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The Student Ministry Blog

  • Monday, August 17, 2020 9:15 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)
    Aaron Faucett  Minister of Youth Bible Baptist Church Wilmington, Ohio

    2. Motivating workers

    • Have a vision. Proverbs 29:18 - without it, the people will perish (and so will your workers)

    • From the outside looking in for the average worker, there is a lot of scary stuff that happens in youth groups. Tennis baseball, duck egg slurping contests, shaving cream fights, and programs that do not have anything to do with sharing the gospel, or do they? Some activities give lonely and left out kids the chance to be cheered on. Other games force kids to work together and build unity. If workers understand the why of the youth ministry’s vision, it becomes a lot less about them and a lot more about the kids. Now that’s being Jesus.

    • Don’t be afraid to show appreciation through non prompted texts, cards, or gifts at Christmas time. Always listen to their ideas because God has given them gifts and talents that the youth pastor may be lacking. This will only strengthen the leadership team as a whole. We highly encourage participation in activities to keep our workers young and let them blow off a little steam when needed. Laughter is medicine to the soul so enjoy serving the Lord.

    3. Retaining workers

    • Balance. A Pastor once taught me to be very aware of a worker’s temperature gauge. Are they too hot or are they too cold? Are you burning them out or are you sitting them out? Are two of the workers doing 100% of the work while the others are sitting off to the side?

    • Romans 12:6-8 speaks of the spiritual gifts a believer has soI have workers take the spiritual gift test. Once I have the results, then we develop a plan of where they can passionately utilize that gift to give them a sense of ownership. This may include being a game planner, attendance taker/outreach, teacher, or a ruler whois always thinking ahead for the youth pastor in ways of administration and planning.

    • Occasionally a worker will need time to refresh or renew because of a possible circumstance that took place outside of church. Dedicated workers will sometimes go until there’s nothing left. We in ministry know the dangers of that so remember we are also called to minister to not just the students, but the workers as well.

    Workers are such a blessing in any ministry. Leading others to Jesus while being like Jesus has to be the primary focus at all times. I pray this is the heartbeat of your workers and to God be the glory for He is worthy.

    afaucett@bbcwilmington.org


  • Monday, August 10, 2020 9:20 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)
    Aaron Faucett  Minister of Youth Bible Baptist Church Wilmington, Ohio

    Putting together a team to lock arms with and serve a generation who is to carry on the torch of the Gospel, is a very humbling yet necessary task. These workers will serve in Sunday School, youth nights on Wednesday, and many events that will be scheduled throughout the year. We must not forget that these are volunteers. They have full time jobs and/or families at home and now they are being asked to serve an estimated 300 hours of their time per year? Below are some steps to keep in mind for these most important warriors of the faith.

    1. Recruiting workers

    • This first and most vital step has to be surrounded with spiritual preparation. This involves prayer, Godly discernment and the leading of the Holy Spirit. Personally, I went through our church directory and specifically asked the Lord to put the faces in front of me who He wanted to serve teenagers. We currently have 10 youth workers, which is a ratio of 1-10 students. These individuals are servant minded and have faithfully lined up with church leadership from the get go. They are seasoned in serving with the little things which carry over in the big things that youth ministry offers.
    • Balancing out the ages of workers is always something to take into account as well. Some are younger and can speak the same language of a teen while others have the gift of experience and are apt to teach. Before they begin, they must take some time and pray about it themselves to make sure this is not an emotional stirring, but a spiritual one. To have a worker commit for possibly the long term will benefit unity and greater relationship building amongst the students as well.

    Part 2 will discuss retaining and motivating workers.

    afaucett@bbcwilmington.org


  • Wednesday, June 24, 2020 9:15 AM | Anonymous member
    Byran Hunt Student Pastor Capital City Baptist Church Columbia, South Carolina

    bryan@capitalcitybaptist.org

  • Wednesday, April 08, 2020 9:40 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)
    Trent Dibell  Youth Ministry Canton Baptist Temple

    “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like.” A phrase used by Christ many times through parable teachings. In youth ministry, it is extremely important to look at the “what” in the teachings of Jesus Christ. But when is the last time we meditated on the “how” of His teachings? As we look through the parables, we see rich lessons we can share in our youth departments, but it is the “how” of the teachings of Christ that will take teaching to the next level. Christ taught by saying “is like”. Whenever we read this in Scripture, it should challenge us to connect with our audience to give them tangible lessons on a weekly basis. Not every lesson needs a prop, but every lesson needs to speak to the hearts of students. It is possible to have the best “what” Jesus said in context and it be boring to our students. Please do not make the mistake of substituting good biblical teaching for a flashy illustration, but rather study more closely on how Christ spoke to His audience. He used similes many times during His teachings to connect with people so He could connect to their heart! We all are teaching in different areas with a slightly different culture of students, but they all have a common denominator...a desire to know and remember truth.

    The application to take away? Get creative with the teaching of God’s Word! Here are a few suggestions that can help get the creative juices flowing.

    1. PRAY, PRAY, and PRAY. Pray over the Scripture for God to break our hearts over what we are studying to share with our students.

    2. Write it out. Actually write out the Scripture.. It slows us down.

    3. Highlight. Underline, circle words that call for action or show direction.

    4. Connect. Connect the passage with the students through real life spiritual application and even use simple and memorable props every now and again.

    We are giving every middle school student a wristband that says “TRANSFORMED ROMANS 12:1&2” and putting a large focus on allowing God’s Word to transform us daily. This will be something they remember.

    tdibell@campchof.org


  • Monday, April 06, 2020 9:20 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)
    Aaron Faucett  Minister of Youth Bible Baptist Church of Wilmington, Ohio

    What a difference a month makes. The coronavirus: an incurable protein molecule that cannot be killed, but must decay on its own has upended the days of the main platform for delivering God’s word from behind a pulpit. Yeah, that sounds like a perfect season to be a youth pastor! (Sarcasm inserted). Instead of the platform being the sheep come to you, they are now scattered abroad and on lockdown. Does anyone else hear the wolves howling in the background? A major change that has affected churches around the world is the platform by which we feel we were forced into. This new platform entails going online for most of our ministries, which went away from our motto of building relationships by being face-to-face. My natural instinct was to panic, hyperventilate, shut the blinds, and crawl up in a fetal position while sucking my thumb with my blanky. Not because of being scared, but because we did not know exactly what we were reaching forth to in reference to Philippians 4:13b. We did not want these avenues of communication to come across as unprepared and just thrown together either. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. So when dealing with the research and tendencies of how teenagers respond to certain online platforms, I went to the experts…..my kids. College freshman, High School senior, and Middle School 7th grader all under the same roof and I get to play the dual role of being dad and youth pastor.

    What we have implemented in our youth group (called ELEVATE) is just what we are doing in the initial phase of this whole COVID-19 thing. It certainly is not the master template, but instead of just sitting on our hands, we had to remember the devil is still roaming about. To give you an idea, our youth group runs around 105 on Sunday mornings and 85 on Wednesdays. I have included a list of things we are doing and are venturing to do in the short future to keep kids in the word of God. When I say we….I have spread out some responsibilities across my youth leaders (9) who assist me.

    Worked up a full roster excel sheet with every kid’s phone # (parent’s # if child didn’t have one)

    -Personally contacted through text or voice call every 2 days

    Made a private ELEVATE youth Facebook page where all videos, important times, and updates are placed.

    -We found that the parents utilize this platform very much, but not the kids

    Made a private ELEVATE youth Instagram page where I post a 1-minute video with a verse, maybe a challenge (post favorite verse), and just something from their youth pastor’s heart about every 2 days.

    -Nearly 90% of our youth utilizes this platform

    -For the 10% that didn’t, I would personally send them the video through their phone or their parent’s phones.

    We channeled them to our Church live streams for our normal online services, and every Tuesday I am doing a livestream called “Daily Connections” @ 2pm where they can tune in and see me along with getting a Bible lesson.

    Our last avenue that we are venturing into is the online meeting forum ZOOM. Allowing the kids a chance to actually see each other’s faces live. I am running a trial meeting with my leaders first so we can work out any kinks.

    I pray this is a help and a blessing to you as we share different platforms with the leading of God’s power.


  • Wednesday, November 28, 2018 2:00 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)
    With a culture that seeks to entertain first and competes for the attention of our students, what is the role of preaching when it comes to effectively ministering to students?  Seasoned veteran student pastor, Chris Edwards, speaks to this critical issue in student ministry.


  • Thursday, January 18, 2018 7:30 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Trent Dibell, Canton Baptist Temple


     Trent Dibell's family joined Canton Baptist Temple in 2001, and in 2005 he was a counselor at Camp CHOF. The ministry of Camp CHOF and the working of the Lord was the catalyst that placed Trent where he is today. He was baptized at CBT, and then in 2013 surrendered for full-time ministry. With a background in education and working with youth, Trent is passionate about people and reaching them with the Gospel of Christ. Trent is also the Middle School Director where he is faithfully assisted by his wife, Tristyn, and a team of Middle School Adult Leaders. Trent and Tristyn have two children, Josephine and Zane.

    In this blog post, Trent discusses James 1:1-4.

    James 1:1-4: "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

    My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

    Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

    But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

    We all have that teen in our department with that unanswerable situation.  It usually happens on a Sunday morning and you are trying to scramble for the right words with the limited time you have for a Sunday morning.  I know that I have been there plenty of times and so have all of you reading this. 


    James 1:1-4 has truly been a foundation within the ministry God has allowed me to serve.  This is a piece of Scripture I reference, use daily, and a piece of Scripture that I encourage all to apply to their lives.


    The first part of using James 1:1-4 is understanding the very foundations of the Gospel of Christ.  The foundations of the gospel is knowing that the death, burial and resurrection of Christ is not only our Salvation, but our daily walk with Christ.  It is more than a date on the calendar; it needs to be our every step.  Our hearts and daily walk should be what we want to see in the lives of our students.  That daily walk needs to be die to self, embrace the tomb, and wait for the resurrection, because it is coming.  


    The student on both ends of the spectrum have been wowed by Scripture whenever I share with them James 1:1-4.  Whenever they hear the words, “count it all joy,” they stop and think about what they are hearing.  “Did I hear him right?”  “Is he losing his mind?”


    The advice that comes from us will fail majority of the time.  A technique, a strategy,  a way to go about a certain situation will fail eventually.  Teaching a student to know and apply James 1:1-4 will never fail or go out of style.  It will only shape that student to be more like Jesus Christ.  That is the resurrection!  That is the Gospel!



    The advice that comes from us will fail majority of the time.  A technique, a strategy,  a way to go about a certain situation will fail eventually.  Teaching a student to know and apply James 1:1-4 will never fail or go out of style.  It will only shape that student to be more like Jesus Christ.  That is the resurrection!  That is the Gospel!


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