Jeff Thompson | Youth Missions Insider

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Making “The Drive” Part of Your Mission Trip

“The Drive” (or flight or train ride or whatever) isn’t simply the way you’re getting to your mission trip location. It’s part of the trip. It’s not the part you endure and suffer through to get to the real thing. It’s part of the trip. It isn’t a means to and end. It’s part of the trip.

Those hours you’ll spend together are valuable. Here’s some ideas to make the most of them:

Prepare devotional material for your students to use during the long hours of the drive. You know that there will be plenty of time to sit and stare our the window. Redeem that time with some purposeful thoughts about the experience they are about to have. Are you using a theme for the week? Introduce that in a devotion during the drive. Are you serving a very specific place with a specific culture? Prepare your students for that one more time right before they arrive. Are you directly serving people as part of the “projects”? Help get your students pray for those people as they travel.

Play games together. Name that tune on the radio. Find all 50 states license plates. “I Spy.” Those are all goofy games but they get your group engaged and interacting while you drive.

Journaling is a great way to process and remember the mission trip experience. Have your youth group start their journals on the drive there and continue on the drive home. What are they expecting? What did they just experience?

If possible have people switch seats on the bus or vans or cars at every “rest stop.” (or have them switch into a different vehicle) It’s a good way to make sure teens are getting the chance to meet new people and get to know others before they are put in the amazing, stretching experience that the mission trip is.

Don’t be afraid to simply let students “hang out.” You can over program the drive time also. There is something beneficial in letting everyone get ready for what they are about to experience in their own way. NOT the entire time. But it’s not bad to leave hours of down time “scheduled” into the drive.

With a few of these simple ideas you can turn the drive to and from your mission trip into an integral part of the experience.

Add Comment April 19, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Missions = Compassion

Here’s a great article from my follow blogger Toby Rowe.

Missions = Compassion

As you prepare your group for your summer mission trip experience this year, these are great words. Remember that a mission trip experience is all encompassing. It’s not just about your group. It’s not just about those you’re serving. It’s not just about the work or service you are doing. It’s not just about fun times you’ll have together. It’s not about any one of those things. It’s about all of them!

But don’t forget that you are serving real people. With real needs. They are not just a project. They are people who God loves and you have the opportunity to serve them.

God bless you and your group on your mission trip this summer.

Add Comment April 18, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts I hope he will get the chance to feel as close to God as I do…

For the past several months I’ve been writing posts about the struggles youth leaders are facing getting students to commit to the mission trip. So far the focus has been on things like the business of students and the failure of parents to understand. We received another take on this issue last week.

The quote below is from a student to their youth leader about their friend who signed up for the mission trip:

“I was talking to my friend about the mission trip this summer, and as he was talking about it with his parents, they brought up the point of how he would miss some baseball practices and a tournament. If I was him, I would skip the baseball stuff and go to work camp in a heartbeat! But, he’s not as committed to this as I am, and this is also a baseball team that him and his parents pay some amount of money for. I was really hoping he could come and experience what I have had the chance to go through twice, because its more than words to try and explain how connected it makes me to God. I really hope someday he will get the chance to feel as close to God as I do. I’m really sorry that you had to go through all that trouble and he won’t be able to go. I really appreciate what you did for me and for him! I’m really looking forward to another great summer on our mission trip!”

For this student, the frustration is very real. He wants his friend to attend the mission trip because he knows how much of an impact it can have on his friends life. Going on a mission trip brought the student closer to God than he ever was before. This student wants his friend to have the same opportunity to experience that closeness – just like he did. But baseball wins out. The money his friend and his friend’s parents have “invested” in the baseball is something they just can’t give up.

Here’s the thing… We know that nothing impacts a students like a mission trip. The mission trip experience changes teenagers in so many ways. Realizing there is need outside of themselves. The opportunity to serve someone else. Leadership experience in the context of service and devotion. Real life skills like construction and leading VBS. Transformational spiritual growth. And those were just the ones I could think of quickly!

The only way I know to overcome this issue is to engage parents in conversation and tell them how their child will benefit directly from the experience. We’re fearful of approaching mission trips from a “what we get out of it” perspective but that’s the perspective of any parent. What will my kid “get” from this experience? My advice – tell them. Tell the what amazing experiences their child will have. Don’t be afraid to “sell” the mission trip experience to parents.

1 View Comments April 16, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Mission Trip Basics

Kurt and Josh have some good, solid, basic thoughts about mission trips. This article is part of Simply Youth Ministry Today.

Mission Trip Basics

Add Comment April 13, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Another New Fundraising Idea

Raising money for your summer mission trip (or summer camp or any summer activity) can be hard. Here’s another idea to help you get the funds you need.

Kroger grocery stores (King Soopers in the West) have a gift card program that helps people in your church as well as you. The basic idea is for your group to give out rechargeable gift cards that friends, family, and people in your church use to buy groceries. Kroger/King Soopers then credits a portion of those purchases to your groups account. The details vary a little by location or region of the country. The best way to get started would be to visit your local Kroger or King Soopers and ask to speak to a manager.

Here are two links to information for example programs at King Soopers and Kroger.

King Soopers

Kroger

My oldest son’s best friend’s baseball team uses this program and they love it. Everyone needs groceries. Kroger/King Soopers are pretty reasonable. It’s a very simple way to help your group raise funds from something everyone in your church does every week.

Let us know what you find out from your local King Soopers or Kroger.

Add Comment April 10, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts From Bad to… Way Better!

I received an email response to my recent blog post about Youth Worker’s Pain. It came from a youth worker that has been in ministry for several years now and she wanted to let me know what she thought of my post…

“First of all- read your blog post the other day about the biggest pain for youth workers. And I’m going to go ahead and concur with all of them. BUT – we probably all agree on a lot of the biggest joys of youth workers too, like students growing in their faith, watching students serve, getting to spend significant time building relationships with them… conveniently, all things that happen when you go on a Group Mission Trip!”

Here’s what I love about her comment. She easily and quickly turned an article about negative pain points for Youth Workers into the positive reasons all of us do what we do. It’s all about relationships, engaging students, growing in their faith, and helping them understand a relationship with Jesus. I love that we can move from the stuff that is hard, difficult, and painful to the true reasons why we do what we do.

It’s something like (but nothing truly like) the truth of Friday transformed into the Brilliance on Sunday that we celebrate Easter Weekend. God is in the business of turning negative into positive.

God bless all of you and your ministries this Easter Weekend!

Add Comment April 6, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Great New Fundraising Idea!

I just witnessed a great new fundraising idea last night! There is a pizza restaurant chain that has locations across the Midwest and the Great Plains. Pizza Ranch has 163 Locations across 9 States including Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nebraska, Illinois and Kansas. And they have a pretty cool Fundraising program.

A youth group from Dubuque, Iowa that goes on mission trips and is helping to organize a Big Day of Serving in their community was having a fundraiser last night. They bused tables and helped serve guests. They got to keep a percentage of the tips and all the sales for the 3 hours they served the restaurant. The details are here. The youth leader for this youth group told me that they have made as much as $300 (or more) in one night. What a great idea!

I also want to give Pizza Ranch some props. Here’s the vision statement right off their website. “To glorify God by positively impacting the world we live in.” How cool is that?

1 View Comments April 5, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts The biggest pain for Youth Workers

Over the last week we’ve been meeting with youth workers and hearing from them about their ministries. It’s been fun and rewarding to hear what God is doing in ministries all over the country. I posted about some great things happening here. I’ve also heard some stories of things that are painful and frustrating. Here’s a few of the most consistent points of pain we’ve been hearing:

- Finding resources can be difficult: many youth leaders express frustration with finding a resource (curriculum, lesson plans, games, activities, etc.). It’s very difficult to find something that they felt met all their needs. The common response was to find and use several resources that added together to what they needed.

- Parents just don’t understand (just like The Fresh Prince): youth leaders everywhere are struggling with parents not viewing youth ministry as important to their kids life as school, sports, music, whatever. We blogged about this issue here. Parents don’t believe a Bible study, Sunday school class, youth group meeting, retreat, mission trip, or service experience is as important in the life of their child as those other things. It’s almost universal in youth ministry right now.

- Students are over-committed: nearly every conversation I’ve had in the last 2 years with youth workers involves this topic. Kids just have so much (too much) going on. Between school, jobs, sports, family commitments, boyfriend/girlfriend, and whatever else their is youth group can barely be fit into their lives. They have to be here, do that, finish this, attend whatever and then try to make it to youth group if they can. It’s really hard to develop deep relationships with students you don’t see very often.

- Money: it’s a fact of ministry life right now. There isn’t as many dollars available for ministry as there used to be for many people in ministry. And yet great youth ministry is still happening. People fundraise, do less, choose less expensive programs but they are still doing ministry.

What about you? What’s the big pain for you in ministry right now? We’d love see if we could help.

1 View Comments April 3, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Great Deal! Today Only

Our friends at Simply Youth Ministry have a great deal today. If you’re looking for a great new curriculum option, please check it out.

Add Comment March 29, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts What’s working with youth leaders

We’ve been out this week meeting with Youth Leaders. It’s been great to hear the stories and meet folks who are giving their lives to the students in their churches. Here’s a couple things they’ve said are working well in their ministries.

- Mission trips and service experiences: Students love serving. The youth leaders I’ve been speaking to hear from their students that they’d rather serve or get involved than just meet, discuss and play games together.

- Relationships are key: Every youth leader this week has said that the youth in their church seem to be crying out for relationship. They value time together with their youth leader outside of “normal” church activity. Meet over coffee. Watch a sporting event. Go to a movie. These times are just as valuable (sometimes more valuable) than a regular youth group meeting.

- Great curriculum works. Bad curriculum is almost worse than doing nothing: Many youth workers have expressed frustrations finding great curriculum. But when they do – the students really respond and are engaged.

- There actually are some churches that aren’t just focused on #’s: It’s been very refreshing to hear about youth ministries that don’t feel pressure for numbers but are free to pursue transformation and life change. A very cool part of this week.

What’s working in your ministry? Please share some of the ideas and things that you feel are going great and helps you to love working with the students in your church?