youth groups | Youth Missions Insider

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Spring 2013 Big Day of Serving

Youth Leaders, inspire your students to be part of something amazing…

This spring, your students can serve people in need at the Big Day of Serving….a nationwide tour of “day of service” events created just for students. Christian teens in local communities unite to serve and transform neighborhoods in need. You’re receiving this email because there’s an event in a town near you.

Bring your students and watch them discover the joy of serving in their own community. They’ll paint, tackle minor home repairs, clean city blocks and parks, landscape, and more. Expect a high-energy, Jesus-centered event where your students discover their actions truly can make a difference in the world.

Sign up today for an event near you!

Check out all the Big Day of Serving Locations here.

Add Comment March 9, 2013

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts 2013 Simply Youth Ministry Conference

Starting this Friday you’ll be able to see pretty much every member of the Group Mission Trips team at SYMC in Indy. We’re helping in tons of different ways at the conference. There will be members of the GMT team checking you in when you arrive, helping with getting the general sessions ready, working in the resource area, and well… I can’t remember everywhere else.

Toby Rowe and I will be leading several workshops as well. If these topics interest you, we’d love to have to participate in one of these.

Saturday afternoon – “Using Service to Create a Servant’s Heart”

Sunday afternoon – “Making the Most of Your Mission Trip”

Monday morning – “Fundraising for the Big Event”

In addition to all this, you will not want to miss Toby (and a bunch of us) on Sunday Late Night after the general session! He’ll be leading “Games We Never Should’ve Done”. It’s going to be a fun crazy time of reliving some of our best “mistakes” from all our years of Mission Trips and giving other youth ministry vets a chance to share theirs. It will be a night you won’t soon forget.

If you’re not registered yet for SYMC, it’s not too late. We are nearly Sold Out but we are not there yet. There is room for you. Go here to register.

Add Comment February 25, 2013

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Bronx Webinar for Big Day of Serving!

Making a Difference in the Bronx! A Webinar about the Big Day of Serving.

Join Jake Rasmussen Wednesday, February 20 for a LIVE CHAT about the Big Day of Serving in the Bronx.

Tune in to this Webinar and discover answers to all these questions and more:

What IS this event?
Why will your students LOVE it?
How do you SAVE big bucks when registering?

This is a fantastic opportunity to learn all about our work in the Bronx this spring!

Check in out Here.

Add Comment February 19, 2013

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Not too late. Really I meant it! It’s not…

To plan a mission trip. It’s really not too late. It may seem like it is. It might be scary. You might think, “I’ll just wait for next summer.” Please don’t. If you’re not planning on getting your group engaged in service away from home this summer. It’s not too late.

Here’s 5 things you could do today or this week to still plan a trip for this summer.

Contact a mission organization to help with getting your trip together: An organization like our, Group Mission Trips, would love to help you organize and plan a life-changing experience for your group.
Connect with the mission pastor/director/leader in your church: These folks have many contacts and lots of information about needs that could be met and maybe even trips for your youth group to join.
Ask a fellow youth leader (in your town/denomination/network/etc.) if they are going on a trip: There’s a good chance a friend of yours in ministry might have room in their group for you and several of your students to join their group. What a great way to get some of your group involved!
Find out if there is church plant or inner city ministry or rural community center (some kind of ministry that is different from your own) within a days drive: Ministries like these can often use help. Many may even be set up to bring in groups for summer ministry. All you have to do is ask.
Stay at home but serve! Find a local ministry you could truly bless with a week of no-strings-attached service. Get a bunch of tents. Camp out in someone’s back yard. Use the church kitchen to cook meals. Make your own local mission trip. But serve, please!

I believe there is something amazing God does when you go away and serve people. It’s a great thing to help your students leave their comfort zones and see God work in them and through them. Please don’t miss out. IT’S NOT TOO LATE! I promise…

Add Comment February 11, 2013

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts A new devotional for your teenagers

Our friends at Simply Youth Ministry have created a great new resource for your students. I wanted to share it with you. Imagine empowering your students to spend just a few minutes each day discovering a life-shaping, thought-provoking, Jesus-centered truth that can transform them into the kind of people God crafted them to be.

Sounds like a worthwhile investment, doesn’t it?

The Simple Truth Bible features 366 daily devotionals—each one a tasty, bite-size morsel that powerfully reveals what it means to deeply love and trust God, to lead a Jesus-centered life, and to lean on Scripture for guidance and wisdom.

Teenagers will discover how to experience hope in the middle of tough times, how God deeply and passionately loves them, how to build an authentic friendship with Jesus, and how they were created to lead a life of impact in this world and for eternity.

Each devotion includes:

Thoughts on a specific passage of Scripture and how it relates to students’ lives
Insights to help teenagers turn their thoughts into prayers as they spend time with God
Ideas to follow if students want to spend more than a few minutes each day with God
Perspective on how that day’s passage fits into the big picture of the Bible

Add Comment January 25, 2013

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Like a Family Reunion

Last week we gathered with youth leaders from around the country. It was a great time of thinking, analyzing, and celebrating together our love of youth mission trips. Sorta like a family reunion (but not like the cheesy family reunion photo I chose for this post). I love times like that. It was our second year of hosting this meeting and just like last year I learned new things.

Here’s some of my insights:

This group was pretty representative of youth ministry as a whole. There were more volunteer youth leaders than paid. There were just as many women as men. And many of these leaders were responsible for more than just high school ministry at their church.
No surprise, but these leaders believed that involving youth in service was integral to their developing a healthy relationship with Jesus.
The relationship we have with these leaders means they are willing to share honest, real feedback with us.
These leaders want to grow and develop. They do not think they have it all figured out.

When you read this list do you think of your team, your ministry? We consider these leaders part of our team. We create the mission experiences we create for them. They are on our team. My prayer and hope for you would be your ministry would be made up of these kinds of people.

People from every walk of life, age, level of involvement, levels of experience, both women and men. All of them interested in working with you to help students grow in their relationship with Jesus.
People who understand that involving students in service is an integral part of their development.
People to give you honest, real feedback.
People who want to grow and develop. Not happy with what they know or worse believe they have nothing to learn

If you already have a team like this, consider yourself blessed. God is going to use you to change lives.

Add Comment January 24, 2013

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Best Summer Job Ever!

It’s not a joke… I really think serving a summer with Group Mission Trips is the best thing a ministry-minded college student could do. Part of our DNA is believing in youth leadership. It goes all the way back to our very first mission trip. That’s why any student who is hired is given a tremendous amount of responsibility. We literally believe in and trust college students to lead our mission locations each and every summer. There is no other experience I know of that gives as much hands-on, real-life ministry experience as serving with us does. If you know a college student that is interested in or loves ministry, please have them check out the opportunities below.

http://groupmissiontrips.com/about/join-our-team/

Add Comment October 22, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts The First 15 Minutes of Your Day

Came across this blog post yesterday. Thought you might enjoy it. It’s from a business blog but I thought the ideas and principles really connected with ministry.

The First 15 Minutes of Your Day May Sabotage How You Finish

Jeff Michaels works with us at Group and is genuine smart guy who cares about helping people find success.

Add Comment October 11, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts Biggest Struggles: The Fear of Failure

Several weeks ago I started a series of blog posts about the biggest struggles I have in ministry. This is going to be the final post in that series.

Failure. I bet I’m not the only person who struggles with this. It’s hard to fail. And I can find so many different ways to feel failure!

I feel like a failure when I let another person in ministry down. It happens. We don’t live up to the expectations people have for us. They wanted us to be like “x” and we ended up being like “y”. They’re disappointed. We’re disappointed. It’s not a good experience. It’s hard for me to know that we failed someone who trusted us.

I feel like a failure when I don’t meet the expectations of the team. I hate it when I don’t meet the expectations of the people I report to. I’m wired with a very high goal-oriented drive. When I don’t reach goals set out for us, I feel like a failure. I also can’t stand to miss the expectations of the people that work for me. I’m a leader. That’s my responsibility. When I don’t lead well or in the ways the team expects, that feels like failure.

Needless to say there are too many ways I can interpret things as failure. But… Here’s the thing… God doesn’t see me as a failure. God doesn’t define me by the “job” I do. God doesn’t define me by meeting goals, or meeting others expectations of me, or by what I consider failure. God defines my by how well I know Jesus. That’s it.

It’s an important reminder that I work hard to keep in mind at all times. I’m God’s. Not the churches we work with. Not my bosses. Not the teams. God’s. How amazing is that!

Add Comment October 10, 2012

Jeff ThompsonMore Posts RePost: You May Need to Teach Your Students HOW to Bring Friends

We’ve reposted from the the Small Church Youth Ministry blog before. Stephanie Caro writes that blog and is really good friend of ours. The other day she posted another gem and wanted to share it with you.

You May Need to Teach Your Students HOW to Bring Friends