IntenseDebate - nickarnold

14 years ago @ JC is ONLINE - 8 Traits of Digital Ki... · 0 replies · +1 points

Giving kids room to "create" their own program is a start. As a leader, we need to know the true purpose and direction for a program, but giving kids the liberty to creatively influence the program is key. For example: giving kids leadership over a specific area of a program, such as food, and give them guidance when needed, or allowing them to design and remodel your youth room, or asking them what sort of events they want to do, and equipping them to plan it.

Helping them realize that they have a say in what goes on, that their choices matter, I think is a huge thing for students, especially older students, like juniors and seniors in high school and up.

14 years ago @ Life in Student Ministry - timschmoyer.com no lon... · 0 replies · +1 points

studentministry is a bit easier to spell than timschmoyer! :) (I always had to ask myself, "Is it shmoyer or schmoyer or sczchmoyer?" haha)

14 years ago @ JC is ONLINE - Little Big Planet over... · 0 replies · +1 points

Very insightful. I wonder if we need to start allowing kids to have more say in what and how we do things in ministry, not because it's some sort of Kid Nation theology, but because today kids connect to what they can create or have a say in.

14 years ago @ JC is ONLINE - 8 Traits of Digital Kids · 0 replies · +1 points

It's amazing to me that in a few years middle school kids will have always lived with the internet, instant messaging, cell phones, social networking, in a post-Columbine, post-9/11 America (I say middle school because I do middle school/high school ministry). Certainly there is a need to know what a "Digital Kid" is.

The PBS documentary "Growing Up Online" (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonlin... begins to shed some light on this evolving generation.

14 years ago @ Youth Min Blog - 4 Qualities of a Good ... · 0 replies · +1 points

I met many fellow youth workers in town when I went to the local high school's "Christian Club" for the first time a few years back. What's occurred since then has been amazing.

This is a great post and I'll have to blog about it soon. :)

14 years ago @ Life in Student Ministry - Web communication tips... · 2 replies · +1 points

"3. Understand that it may be necessary to train the congregation to use your new forms of communication."

I feel this might be the hardest thing to do for my entire church. In my context, many of our members barely use email. They still write letters and are wary of anything involving technology.

For the student ministry, most of my parents are on Facebook and most of my kids are on MySpace. But even after doing updates on both these platforms (and ever so reluctantly on MySpace), for some reason, good old fashion bulletin announcements and postcards work best with my ministry.

Are your online communications effective? How do you teach an "old dog" the new technology? Is it even worth trying to change them?

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