Dustin Sams
"student ministry on the frontlines"

Youth Room Decor 3

Recently stopped in and got some pictures of the updated FBC Forrest City Student Ministry facility.  They used some great ideas with LED Lighting on plain walls so they can actually change the color of the walls whenever they feel like it.  Some other highlights of “The Stand” was staining of the concrete floors, leaving some of the frame-work for the ceiling tiles over the “cafe” area, and the sign-in desk.  Take a look at the pictures and let me know if you have any questions about it, or you can contact the Youth Pastor at FBC Forrest City.  His name is Chris Roller and you can find him on Facebook.  If you are within a day’s driving distance and would like me to share some of your creative ideas with Youth Workers around the world, please let me know.  Even better, if you have high quality pictures of your space, please send them to me at dustin.sams@fbcstuttgart.com so we can share with others. Blessings.

Other things to look at:

• Screens Directly on a flat wall for the projectors.
• Steel/Roofing Tin on Stage Front
• Elevated Flat Screen TVs/Gaming Systems
• Lighting
• Updated Kitchen/Cafe Area
• Ceiling Grid Left open over Food Area
• Multiple Color LED Wall Wash
• All Lighting is controlled from Sound Booth
• It is very clean and roomy.  Good use of existing space in a building that the church owns.
• 

Sweet Mini-Cards from Moo.com

I was hanging out with some of my favorite Youth Pastor friends a few months back and one of them (ARodgers) flipped me a sweet new business card he had.  They are small and very cool…a must have for those of you that use business cards.  I am already a big fan of the cheap ones that I have been getting from www.vistaprint.com for years and I usually get new ones every few months.  I purposely get them in small numbers so I can change them up.  Toss them out, put them in letters, write notes on them,  or just balance out your favorite table at the local choke and puke.

www.moo.com is a great little site and they love to print.  I like it also because they don’t have a million different products.  Just business cards, mini-cards, greeting cards, and postcards.  Check them out.

Some high points about www.moo.com:

• You can choose from some great pre-designed artwork.  It looks sharp too, not some cheesy clip-art.
• You business cards can have a ton of different designs or slogans (up to 100)…all in the same single order you make!
• Uploading your logo or design is easy, click on the photo to see an example of the variety that I have ordered recently.
• There “text-o-matic” design lets you put some creative text on the front.  Youth Pastor, Bobby Markham used it to put the title of the lessons series he had done in the recent past.  They looked sweet.
• Packaging is recycled and very cool too. Enjoy.

Eight Crazy Weeks…and Jesus pt 3

Decide how many teams would best serve your ministry. From two to eight teams, I have tried them all. The best results have clearly been when there are four teams…but it depends on how many adults you have involved in the beginning. Don’t throw some adult leaders under the bus and place them in charge if they are clearly not wanting to be or not ready to be. I recommend a minimum of four adults per team. We are currently in our third year of LIFE in my current location and I have 10-15 adults per team. Pre-select “colors” that your teams will use. Try to pick colors that are impartial to local school colors. Primary colors like Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green work well.

Since ’94, I have tried various ways to divide the students for the initial team selection. Here are some examples:

• Take your “core” group of students and divide them evenly between the teams yourself. This works great for smaller youth groups and gives you the ability to divide your “stronger” students for the greatest impact in your community.

• * My favorite: Select adult team leaders and give them a list of students in your ministry. I use Youth Assistant Software, so I just print detailed reports complete with pictures to make it easier for adults to identify students they know to be extroverts/introverts, hard workers, class clowns, boyfriend/girlfriends, and so on. The great thing about this is the ability to tailor the event to connect with all types of students. It is not just a popularity contest by any means. Once you have a list and given the adults a few weeks to prep, you get them together for a “Draft.” I love this model because I like fantasy football. I set it up the same way. Draw straws for first draft and complete the first round. (for clarity, we will use the example of four teams) Team 1 gets first pick and eighth pick. Team 2 gets second and seventh. Team 3 gets third and sixth pick. Team 4 gets fourth and fifth pick. Continue the draft until all of your core students are drafted. You may or may not want to place your Student Leaders on each of the teams to get them started and to make sure that each team has some very reliable students to get started with.

• Randomly distribute students between the teams: Draw from a hat, number off 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. It is ok to play Jr. Holy spirit in this case, after all you are the leader and you should be able to make whatever decisions you need to in order to have a successful event. Go crazy with it.

Once the teams are selected you let those students know in advance so they can prepare for it. This will include collecting clothing that represents their team color, coming up with a theme with their adults, decorating their “wall”, or beginning to invite students that were not pre-selected to be on a team. This is where the fun begins.

In some upcoming posts, I will be going into detail some of the facets of the event: Points, Games, Strategy, and Follow-up.

Eight Crazy Weeks…and Jesus pt 2

You don’t have to call it LIFE; you can call it macaroni salad. Grab a title that you and your students can identify with. The first year we called it LIFE, the second year was “Come back to LIFE.” “Dive into LIFE” and “Surge into LIFE” followed, so just be creative. We will refer to it as LIFE so as not to confuse you…unless you already are, then just pick up the phone and call me.

LIFE is a team based outreach that basically rewards students and their respective teams with points for doing things they should already be doing. The main thing they are rewarded for is inviting their friends to our weekly Student Ministry event. I have only implemented it on Wednesday nights…but feel free to try it anytime.

To begin, select adult team leaders for each of the teams. It seems to work better with a team “leader.” This can be a married couple that you have working with your students or single adult. I have seen great success with both styles of team leaders. Once you have team leaders committed, you begin to surround them with other adults that will compliment those leaders. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, so play to their strengths. You most likely need to have team leaders that are organized and efficient. You can then have the designated “fun” adults that will help these adults motivate the students. When I began working with this event, I was single and in my 20’s…so I was the energy guy. I got the students motivated for the games, helped them learn chants for team spirit, and was just a strange college-age adult that connected with students. I was teamed with an adult couple that was approaching their sixties and we rocked! This is a great time to give some adults an opportunity to “try out” their involvement. It is great because it has a beginning and an end. It is not an open-ended commitment with no way out. We all like to know what we are getting into, so you can’t spend enough time explaining what tasks they will have. This is very important especially for the first year of LIFE. Once you have done it before, people will know what to expect and word of mouth is the best publicity.

I have seen this event double the size of my youth group. We have had retention of visitors as high as 60% and many students saved. The smaller the youth group, the larger the return initially. Even when my youth groups have been large to begin with, I have still seen some great results. Dream big and see what God can do.

Continued in Pt 3.

Eight Crazy Weeks…and Jesus pt 1

Eight crazy weeks and Jesus…

 One of the most effective events we incorporate into our yearly planning is based on an early 80’s Outreach program called “L.I.F.E.” by Bill Wilson and ………… Hold on…don’t tune me out yet, hang with me. I love change…in fact, I like change too much. Every few months I go through a fit of restlessness, I have to fight the urge to put my home up for sale and move. We moved a lot when I was a kid, either we had to pay the rent or move. I was just very thankful that mom would take me with her when we moved. I usually end up re-arranging my office to placate the urge to change venues. It works well for me and keeps my wife and kids happy. So think of this as “L.I.F.E.” Re-Mixed.

So when I reference the model of “L.I.F.E.”, I reference it loosely. If you are lucky enough to have a vintage copy of the handbook for it, complete with 120+ overhead transparencies, then great! Otherwise, you will have to take my word for it. One of the codes of creativity is forgetting who you stole the idea from. I am paying homage to Bill and the very detailed 300 page handbook for reaching out and connecting the Gospel with students in the early 80’s…and I do it with the utmost respect for him and his ministries. I have found that it is just as effective, if not more so now in current ministry situations. So with that said, here we go.

“L.I.F.E.” stands for “Life Is For Everyone.” True enough statement. I was introduced to it in the early ‘90s while hanging out with my mentor Jack McCarty. He is still in student ministry and has had untold influence in a crazy number of students and college interns. That influence is continuing each time I see a student give their life to Christ. Hopefully, you will see many lives changed and your student ministry grow in numbers and spiritual depth.

Continued in pt 2.

Water Gun Discipline

A good friend of mine recently began a blog that also has some creative ideas for Student Ministry.  You will also find him recommended in our Speakers/Bands page on this site.  He is a very creative guy with lots of insight on Student Ministry.  We collaborate a lot and have fun sharing ministry ideas, successes, and failures.  Check it out and add it to your list of blogs and sites to visit periodically to stay up to date.  I wanted to highlight a particulaly funny video he had done pertaining to his water gun discipline.  Have fun.  www.mattrothacher.com

Youth Room Decor 2

I had the chance to stop in and take a look at a few more youth rooms here in the state of Arkansas.  Eagle Heights Baptist Church in Harrison, AR and First Baptist Church of Benton, AR.  I snapped a few pics and you can get some ideas from the way they have chosen to decorate.  You can click on any of the thumbnails and then scroll through the pics.  If you have any ideas on anything you see here or would like to more detail about it…then please ask.  Taking a good idea and making it better is always a great thing to do for your ministry.

Highlights.

• Notice the use of carpet on the walls in EHBC and then using velcro to attach posters and pics.
• FBCB used wood to make their “upper room” sign but painted it to look rusty.
• Blank canvas with simple painted words from scripture on them.  They looked great.
• Artistic use of canvas and plain white sheets in both places to do artwork and pictures of Jesus.
• Paint is cheap and adds a lot to a space.
• Linoleum black and white squares on counter tops in EHBC.
• Great use of cheap galvenized steel to add texture, cover up windows and decorate. Love this and we use it in our building too.
• No PDA sign was great.  It was a no parking sign with No PDA added as a sticker.
• Have fun be creative.