Blogging NYWC Day 2

Wow... it's been a really long day. Every time I go to a conference like this I always push so hard the first day that by the second day, I'm exauhsted and unable to fully enjoy myself by day's end.

Here's a quick overview of my day and some info gleaned from the seminars/meetings

Saturday Morning 9am, Rick Lawrence

• Jesus delights in our faith...He delights in us!
• Faith is the substance of play

10:30am - Secrets to a Healthy Youth Ministry - "the Anatomy of Stuckness"

• When youth ministry centers on one person, it gets stuck
• stupid ideas with enthusiasm work pretty well
• most churches are foiled by their successes...not failure

The Crisis of Capacity: 5 normals to shoot for in youth ministry

• $1,000 a kid - salary, budgets... invest for growth (how many students you want to have). My church does this very well for our size.
• 1 to 50 ratio - Paid staff to students - so far, so good
• The 10% Rule - Average student ministry should be around 10% of the total church congregation. We have at 21% ratio at Brewster Road.
• You can increase average percentage from 10%-20% by increasing investment and staff. Our seminar leader, Mark said that percentages above 20% are not sustainable on average...hmmm....
• The 1 to 5 Ratio - One leader for 5 students should be the norm. We need 3 additional volunteers to make this ratio in our student ministry.

Saturday 3:00pm - Secrets to a Healthy Youth Ministry - "The 411 of Sustainable Youth Ministry"

• To sustain a student ministry we need architecture (structure) and alchemy (climate, culture)
• It is more effective to focus on the climate (alchemy) first before building structure (architecture).
• Trust the process... takes time to create a healthy climate
• Embrace positive stories and metaphors
  
• Deliver results
• Develop meaningful rituals and traditions

Saturday 7:00pm, Doug Fields

• Faith Blockers - Things that keep us from ministering with full effectiveness: Fear, being too occupied, being uncomfortable. I tend to struggle with being uncomfortable for some reason. For all the extroverted things I do, I'm still an introvert at heart. It's a constant challenge for me to push beyond my comfort zone.