Covenant Prayer
Covenant Prayer
From John Wesley's Covenant Service , 1780
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Barefoot is giving away FREE stuff!
In the spirit of the season, Barefoot is giving away some FREE youth ministry resources for you to use in your ministry during the upcoming year. Its really simple and there is no catch! (Offer is good through 12/21/09)
Choose the videos, lessons or outlines of your choice from within one of the resource categories in the list below. (You can review which resource you'd like in the Barefoot store by clicking on the links listed.) Using the contact form, send me an email with "freebie" in the subject line. And, after determining which set of resources you'd like, write the names of each in the body of your email and we will send you your FREE resources!
FREE Digital Resources: Click on the link below to learn more about each resource category. You can only choose your free stuff from within one category. Enjoy!
- 2 Videos of your choice from the Seldom Animated Collection (a $9.98 value)
- 2 Lessons of your choice from the Faith & Film Series (a $16 value)
- 2 Units of your choice from the Life Journey Lessons Series (a $16 value)
- 2 Units of your choice from the Message Outlines Series (a $16 value)
- 1 Hye Won Hye Video Lesson w/Discussion Guide of your choice (a $14.99 value)
Barefoot Training website is now live!
Our new Barefoot Training website is now live!
Barefoot exists to provide youth workers with effective ministry tools and resources. Our deepest desire is to partner with you in guiding students into spiritual formation for the mission of God.
Through youth ministry training, books, media, curriculum, magazines, web-based resources and a growing number of resources in development, Barefoot is committed to walking along side of you with practical resources and training as you serve the students and families in your church and community.
HERE IS THE INFORMATION FOR HOSTING A TRAINING WORKSHOP IN YOUR CHURCH OR COMMUNITY
Let’s write a book together!
Below is a document (pdf) that briefly explains what I hope to do with the current book project I am working on called, God is Loud. I would love for you to speak into this project and write it with me. Take a look at the document below and think about how we might improve, re-work, add to, revise, etc., to make this project a collaborative effort and to have it help the most students possible.
A few side notes...
- Obviously, you will see heavy influence from people like Leslie Newbigin, Scot McKnight and a host of other missional thinkers and doers. Feel free to suggest your favorite missional authors and speakers as resources for this project.
- This project began after a week of teaching hundreds of students this past summer and realizing how few of them could articulate the storyline of the Bible, the gospel, their role as a Christian, etc. I am passionate about helping students become missional people and that is why this project will be free.
- There is a lot we could do with this project. However, I think it is best to keep it short and simple. I am thinking that this project won't be more than 60 pages or so. It will be professionally designed and edited.
- If you contribute to this project, your name will be associated with it and placed in the list of contributors inside the book -- unless for some reason you would rather not have your name connected to it.
- I hope to have this project done sometime in the early part (by March?) of next year.
- I look forward to interacting with you on this! Thanks in advance for your help.
Finally…I am back!
It's been months since my last post. In my last post I said I was going to try and find more time to begin blogging again. That didn't happen. Actually, I carved out time to post, I just couldn't get into my blog. However, with the help of my friends over at Infusion not only am I in, I have a new look. Thanks, Matt and company!
I am still planning to post some ideas related to my current book project (a free digital download called, God Is Loud and designed for MS & HS students) for all of us to interact with. By this weekend I hope to have the wiring for the book posted for us to look at together and for you to comment and make suggestions.
I am looking forward to interacting with you!
God is Loud
I've had a hard time finding opportunity to blog the last few months. When I have posted it has been a commercial for some of the new things we are launching at Barefoot - a la $5 Youth Ministry Training. I don't feel bad about plugging what we are doing at Barefoot in the least ... I just wish I had more mental energy and daily space to give to writing about day to day youth ministry topics and issues. I hope to try and free up some space in the coming days to write more here.
I am working on a new book for students called, God Is Loud. I'm intending for God Is Loud to be a book that inspires middle and high school students to participate in God's mission to restore the world to its intended wholeness. I am planning to offer the short book as a free download. I am also hoping to post some of the book here so that all of you can interact with me on the content and make it as helpful as possible. (I love how Marko did that with Youth Ministry 3.0.) Anyway, that is part of the reason why my posting has been sparse.
BTW - if you haven't picked up and read Eric Venable's new book, A Tale of Two Youth Workers, you need to do so. It is a great book (fable) that will undoubtably cause you to question what you've always known and done. I've read the book twice and it really has helped me think about the ways that I am calling students to lean into and live out the story of God.
Celebrate Recovery | Life Hurts, God Heals
I'll be facilitating a small group this year at my church -- Church of the Resurrection -- along side of some other great people. I'll be facilitating a group designed to help hurting students, students with addictions, students with a variety of issues, really.
I'm curious to know if any one of you are aware of some good content that might guide the volunteers and me to effectively lead this group. Any thoughts on this?
We've purchased the Life Hurts, God Heals from Simply Youth Ministry but after looking at it I have some questions that maybe some of you who have used the 8-step curriculum might help me with...
- Did you find the content relevant? Was it easy to contextualize to your group?
- What did you do with your group after the 8 steps and gradation was over? Did you add another small group for the students who had finished the 8 steps?
- What was your overall impression of the Life Hurts, God Heals curriculum?
- Did you welcome students into the group that may have missed the first couple weeks? If no, why not? If yes, how did this change the dynamics of the group?
- What would you say the curriculum lacked? What were the greatest aspects of the curriculum?
I'd appreciate any help you might be able to give me with this! Thanks.
Barefoot Ministries | $5 Training
We are one step closer to the official launch of our $5 Training website. I'm totally stoked about this 12 city youth ministry training tour. You can visit our temporary site, www.5dollartraining.com and leave your contact info and when our site goes live in the next few days we'll let you know so you can conveniently register for the city near you.
The entire day of training only costs $5 per person and we'll be covering three main topics that every youth ministry I know is always evaluating how well they are doing and seeking to find the most helpful practices in order to have as much impact as possible. The three areas we will be covering are (1) adolescent spiritual formation for the mission of God (2) effective practices of healthy teams and (3) collaborating with parents.
Register your contact info at www.5dollartraining.com and you will be able to get more details on each of the three seminars as well as the dates, specific locations, promotional helps, etc. when the site goes live. We'll be doing all three seminars in each of the 12 cities this fall.
The other day we went out on the streets in Kansas City to have a little fun and shoot a promo video for our training. The video is a little long but it made me laugh in spots...
Youth Ministry Training for $5. Seriously.
As recently as this morning I have had conversations with youth workers around North America regarding the impact the economic challenges are having on youth ministry – specifically in the area of training and leadership development. Now is the time of year that many youth workers would be gearing up for a fall conference to attend, planning a retreat, getting into a van with a group of volunteers to drive a couple hours to attend a seminar together, etc.. Now, most are trying to find more economical ways to provide training and equipping as budgets have been cut and the discretionary money of volunteers is eaten up by other essentials.
The three seminars we will be facilitating in each city cover the themes of (1) spiritual formation for the mission of God, (2) dynamics/practices of healthy teams and (3) collaborating with parents. More details for each of these seminars and an easy registration process will be available when our website goes public in the next few weeks. Watch www.5dollartraining.com for more information. I will also post here when the site is launched.
Not only is the training inexpensive, the training will actually be given to all attendees at the end of the day. When the day is over we will give you a flash drive with all of the training on it including the presentation slides, seminar handouts (in a .doc so you can customize it for your church) and any other elements we might use that day.
If you want affordable and practical training to inspire, equip, challenge and encourage your youth ministry staff and volunteers then plan to join us in or near one of these cities: CANADA: Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg USA: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Portland.
Youth Ministry & the Economy
Last week I took a call from a youth pastor in the greater Portland area who, for lack of a better word, was very frustrated with his church's decision to cut one of his fellow youth pastors from a full-time position to a quarter-time position. Although frustrated this particular youth worker accepted the reason for the staff cut - economic challenges.
A second youth worker emailed me and told me that her youth budget was cut in half for her summer ministry and said that in the 14 years she as been a full-time youth worker she's never had a more paired back summer programming schedule. A youth worker here in the greater Kansas City area emailed me to see if I knew of any good fundraisers that didn't require a ton of time. Not because this youth worker didn't want to make and take the time - he just can't take the time... he's recently had to get a second job in order to offset the fact that his wife lost her job.
Still, another youth worker here in Kansas City said that they have about 18 students who wanted to go to camp this summer. The church usually subsidizes the cost of camp for any student that wants to go but this year cannot afford to do so. For the first time in over a decade this church has had to tell students 'we can't send you to camp this year.'
Are the economic challenges that so many are facing in our country hitting your church and community? If so, how is it changing the way that you are doing youth ministry?
Some of the youth workers I speak with see this time of economic uncertainty as an opportunity - a time to purge and get lean in favor of a more simple and streamlined approach to youth ministry. Is this you? Do you see this time as an opportunity to purge our youth ministries, cutting away the fat? Are you having to get back to "what really matters?"
One of the youth workers I know in New York State was let go by his church for financial reasons and was fortunate enough to get a job working for the state highway department. The amazing thing (even more than finding a job in his towns skyrocketing unemployment rate) is that this youth worker decided to volunteer all of his free time and has kept leading the very same youth ministry! If youth ministry were an unpaid profession, would you do it?
