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 listen to the series
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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.
We come from different places around the globe, different denominations, different theological views, different doctrinal positions, different political views, different backgrounds, and yet we set it all aside as we worship, train, learn, and grow together.
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Camp is a tool to be used by the church
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meet mike hoecherl
Mike went to Trinity International University for a Christian Ministries degree and was on staff at Faith Community Church as the youth pastor for 10 years. Mike was also on staff at Youth for Christ for 10 years as a Campus Life Director. Currently, Mike is the Executive Director at Camp ALACCA Bible Conference and getting ready to launch The Bridge Gospel Academy, a 1-year discipleship school. Mike is married to his lovely wife Timmie, who has two great kids Kennedy (20) and Payton (13). Teaching Youth and College young people how to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ through their lives is his passion and he is currently working on his first book; Through the Lens of the Gospel.
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Executive Director- Mike Hoecherl
Director of Operations- Timmie Hoecherl email: camp@alacca.org Facebook personal: https://www.facebook.com/mike.hoecherl |
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website: https://www.alacca.org/
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meet jay
Jay Higham is a veteran youth worker of almost 30 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the Director of Family Ministry at Covenant Community Church, in Wheeling, WV. Jay has been married to Amy for 24 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is also the host of our new podcast, Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers! Jay is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and connecting and networking with youth workers to help them serve their students with passion and excellence.
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BE A DEVELOPER OF DEVELOPERS
WITH Mac Lake
Welcome to episode 15 of Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers, the podcast of The Youth Worker Daily. How are you developing leaders? In this week's episode, I get to have a conversation with Mac Lake, founder of The Multiply Group, and author of The Multiplication Effect, Leading Leaders, and his just released, Leading Others.
Mac has served as a youth worker, a pastor, a church-planter, and a leadership developer. His passion is growing leaders for the local church. Today we talk about the importance of pouring into our volunteer leaders as it relates to and impacts student ministry. Grab a pen and some note paper because you are going to want to write some of this stuff down! |
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!
meet Mac Lake
I felt called into ministry when I was 17 years old. Growing up in a small church in rural West Virginia I was surrounded by a loving group of people who believed in me and encouraged my spiritual journey.
In 1981. I packed my bags and moved to the Windy City, Chicago, to attend Moody Bible Institute. After graduating Moody, it was time to head south, where I took a position as a youth pastor at Northwood Baptist church. It didn’t take long for me to realize I needed more training so my new bride Cindy and I moved to Dallas, Texas to attend Dallas Theological Seminary. Over the following years we had three amazing children: Brandon, Jordan and Brianna. After graduating seminary, we moved back to South Carolina where I served for seven years as an Associate Pastor at Pawleys Island Community Church. An incredibly supportive group of people poured their best into me and gave me amazing opportunities to grow in ministry. |
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meet jay
Jay Higham is a veteran youth worker of almost 30 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the Director of Family Ministry at Covenant Community Church, in Wheeling, WV. Jay has been married to Amy for 24 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is also the host of our new podcast, Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers! Jay is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and connecting and networking with youth workers to help them serve their students with passion and excellence.
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STEPHANIE CARO
PODCAST EPISODE 14
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!
MEET Stephanie Caro
Stephanie Caro has been involved in ministry to children, youth, and adults in the local church (both large and small) since…a long time ago. Her humorous, straightforward style keeps her busy presenting and coaching at conferences, training events, camps, mission trips, retreats, churches, etc. She is now Senior Consultant for Ministry Architects, which allows her to help churches assess, vision, and formulate their ministry game plans.
Her books, Thriving Youth Ministry in Smaller Churches and 99 Thoughts for the Smaller Church Youth Worker, were published by Group/Simply Youth Ministry. Her book, Smaller Church Youth Ministry: No Staff, No Money, No Problem, was published by United Methodist Publishing House. Her next book, Ten Solutions for Smaller Churches, comes out in 2020. Stephanie is a contributing author to several ministry resources like YouthWorker Journal and Group Magazine. Check out Stephanie's blogs at youthministry.com, youthspecialties.com, Princeton Theological Seminary, and others. Stephanie and her husband, Steve, live in Katy, TX. Their 7 children are all grown! |
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meet jay
Jay Higham is a veteran youth worker of almost 30 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the Director of Family Ministry at Covenant Community Church, in Wheeling, WV. Jay has been married to Amy for 24 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is also the host of our new podcast, Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers! Jay is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and connecting and networking with youth workers to help them serve their students with passion and excellence.
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meet jay
Jay Higham is a veteran youth worker of almost 30 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the Director of Family Ministry at Covenant Community Church, in Wheeling, WV. Jay has been married to Amy for 24 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is also the host of our new podcast, Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers! Jay is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and connecting and networking with youth workers to help them serve their students with passion and excellence.
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season two kick off
PODCAST EPISODE 13
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!
meet brian lucas
Brian is a pastor, and father, and artist, and husband; once he has had enough coffee. Hailing from the beautiful land of Lake Tahoe, he currently lives in Tucson, AZ with his wife and twin daughters.
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Jay Higham is a veteran youth worker of almost 30 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the Director of Family Ministry at Covenant Community Church, in Wheeling, WV. Jay has been married to Amy for 24 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is also the host of our new podcast, Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers! Jay is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and connecting and networking with youth workers to help them serve their students with passion and excellence.
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training for your entire team!
Don't miss this training!
Coming up on Saturday, September 19th, join thousands of youth workers as they gather for a day of training! Created for the volunteers, one low price gets you training for your entire team. Click the graphic to learn more! |
MEET JAY
Jay Higham is a veteran youth worker of almost 30 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the Director of Family Ministry at Covenant Community Church, in Wheeling, WV. Jay has been married to Amy for 24 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is also the host of our new podcast, Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers! Jay is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and connecting and networking with youth workers to help them serve their students with passion and excellence.
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SERVE WEEK 2020
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.
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.
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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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
meet jay
Jay Higham is a veteran youth worker of almost 30 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the Director of Family Ministry at Covenant Community Church, in Wheeling, WV. Jay has been married to Amy for 24 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is also the host of our new podcast, Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers! Jay is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and connecting and networking with youth workers to help them serve their students with passion and excellence.
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Author
Jay Higham is a veteran youth worker of over 28 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the director of family ministry at a church, located in West Virginia. Jay has been married to Amy for over 23 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and training youth workers to love and serve their students with passion and excellence.
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