DVD with David Nasser teaching. He made a statement that hit me like crazy. It was about Grace and Truth. He was discussing the story of a girl who was trying to show others that Christianity is not about Condemning people but about loving them. He made this statment, "If we only come at people with Truth then we can be too legalistic, and if we come at people with only Grace we can come off as too liberal. We need to find that balance of Grace and Truth."

Think on that and begin applying it in your converstations in ministry with your students and your leaders.

Ministry Questions and Answers

Hey,

A great new site that I would love to see people take the time to check out is: http://www.ym411.com This website is a website that allows you to submit questions and give answers to ministry questions such as:

• Adult Ministry


• Apologetics


• Children's Ministry


• Church Planting


• College Ministry


• Communication


• Creative Arts


• Evangelism


• Fundraising


• General


• Media


• Men's Ministry


• Missions


• Multi-Site Church


• Outreach


• Recreation


• Small Group


• Sport Ministry


• Women's Ministry


• Worship


• Youth Ministry

Take some time and help out fellow ministers and people in ministry, as well as, ask your questions about ministry!

Thanks!

How to Make Outreach Events Successful?

I was in PA the other day and met with a youth pastor there and we were talking about outreach events. We asked ourselves the question, "What is the purpose of an outreach event and how do we make sure we are successful at it?" We thought about several outreach events we have done in the past. I told him there was a Lock-in that I had done a few years ago in a youth group of around 50 or so kids and we had 120 people show up. We had almost 60 first time guests and we had guests bringing guests. Now on the surface almost everyone would say that it was a huge successful outreach event.

Here is the problem. What was our goal of having the outreach event? Our goal was to be able to reach friends and new people and have them get plugged into our youth ministry on a deeper level. This might just include getting them to come on a Sunday Morning or to our Mid-week youth program and have some of them stay connected.

One of the ways we made sure we got to have further contact with these students was that we got everyone's name, address, phone number and info and had giveways to make sure we did it. Well, we got everyone's info. Success, right? If you don't do anything with that information then it wouldn't be a success would it? Well, we did.

This is what we did. We had our intern and some students help send out a postcard to every guest thanking them for coming and inviting them to what we were doing in the youth ministry. Then we had them make a personal phone call to every single person and invite them personally to the next big thing we had planned.

Wow! Another success, right? Wrong. The funny thing about this was that of the 60 or so guests we sent postcards to and all of the personal phone calls, not one of these students came back. They had a blast, they met people, they got a postcard, they got a phone call. They still didn't come back.

So knowing that, was this outreach event successful. The answer is NO! Not at all. Our goal was to make connections with students and get them connected to our ministry so we could walk alongside of them and help them know God and grow in their relationship with him more. Our Success rate was 0%. Wow! Not good!

So as I talked with this youth pastor, I shared this story and we talked about if the reason for having them come wast to move them further into the process of connecting in our youth ministry what more could we have done.

Here is a simple plan and strategy for your next outreach. Follow these steps, then let me know if it worked for you.

1. Know the reason you want people to come to this event. Define it and know what it is.

2. *** This is key**** Only give the students the right reason to come. Don't sell them on pizza and soda and then try to make them memorize scripture. If you tell them to come for pizza give them pizza. Remember this: The way that people come to Jesus is the reason they stay with Jesus. You get them to come to Jesus by free pizza, what happens when the free pizza runs out?

3. Now that you know what the goal of the outreach event is design it in such a way that will produce these results. Spend the majority of your focus and energy in doing this. Ie. What a lot of people do is they put on an awesome event, tons of people show up, they pass out flyers or give announcement about then next Bible Study and then they go home. They wonder why they don't come to the Bible study.


An example of an outreach plan:

Event: Lock-in
Goal: Help students feel welcome and accepted and want to return.
Plan:

*Games throughout night - Fun

*Giveaways to all registered - Get information to follow up with them.

*Incentive to students who bring most friends (must bring at least 2) - Encourages them to remember this is for their friends.

* Organize groups to compete in games all night. Key Adults and students in each group that is designed to connect with every student.

* Have 20 min. of discussion with groups about life. Ask questions like, "What are the biggest issues that you guys face as teenagers? How do you handle these difficulties?" You don't have to pull out a bible and have Bible study (I know this is hard for some) and you definitely don't have to give everyone an answer. Remember, curiosity is what keeps their attention. If you just give them the answer they may not feel the need to return b/c they know the answer or don't like it.

* Have Each key student call the students the next week and invite them to something at youth group. Could be another fun event or a Bible Study. But make sure you let them know what it is they are coming to. If they think it is going to be just like the Lock-in and it is a youth worship service then they may be turned off. One way to invite them is to say, "Hey, you know when we were talking about things in life we have to deal with, well, we talk about some of those issues at our youth group and we would love for you to come so we can talk more about them and help you answer any questions you might have."

What you have done is now you have made a more personal connection with each guest. My recommendation is that you have in those groups the guest and whoever brought them or someone who shares common interests with them. Don't worry so much about even teams and connecting people.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have had success from this article!

~Kevin Deming