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Hey-oh! It's time to talk about the important work of connecting with students just outside your door!

At Youth Ministry Booster, we believe that there is really important student ministry work to be done just outside the walls of the church. Campus ministry in multiple forms is an invaluable asset to the ways in which students can become connected into the life of a church community. It will always look a little different everywhere, but one thing is always true, schools are full of students who need the gospel of Jesus! 

Learn more how you can connect and collaborate with youth ministers nationwide and in your neighborhood.

We wanted to talk with someone who is leading out and has learned a lot about it.

Meet Matthew Swifty Perry

Connect With Swifty
Matt on Facebook

Matt On Instagram

Show Notes:
The Story behind “Swifty” 
He really likes Taylor Swift, like he is a “fearless” Taylor Swift fan!

“You’ve known about God, but now know about me!” - Jesus

“I knew that God had called to me to church plant one, so I knew I needed to leave home to go learn what I didn’t know.”

“Sometimes you get interns because you go out and recruit them, other times you get them because they recruited themselves.”

“Don’t wait around to get asked, go and invite yourself to see how you can help and learn.” 

"What did you learn in the first 6 years. Serving."

Your chance to lead is when you pick a vacuum after the service. 

Learn how to serve without being asked. 

Leadership 101: taking the initiative to start serving. 

My job as a leader is to learn. I don’t want to be the smartest person in the room.

“Everyone has something to teach us.”

‘There is nothing I can plan that will have better production than what students can see on TV or game on their phone.” 

“My competition wasn’t another church but it was all of the activities of downtown San Diego: food, concerts, and bands.” 

“It has to be student-led.” 

“Campus ministry is encouraging and empowering students”

“We have 15,000 students within a 15 mile radius of our church.” 
“I don’t want to reach 10% of my church, I want to reach 10% of my schools.” 

“I don’t want to just reach my church people, I want to reach the people of my city.” 

3 Roadblocks To Developing On Campus Ministry: 

Roadblock 1: Staffing and Resources: 
Have a prayerful, written plan for your senior leaders.

Communicating the Vision of Campus Ministry To Senior Leadership 

Finding fresh volunteers Recruiting moms, college students without Wednesday classes

“School campus time of 30 minutes is the best way to connect with new students.” 

“We moved everything to Wednesdays. AM into PM, 8am-9pm on Wednesdays.” 

“When it comes to spending your time and their finances, have clear communication on the front end and not the back end.” 

Roadblock 2: Mobilizing The Students: What Comes Next? 
“How do you get the students excited?” 

“It was more important to have a club and a presence and be on campus 

“We have 7 churches that are ready to be a part of this thing together.” 

“Campus ministry can be good for the hype, how do we make it good for the church?” 

Roadblock 3: What Has This Done For The Student Ministry of Your Local Church?

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A little less than four years ago Chad Higgins and Zac Workun started a podcast to help youth pastors. The last few weeks have pushed some really exciting developments!

This October Lifeway Christian Resources (Nashville, TN) has acquired Youth Ministry Booster to become its primary training vehicle for coaching and equipping youth ministers nationwide.

This move enables Youth Ministry Booster to become the premier live video environment for youth ministry training, resourcing, and coaching. We are so excited for this continuing collaboration as youth ministers are matched into cohorts of masterminds and sharpening their skills, and getting the support and encouragement of soul care that is so deeply needed!

What Does This Mean?

YMB membership means you now get a whole library more of content! There has never been a better time to join!

New & Upcoming For Youth Ministry Booster in 2020: Community Based Courses
The high quality on-demand videos of Lifeway Students + the live video environment of Youth Ministry Booster means we will now offer in-depth learning with live elements inside of our community!

Every semester we are going to dive deep into the practical life and leadership lessons it takes to run a successful youth ministry. These new community-based interactive courses will rocket your growth as you learn from leading youth ministers, some of the very best of us!

“Funny for how you do, or funny for how you did!”

About the #NYWC19 Youth Ministry Booster Booth
Crown The Funniest Youth Pastor @ YS YMB #Live200

• Post short Instagram Story Videos
• Friday night @ The Late Night Podcast 9:45pm-10:45pm the top 3 finalists (as determined by social media) will be given a 5 minute set to compete for the title of Funniest Youth Pastor! 
• Follow the Facebook event to learn more

Thanks again for your listenership and support! 

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What is the future of youth ministry? What hopeful work should we as youth ministers engaged with today?

YS NYWC19 In Tampa
We are going to be there? Are you?
The Youth Ministry Booster team is going to the biggest conference in youth ministry to hang out with all of our YM friends and we can't wait to see you there!

Friday Night Late Night: YMB is the late-night podcast option for all NYWC goers so make your plans now to be a part of the special live recording of episode 200 as we play games, tell stories, interview friends, and give away prizes.

We are also crowning a comedic champion of NYWC so you won't wanna miss that!

About This Episode's Guest
Mark Matlock is one of the leading voices in youth ministry and has deep and storied experience serving youth ministry leaders globally. His most recent work Faith For Exiles co-authored with David Kinnaman is an important read for those reflecting critically on the important work of youth ministry.

Faith For Exiles Book

Show Notes:

• Mark The Magician (did everyone but me know this?)
• They gave me a shot to do this before I was probably ready. 
• "I fell in love with working with youth and the church. The parachurch was serving the local church and it gave me opportunities to see ministry in a variety of places."
• 14:00 Are You Helping Or Hurting Youth Pastors?
• If you see youth ministry as a game and easy creativity then you are unprepared for the hard work.

• 14:48  The resource you provide could actually cause them to atrophy in the ways you are trying to free up
• Putting the program together has never been more convenient. 

• 16:38 What We Lost In the 90s

• 18:00 The Millennial Gap In Leadership
• "We stayed in our spots too long..." Jim Burns
• "Youth Ministry is a very small niche and there were just not enough spots to go around to span the generations"

• 22:02 Youth Pastors are starting to get seats at the table. This is a good thing. 
• "Begin to learn to leverage the cumulative wisdom of your life."

• 26:04 Faith For Exiles Book Discussion
• The Way We Weren’t by Jill Talbot 
• “It’s about bending and not breaking and in the bending, it’s about growing stronger” 
• God has designed us to be resilient.
• We don’t need a robust faith, we need a resilient faith. 
• We need assimilation of the right belief into the rest of our life. 
• There is a danger that we are socializing people to Christianity rather than meeting Jesus. 
• Their understanding of faith extends beyond just attending weekend church and into the work, they are about during the week. 
• “Redefine Faith: live on earth as it is in heaven” 
• Rethinking the word vocation for young people today
• We must rethink our work as a vocational coach. We should be about people development. 
• What every Christian parent wants for their kids: 

1. To have a relationship with Jesus.

2. A healthy and loving family and kids.

3. A sustainable career that they will enjoy.

• Vocational coachin

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This is episode 186 and today we give away something really nice...

This is the weekly bonus episode on Friday featuring the voices of members of Youth Ministry Booster's network featuring audio from the real-life coaching calls and discussions that real-life youth ministers are asking and sorting out in our weekly live video call environments.

Learn how you can join Youth Ministry Booster and accelerate your leadership!

NYWC Schedule! We have a booth and a podcast show slot! Don't miss out! Friday night late night has never felt so good! Giveaways, cookies, games, and a chance to be apart of our special episode 200!

Stay boosted!
-zw


Big shoutouts to Kenan Klein and Jen Willard who won free tickets to NYWC19!

Show Notes:
How do we get students involved in the bigger picture of the church? 

Is it the lack of structure in our church
or 
Is it on us as youth ministry staff? 

Is it our fault?
or
Is it their fault? 

Does student ministry always have to be seen as a silo ministry?  

We often forget to include youth as a part of the planning of our church-wide activities. 

The ministry of most churches is doing for students and not doing ministry with students.

“I forget that it is my responsibility to invite students up” 

When was the last time you created a structured opportunity for students to connect with adults? 

Take the time to teach your congregation to ask students questions. Help them navigate the relationship cues. 

"Youth ministry has hurt the church in the ways in which it has not created good relational opportunities for adults and students to connect."

Where are the entry points that adults can connect with the youth of their church?

"Everything changes when you are invested in the life of a student."

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Episode 185 is here and it's clear that youth ministry fall season is in full swing! 

Kristen and Chad are back for a fun discussion about vegan food fairs and reaching students just outside your door! 

Learn how you can join Youth Ministry Booster and accelerate your leadership!

We are going to be @NYWC 2019 this year in Tampa are you?

NYWC Schedule! We have a booth and a podcast show slot! Don't miss out! Friday night late night has never felt so good! 

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Today’s show is a quick and extra special one!
This is episode 184 and it is something really really nice....

We are celebrating 184 episodes and we are taking this opportunity to share that in a few weeks we will have important and exciting updates regarding Youth Ministry Booster, the podcast, and what is next!

Before we make some big changes, we wanted to offer up some small and important tweaks. We are moving to 2 episodes a week.

1. A weekly episode on Wednesday will be the hosts discussion and interviews of the show you have come to love over these last 4 years!

and

2. A weekly bonus episode on Friday or Monday featuring the voices of members episode of Youth Ministry Booster's network will feature the real-life coaching calls and discussions that real-life youth ministers are asking and sorting out in our weekly live video call environments.

Learn how you can join Youth Ministry Booster and accelerate your leadership!

NYWC19 Ticket Giveaway

NYWC Schedule! We have a booth and a podcast show slot! Don't miss out! Friday night late night has never felt so good! 

Stay boosted! 
-zw 

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WE ARE BACK! Episode 183 is a kick-off to a whole new year and season of Youth Ministry Booster (with some big prizes and announcements in the works!) 

After much-needed summer rest and reset the podcast is back in full force (weekly) with new content (more episodes and more media!) for you, the hard-working, fun-loving youth minister! So wherever you are while you are listening know that this team of fellow youth ministry leaders is praying for you and hoping that this little bit of humor and insight keep you boosted!

Also this... Our friends at Youth Specialities gave us some tickets to give away!!
Win A Free Ticket To NYWC2019!

Want to go to #YouthMinistry Homecoming? Then enter for a chance to win a free ticket to #NYWC19

Click here to enter!

Key Quotes and Takeaways! 

• “If you can gain their heart, you can get their hand.” Will Cumby 
• “There is more at stake than just the program tweaks you made for the new school year.” 
• Most neighborhoods are changing, the climate and cultures are shifting in new and different ways. 
• “Let me serve you without the promise of a return.” 
• Expand Your Vision
• “Learn who the gatekeepers are in your community and learn to meet them at the door.” 
• “Who are the most influential people in the lives of your students?” Do you know them?”  
• Adjust the Depth Perception For Your Students” 
• “Serving others in a new context removes the limitations of seeing the truth of your own community.” 
• This is why your students need to see how God is working in other places!
• “The vision of the church needs to be expanded beyond the address of a student’s home church” 
• “You are more than the show you put together or program you put on each week.” 
• “We need to find ways to show up in places that students are daily.” 

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Dr. Andy Root is back y'all! With a new book and summer session on the history, hope, and reimagination of what it means to be a pastoral figure in this new age we are living!

Episode 182 is only the warm-up for the live session. Don't miss it! 

Learn more with and from Dr. Andrew Root @ our FREE LIVE Webinar June 12th 2:00pm CDT

Show Notes & Quotes:
For both the yellow book and blue book the key writings in the background are, A Secular Age by Charles Taylor. 

Andy declares that A Secular Age is, "the first book of the 21st Century that will be read in the 22nd Century

Youthfulness and the importance of authenticity in this age. 

The hurt of pastoral identity in this secular age. “I know how to write a sermon and run a meeting, But when it comes to seeing God’s living presence in their lives I feel at a loss. “

“Where is the place of the pastor in the world?”

A Sketch Of History
What does it mean that in 1500 AD you can’t help but find Christians and evidence of Christianity? And now 500 years later it is harder and harder to find anyone that believes in God. 

That to do ministry is to have an encounter with the presence of the living God. 
This means working towards a deep connection with how God works in the world. 

The stakes are wrong. We misdiagnose what’s actually going on. It’s possible that Youth Ministers have been playing checkers in a chess world.

The game or environment is more complicated than we had originally thought. 

There is a whole cultural imagination that makes it difficult to live in the presence of a living God. 

Key Historical Figures Sketched Out In The New Book
St. Augustine
Thomas Beckett
Jonathan Edwards 
Henry Ward Beecher
Harry Emerson Fosdick
Rick Warren

In this new age, pastors are hurting and either they make the turn to self-blame or congregational blame. 

If Jesus is better than our church will be larger is the trap we have been lured into, so how do we talk about Growth as transcendence  

Forming imaginations and proclaiming where God is active in the world. 

When non-traditional people became pastors? 

Ministry itself, the sharing of a life with another, is the call to pastor. 

A refreshed theological lens. God as a minister. God as pastor. 

“The only God we can known is the God who is made known in

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Hey, student ministry leaders how hard is it to get the stuff done we know is important?

It's a continuing part of monthly them on setting and getting our goals done! 

In this episode, Chad Higgins and Will Cumby give life and oxygen to an important conversation about goals, focus, and getting a better grip on getting the big stuff done in youth ministry. Even the most relational ministries need to set the work before them to get it done! 

Show Notes & Quotes: 

• Goals oxygenate our hopes and dreams
• Goals require focus
• Focus is the outflow of good habits
• The Habit Formulas requires: action, duration, and location
• What are you doing, for how long, and where are you going to practice it. 
• The bigger the goal the more singular focused we have to be on the weekly practices towards
• Bigger goals require more diligent calibration. 
• Sometimes where we are is a reminder of where we are going
• Don’t let comparison deter you from what you are called, set to do
• Consider the magnifying glass. It doesn’t generate power it redirects it by focusing it. 
• “If you aim at nothing you will hit every time”  Zig Ziglar 
• Are we modeling our expectations for our students? Is your lifestyle a model for your students to see what they hear from you? 
• Goals are not just about getting things done but creating the space for enjoyment in our lives.

Goal Management

1. What do you want? Passion Management.
2. How long is it going to take me? Time Management. 
3. Who can help me achieve it? Resource Management.

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This interview episode with Matt Overton is a jam! Engaging and energetic for those who are feeling a need for fresh wind in youth ministry (Matt would appreciate the boat joke).

Grow volume 3 drops this month! Did you know that you can get a year of Youth Ministry Booster free? Just buy Grow volume 3 here and a year of YMB is free ($240 value!).

About the Guest:
Matt Overton is a Princeton educated Virginian doing youth ministry in the Pacific North West. Matt's thoughtful, savvy, innovative approach to remodeling youth ministry is an exciting beat for frustrated or tired youth ministers.

Learn more about Matt's Team, Vision, And Mentorship Program The Columbia Future Forge Here.

Get Matt's New Book Mentorship and The Marketplace here

Get Grow+Booster for the price of Grow!

Show Notes and Quotes: 

• "No student is ever finished” 
• Students are less ready to make commitments in life
• Student’s developmental plans have slowed down in their lives. 
• “One of the ways I have learned how to be a christian in public is work. My jobs revealed the values that I had learned in Christ.”
• The church is sometimes an environment of too “niceness” 
• A social enterprise is a new kind of business: Double bottom line: profit and impact.
• What are the problem areas in youth ministry?
• What is the urgency for youth ministry? 
• MowTown Teen Lawn Care https://mowtownteenlawncare.com/
• Do what you are already good at... what are you good at? 
• “It’s the passion that you desire for your students why would you not start with yourself.” 
• Theological Movement: all of us are called to reflect on our internal and external lives
• You have to start with missional theology.  Move it, settle in, pay attention, look for the gospel holes, and find ways to do the gospel work.
• Ministry is actually very patient work. 
• Innovation usually comes about when someone takes something that they were already good at on the side and they invested in it in their primary day to day activity. 

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