Want to keep track of your students?

Want to keep better track of your students? Want to keep a better record of your students?

Ever ask yourself the question where has that student been in a while

Why has that student stop coming?

Then do this…

Have a Round Up time!!    (Round your students up!)

-Have a time twice a year (April, Sept.) where you or your volunteers/small group leaders sit down and facebook/email/text/call the students you haven’t seen in a while to find out where they been. (Make a chart w/ students name, how were they reached, reason haven’t seen them in a while)

-If they don’t answer or respond after you have tried at least twice don’t get discouraged. Sometimes they will respond. Sometimes they wont. But you can sleep at night knowing you did your job by reaching out to them.

-Let the student know you have missed them and wanted to know if everything was okay. To lighten the mood if they feel uncomfortable, ask them if anyone has said anything to offend them and if you need to beat someone up. You can even ask if they have started attending another church…if you feel comfortable.

Find out why they have stopped coming. That student could help you resolve issues that might be going on in your Student Ministry.

-After you have finished, you have lightened the load of a leader or helped a student come back!

This idea came from my pastor Kenny Hibbard and I think could help out your Student Ministry tremendously!

You are able to find out where that student has been! Maybe they started going to another church, moved, or maybe had a conflict you were able to resolve, just following up with them! Go for it!

Hope this helps!!

Student Pastors, keep allowing the front door to be WIDE OPEN, but also keep doing a great job of keeping the back door SHUT. Make sure your students are sticking.

Michael Hux is the Student Pastor of Team Church in Matthews, NC.

Connect with Michael on Twitter or Instagram: @_Hux

 

Suicide

suicide picWhat are we doing about Suicide?

Suicide is one of the biggest issues in the world today and most importantly in Student Ministry! We must do everything we possibly can do to be prepared when a student is struggling with suicide and suicidal thoughts. To be honest, two months ago, we were completely unprepared.

We have already had two students attempt suicide in the last 4 months and have ended up in the hospital. We have also had several mention they have thought about it.

We must know what to do. We need the right resources. Lets take action!

We can’t mention enough in our sermons that Jesus cares about them and their needs and would never want them to take their life! He came that they may have life and life to the full!

We can’t allow students to make a permanent decision with a temporary problem! 

Things we must do!

-Give them a wallet size resource card of what they can do if they are struggling with suicide.  Hand them out to every student. Example below.

suicide card

-Have a night dealing with Suicide. Have a student share their testimony and then have leaders for them to go to.
-Encourage students to talk to their parents about their life and what they are going through.
-Have a counselor they can go to if its something serious they are going through.
-Take your students seriously when they talk about suicide.

One of the best movies dealing with this topic: “To Save a Life.” If you haven’t seen this, it’s a must!

Michael Hux is the Student Pastor of Team Church in Matthews, NC.

Connect with Michael on Twitter or Instagram: @_Hux

 

Get Excited

If you’re not EXCITED, why should students be?

As Student Pastors, we have something to be EXCITED about…and that is putting it lightly!

Our God is not DEAD but ALIVE!!
God has RESCUED us from HELL!!
Jesus has paid the debt for our SIN!!
The Enemy has been DEFEATED!!
We have a GOD that is always WITH us!!

If that’s not enough to get you EXCITED and ESCTAITIC, I don’t know what to do. The students we serve and parents we serve should see that EXCITEMENT each week.

We should be way more passionate about our GOD than our SPORTS TEAM!

Your SPORTS TEAM might give you SATISFACTION for a WEEKEND but GOD gives us SATISFACTION for a LIFETIME!

This should be evident in our social media and how we WORSHIP. This should be evident in how we preach. We are preaching the GREATEST NEWS that has changed us so we should preach with EXCITEMENT. We know the BIBLE ain’t boring!

Your students can tell if you are excited about Jesus or not!
They can tell by watching you if JESUS really is a BIG DEAL or not.
They can tell by watching you if JESUS really is the RISEN KING to you!

Encourage your leaders to be passionate about Gods Word and coming to church. If the students see that your leaders have excitement just like you do imagine how excited the students would be!

Be reminded today that you have been SET FREE! You aren’t who you use to be! Be EXCITED and keep serving JESUS!

Romans 12:11 Never be lacking in zeal but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Michael Hux is the Student Pastor of Team Church in Matthews, NC.

Connect with Michael on Twitter or Instagram: @_Hux

 

Fun is Not Your Enemy

We all want a Student Ministry that is deep and not shallow. We all want a Student Ministry that is all about Jesus and worship, but do your students see JOY in serving JESUS?

FUN is not your ENEMY! Your students should LOVE to come to Small Groups or Wednesday night because there is an aspect of FUN! One of the biggest reasons that I LOVED Student Ministry when I was younger was because it was FUN! I knew I was going to have FUN!

Don’t take out all of the FUN in Student Ministry. There is a reason why students love to go to Theme Parks and Arcades. It’s because it is FUN! Students love camp because it is FUN!

I had to remind myself of this over the last several weeks as our small groups have been all serious with NO FUN! We need a LITTLE FUN even with the seriousness of following JESUS!

Here’s a few ideas:

Throw in ICE BREAKER questions to open up.
Throw in a game that lasts 5-15min to add in some FUN each night!
Throw in a worship song that is FUN and not so serious.
Throw in a video to add some fun!
Throw in a skit to add some fun!
Throw in JOKES during your sermon!

LOST people need to see that CHRISTIANS have FUN too! Christians should be the happiest people on the planet and ones who show the most JOY and EXCITEMENT.

BRING some FUN to the TABLE!

How do you bring in the aspect of FUN in your STUDENT MINISTRY?

Michael Hux is the Student Pastor of Team Church in Matthews, NC.

Connect with Michael on Twitter or Instagram: @_Hux

 

Influence Parents

Influence the Parents to have a BIGGER impact on the Students!

Students will most likely become their parents.
Parents have the BIGGEST influence on their students.

What are we doing right now to encourage the parents? What are we doing to help the single parent or the uncle or grandparent with their student? These are questions we need to ask ourselves.

The average church only has 40 hours in a given year to influence a life.

The average parent has 3,000 hours per year to influence a life. (Think Orange)

“The greatest gift a church can give parents is the CONFIDENCE and COURAGE to do what GOD has wired them to DO.” –Reggie Joiner

For the longest time, I never thought about this. I only thought about the students but never realized how much a student could change if their mom or dad loved Jesus more.

Send your parents not only weekly emails about what’s going on in the Student Ministry but send emails encouraging them to continue to love and disciple their students.

Send your parents a mass text each week with an encouraging Bible verse or something that keeps them going!

Do you have a parent resource page on your website where parents can go to know of some websites that might help them disciple their student? Here is a sample one that we are still working on: http://teamchurch.com/pursuitparents/

Have a Facebook group for your parents where you can encourage them daily!
We must realize that if we impact the parents they in return can change their student’s life!

A student might not worship because they never see their dad get excited about worshipping but if you get that dad to see how important worship is then the student will see how important worship is.

We should want the parents to teach their student how to tithe, worship, read the Bible, pray, share their faith, and live for Jesus.

Find ways to constantly encourage your parents. It starts in the home. Students are born into the home not church.

How are you influencing your parents in your Student Ministry? Would love to hear your thoughts!

Michael Hux is the Student Pastor of Team Church in Matthews, NC.

Connect with Michael on Twitter or Instagram: @_Hux