Archive for March, 2008
Stingrays: Human’s Natural Enemy
First Steve Irwin, now Judy Zagorski. As reported by the Associated Press, Judy Zagorski was killed when a 75 pound stingray jumped into the boat she was riding in Florida. From the article:
Judy… was sitting in the front seat of a boat going 25 mph when the spotted eagle ray, with a wingspan of 5 to 6 feet, leaped out of the water.
Apparently this type of stingray leaps out of the water when being chased by predators, or when trying to jump into moving boats. That is not a pleasant sight: cruising along the water in your boat when suddenly a huge 6 foot wide creature flies into your boat. Crazy.
My sympathy to the Zagorski family for their loss.
Retreat Centers
What does a youth worker look for in a retreat center?
My thoughts on what a retreat center is:
- A place to get away. Most retreat locations are in the woods or some other secluded setting. This allows the groups to be rid of all distractions. By taking students out of their comfort zone, retreats can often have a greater impact.
- A place to admire God’s creation. Since most retreat centers are in a secluded or natural setting, it gives the suburban/urban raised students a chance to truly experience God’s wonderful creation.
- A place to relax. When in high school, my youth group would go to a farmhouse in West Virginia for 4 days. The retreat was nothing but studying the Bible, eating, and relaxing. No homework, no schedules, just down time. Simply amazing.
- A place to bond. Groups that attend retreats tend to grow closer. This can become an important core of students in your ministry.
- A place to have fun. Retreats = fun. Whether a ski trip or a relaxing trip, students are going to enjoy themselves on a retreat. Unless you get hurt. On one of the WV trips, I broke my ankle 5 minutes after arriving at the farm. That meant 4 days of hobbling around. Not fun.
- A place for teaching God’s Word. The main focus of our retreats has always been the lessons. Sure, the students (and leaders) want to have a good time. But the lessons must be the focus of a retreat, and that time must be of prime importance.
What are your thoughts on a retreat center?
Stuff White People Like
You must check out this blog: Stuff White People Like. It is my new favorite blog. Here is an excerpt from today’s post about Dinner Parties:
Immediately following graduation but prior to renovating a house, white people take their first step from childhood to maturity by hosting a successful dinner party.
The dinner party is the opportunity for white people to be judged on their taste in food, wine, furniture, art, interior design, music, and books. Outside of dictatorships and a few murder trials, there might not be a more rigorous judgment process in the modern world. Everything must be perfect.
Brilliant!
Welcome to Shore Youth Ministry!
Welcome to Shore Youth Ministry.com! This is a continuation of A Shore Thing, but more youth ministry specific. Join me as we talk about the best and worst, the ups and downs, the joys and struggles in this thing we call ministry.
PlugRug: A Ministry Digg
Tim over at Life in Student Ministry has developed a great new website called PlugRug. Simply put, PlugRug is a Christian ministry version of Digg. Blog posts from youth pastors and ministry workers can be “plugged” to this website. Then users can either “plug” the post more or sweep it under the rug. Overall, this website will be a great collection of ministry ideas and discussion. Tim hopes (as do I) that PlugRug will become a goldmine of youth ministry information. Great stuff!
Saving Websites for Reference
As I explained earlier (see Youth Ministry Hunter/Gatherer), I have been gathering resources, illustrations and ideas for my virtual reference filing cabinet. One problem I have run into is how to save all those great ideas from websites. There are some great youth ministry websites that are chock full of illustrations, ideas, and thoughts. Until now, I have been Copy and Pasting the text into a Word file, then saving the file in my filing cabinet. However, this has been time consuming, which often means I just read the post and never file it. That is until now.
The other day I discovered htm2pdf, a free web-based service that converts a HTML file (website) into a PDF file. Simply paste the URL of a website into the entry bar, click Convert, and the website is converted! You can then open the PDF file right in your browser and save it where you would like. The great part is that the whole website is located in the PDF, not just the text. So say you are inspired by a great post here on A Shore Thing (if I ever write a great post). When you convert the page into PDF, the whole page is seen, so all the pictures, links, and comments are saved as well.
Overall, a great web service that has already helped me save some great ideas from the Web.
Lazy Weekend
I am just wrapping up a pretty sweet weekend. On Thursday, we had the Kutless concert at the Tabernacle. My girlfriend and her sister came down for the concert and stayed for the rest of the weekend. We went to the zoo, watched Bee Movie (great movie filled with Seinfeld’s humor), worked on a jigsaw puzzle, and saw Horton Hears a Who (also a great movie). Overall a pretty relaxing and enjoyable weekend.
Youth Min posts will resume tomorrow morning.
Kutless Concert: Wrapup
As mentioned earlier, we hosted a Kutless Acoustic concert on Thursday night at the Tabernacle. It turned out to be a great event. Over 350 people came for the concert, including 60 people that bought tickets at the door! These were great numbers for a off-season event in OC. I also met some great youth workers in the area. Overall, a great event. Next up on the Tabernacle schedule: summer!
Kutless Concert Tomorrow
Most of my focus at work has recently been on tomorrow’s concert at the Tabernacle: Kutless is performing an acoustic concert. Yes, the rock band Kutless will be at the Ocean City Tabernacle on Thursday, March 13 at 7:00 p.m. They will be performing all their hits, along with many tracks from their Strong Tower worship cd. Esterlyn and Chris Taylor will be opening for Kutless. Tickets can be purchased from our website or at the door.
Since this is the off season for Ocean City, it has been rather hard to generate interest in this event. Most of the local youth groups heard about the event, but surprisingly few groups are bringing their students. Recently, I have been learning how difficult it is to host and promote youth events during the off season. Are there any “off seasons” in your geographical location, and how do you deal with them in ministry?
Book Review: Speaking to Teenagers
I just finished Speaking to Teenagers over the weekend. Written by Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins, this book will soon become a youth ministry standard text. Although I don’t foresee this book replacing Creative Bible Teaching as the textbook for giving a Bible lesson, Speaking to Teenagers will become a companion book in many colleges and seminaries.
In this book, Fields and Robbins take the reader through every step of giving a message. And by “every step” I do mean every little detail; the authors make sure they cover all aspects of sermon preparation and delivery. The first third of the book seems a bit weighty, only because it dwells on the philosophy and basis for communicating with students. The last two thirds of the book are the real enjoyable chapters, where the authors provide you with concrete steps to improve your preparation and presentation of a message. Throughout the book, Doug and Duffy weave in personal examples from their decades of experience in youth ministry.
Overall, a great read filled with help and advice on improving your communication. Especially helpful to new and veteran youth workers alike.
