Tag: Writing

The Sparkle of a Youth Ministry First-timer

To help transition grade six students into youth ministry I find it helpful to invite them along to our Term 4 program.

I don’t think this is an earth-shattering idea.

But behind this idea is intentionality. There is intention in inviting graduating primary students and their parents to begin attending the youth ministry prior high school beginning.

In the life of the family the graduation of primary school is significant, particularly if it is their first child. It’s an exciting time for the family as they celebrate all that their child has achieved throughout their primary school life. It is also a daunting time, because in a couple of months their child will enter high school, where they start on the bottom rung of the school ladder and desire to find new friends and community.

So, while celebrating the final term of primary school and transitioning to high school, it becomes a good idea to transition students earlier than later. The amount of change going on in the family unit at the start of a new year, particularly when high school is a new step, doesn’t need to be heightened by throwing youth group into the mix. Instead, allowing students to attend early and get an idea of what it means to be part of the youth ministry helps alleviate stress come the new year.

I also believe this helps the parents of the student. Finishing off primary school can be stressful, and this is mixed with various information nights and transition days for high school. With all this going on parents seem pleased for their child to be invited to youth group, and it helps them get a taste for what could be part of the family calendar the following year. Being able to meet leaders, see the program themselves, and watch how their child is adapting to a group of high school students helps in their parenting, and the expectations for their child when they begin high school.

And finally, it is always great to have new people come along to any youth ministry. Inviting new people in Term 4 brings an energy to finish off the year. It lifts everyone to be intentional about their leadership, welcoming, and community-building. And, it’s always terrific to see the sparkle in the eyes of a first-timer.

Perhaps you haven’t thought much about transitioning students between primary and high school? It is worth doing so, and putting into place at least some invitation and communication about this.

Because of this, I have copied my welcome letter to grade six students and their parents, which is sent to them at the end of Term 3. Feel free to use as you like. I trust it will be helpful.

December 2, 2017
When You’ve Been Writing For 8 Years And Your Blog Still Sucks
I’ve been writing on this blog, on and off, for about eight years.

And yep, my blog still sucks.

There are probably a number of reasons the blog sucks. The writing. The topics. The lack of consistency in publishing posts. The poor promotion, even though it is the age of social media.

I don’t like to think about these reasons. It’ll send me into a spiral.

But, yeah, the blog sucks.

Any person with basic mathematical skills will work this out when they read my stats. A blog’s stats are like Microsoft Excel to an accountant, they measure and tell the story of the site. They help the owner of a blog calculate how well they’re doing.

Well, my stats tell me that my blog sucks.

I’m not even sure if I should tell you my stats. I don’t see this as a done thing in the blogosphere. Everyone is so secret about it.

Here goes.
- So far this year I’ve had 2000 post or page views. The most views in a year was 2016, at just over 2500.
- The most views are directly to my homepage. In terms of the most viewed post, the winner is an obscure post about Christian persecution in the Middle East from 2014.
- I have 97 people who follow this blog through WordPress or via email.
So as I was saying, my blog sucks.

There are days I want to blow it up. To detonate it and send it into internet oblivion. To see it gone from the history of the web forever. I then wonder whether anyone else would like to see this happen too.

But then there are days where I just want to keep plugging away. To keep trying to publish regularly. To write things and let the world have them. To create and put out into the world thoughts, reflections, and understandings that might have an impact on someone.

And so I don’t and won’t blow it up right now. I won’t hit the switch. I won’t delete my words from the interwebs.

I’ll keep going.

I’ll keep posting.

I’ll keep writing.

Because at the end of the day I have seen improvement. I enjoy the writing process and putting things out there for others to consider. I am pleased with some of what I have written. It’s not about the stats but my own growth in my writing.

But, yeah, my blog still sucks.

This post is a free writing exercise in response to The Daily Post topic ‘Detonate‘.
May 31, 2017
We Like It, But Do We Care?

We all see the photos.

You know, those photos that depict the perfect life someone else is living.

Those photos of beautiful sunrises. Those photos of the legs on the beach. Those photos of nights out with friends. Those photos of perfect families, all smiling and joyful and happy. Those photos of food. Oh, those photos of food. The ‘amazing’ smashed avo for breakfast, the ‘delightful’ quinoa salad for lunch, and the ‘huge’ burger for dinner. OMG. Like. Like. Like.

We’ve all seen these photos. They pop up all the time.

And as we sit on our couches scrolling through our phones, feeling sorry for our self and jealous of our so-called friends, I wonder whether we care about the other side…?

Because there is another side.

This other side is the side of people we don’t see while traversing the inter-webs through the 5 different social media apps we have on our phone.

It’s the side of sadness, unhappiness, anxiety, hurt, and brokenness.

A little while ago I was struck by how social media changes my perception the relationship I have with others. I noticed one morning one of my friends was with a new partner. I was stopped in my tracks. The last time I saw a photo they were with their spouse and kids, looking happy. Yet, here in front of me is this person with another partner. It was a bit of a shock.

It’s not a shock because of the relationship breakdown. No, relationships fail and marriages breakdown, that’s not the shocking part. The shocking part is that I felt I was in a position where I could reach out and ask how they were.

In reality I haven’t seen this person in over 10 years. We’ve got no real relationship. Yet, because of the way social media comes at you it makes you feel like you know them, and know them well. What kind of response would they have if I did reach out?

“Oh, you’ve been stalking me on social media”.

“Oh, you’re not really a friend but more an acquaintance, and now you want the goss on what’s happened to my relationship”?

“I haven’t heard from you in 10 years and now you want to connect because something seems to have gone wrong. In my world it’s been heading that way for over 12 months and this is the end result, which every one of my actual friends knows about”.

None of this comes across well.

We all have friends who we haven’t physically seen in years, and have nothing to do with them outside of our digital world. Yet, because of the nature of social media we find ourselves believing we’re closer to people than we actually are. What we perceive on social media may well be what is happening at the time, but underneath there’s a lot more going on.

There’s always another side.

And so, I wonder whether we actually care about those ‘friends’ with whom we have no outside relationship with?

Where are those friends of ours who don’t post?

Do we think of them?

Do we touch base with them?

Do we care enough to like them too?

February 23, 2017
Spurgeon On Writing

I came across this this quote from Charles H. Spurgeon while traversing the interwebs this morning. What a great comment about writing and preaching.

“Long visits, long stories, long essays, long exhortations, and long prayers, seldom profit those who have to do with them. Life is short. Time is short.…Moments are precious. Learn to condense, abridge, and intensify…In making a statement, lop off branches; stick to the main facts in your case. If you pray, ask for what you believe you will receive, and get through; if you speak, tell your message and hold your peace; if you write, boil down two sentences into one, and three words into two. Always when practicable avoid lengthiness — learn to be short.”

– CH Spurgeon (Sword & Trowel, September 1871)

January 3, 2017
My Blogging Year – A Retrospective
How do you summarise a year?

I suppose you could use a one-word expletive, which I notice a number of my Facebook friends have used to describe 2016. But, there are a number of factors that make up a year with its various highs and lows. The variables of family, friends, work, hobbies, recreation, health and fitness, and more, make up much of what we call life. Each of these areas we may be able to summarise, but to tie them all together is difficult.

Over at The Daily Post there is the challenge to summarise my blogging year. And upon reflection there are a few insights we can glean.

First, I had six good months and six poor months of posting content. I obviously don’t like winter very much nor am I inspired during these months. I posted often in the January to March period but soon dropped off before taking up publishing again from October through December.*

Second, the main topic I posted about was ‘youth ministry’. Of the top five most read posts three of them were on the topic of youth ministry. This isn’t too much of a surprise considering I was intentional in what I was to post about this year. Youth ministry was one area I wanted to write more about and this is clear through the posts I’ve written in 2016. The other factor would be the change of ministry role, becoming Associate Pastor for Youth and Young Adults at the start of the year. These things seem to point toward a youth ministry passion and this is being seen in what I write about.

Here are my top five posts:
Third, there was a 30% increase in traffic to the blog in the past 12 months. This has been encouraging and positive. You do expect an increase when you’re coming off such a low base though. 🙂

Fourth, the top five countries where readers come from are: Australia, USA, Brazil, New Zealand and the UK. Four of them are not surprising. One of them is. You can probably guess which one.

Fifth, each New Year that passes brings with it a good opportunity to reflect on the worthiness of writing and blogging. I’m one of those people who enjoy reflecting on events, conversations, experiences and time-periods. Blogging is no different. And while some people are against New Year resolutions, believing that January 1st is only another day, I do find it helpful to reflect and set goals for the next 12 months. These goals don’t need to be anything complicated, but they do need to be specific. My choice to write more about youth ministry seems to have been achieved as I’ve seen a few things here gain some traction with readers. It’s also helped me think through the topics in more depth.

For 2017, consistency will be the key and the main goal for this blog. I seek to me more intentional about writing topics and will also aim at writing at least one decent piece per week.

If you’re a blogger (or perhaps there’s something in your life you need to be more intentional about) then what would be your main goal for your blog in 2017?

*Another factor here may well be the birth of our second child. Probably can’t discount that variable either!
January 1, 2017