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The sticky-note exercise- It’s a great little exercise laid out in my new book that I’ve been doing in my Connect training workshop to help youth ministries not only take a spiritual pulse of their students, but also keep accountable to spiritual growth. I’ll actually be flying out to Nashville this weekend to be leading a church through the exercise. Fun stuff!
It goes like this. I hand everyone sticky-notes and have them each write the names of students they encounter in their ministry, one name per sticky-note. Then I have them each come up and place the sticky-note on an easel or chart on the wall, divided by the six types of kids (something they are familiar with at this point in the training). 
At this point we spend some time analyzing the trends that we notice, not only noticing any patterns, but taking note of the individual needs of kids.
That’s just a snapshot… it’s really revealing stuff.
This exercise is finally in print in my new book Connect. I was curious how people were going to respond now that I’ve “spelled it out” for them in my book, helping them take all they’ve learned about the six types of students they’ll encounter and applying it in their ministry with some action steps. We tried to make it easy, even including a free ppt training to anyone who buys the book from us, that way youth workers can take their entire team through this exercise.
I’ve been doing the training for a few years now. I can’t tell you how excited I am to finally be able to hand people the entire training, in essence, in book form.
So far I’ve been hearing good feedback about the book. Yesterday I received these two emails:
I just finished chapter 5 this morning! I love the great tips, humor, and how easy it is to read! I’m sharing a bunch of stuff (including F.A.R.T.) with my leadership team tonight in our meeting. Thanks for writing this book! I met you at a YS convention a few years ago, won 2 of your books, and at this point, I think I’ve bought every book you’ve written. They have been so helpful to me! Thanks for your ministry! – Chris
Excellent stuff. I am all about relational ministry & looking for your book to help train volunteers. You seem to say what I do better than I can. Been in youth ministry for 20 years and not sure why God still has me here except that I have a passion for kids & still am able to connect to them. I appreciate your work! Thanks -Mike
I got another influx of emails yesterday from people who just received the book and are starting it this week. Feel free to email me your feedback once you dive in! I love hearing responses.
For those who haven’t got this book yet, make sure and grab it from us on our website. We’re the only ones who are giving away the free ppt training.
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This film is one you really should check into. It’s releasing in the theatres January 22 and is something I would use in two ways. One, I’d use it to open doors to spiritual conversations with my outreach kids. Secondly, I’d definitely use this as a tool with my student leaders to help them start thinking about reaching out to their friends at school and what that actually looks like. The film addressed typical church youth group “hypocracy” like no other. 
a few comments that got pretty interesting). As I mentioned, it’s a fantastic tool to show to a small group of kids or even an entire youth groups and discuss afterwards. It’s very real… even a little edgy at parts (You can see their new trailer 
This weekend I’m going to show youth leaders how to train their own adult leaders to connect with students… and I’m going to do this training using the exact same free ppt that we’re giving away on our website (we’re giving away a free ppt training to anyone who 
We’re calling it the “Old School” podcast, not because they are both old, but because they shared some perspective of what it was like to be a youth pastor in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Better yet, they discussed some of the major lessons they learned as ministry methodology changed over the decades.