Free Youth Ministry Ideas

Crack-a-Grin:
When my son Garrett was little we used to like to take him for car rides. One day when
he was two, he asked his daddy, "Daddy, where are we going," His daddy said, "Crazy, do
you want to go?" The next day at home Garrett was crying in the front room while his dad
was laughing. I asked, "What's wrong", and Garrett sobbed loudly, "I want to go crazy."



Hot Topix:
A. National Day of Prayer is this Thursday on May 6th. With all the controversy surrounding the event and lack of support from our supposedly Christian President, we must stand strong and take the time on this day to be prayer warriors, alongside our teens. Keep the youth building open for a couple of hours after school so teens can come at their convenience to pray. Have some refreshments by the door that they can grab to take with them after they pray. Be bold and stand strong, our country needs all our prayers now more than ever.
B. Plugged In is a great event for your teens. Basically you will hold a lock in either overnight or for 4-5 hours. There will be no electronics or electricity allowed……no cell phones, computers, electric lights, handheld gaming systems, etc. If you are holding the event at night, use candles or oil lamps (be extremely careful). Use the time with the teens to discuss what is important in life and staying focused on Gods Will for our lives, instead of allowing modern conveniences to keep us distracted. Get the teens to talking about how affected they are by these devices and help them come up with rules to live by in order to take control of these devices instead of allowing the devices to control them.

Stats-o-the-Week:
According to religioustolerance.org, today 75% of American adults identify themselves as Christians.
Thought to ponder: What does being a Christian really mean and why is this country drifting further and further from Christian morals?

Roughly 83 million Bibles are distributed globally each year, according to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (2009).

Free Resources:



A. The Way of the Master – (www.wayofthemaster.com)
Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron have partnered together to encourage fellow Christians to get out and witness and to bring the unbelieving into a relationship with Christ. This website is full of tools and knowledge to grow your faith and that of your teens. Listen to audio lessons, street witnessing video clips, order materials, link to Ray Comfort’s blog, find out the station and time for their television show …and much more all on the website. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
B. Let Freedom Ring Ministries – (www.letfreedomringusa.com)
Get your kids involved in standing for and when old enough fighting for our constitutional freedoms. This website contains Jody Hice’s daily radio program which features the latest news dealing with our constitutional freedoms and how they can and do affect Christians. Also get informed regarding the Hope For America rallies. Our teens need to understand that we are fighting a war in this country to keep our constitutional freedoms from being taken away. They must realize what a blessing it is to freely attend church and that there may come a day where that is no longer a freedom we Christians have, which is why we must fight.
C. (Illustration) – “Are the things your living for worth Christ dying for?”

Encouragement for the Road:
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21

Free Youth Ministry Ideas

Welcome back fellow Youth Ministry Geeks! Glad to see you are here for more free youth ministry ideas. It hasn't been quite a week but I'd rather be early than late. Anyways, let's get to the goods. Our first resource is the illustration, "Make your reservation for Heaven NOW!" and "All reservations for Heaven are made in this life." Talk about the decision to give your life to Christ and what that means. Stress to the kids that waiting to make the decision until they are older and ready to settle down, when they are dying, or whatever it is that's keeping them from committing to Jesus.
These teens are making a decision when they haven't investigated and have all the evidence before them and that's why we MUST take them on the journey and allow for open discussions and that requires the teens to participate. No matter how long it takes, get started right away because you know their is no time to waste! Once we die our destiny is fixed. Also discuss the statistic that if a person doesn't accept Christ by the time they are 18, they are unlikely to do so later in life.
Your second resource is a lesson on love. Study the chapter of I Corinthians 13 and discuss the difference between lust and love. Teens and young adults get the two confused and make life-changing decisions based on this information. They believe that what they see in movies and on t.v. is how real relationships and marriages are going to be and should be.
Again, you have to get these kids to open up and let you in on what they believe, what they have experienced, what they want and how they are going after it. We must teach them that we have to learn how to love others and that God gives us the standard for what real love looks like. They also must know that until we allow God to love us, we will never be able to love anyone else with true love. Why? Because Jesus is the example and I Cor. 13 are the directions. Explain how difficult it can be to love someone when they are being "unlovable". Two key points to make are the following:

1. Direction not Intention determines destination. (Use the analogy of a car wanting to get to Washington, D.C. from Alabama. If the driver only has the intention of getting to D.C but doesn't drive in the DIRECTION of D.C., he will not get there.)

2. We must lead our heart, not lead with our heart. ( We must train ourselves to do as Jesus would. "What Would Jesus Do" is vital to the Christian life)

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Free Youth Ministry Ideas

Intro:
In a youth ministry not so far away.....a youth leader is in desperate need of free youth ministry ideas......they find a reliable, biblically sound, relative to teens blog that offers fresh and innovative ideas that will challenge their teens and that just happens to be this blog. So welcome to Youth Ministry Lite. You will not find a lot of fancy bells and whistles at this blog. I am one youth leader who has spent hours of research looking for illustrations, games, lessons, and such on a weekly basis. I am what you would call a "collector". I hear quotes on radio programs, find a fun and biblically sound game, or maybe its a headline from the newspaper.....I write it down, clip it out, or print it out and file it away until I need it.

It is from that collection and my current research that I am sharing with you, in the hopes that you will visit this blog on a regular basis to use the free youth ministry ideas I post each week, as well as pass along the address to your colleagues. I will also include a free scripture, quote, or joke as well as initiate a conversation about an issue that all youth leaders face.

As I have said, I am also a youth leader so you can count on everything coming from a fellow soldier who is in my own little foxhole. I am starting this blog with the intention of not only providing free youth ministry ideas, but also making contacts with other youth leaders who would like to contribute to the blog, whether it be a seasoned writer or a hobbyist, whether it's a single youth ministry idea or a smorgasboard of years experience. If you are one of those wanna be writers, this blog is the place to get a little hands on experience. Simply email me at youthministrylite@yahoo.com . Again, Welcome to your dream come true!

I.
Our first free resource is the dvd lesson series "Youthbytes" which can be found at www.youthbytes.org. The series is great to use every now and then to give the teens something new. Each dvd consists of scripture and solid bible teaching. The teens can easily relate what they learn to their daily lives and they will get a few laughs in as well. You can have a free sample dvd sent to you and you can view small bytes of various videos on the website.

Everyone has seen the huge billboards along the highway saying, "I GEEK...." Our second free resource is the illustration "I GEEK JESUS". Talk about the purpose behind the billboards, which is basically to coax the public to go to their public library and learn about whatever topic interests them. Let the kids know that this is the attitude every Christian should have when it comes to following Jesus. We must read our bibles to get to know Jesus and learn how we are to model our lives.

Next I want to talk a bit about what is going on in my life regarding youth ministry. I unfortunately had to leave my original church home due to conflicts in biblical foundations and other issues. We were a small church with an even smaller youth group, but we had kids who were faithful who came from various backgrounds. I did not want to leave them but God was clear in His will for me.
I spent many months praying and crying because my heart was broken.

I was serving as the "unofficial" Head Youth Leader because our Youth Pastor had left. I got a lot of hands on experience because the ministry had to continue and during that time, God taught me much. I know that there was purpose behind my being there because God led me to that church, but I had fulfilled what I was supposed to and it was time to move on. Now months later and several new churches having been "tested", I possibly may have found where God wants me.

This new church is also small and when it comes to Youth Ministry, they have a couple of volunteer adults so there is plenty of room for me and for the ministry to grow. I am naturally a person who thinks outside the box and is a go getter. I have been called to work with teens and to share my personal journey to Christ. I want to reach the teens who are turned off by church and who are hurting right here in my community.

I will keep you up to date on how things are going as I continue down this road. Serving God in any fashion can be difficult and it may mean leaving a church we don't want to and staying at one we would probably leave, if it were up to us. If you have had a similar experience, please leave a comment. How nice is it to have a site for free youth ministry ideas now!