What I share in my fall leaders meeting.

Every August I have a meeting with all of our youth leaders to get ready for the fall.  The fall is our busiest season and where we have seen the most growth in our youth ministry.  Here are some things I go over in our meeting:

1.  We eat good food!  It's always nice to break bread with those we are serving with every week.

2.  I thank my leaders for their commitment and investment in our students.  Without them Epic would be a mess.  They are the backbone of our ministry.  I'm humbled and honored to serve with all of them.

3.  I cast vision and remind my leaders that everything we do is for more life change.  Our students deserve the very best and we are going to storm the gates of hell to win as many students to Christ as possible.  We may even get burned doing it but it's worth it when one life is changed.

4.  We go over details of our fall outreach, I want all of our leaders to be on the same page and know the details of what we are doing.  I also give some overview for the rest of the year as well.

5.  The summer can get pretty crazy with people on vacation and so I use this time to remind everyone how important it is that we need them at Epic every Wed and on time.  I'll also address any other housekeeping items we may need to tidy up like changes to our structure, new ministries, changes to team leaders and other stuff like that.

6.  I always use every meeting we do to encourage our leaders to help us recruit more leaders.  They are one of our best resources to recruiting new leaders to serve in our ministry.  Most of leaders that serve were invited by one of our current leaders.

7.  We share testimonies of life change.

8. At the end we give our ministry teams a time to meet about any issues the need to discuss.

The structure of our meeting is eat and fellowship first for about 20-30 min, I cover my stuff in 45 min - 1 hour and then we have time at the end for testimonies or breaking into our teams for about 15-20 min.

Weekend Recap

1.  This Sunday was the Grand Opening of People's Church Midwest City campus and the turnout was amazing.  1280 people showed up and 65 people committed their lives to Christ!  At Epic Jr. High we had 52 students and 13 students committed their lives to Christ!  It's amazing to see what God is doing at People's Church and this is just the beginning!

2.  With the amazing turnout at our MWC campus next week we are launching a 3rd experience!  Experience times are 10 am, 11:30 am and 1 pm, we will also have Epic Jr. High for all 3 of these experiences!

3.  I'm not much of a movie goer because it's expensive and I don't want to waste my money on a movie I won't enjoy but this weekend Jamie and I went with some of our youth leaders to see Rise of the Apes.  Many people said it was good and they were correct!  Great movie, I totally recommend it!

4.  We went to the movie at Harkins Theater in Bricktown and found out they have a kid's zone you can take your kids (3-8 years old) to for only $6!!!  We will definitely be hooking that up next time!

5.  Friday night we had our young adults community group.  We had a great night of food, fellowship and many random conversations.  I love doing life with these people, if you aren't in a community group join one today!  Check out what groups are close to you on peopleschurch.tv.

Wed Recap - Historic Day for Epic

Epic made history on Wed night by having our first experience at our new Midwest City Campus.  It was a great feeling to send Arjay Johnson our MWC Youth Director, over 20 leaders and over 80 students to this campus to reach and impact many more teenagers.  This all happened before our Grand Opening which gives us a great base to build off of.  Throughout youth ministry I've prayed for God to enlarge our territory  and I'm literally experiencing at a whole new level as People's Church is now a multi site church.  I'm excited for the adventure, the challenge and all the lives we are going to see impacted.  I love my church, our student ministry and am excited about the future.  This will be a greatest fall to date!

What we do for our 1st time guests on Wed night at Epic

Every Wed night our first time guests get a wristband which get's them into our VIP section after our experience.  The VIP section is open from 8:15-8:30 and features couches, music, our most popular video games, a free treat and an opportunity to meet our youth directors.  Last month we gave away free bottled sodas like IBC Root Beer, Cream Soda, Strawberry and Grape Crush.  This month we are giving away snack cakes like fudge rounds, oatmeal creme pies and zebra cakes!  The zebra cakes are my favorite!  Not only do our first time guests get to come into the VIP section but the student that brought them also gets to come with them.  At Epic our guests and anybody who brings a guest get VIP treatment.  This has been a nice little incentive to get new guests.  FYI - I totally stole this idea from Oneighty and it has worked very well for us!  Here is a little video we made to promote it.

Epic VIP Room from Epic Student Ministries on Vimeo.

Launch - A 4 Week New Believers Group Pt. 2

Again I'm super stoked about the new believers group we just started called Launch.  This group is to help students Launch into the relationship with Christ and soar instead of crash.  Here is a brief overview of what we teach at each week of Launch:

Week 1: Understanding Jesus as Savior - this is a teaching that has helped students understand their salvation and that they don't have to raise their hands every week to get saved.  This has been huge for our students!

Week 2: Understanding Jesus as Lord - this is a teaching to help students learn what it means to be selfless and that part of salvation is turning over their entire life to Christ.  Our key phrase is "He died for us so we live for Him."

Week 3: Prayer, Bible Reading and Worship - this is a teaching on why and how to pray, read their bible and worship.

Week 4:  Baptism and Living Holy - this is a teaching about what is water baptism and why we should get water baptized as well as a challenge to live a holy life.  That their old life has died and a new life has come.

Launch - A 4 Week New Believers Group Pt. 1

This month we started a new ministry called Launch.  This is a 4 week group for new believers or students who want a firm foundation for their faith that I personally teach every Wed for high school students and Sun for Jhigh students.  When the 4 weeks is up the group repeats itself.  Every week I do a 15 minute teaching for these students that is accompanied with a handout for the students to fill out.  I'm very excited about this group and we have had over 20 students attend in the first 5 weeks.    My friend Jason Patterson created the curriculum for it and it has had a profound impact on the students who have attended the group.  Here is the promo video we made for it.

LAUNCH from Epic Student Ministries on Vimeo.

Sunday Recap

1.  Today at Epic Jr. High we taught our students about the Biblical Truth About Sex, which is simply that sex was created by God for marriage between a husband and a wife.  I could tell some of the students were a little uncomfortable like "can we talk about this in church?", LOL.  I think church is the perfect place to talk about it, sex should not be a bad word or topic we avoid because I promise they are hearing about it from media and in school!  Our students need to know and understand God's word concerning sex so they can protect themselves and enjoy sex for what God created it for, marriage!  Next week we address the topic: "How Far Is Too Far?"

2.  One of my illustrations was: "Having sex before marriage is like using a blender for a manicure, it's only going to lead to hurt, pain and a mess!  A blender was not created to give manicure's and we were not created to have sex before marriage!"

3.  At People's Church we also started a new series called Be My Valentine, if you missed it check it out online at www.peopleschurch.tv!  Pastor Herbert was hilarious and had good, practical content.  I also agree with him 100% of what kind of dating plan parents should have for their teens!  If you are wondering what he said again check out the message online.

4.  Sunday night was all about relationships!  We had our community group over our house for the Super Bowl.  I enjoyed the game but it wouldn't have been as enjoyable without friends.  The game was good, food was good but fellowship was better!

5.  The highlight of my day was talking to a Jr. High student who was hungry for answers about God, these moments never get old and I'm excited to see what God is going to do in this student's life!

Volunteer Driven Ministry Pt. 3

One of the questions I have struggled with and have heard other youth pastors struggle with is "How do you set high standards for people who are "volunteering" their time?"

For us it's simple, our students deserve the best, period.  Our students deserve excellence, period.  One of the ways we give students our best is through consistency.  Here are the areas we will be consistent in:

1.  Consistently we want them to have an unforgettable experience at Epic.  Our first impressions, media, set up/tear down, worship, safety, community group, Sunday morning leaders help us do this every week.

2.  We will be consistent with holding students accountable to our rules.  We believe in boundaries and discipline and must be consistent with that every week.  We don't do this because stuff is out of control, to the contrary Epic is under control every week because we have volunteers who help us be consistent in this area.  Plus it helps us teach students life skills about authority and respect.

3.  We look for and implement volunteers who will consistently be at Epic every Wednesday or Sunday.  This is a decent amount of this generation that has people that are in and out of their lives and we don't want that to happen at Epic.  Words can't express my thanks for our volunteers and the commitment they have made to our students.

4.  We will consistently change stuff up if it helps us reach and disciple more students.  Our team is super flexible, open to change, loyal and very supportive of the vision of our church, these qualities help us change when we need to.

5.  We will consistently reach students who are far from God.  In order to do this we must have volunteers whose hearts are filled with grace, patience, love, acceptance and commitment for these students.  Again I'm so thankful for my volunteers and their willingness to get down and dirty and reach students who are far from God.

Volunteer Driven Ministry Pt. 2

One of the questions I hear a lot about volunteers is how do you recruit them?  Here is what I have learned:

1.  Make it personal.  From my experience the most committed volunteers are ones who have personal connection to the ministry.  Encourage current volunteers to recruit people they have relationships with and recruit parents of students in your youth ministry.

2.  Be persistent and never stop.  Every week look for new volunteers to recruit.  Constantly remind current volunteers to recruit.  Recruiting takes hard work!

3.  Try a Sunday morning blitz.  We have done this two ways: 1.  Text current leaders on Sunday morning to talk to one person that day at church about serving in our student ministry.  2.  Get some of your top volunteers who are super out going, give them a clipboard and have them meet and sign up people before and after your experiences to check out your youth ministry.

4.  This is the most important and should be applied to the top 3 techniques, whenever recruiting someone always cast vision.  Share with them the need and impact they can help make in the lives of students.  

Volunteer Driven Ministry

At Epic we have over 80 volunteers that serve our students weekly.  We have 3 teams of adults who serve in our Jr. High Experience on Sunday mornings, a team of Jr. High community group leaders on Wednesday night and a team of High School leaders on Wednesday night.  Our ministry doesn't grow or function without our volunteers, period and in order for us to continue to grow and serve our students with excellence we must always be recruiting and training new volunteers.  We are looking for volunteers who:

1.  Love God.

2.  Love Students.

3.  Have Integrity.

4.  Are Committed.

5.  Are Loyal to People's Church.  

We pray and look for these people every week!  God + volunteers has gotten us where we are and God + more volunteers will help us reach every student in OKC.