I first heard about Twitter two years ago when I was researching for a parent Internet workshop I was preparing to teach. When I found out that the purpose of Twitter was to supposedly answer the question, “What are you doing now?”, I actually laughed about it. I made fun of it in front of my class! But then I signed up for an account and tried it out. The rest — as they say — is history.

You can now follow me at http://twitter.com/shawnmichael. As you can see, I’m pretty much fully immersed in the “NOW” culture that is Twitter.

If you need a little help with how Twitter functions, take a second and watch this…

HOW HAS TWITTER BEEN A RESOURCE AND A TOOL FOR ME IN YOUTH MINISTRY?

* It has helped me network with youth workers locally. I can keep in touch with what local youth workers are doing outside of our monthly network meetings. Depending on what they are tweeting, I can find out what they are teaching, what they are struggling with, how I can pray for them, and — yes — what they are eating for lunch and other trivial things that people tweet about. But I see value in ALL of it. I like getting to know people outside of their youth-ministry-world, too.

* I can also follow leaders in the field of youth ministry. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gleaned some of my best ministry ideas in the past couple of years from my Twitter stream. In addition, I’ve even been able to send short comments to them and, in some cases, hear back! What fun!

* Lots of great student ministry sites utilize Twitter. Be the first to hear about new content, prizes, and youth ministry ideas that they have to offer.

* Keep parents/guardians informed and updated on student trips. Parents can now get updates from camp, youth convention, weekend retreats, etc. in real time and it is as easy as sending a text from your phone.

* Students ministry pics and video are also easy to publish… through services like TwitPic and 12Seconds.tv or even simply posting links to Flickr, YouTube, or any other media site.

* Stay current on just about any topic. Twitter is a great way to keep up-to-date on youth culture, local news, youth training events, etc.

* Get quick answers to general questions. Sometimes if you post a question, you’ll get answers within minutes. For example:“Does anyone have a good resource for teen counseling in the event of a family loss?” “Looking for an extra pop-up tent that I can borrow for camp next month. Any ideas?” “Is there a good online resource for junior high small group curriculum?”

* Get travel help when trouble arises. True life example… I texted the following: “The interstate is shut down due to snow. Anyone want some surprise overnight visitors on the eastern side of South Dakota?” I had about six invites to stay overnight within a couple of hours. Not bad at all!

* It’s a tremendous way to share prayer needs. Think about it: your requests immediately go out to all your followers and they are praying within minutes. How cool is that?!

I could keep going… Twitter has opened up a whole new world of resources for me. I hope I’ve encouraged some of you to, at the least, give it a try. If so, let me know! I’d be glad to help you get started.

At next month’s gathering we’ll be discussing YS Marko’s book “Youth Ministry 3.0″.  Click on the banner below for an interesting review of the book from Dan Kimball…

Click here to order the book direct from Youth Specialties.

My friend, David Bauchspiess, wrote this great article over at the SD/YCE blog:

Last week at our district youth leaders retreat we were reminded how vital it is to make contact with students transitioning from high school to college within the first two weeks of their first semester. It’s an easy way to remind them that they are not alone during what can be a difficult time.

I know how true this is as I remembered a letter that I received from my youth pastor in the fall of 1996 as a freshmen at Trinity Bible College. That note of encouragement reminded me that one of my heroes knew where I was and was cheering me on. It could not have come at a better time for me. I still have that note…

Read the rest of the article here.

Well, it’s over. Done. Fin.

And now that I have had sometime to consider last Wednesday’s New Years Eve Teen Blast. We had a great time and learned a lot!

The first thing I learned is that when you coordinate the event with this many logistics, if you try to remember it all… you won’t!

So the First thing on the list for next year’s event is delegate!

The next thing I learned is that people who participate in the ministry don’t just magically appear. They need to be prayed for and asked and prodded and asked again. They will come and when they do come they will be blessed to participate as a volunteer. At first they may not want to, but when they get involved, they will be blessed. When they have participated they will be more concerned for the success of the event. When they have invested themselves, not just their money, they will want to see if flourish!

So, the Second thing on the list is like the first! Delegate, not just for the sake of your sanity, but for the blessing of those being involved as well.

The last thing I learned is that buzz only comes from excited people. When people see the benefits occurring in their own life and the lives of those they are serving, they will talk. You won’t have to ask them to, they just will! You won’t have to print out 400 flyers and postcards each (which I did) you won’t have to put it on the radio (which I did) or put it in the newspaper (which I did) or being annoying with mass amounts of email blasts, blogs, and social network buzz (all of which I did)! If people are excited about what is happening, all of that will happen on its own!

So, the final thing is a no-brainer! Word of mouth is your best marketing! However, how do you generate that word of mouth? By having a subject that is truly buzz-worthy!

WARNING! Buzz and attracting mass amounts of people to your event is only a good thing if you have the Gospel/Jesus as the #1 priority for the night! All of the crappy marketing and buzz in the world is vanity and meaningless if Jesus isn’t lifted up and people aren’t drawn to Him!

That’s my soap box and I’m stickin to it! Here is a highlight video for your trouble!

Our kids need to be encouraged to NOT “just be comfortable” in their faith-walk without “walking out their faith” in the streets and outside of the church building.  There was MUCH discussion on the best ways to facilitate this, but the bottom line for me?  Moving my students from IN-action to ACTION.  I don’t want to raise up a bunch of pew-sitters/bench-warmers in the Body of Christ.  I want, as a student pastor, to help facilitate a burning desire inside our teenagers to use their abilities, talents, and gifts to LOVE OTHERS (and there are MANY opportunities and different ways to do that).

Here’s a couple articles I came across this week that took me back to Wednesday’s discussion:

• “Red Letter Christian in Nashville” – from the YS Blog
• “A Conversation with Greg Stier: Why the Gospel Shouldn’t be Eliminated by Social Justice” – from the Source FYM Podcast

Ever been to Youth Specialties’ One Day events?  They have locations all over the nation. Anyone up for a road trip to the Saturday, April 4th event in Sioux Falls?

Download the PDF flyer by clicking the graphic above or visit the event web site here.  Here’s some great videos YS put together promoting the event (good for a few laughs):

The Jesus Fish…

The Song of Solomon…

The 3:00 AM phone call…

…and the official overall event promo…

I don’t generally do personal posts on the Network site, but I just got back from what I feel is the cream-of-the-crop of youth worker training options, the National Youth Workers Convention in Nashville.  Deanna and I had such an amazing time!  If you are interested, head over to our student ministry blog at elevatingageneration.org and check out my thoughts, pics, and — eventually — video from the weekend.  I was priveledged to be a live-blogger at this year’s event, so my thoughts and real-time updates were also posted the whole weekend over at the live-blog, wich is still archived here.

Seriously, if you have never gone, you need to set these dates aside for next year and start planning to attend at one of these following locations now:

Los Angeles – September 24 – 28
Cincinnati – October 29 – November 2
Atlanta – November 19 -23

Bookmark and visit nywc.com for more information.

“Seriously Ridiculous” was the theme this year and this post over at Youth Specialtie’s blog kind of captures the idea behind the weekend; so good: check it out!

Watching this took me back to the last NYWC Deanna, Amy, and I attended back in 2005.  The location was Sacramento, CA and we had little-Mikella (less then a year old) with us for the trip.  So fun!  So many great memories…

Did I say that I can’t wait for Nashville?!  This year I have the added joy of being one of the event’s live-bloggers.  You’ll be able to join Deanna and I in real time at http://nywc.com/live (will go live during the convention).  Again – so fun!

If you are a youth worker and looking for a great convention to go to, I can’t recommend NYWC enough.  Every year that I attend I come back feeling so equipped and highly encouraged!  That should speak of the convention all for itself, but above and beyond that there are so many other added bonuses: great live music, moving drama, incredible worship, great connections, lots of laughs, and so much more.  To be honest, you just have to experience it to get the full effect.  There’s just so much!  Sign up now for 2009: http://nywc.com.

Recently, because of a few factors, there has been a dynamic shifted in our youth group. With this dynamic shift we’ve begun to encounter some behavior issues. Thankfully, the extent of the problems we’ve faced have been nothing more than disruptive behavior like talkativeness, goofing off, and things like that. Though these problems can seem minor they can quickly begin to wear down volunteers and cultivate a culture of disrespect in a youth group.

So, through some reading on the issue (Les Christie’s “When Church Kids Go Bad” and David Arp’s “Suddenly They’re 13”) and learning as I go, here are some insights that I’ve found…

Read the full article, by Joe Thompson, here.

5 QUICK AND BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR ADULT LEADERS (PDYM Community)

1) Pink on Pink, Blue on Blue
2) Request, Reseat, Remove
3) Show up early, stay late
4) Partner with the parents
5) Ask 6 questions

Read the full article here…