Launching the Joseph Project – Blog Post #3

Posted on May 17, 2012 by marylou

Blog by Mark DeVries

Over the last few months the contours of the Joseph Project have begun to take shape: Coaching men and women with hearts for ministry to build economic engines to support their current and future work for Christ.

There is little doubt that there will be a need for a new kind of youth pastor in the coming decades.  I’m imagining that today’s “normal” youth pastor supported entirely by an individual church will become decreasingly normal, as church budgets shrink and the cost of living rises.

Some youth pastors will learn to be fund-raisers, joining the bourgeoning crowd of non-profits and missionaries competing for the same pot of charitable dollars.   Others will be part of the fortunate few who will be able to land a job in ministry with full salary and benefits.  But unless we do something, most, I fear, will choose to drop out of the vocation of ministry all together.

If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance that you, like me, believe that this work we get to do in youth ministry is crucial, not only to the future of “the church” in our country and the future of our larger culture but more importantly for the future of the 75 million or so kids under 18 in the US.

I can’t help but think of the demise of the church inEuropeand wonder what might have happened if a well-equipped sustainable army of youth pastors had been at work 50 or 100 years ago.

The good news is that our educational institutions are doing better than ever at equipping people for youth ministry.  The bad news is that they may be preparing youth workers in exceptional ways for jobs that may not exist (or at least exist in much fewer numbers) in the ecclesial landscape that we might anticipate a few decades from now.

And so, looking ahead 20 years or so, we’re launching the Joseph Project and beginning to work with a few hungry youth pastors who long to stay in this game for decades and helping them slowly launch sustainable businesses.   Seems like Jesus said something about building a tower and figuring out how much it would cost before starting to build.

A couple weeks ago I ran a marathon with a very specific strategy…start out slow and taper off from there.  5 hours and 45 minutes later I scampered across the finish line (okay, maybe “scamper” would not be the first verb that came to people’s minds as they saw my final 50 yards).

We’re launching the Joseph Project the same way…nice and slow.  Scamper with me?
And at my slow, marathoner’s pace, I am beginning the process of working with a few.

Mark DeVries is the founder and president of Youth Ministry Architects (www.ymarchitects.com) and the author of Sustainable Youth Ministry and Family-Based Youth Ministry. Since 1986, Mark has served as the Associate Pastor for Youth and Their Families at First Presbyterian Church in  Nashville, Tennessee.

Mark DeVries – President
YOUTH MINISTRY ARCHITECTS
Building Sustainable Youth Ministries….One Church at a Time
Voice/Fax (877) 462-5718   Direct: (615) 424-2304 Mark@YMArchitects.com            www.YMArchitects.com
Twitter: @YMArchitects
If you need a response more quickly than a week, please forward your email to: colyer@YMArchitects.com

 

Posted in Blog

What Are You Avoiding?

Posted on May 9, 2012 by marylou
Blog by Jen DeJong
Let’s face it. We all have things in our lives that we don’t enjoy doing. I could come up with a big fat list but to spare you I’ll just name a few. I loathe laundry, cooking, and cleaning.  Obviously these examples include things that are necessary and vital to the sustainability of my family.  I know they are important so instead of avoiding them completely or putting them off until I’ve hit crisis mode, I’ve figured out ways to get them accomplished without having to be focused on them all the time. We have three laundry bins- one for whites, one for lights, one for darks. When the bins are all full, I do all the laundry, all in one day. For meals, I make one trip to the store weekly and get only what I need for about three meals. That way I only have to prepare three meals and we eat leftovers.  When it comes to cleaning, I’ll admit. I rarely do it. So my solution is that I have a college student (one of my old youth group kids) that comes every two weeks to do basic cleaning for me. She does a decent job for much less than a cleaning service and it provides her with some extra money to put toward her car payments. These solutions might not work for you but this is my way of making sure the results needed get accomplished- clean clothes to wear, food to eat, and a relatively clean home to live in.
Just like my dislike for basic housekeeping tasks, we all have things in our professional lives that we don’t enjoy doing too. The problem is sometimes those things we don’t like to do in ministry are necessary and vital to the sustainability of our ministry and they might not seem as obvious as laundry, cooking, and cleaning. In Mark DeVries’s book, “Sustainable Youth Ministry”, he names all of the pieces that are necessary to have a sustainable youth ministry.  They include things like a healthy overall climate in the ministry, a team of well equipped and trained volunteers, a vision everyone knows, a curriculum plan for weekly programs, updated control documents (like a directory and attendance files), timely volunteer recruitment, efficient communication, and strategies to create new initiatives and problem solve when things don’t go the way you want.  See anything in that list that you avoid doing in your own ministry or put off until the last minute?  Have you had a volunteer recently get upset about something, yet you’re putting off calling them about it? Do you have a big event coming up this summer but don’t have all the volunteers and details in place yet? Maybe the children’s ministry has asked you to recruit some youth for VBS this summer but you’re going to wait until the week (or day) before to round them up. What are you avoiding or putting off in your ministry?
It may be that the thing or things you are avoiding or putting off will affect your ministry’s sustainability long term. Instead of avoiding or putting them off, I’d like to suggest that you find solutions to ensure that those things get done. Maybe you give yourself a deadline each week or month to spend some time thinking about or working on that item. Maybe you find a volunteer to whom you could delegate. Maybe there is another person on staff that would love to be in partnership with you on it and provide you some accountability in making sure it gets done.  Whatever the issue is you’re avoiding, come up with a solution and work the system you’ve decided on until you feel like it’s handled and the results that are necessary have been achieved. Remember, we’re not looking for grand ideas (or gourmet meals in my family’s case), just solutions to help you move past the avoidance phase.
Jen DeJong ,  YMA Senior Consultant
Jen began working in youth ministry at 1st Presbyterian Church in Nashville, TN. Jen has a B.S. & a M.S. in Developmental Psychology with a special emphasis on parental involvement in teenagers’ extracurricular activities. Jen resides in Belleville, IL (St. Louis suburb) with her husband, Marc, their daughter Maria, & their two dogs.

Jen DeJong ,  YMA Senior Consultant
Youth Ministry Architects / Children’s Ministry Architects
Building Sustainable Ministries……One Church at a Time
Phone/Fax (877) 462-5718    Twitter: @ymarchitects
jen@ymarchitects.com           http://ymarchitects.com

Posted in Blog

6 Graduation Celebration Ideas

Posted on May 3, 2012 by marylou

SIX IDEAS TO USE FOR THIS YEAR’S HIGH SCHOOL GRAD CELEBRATIONS:  blog by Stephanie Caro

GRAD COFFEE HOUSE: Get a band, grab the couches, light the candles and hit “brew!” Give your grads a cool (and safe) place to be on grad night. Have college ministry adults help chaperone.

GRAD GARDEN: Each year’s grad class plants a tree, bush or flowering plant. After a few years, it will become a favorite place for Grad photos.

LIFE’S LITTLE INSTRUCTION BOOK FOR HIGH SCHOOL: Have grads work on a “Life’s Little Instruction Book for High School Survival” and print a copy for each incoming high school freshman.

GRAD DEVOTIONAL BOOK: Have members of your church or youth group write devotions for a “30 Days of Devotions from Home” booklet to help grads over “the first month at college” hump. There are so many great online programs that can print these in quality format.

PAST GRADS REUNION: Have recent past grads present a lesson for your current grads entitled “You May Have Graduated from the Group but Not from God.” Have them share ways to avoid common post youth group spiritual pitfalls.

A GRAD FOREST: Using artificial silk or Christmas trees, let each grad decorate their own tree with pictures and mementoes. On Grad Sunday, line a “walk of grad fame” in your church with the decorated trees.
Stephanie Caro  is a Lead Consultant for Youth Ministry Architects, and Director of our new Small Church Ministry Architects division. Stephanie has written several books, including Thriving Youth Ministry in Smaller Churches and 99 Thoughts for the Smaller Church Youth Worker. Check out her blogs for Simply Youth Ministry Network & Group Publishing: http://smallchurchyouthministry.com/ & http://smallgroupsministry.com

Stephanie Caro
Lead Consultant
YOUTH MINISTRY ARCHITECTS
CHILDREN’S MINISTRY ARCHITECTS
SMALL CHURCH MINISTRY ARCHITECTS, Director
Building Sustainable Ministries….One Church at a Time
Direct (727) 215-4067            Voice/Fax (877) 462-5718
stephanie.caro@ymarchitects.com     http://ymarchitects.com
Twitter: @stephaniecaro                       Facebook: Stephanie Caro

 

Posted in Blog

Melissa Rau

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Colyer

Staff Consultant
melissa.rau@ymarchitects.com 

Melissa has worked in children’s and youth ministry for 15 years as a volunteer and paid staff member in family-sized to corporate-sized churches in numerous denominations.

Prior to moving to her current home in New York City,  Melissa’s experience has been working in churches in the Philadelphia suburbs.  She is a certified DiSC Behavior Facilitator and enjoys working with ordained clergy and lay leaders to help them communicate more effectively with one another and is a volunteer accountability coach.

Melissa leads leadership retreats for youth, parents, youth leaders, and church boards. She has authored numerous online articles for Simply Youth Ministry and Group Magazine.

Melissa and her husband, Mike, live with their three children, Natalie, Kiersten, and Peyton as well as their high-strung, stinky, but lovable Chocolate Lab, Reese. Melissa is passionate about the color orange…just sayin’.

Posted in Meet Our Staff

The Joseph Project

Posted on April 15, 2012 by marylou

Blog by Mark DeVries

A month or so ago in my blog, I suggested that it may be time for us to begin preparing for a youth ministry “famine” that is likely to take place 20 years or so down the road.  I’m not predicting that this will be a famine in the quality of programming or the importance placed on youth ministry, or even a famine in the number of well-trained youth pastors.

I’m suggesting that, given our current economic trajectory and the low levels of enthusiasm in younger generations when it comes to giving to institutions (like the church), there is a good chance there will be less resources available to hire full-time youth pastors 20 years from now than there is today.

If I’m wrong, I’ll sing the Doxology and be thrilled about the fact that we’ll have far more youth pastors are in place than expected.  If there’s even a strong possibility I’m right, though, we might be better served to consider the possibility of developing a whole different kind of youth pastor.

So I offer here a few provocative theses around the Joseph Project so far…

–What if every youth pastor was not only equipped to do youth ministry, but as a required part of his or her training, was equipped to be an entrepreneur?  My experience is that, since much youth ministry requires entrepreneurial skills anyway, this could be a more natural fit than we might think.

–What if the typical youth pastor could be coached in to developing his or her own “company,” designed to generate income that didn’t just trade time for money but held the hope of producing more income for less time 10 years down the road? Could this not have the effect of extending the ministry tenure of many (if not most) youth pastors, providing long-term youth pastors for churches who would not otherwise have been able to support someone with significant youth ministry experience?

–And if we could find a way to make this kind of model work here in the expensive North American context, how might it be simplified and adapted for “youth pastors” in places like Rwanda and Uganda?  I’ve got hopes of trying out a few experiments in those countries in the next year.  I’ll keep you posted.

Mark DeVries – President
YOUTH MINISTRY ARCHITECTS
Building Sustainable Youth Ministries….One Church at a Time
Voice/Fax (877) 462-5718             Direct: (615) 424-2304
Mark@YMArchitects.com            www.YMArchitects.com
Twitter: @YMArchitects

If you need a response more quickly than a week, please forward your email to: colyer@YMArchitects.com

Posted in Blog

Louise Robison

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Colyer

Staff Consultant
louise.robison@ymarchitects.com 

Louise began working with youth as a volunteer after graduating from Erskine College.  A few years later, much to her delight, she began getting paid to work with youth and children in her church.  She has over fifteen year experience as Director of Christian Education and Director of Children’s Ministries in two churches in Bainbridge, GA and one in Gainesville, GA.  She currently teaches preschool in Gainesville.

Louise lives in Gainesville, GA with her husband, Jim and two girls, Ginny and Emily, one dog and one cat.  She loves to dig holes in the yard and plant beautiful flowers.  She also loves to cook delicious meals for her ever hungry family.

 

Posted in Meet Our Staff