Youth Ministry Booster
Welcome 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
Youth Ministry Booster
Growing Youth Ministry: The Power of Story
"It's all about the numbers." Ever feel like your ministry's is trapped by attendance numbers? What if the most powerful metric isn't quantitative at all?
The stories unfolding in your student ministry reveal far more about God's work than any statistical report. We mean it! We want you to measure in stories! This webinar replay reveals why stories are a better scorecard for ministry success than numbers, showing how collecting and sharing transformation narratives creates lasting impact.
Chuck Peters joins Zac and Chad to talk about the importance of story in leading your ministry.
Show Notes
• Stories are already happening in your ministry whether you're collecting them or not. We just need systems to collect and share them!
• What you treasure is what you measure; focus on transformation over attendance. Stories elevate VALUES.
• Creating systems to collect ministry stories helps combat our natural forgetfulness. Become a JOURNALIST for your ministry.
• Be strategic about which stories you share with different audiences (parents, staff, church members)
• Add categories to your collected stories to easily find and share them when needed, the power of GENRE.
• Train students to tell their own stories as part of their spiritual formation, the formational discipline of TESTIMONY.
• Practice discernment; don't embellish stories or share what isn't yours to tell, INTEGRITY.
• Ask better questions to help leaders identify meaningful stories in their ministry
• Use volunteer huddles to celebrate what God is doing across different ministry areas. Help others gather PERSPECTIVE.
• Stories should make God the hero, not the ministry leader or program
Check out our storytelling resources and learn more about Youth Ministry Booster Season 7: The Power of Story at www.lifeway.com/studentleadertools.
Learn more from webinars like this one at: https://www.lifeway.com/en/special-emphasis/ministry-success-webinars
A snap. You got to check out this one because it's a booster related to season seven, the Power of Story, with Chuck Peters, chad Higgins and myself. You're going to love it. It's fun, it's dynamic and you can catch the link below where you can watch it and a whole bunch more and get signed up for this fresh season of Booster. Don't miss it.
Speaker 1:This is the month. Get signed up for season seven and we'll see you on the other side. What's up, friends? I want to tell you a story, the story of the summer. It was hot, it was dry, it was long, it was grass and it was too soon. No, sorry, I got some friends.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to talk about the stories of summer, but more than the stories of summer, the stories of student ministry, success and growth. We think it's actually the key to the ways in which your ministry will move forward, more than just this week and next week and another. What's happening in your ministry is defined by the ways in which we understand the story of God at work through the lives of students, families and the local church. So I got some friends. Today we're going to talk about it. I got my buddy, chuck Peters, and Chad Higgins to my left and right talking about the ways in which story is our new scorecard for both student ministry and the local church, and so we have.
Speaker 1:The best way to start is tell us where you're from, but this has been a big summer. Clearly something has happened for you, either in your family, your ministry, your church, and so we're going to play an old game, which is tell me a story in six words. So tell me a story, just using six words. Tell me a story. I've asked my friends to do the same, I think back over the last couple of months, before we dive in for the ways in which we talk, what's a story of summer that you could tell me in six words? Chuck peters, what?
Speaker 2:are you starting with me? Starting with you? Yeah, yeah, we, we did this before we went on the air, and we all.
Speaker 3:And then zack said you can't use the one it's got to be a fresh story.
Speaker 2:That's a big takeaway yes like we don't want to be those people who tell the same stories again and again have you ever had that? Yeah, oh, yeah, have I have ever told you everybody's like yes you told me that story, all right so a new story for me let's see um hot sun. No hat aloe vera. How's that with my haircut?
Speaker 1:that's, that's even the story of my summer. God, that's got a smell to it too like yeah, yeah, just that that cooling gel. It's cooling sticky residue of the summer.
Speaker 2:That's right, something that you want, right, right it's uh. If I had two more words, it would be skin cancer with a question mark, not an exclamation point, every october.
Speaker 1:You want to avoid that. It's good, all right, chad higgins, six word story of summer, okay.
Speaker 3:So summer for us naturally slows down a little bit, because your student pastors are busy, so we're less busy. Yeah, we're less busy, yeah when you guys are at camp we're like, what do we do now?
Speaker 1:yeah, right, don't forget about us.
Speaker 3:So I would say, though, for me, let me count the words um home on Zoom by seven-year-old.
Speaker 1:Oh, you can hyphenate yeah, seven-year-old, that's good, that's good so anyways my daughter's home in the summer.
Speaker 3:I don't know.
Speaker 1:You have this every once in a while I've got the boys yeah.
Speaker 3:Your boys. You're on a serious meeting with your boss and my daughter's going like absolute berserk right yeah, yeah, I'm the room next to you.
Speaker 1:Just pass the camera there. She is needing something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, okay, so the edge of the frame is for that's right outside the edge of the frame, just looking outside. That's right.
Speaker 1:That's right well you guys play it well, so so drop in the comments.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, so, justin, thank you so much no tire, nowhere georgia to camp my man it's so relatable, we've all been there so true, it's real it's like we're doing camp here now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, guys side of the road bad steering if he breaks. Yeah right, there's a lot break lines.
Speaker 1:No, it's true, like that's. Uh, it's a way to measure some of the things that's happened. Okay, thank you, samuel, uh. Sleep deprivation vbs season oh yeah more coffee. Get him more coffee, absolutely, absolutely. Nick schroeder traveled, launched, served, celebrated, loved, lived. That just sounds like a nice epitaph for your life, my friend.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the nick the last part of that. We've known nick for a long time and so it. You started to get a little bit like reflective. I mean well, like hobby lobby, like okay, yeah, yeah it's word art yeah, so good.
Speaker 1:well, we wanted to talk about story today. Keep them coming, grandpa, what's up friend? Uh, to keep them coming for the ways in which we talk to each other in ministry, because one of the things that I know in summertime ministry is you're seeing friends, stuff's happening, you're seeing friends and you're reporting back. So, seeing friends, stuff happening, reporting back, six word story, six word story. But sometimes in those six word stories of reporting back, they sound up like more like numbers than they do like actual narratives, and so it's like hey, man, how was your summer? Oh, 10 more kids, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like how, how was summer?
Speaker 2:five percent under budget we took 87 at camp. We had six decisions.
Speaker 1:It becomes this weird like stat sheet on the back of a card. That may be true, it's not untrue, but it's not always the full story and and sometimes it doesn't always feel as compelling.
Speaker 2:Well, and some of us are number oriented people, sure. Your leaders might be and you are, and so if you're analytical and if that's how you, how you process ministry results, there's nothing wrong with that. But what we're saying is, when you package that in a narrative, narrative is better than numbers, and numbers in narrative form carry more weight.
Speaker 1:Well, because I know that one of the things that's the frustration, probably even going into this fall season, is feeling like every time we have a staff meeting, every time we meet, it just feels like one more spreadsheet, a DY project, equal emergency room vision. Mark Megan, make sure to check on Mark there. Make sure we're still good. There is this from summer. Is this like happening right now? How many fingers? Yeah I need a timeline on this but that's.
Speaker 1:There's something to that story that's absolutely uh but one of the things we want to make sure is that we aren't talking but we have the narratives of what's happening as well, especially after a busy season.
Speaker 1:Uh, because one of the things that I know is that, as time slips on, we can be forgetful. Uh, one of the one of the themes, I think, for a lot of ministry leaders is that we're really forgetful people and some of the most important things, if they're not told and retold, end up becoming forgotten, and so whatever's left was what was written down on the sheet, which may just be the attendance that was kept over the last quarter year or decade, and so we want to help you into this fall season. Up that we're doing so. We actually have a whole website of resources that are designed for you, the leader. We'll talk about it now and at the end, and so we'll flash the link to let you know that at lifewaycom slash student leader tools, we have things that are designed for you.
Speaker 1:One of the things that Lifeway is we make great stuff for your students, whether that's a camp experience, a book, a Bible or a Bible study, but we also have tools for you that you can find there and begin to dig in for the ways in which we have things that are either published or ongoing, whether it's a podcast or community for you, so we'll talk more about it at the end, but you got to know now we actually have a special coupon for you being here, so make sure to check out the promo code YMBWebinar10.
Speaker 1:You can get everything except for the membership a little bit discount to you. So, guys, I want to start with the story. So, chad, I know you're a great storyteller. What are some of the ways in which folks maybe stories natural and how they have conversation, but the idea of story being part of, like evaluating their ministry or part of the success that feels like something else or maybe outside of their, outside of their like wheelhouse for stuff. So how would you encourage folks to consider what stories are already at work in their ministry?
Speaker 3:So, that's one thing that I would say is I think that we're all telling a story, whether we realize it or not.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're already in it, it's already happening.
Speaker 3:Well, because people that are evaluating whether we're talking about your senior pastor, parents, students, I think, even when we start to think about the way a room tells the story, the people in it, like all of those kinds of things, because I mean, naturally, you walk into a space and you're determining like I know we don't use this language, but like I'm a character here right?
Speaker 1:Do I fit in? Do I fit in All of?
Speaker 3:these type of things.
Speaker 3:And so I think it's really important in student ministry to understand that the big thing, too that, as we talk about telling story, that I think is really important in this is a lot of times we're talking about people that sometimes aren't in the room, and so I think that's why this is so important aren't in the room, and so I think that's why this is so important, and I talked to so many youth ministers that they get sideways with the elder people in their church or the deacons. They don't understand what we do, they don't understand what they do, and so oftentimes all they see of student ministry is why is there a hole in this wall?
Speaker 1:Yeah, which tells a story, tells a story that maybe lacks details or perspective. Chuck, before coming to Lifeway, you told a lot of stories, recorded a lot of stories. What are some of the elements of story that are both powerful but maybe not as considered for folks that you know? We're in conversation, we're teaching and we're preaching, but there's a lot of that happening in there, like what are some of the things about storytelling that are are more every day than we realize?
Speaker 2:Well, story story is everything.
Speaker 1:Jesus taught with stories, right.
Speaker 2:Parables are some of the most memorable things. Stories are memorable Right and so so part of it is when we tell stories. One of the one of the challenges we run up against a lot of us is we don't know where we're going with our stories. It's like a Michael Scott moment I start telling a story and I don't really know the point.
Speaker 3:I'm just kind of rambling and I'm like no it's a story.
Speaker 2:We need to have a clear point for the stories we tell. There is a story about that hole in the wall. What can we do with that? Every occurrence, everything that happens, is an opportunity for a story, and someone is going to fill in the blanks. If you don't, so when we don't tell our story, someone else will. The deacons will say well, the youth are out of control, the students are crazy, they can't be in this room anymore. But I don't know what. If there's a more redemptive story behind the hole in the wall, I don't know what it is but maybe there is.
Speaker 1:But that was the big outreach night and we actually had more kids at church than you would have ever realized. You just weren't on campus. You just saw the outcome and not the happening or whatever.
Speaker 3:It's not in situations like that, like we're not trying to spin things. No that's not the point, but being able to talk through and be on the front end and I think that's a little bit what we're going to be talking about today of being able to loop people in on the nose, so like when the hole is in the wall.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it's being proactive and making sure everybody knows and we're not just like hiding and covering it up or we forgot to clean out the van, and so I think sometimes the story that we tell is just honesty in the moment of being able to go hey, I am so sorry that I have not gotten to that Right, that we can, that we can interact in a very human way. And I think that a lot of this requires us to to be thoughtful outside of, just in the moment and I think that that's where some sometimes the bad storytelling often comes from is like grasping the end of summer where a lot of these people were talking about.
Speaker 3:You've been going, going, going. You're exhausted, all of these things and you're just like I would like just a moment to be with my family. Right, that becomes very real. And then people are like how was camp? Did you have a good vacation? Yeah, you know what I mean and and their causes, like frustration and all of that, I think for many ministers who are just going. You you thought me going to camp was part of my vacation. Yeah, because I think sometimes we don't tell because they didn't go to camps.
Speaker 1:They don't know what was actually happening at camp.
Speaker 2:Well, or we may not have told them.
Speaker 1:We may not have told them. They're filling in the blanks themselves.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because for a lot of people they only look at things through their own experience. Yeah Right, and so their experience at camp was probably as a student and it sure was enjoyable for them. Yeah Right, they've never sat in the shoes of a youth minister who understands how exhausting camp can be and we don't tell. We don't always tell that story, but but maybe some areas that we we are able to like thoughtfully, be able to allow our people to understand like, hey, this is a really, uh, tiring season for me and that's why it's so important that I make priority to be with my spouse for a week right before the start of school or those type of things. But to do that, I think we have to be thoughtful in how we're helping communicate to everybody involved we're helping communicate to everybody involved.
Speaker 1:Well, so our first point for you today is that you have to make the plan and make the discipline of collecting stories. Part of the work on the weekly shouldn't just be to record attendance, but what happened. I think that's one of the easiest things. It's a little extra work but has long-term payoff for the ways in which. Where do we see God move this week? What's happening? Call it the gratitude or diary or journal of the ministry each week.
Speaker 1:That Sunday and Wednesday was not just what I was going to teach. Who was there in person. Which volunteers do I need to reprimand for declining the planning center invitation? Do I need to reprimand for declining the planning center invitation? But what was the story of the week? It was Stephanie brought a friend or Jeremy prayed in front of the rest of his middle school boys. That's worth writing down to collect.
Speaker 1:You may not need it or use it, but for staff meetings weekly I would encourage you to have a story ready that was both relevant and substantial, but also for just your own purposes. That we will talk a little bit about at the end. But some of what we mean when we talk about the ways in which story helps us measure is our own confidence and understanding effectiveness in ministry, because sometimes we feel like beholden to the numbers that were there or not there, which we can't control, but the documenting or the plan to record and collect stories that can be shared out is something that we can control. So what are some things I mean? I know that one of the works that we do in content publishing, chuck, is not just what does the Bible say, but what are the ways which is meaningful for the students and kids that receive it. What does the Bible say, but what are the ways which is meaningful for the students and kids that receive it? How are stories being told or collected to be told in the spaces in which you're running?
Speaker 2:Well, part of I mean part of that is the discipline of listening. In order to tell a story, you need to hear the story you need to listen to the story.
Speaker 2:So many of us as leaders, really well-meaning ways we do a lot of talking and not as much listening and you only hear what you listen for. So the first part of getting the storytelling right about what's happening in your ministry is we need to have ears to hear and eyes to see those stories. So the principle that I would raise is we treasure what we measure. If we measure numbers, we will be focused on numbers. If we treasure butts in seats or whatever that measure is, that's what we're looking for.
Speaker 1:We treasure those things.
Speaker 2:We're going to be driven by those things when we treasure transformation. The question is what story are we telling? We're telling a story, like Chad said, so part of that discipline is the listening for the stories, and to gather them begins with saying we want to have our eyes open and our ears peeled and we are looking for stories that we can capture. I'm a spreadsheet guy. I love, I keep everything in spreadsheets. I'm not a Word doc person. Spreadsheets are awesome for taking notes, keeping lists, however you do it.
Speaker 3:Voice memo. You don't have to sell us on spreadsheets.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's for words though.
Speaker 1:A lot of people use spreadsheets for numbers and budgets.
Speaker 2:That's right for formulas.
Speaker 1:But there's words that go in those cells too. They drop in cells.
Speaker 2:You can use different tabs. It's a great tool for people who are word-minded, not just math. It's not just for math anymore, well, and I love the idea of it being what you value.
Speaker 1:I collect them there. Well, but when you ask how things are going, it's often correlated to who's not there, which sounds like a negative number game and not looking for what God is doing with those that are here and again. That's not spin, that's eyes to see, as I think Jesus would say Often when people ask how's it going, what's happening, we answer with the number right.
Speaker 2:So there's the quantitative and the qualitative. We often leave out the qualitative of the story. Another discipline that I would point to is, when we tell stories, one, let's make sure they're not just all about us.
Speaker 2:We are not the hero of the story. So, as we tell stories within our ministries to anyone who inquires about what's going on, we need to have the discipline of the story. So, as we tell stories within our ministries to anyone who inquires about what's going on, we need to have the discipline of making God the hero of the story. It's always about what God is doing through our ministry. If we make it about me, I come off of camp, I'm tired, I'm exhausted, I'm discouraged because of whatever's happening, or I'm on top of the world, whatever it is. If it's about me, that's a misdirected story. What people are drawn to is to be a part of what God is doing and how God is moving, and so story is the best way to communicate that.
Speaker 1:Well, chad, give us a little bit more. And so, carlos, thank you for the question of where to recommend that. That is like next on the list. But, chad, just for maybe for folks that story often functions inside of the sermon. Only, what are some storytelling beats or things? Chuck said it clearly we have to make sure the story goes somewhere. What are some of the things that I mean? It's hard to pull out sometimes the episode of what's happening in the life of a student or the transformation of a small group. Help us know how to like, clip and frame some of those things.
Speaker 3:So for me, it depends on how we're asking and what we're asking for. So let's play the scenario out for a moment, and we've probably all done this. Your small groups let out, right, and you, I mean you go to one of your leaders. Right, and you, I mean you you go to one of your leaders and you want to know how did?
Speaker 3:it go yeah, and that's often the question that we ask yeah, how did it go? Yeah, and when we ask a question for a story in a blanket way like that, then what that leader is going to do is they're they're showing you in that, in that, how they view success for their small group, okay.
Speaker 3:So oftentimes what you'll hear is I couldn't, I couldn't keep them like focused, because for that leader, if they've given, if you've given them no context of what success looks like for them as a small group leader, they're going to determine that for themselves. So then, when you just say, how does it go? It's often that because they view their success simply as did they talk, did they not?
Speaker 1:Did we get through the questions or not? Did we get through the?
Speaker 3:six questions, so being able, like you were talking about understanding and seeing what God does, we can begin to actually shape the story, and what we're also doing is we're helping train our leaders in what we want them to really push towards. So the scenario could go like this and I'm not this first one, I'm not condoning or like pushing towards, but imagine if your student minister always asked you this question um, did your group have fun?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, that's a similar question of how did it go, but what you would be relaying to that small group leader is the primary goal is to have fun.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, and so that's the value, that's the treasure, and then you would train your small group leader to where it's like they're going to walk in there every week and go. How do I have as much fun as I can and how do these students have fun? But if we ask the question right to what you're talking about, of hey, over the last month have we seen students take step towards God?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Or what are you seeing God do inside of your small group?
Speaker 1:Are students more confident in your?
Speaker 3:small group.
Speaker 1:Confidence is again. Maybe they would come out and pop up in little things, but when you start naming it as a value for the group, now we can start to look for it and start measuring what we see and you start helping your leaders understand what success really looks like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because here's the reality, especially if you're a seventh grade small group like boys leader. Yeah, it's going to go off the rails.
Speaker 1:Right, right, there are going to be weeks where it doesn't stay focused.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like why did that kid eat deodorant halfway through school?
Speaker 1:But that doesn't mean that the group's not working. That's right. That's right, that's right. He wanted to taste it.
Speaker 2:He said he smelled like it and he wanted to taste it. Oh, I can taste it.
Speaker 1:But that's because they need to know again sometimes, if we get caught up in the wrong treasure, the wrong value, the wrong thing, we just let each group exist as its own container or its own episode, instead of helping mark what's happening along the way. And that only happens if we have the right perspective to see it, from intro to conflict to conclusion. And we need the arc of what's happening, or else we'll get lost in it too and we'll live and die by the waves of this week was good, next week was bad, I wanna quit. Or this week was good, next week was better, and then it crashes out and I'm totally done. Because that's the season so many of us are in right now is that we were so loaded up with activities and happenings, even if things are really good right now in your ministry, you may be feeling bummed, like you may be feeling bummed because this week wasn't the same high or feeling or intensity that the second week of July was. But that doesn't mean that the things that are happening aren't great. We've just forgotten that we're in the middle part of what's happening and that's what our other folks in church need to hear too. So we wanna talk a little bit.
Speaker 1:Carlos asked the question here's where we're going. Where do these things show up? Because I know that we're gonna preach it. I know that you're probably gonna report on the ways and places, gentlemen, that we need to be sharing these stories Things like staff meetings, things like sermons, but even conversations with stakeholders in the church, or even with some of the students themselves. Where do we share these things? Parents?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, there's a lot of different audiences.
Speaker 3:Say that one loud, for sure Parents.
Speaker 2:We had a parent meeting last night at our church for our student ministry. So I sat in that meeting. Our new student pastor met the group. It was well attended. He cast some vision. He told some stories about what he's hoping will happen during his tenure, his stories about what he's seen God do in the past and other places and what opportunity he sees here.
Speaker 1:What he's looking for. Those stories are compelling.
Speaker 2:It's edge of the seat. When you're reading the bulleted list of the rules, or?
Speaker 1:guidelines, the calendar, the program. Yes, yeah, yeah, as soon as you tell a story, they're engaged.
Speaker 2:Let me go back and put in one more.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 3:One more advocation Is that a word, okay, okay.
Speaker 2:For my Because another recommendation, and this is serious.
Speaker 3:I need you to continue to have spreadsheets.
Speaker 1:Actually one more unthought of tool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah, well, it's overlooked.
Speaker 1:Okay, seldom leveraged right.
Speaker 2:Use the tools you have, yeah. So one of the things I love about spreadsheets is those fields. Add a field after your story. You have a list of your stories in one column.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Add a field that categorizes those stories. Okay, this is a story of transformation, here's a story of redemption, here's a story of service.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Here's a story of friendship. Yeah, here's a story of family. Yeah, categorize these are guys stories, these are girls. So now what that spreadsheet becomes is a database of stories that you can quickly filter and say okay, I've collected over the course of a year or two all these amazing stories. Where are my summer camp category stories? Where are my winter retreat stories?
Speaker 1:Where are?
Speaker 2:my volunteer transformation stories.
Speaker 1:Case in point. One of the best ways to promo camp next summer is the story of what God did this summer.
Speaker 2:That's really hard to remember in.
Speaker 1:April. It's hard to remember. In April, in August, it's right in front of you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you said the sermon is we all think of. I need a story for my message.
Speaker 1:I got the scripture. I need a story. I'm going to pull it out.
Speaker 2:Great, that's fine, use that. But these are often in the hallway. You're having an interaction with a parent who's just passing by. Hey, how's it going? Casually, now you have a meaningful thing to share.
Speaker 1:How's it going? How's ministry? Yeah, so there's that casual story.
Speaker 2:There's the very formal and anywhere in between the parent meetings, the staff meeting, volunteer huddle. I am a huge fan. I don't know what your practice is.
Speaker 1:I don't huddle up, do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, before you run your midweek program, don't just have your volunteers showing up last minute and hurrying in Get them there 10, 15, 30 minutes early.
Speaker 1:Locker room before the field. My goodness, yes.
Speaker 2:And then circle up. But in that we often use that to give instructions about what to do tonight. We rarely do that to celebrate what God did last week or what he's been doing, and when we can celebrate again, I said you treasure what you measure, you elevate what you celebrate. So we need to be faithful to not just talk about all the things that are struggles and challenges and we don't have enough help and things are going off the road and kids are vaping in the whatever we don't need those stories.
Speaker 3:I mean, we need to tell the stories if they're there.
Speaker 2:Kids are vaping in the bath, whatever. We don't need those stories. I mean, we need to tell the stories if they're there, but what we need is to tell the team. These are the results. This was what happened in eighth grade girls last week and if you're serving in, ninth grade boys, maybe you don't even have a clue.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:But God is working in all these areas and we all win together because of what he's doing. So those volunteer moments, I think, are really key.
Speaker 3:Can I give it like a real life example of where I saw it go wrong?
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, yeah. We, we always love, we always learn from others mistakes.
Speaker 3:So you're talking about telling parents about camp. Yeah, we used to give our interns a lot of responsibility of being able to, like, do announcements and things like that, and I had an intern one year. Uh, you know, we were leading up to camp and we were having a big parent meeting and and I asked him, I said, um, at the beginning of this, I want you to get up and share about camp and make sure that you know parents who haven't signed up, uh, get their kids signed up, those kinds of things.
Speaker 3:I did not give enough instruction at this point. You got two minutes, okay, and so our intern who had been doing the camp announcements in our junior high ministry got up in front of parents and basically did the exact same promo that he had been doing for our middle school students in the room with parents, right, and so think about that. Those are, even though it's the same thing we're pointing to. Yes, those are actually two very different stories, right oh okay.
Speaker 1:So now we've got perspective audience also very early on. What are some keys to?
Speaker 2:storytelling, you have to know the audience, know your audience.
Speaker 3:He gets up, he gets up and he had been killing it in our middle school ministry.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 3:Right, and so he gets up and he's telling all these parents how amazing the blob's going to be, and all of this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Dude, you're going to get wrecked on the blob.
Speaker 2:And they're like how do I know, my kid is still alive.
Speaker 3:Right, we're gonna launch a kid 30 feet in the air vomiting chili dogs on thursday, uh, and I just watched all these parents that were like you know, not that it was like a discouragement by any means, but just a miss. But it didn't connect, because parents are asking a very different question, right? Yeah and so being able, being able to really share the story of, like, why we go to camp. Yeah, it is part of that story that's good.
Speaker 1:so, again, planning and collecting, um, the perspective, but the places that we want you to consider sharing, and maybe this is something if you have some things you want to add to the chat of some places that were a little bit surprising for you. I know that, uh, we're always going to preach and sermonize and share in the places that we have a chance to platform my talk. I know that we're probably going to have places that we report to our senior leadership, senior pastor. That's a version of the story with a very particular audience of how are things in the ministry going. One of the ones that I want to add we've kind of danced and said a little bit about the holes in the walls that people discover are the stakeholders of the ministry. Holes in the walls that people discover are the stakeholders of the ministry. These are folks that are not involved specifically in the ministry but are cheering for the success of the ministry.
Speaker 1:This is one of those I think is often untapped because it usually feels like a chore or an obligation the newsletter that goes out to the folks in the church, or the bulletin, or the announcement time, any chance that you get to share with a wider audience than just the students you see every week.
Speaker 1:Be really mindful, maybe darn near careful, in what you're sharing, because they're going to carry with what they heard from you about the ministry. This is not the chance to just lackadaisically say oh, things are good, we love what's happening in students. Give them something to cling on to, to be either excited about or prayerful about in what's happening in the ministry. I know that many of us would love more chances to preach on Sundays that weren't the Sunday after camp or the Sunday before the Super Bowl, but for so many of us we're asked to either write the church blog or give announcements on Sunday or record the video updates for what's happening in the church. Make sure to take advantage of those moments to share what's really happening in both specific and substantial ways. And so, if you have other folks or places and things, chad and Chuck, what are we missing on some of the ways in which, uh, we should be sharing outside of just, uh, the ones that feel obvious?
Speaker 2:well, one of the, as you said, uh tell the real story. Yeah, there's a caution for us all. There too is use discernment. Yeah, one uh to not embellish yeah, so we we often can be like well, it's a story about a fish that I caught. Let's not, don't over. Tell a story that's not real, because that will be found out and that puts you in a bad place.
Speaker 2:So, be careful not to embellish another couple guidelines and boundaries Right and the others. We need to be also be careful about disclosing people's stories that are not ours to tell.
Speaker 2:We need to use pastoral discernment to say you know, I've got some great stories that I just can't share publicly because these are really private and when that student or that family decides they're ready to tell the story, I've had people approach me and say, hey, I'd like you to come on a podcast and tell this story about something that happened to you, and I'm like I'm just not ready to share that yet.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a rule that I have with my, with my boys. So when my boys were very little, we just would talk about the things that they were doing. Now that they're eight and 10, I actually asked them like hey, Bubba, this happened. Is this okay if I tell the next time that dad gets a chance to teach or preach? And if they say yes, we go and they say no, just to give them the chance, and same for your students too.
Speaker 1:Like this is not we're telling on them, but we're hopefully telling up because there's been enough trust and openness Like hey, this is something I do want to share.
Speaker 2:That's a great caution. Yeah, it is, and so something that I would encourage us to do is also give students and parents and volunteers the opportunity to tell their own stories through your channels. You don't have to be the only storyteller. You want to model the mission, the ministry of storytelling, because it's powerful, it's emotive, it connects with the heart as well as the head. It's memorable. However, you know what, what we can do, what we model, others will follow Right. So people are drawn to passion and purpose, and so when we can demonstrate in a passionate way what it looks like to give a testimony now, we can say okay, next huddle Chad. Would you share?
Speaker 3:what happened. Your story about what happened.
Speaker 2:Help them with some of those guidelines Keep it short, keep it clear, keep it clean Clean in the sense that it's clear, not off color.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean editing judgment too. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2:But we can give leaders and students the opportunity to tell their own stories when they're ready and give honor to God through that. Many people are uncomfortable doing that in person, in front of a room full of people, and they'd be maybe more comfortable recording a video that they could share a little clip on your social feed or share something that plays in a room. The announcements the newsletter yes, so consider using technology to help tell those stories, as well as capture them Well.
Speaker 1:So that's one of the things we'll talk about more at the very end, but this season of Youth Ministry, booster, is all about storytelling, with a heavy emphasis on the ways in which I think storytelling is an unpracticed discipline that is necessary for spiritual growth in the lives of our students. Testimony is the easy one off the top, but one of the things that we'll talk about all year long inside of Booster is the ways in which that sharing, talking, telling the confidence to share, know and tell others is something that we should be training for inside of our ministries, because in so many places it's a lost thing for students. Everything happens on their own discretion, everything is texted back when they're ready, or it's a comment left when they've proofed it or edited it. So the idea that they have something to share and say is powerful and important, but often unpracticed and also, I think, is an important spiritual thing that needs to be disciplined in the ways in which it forms us.
Speaker 3:Well revelation that teaches us right that the enemy will be defeated by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I think I think teaching and training students how to tell their testimony. I think one important way that to go back to where do we share these stories? I think one important way to go back to where do we share these stories, I think one of the most natural ones that even the symbolism of it tells the story, but I think we can even enhance those moments is baptism. Yeah, Like I don't know if you've seen a lot of churches have moved to that opportunity for people to actually share their story before they're baptized.
Speaker 3:Whether that's through video or just right there in the moment, but, man, what a beautiful opportunity to begin to share what God is doing in your life, and so that may be something that you think about, of posting it on social media, utilizing it inside the service, all of those kinds of ways to allow them to share their story.
Speaker 1:Or even as simple as making sure that that recording of what happened, whether it was prerecorded or live, gets given to the family as a way to carry and remember Again. We started at the top. We are really forgetful people and the best bucket to carry the things that we need to remember are the stories that we tell. So we've only got a little bit of time left, chuck. What are the things we've missed, other than I see a lot of comments. It looks like we're going to have to add one more tool to Lifewaycom slash student leader tools.
Speaker 1:We need spreadsheet headers. Chuck Peters, do you have?
Speaker 2:a template that we can get to these fine folks on the morrow. Well, I'll pull something together, we'll get that pulled together, we're going to make promises. I do not have a shareable spreadsheet that I can use A cell template.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that's where that was going to end up today, but that's great.
Speaker 2:I can help out with categorical.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 2:It's about stories we collect, but also how we connect. That's where that categorization becomes important.
Speaker 1:Well, because you know where to put them. That's so good. Well, cause you know where to put them, and that's so good. Okay, so here's the deal. Uh, lifewaycom slash student leader tools is the place that you can get uh, not just stuff that maybe are books and published. We've also got a freebie for you today too. So it looks like this if you print them out Uh, but these are story telling prompts for you stuck on a Sunday or Wednesday sermon or in the office rummaging through, like what are some of the things that could be, what are some of the ways that we could ask or share or be reminded. So, for some of our friends that are inside the Booster community, you got your pre-printed ones already, but it's our free gift to everybody here today that you can get at lifewaycom slash student leader tools and also learn more about how you can be a part of a community of storytellers.
Speaker 1:It is open season to sign up for Youth Ministry Booster. This season, season seven, is all about the power of story and the ways in which you minister and grow a ministry of young people that are looking to find ways they can tell their story to the world that needs to hear it. It's the witness, it's the testimony, it's the power, it is the truth of the gospel, it is the story of God come to us that we tell, retell and proclaim, not just from sermon or stage, but in hallways, over coffees and conversations, and parent meetings too. Yes, even in parent meetings too. So you can check it out at that link, learn more. You'll get an email from us for being here today. But thank you so much. We hope that today's story of good things about growing ministry helped you. Not bad yeah.
Speaker 2:Six words Pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So thank you guys so much for being here. So many good friends to see in the room. Yes, Love you all from the place that you've come from. We hope that you are encouraged after a busy summer to know that there is good work ahead of us. So let's record, write and retell the good stories of ministry and hopefully see you inside the booster community for the ways in which we can grow together in our calling.
