This weekend (Sunday, September 27th, 2020) I had the privilege of sharing at C3 (Covenant Community Church) as we continued in our series, Different, Values That Make Us Unique. We're taking time as a church to consider our core values and how they impact and direct the ministry at C3. But more than the ministry of C3, how do these core values help us as we take our next steps of faith with Christ.

I preached on the core value of bringing our best. I love that as a church, C3 strives to bring our very best in everything we do. We work hard to set the table for our visitors, members, and friends.  It's not to make us better than, but to show just how much we desire to give God our best.

I would be honored if you took a few minutes to watch or listen to Sunday's online gathering from C3! My prayer would be that this message encourages and challenges you to bring your very best to God!

​- jay

​Monday’s Moment...

Had a busy morning and didn’t have a chance post so here it goes.

This morning I finished the James Bible study with Francis Chan through RightNOW Media.

I love the book of James. A practical book that challenges us to seriously consider how we live out our faith.
For example, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.” James‬ ‭1:22-25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Bible can be a tough book to read. But at it’s heart we read God’s love letter to man. And in that we learn how to love God and one another.

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Welcome to episode 16 of Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers, the podcast of The Youth Worker Daily. This week we're heading to camp, camp Alacca to be exact!

Meet Mike Hoecherl, director of Alacca Bible Camp in Idaho. Mike has a great story of of student ministry. From work with students in his community to working with camp, it super easy to hear Mike's passion for discipling students.

If you found this episode helpful and encouraging, would you help us get the word out? Share us with your friends, follow or subscribe to the podcast, give us a rating, and leave comment!

​We'll see you next week!

Alacca Bible Camp, is a non-profit, non-denominational Christian camp located in the beautiful BitterRoot Mountains of North Central Idaho.  The camp is nestled alongside the SouthFork of the Clearwater River.  Alacca is open year round offering a variety of retreats and camps as well as rentals.  ALACCA exists to be a ministry partner to help local churches and other like-minded organizations develop disciples.

email:  camp@alacca.org
website:  https://www.alacca.org/
Facebook Camp: https://www.facebook.com/alaccabiblecamp

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Do you want to win a free book? Then make sure you listen to the end of the episode for details!

If you found this episode helpful and encouraging, would you help us get the word out? Share us with your friends, follow or subscribe to the podcast, give us a rating, and leave comment!
And, we'll see you next week!

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Welcome to Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers, the podcast of The Youth Worker Daily! This week's episode welcome out guest, Stephanie Caro. Stephanie is a youth worker, an author, a coach, a consultant, and I have the privilege of calling her my friend. Stephanie's experience, wisdom, and heart for youth  workers is clear as she shares her practical  advice and ideas.

If you found this episode helpful and encouraging, would you help us get the word out? Share us with your friends, follow or subscribe to the podcast, give us a rating, and leave comment!

STEPHANIE.CARO@MINISTRYARCHITECTS.COM

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Welcome to Season Two of Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers! So excited to kick off a new season! We have a great line up of guests that will encourage and inspire you and you ministry, and it gets start right here, right now with my good friend, Brian Lucas! Take a listen to our Season Two kick off episode, then check out the companion blog at http://www.TheYouthWorkerDaily.com for more about the show, links to connect with Brian, and resources for your ministry!


If you enjoyed this weeks episode, would you help us out by liking the episode, sharing it with a friend or on your social media, and subscribing to the podcast! And leave a comment, I'd love to connect with you!


Thanks!

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Like so many of us, Covid crushed our plans for the summer. No trips. No camps. No mission trips. If we were lucky, we were able to have limited or restricted gatherings with appropriate social distancing and safety precaution. And some of us, were left to online contact through Zoom, YouTube, Facebook, or other social media platforms. It's been a tough summer.

This would have been my second summer, the end of my first year. I arrived in June 2019, and jumped into a handful of student meet and greets. We hosted a series of events that we quickly threw together. It was simple, but it worked. But summer 2020 was to include a number of summer activities (bonfires, pool parties and such), summer camp options, a middle school mission trip, and a high school mission trip. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't frustrated when everything got shutdown.

The shutdown forced a total redesign of our summer ministry schedule. In-person group events and activities were a no-go. Everything was online or 1-on-1. We spent a little more time on Zoom with meet ups and small gatherings. We increased our reach to students by asking our leaders to be a little more intentional with text messages, snail-mail notes, and social media engagement. It was ideal, but we did our best.

The only thing I kept coming back to, was our missing mission trip. I really wanted to begin the process of helping students see the importance of serving others. How could we get our students to serve, while staying within the boundaries of the covid guidelines and restrictions? Enter the virtual mission trip.

Early in the summer, ideas for virtual mission trips started popping up around social media. At first glance I was skeptical. Students serving independently? On their own? Hmm. Then I started seeing pictures and reading the stories. Youth groups from all over were attempting these virtual mission trips, and reporting some fun moments shared by their students. Could it really work?

I wasn't sure that our group was ready for something like a virtual mission trip. Again, I was just wrapping up my first year with our students. Of this first year, I had only been with students for about 8 or 9 months. We were still getting to know each other, building trust, and shaping our new ministry.could we drum up enough interest? Would students sign up? Would they actually participate in something like this? I had my doubts.

Then came the question...What would the students do? How would we construct a weeks worth of activities that we really couldn't physically be there to lead? And, how would we know if the students actually did anything? After about a month of thinking and praying about it, I decided to give it a try.

I was sure how it would all come together, but one of the Core Values at our church is, Bold Failure Paves Bright Futures. Our church supports new things, even if everything crashes down on it. So with the confidence of knowing it would be okay, I sat down and created SERVE WEEK 2020.

Serve Week 2020, was created to give my students an easy way of serving the people around them, while helping them discover that they were made to serve. I combined a short video devotion with a prompt that led them to a daily serve challenge. There was a devotion and aa challenge for each day of the week, Monday through Friday. We then encouraged the students to take a few pictures of themselves accomplishing the challenge, that we would share on our social media.

We asked the students to sign up for Serve Week, hoping that by signing up, they would see and keep their commitment. We had about 10 students sign up. For a group our size, in the circumstances that we're in, that's not bad. I built a couple pages on our student website as our "home base" of information. Each morning, a few social media prompts reminded students to visit the website for the daily devotion and challenge. Halfway through the day, another reminder went out asking for photos to be sent in. We then shared the pictures on the following day.

The week wrapped up with the students gathering at our church's community garden to harvest and weed. We worked, had pizza, and spent some time hanging out together.

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Here's what I learned...

1. Simple is Okay - I know I am one who can go "over the top" when it comes to planning events and activities. But bigger isn't always better. I chose to keep Serve Week simple, focusing on little things that the students could do on their own, or with just a little help from their parents. With the variety of restrictions, guidelines, and opinions differing from state to state and person to person, I wanted to make sure students were able to participate at a comfortable place. Plus, this was our first attempt on something like this, so simple was the best way to go.

2. Keep Expectations Low - Usually I am on the other side of this one. I generally keep higher expectations for my students. But knowing that not everyone would feel comfortable or ready to participate in our Serve Week, I decided to have real, but slightly lower expectations. I think this helped me see Serve Week as more of an experiment that we were trying, and less of an event where we expected some huge response. In the end, I was super delighted with the response from our students and our parents.

3. Make it Doable - With each daily challenge, I came up with something that I thoughts students could actually accomplish. The challenge was based on a concept or idea, with a number of possible options for completely the challenge. This gave freedom for the students to be creative and carry out the challenge the way they thought, using the gifts and talents they had. They were free to use our ideas and suggestions, or come up with their own. They key, however, was to make it something that the students could actually do one their own.

4. Have Fun with It - When doing the daily challenge, make sure it's something that is fun. Include family, friends, and leaders. Make it something that appeals to the students, something that they might want to do, or are already doing. Take pictures of and with the students. Strike a pose. Be silly or goofy. Have fun.

5. This is Going to be and Annual Event - The biggest thing I learned from our Serve Week is that it's something I want to see become part of our summer calendar. The thought of being able to schedule a week for students to serve the local community is a great thing. Not only does it provide students with an entry point to serving, but it allows for a week of focused missions and service within your community. I am already thinking about Serve Week 2021, and how we might use this week as a way for our students, families, and leaders to leave an impact on our community.

So, what did our Serve Week 2020 look like? Well, I'm happy to share it with you!

You can click on the links below to watch the daily devotion with the serve challenge and to see the webpages I created with additional ideas. You're free to borrow any ideas that you find helpful. (I know I borrowed ideas from other youth workers and organizations.)

Did you host a virtual mission trip? How did it go? What did you do? Would you be willing to share your week, ideas, resources with others? Let us know!

​- jay