Guest Post: Are You Ready For Kick-Off?

Editors Note: This is a guest post by my friend Ryan Campos. Here is a little about him… 

I’m a student minister who lives in Hermitage, MO with my lovely wife and two beautiful children (one is probably pushing her luck as you read this). I am passionate about students, and enjoy seeing how many tacos I can eat. Above all, I love serving God and hope to help other youth ministers along the way.

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In just short few days our media pages, televisions, and youth ministries will be flooded with trash talk and football jerseys. Kick-off for pre-season football is in a matter of days! I’m not sure how it works in your family, but I know my family absolutely loves football season. My dad and I are Chiefs fans; my kickoffwife is a Chargers fan, my oldest brother roots for the Packers, and my other brother and my mom root for the forbidden team (Raiders). You can imagine how that goes…This got me thinking. There’s something else that will be starting up in a few weeks that our students won’t be looking forward to as much…school! The question is, “Are you ready for kick-off?” The beginning of the school year provides opportunity to really connect with new students, connect with your area schools, and make any changes in your ministry. Here are a few ideas to help.

1. Develop a Playbook ( Brainstorming)
Developing your playbook is your plan to reach unconnected students. One of the things our youth ministry does to connect is throw a Back2School Lock-in, and then do a massive follow up. Other ideas could be; having lunch with your students at school, getting involved with their FCA, friendship evangelism, your fall activities, etc.

2. Make the Right Play Call (Executing)
If you’re anything like me, thinking of exciting things to do that will likely land your students in an emergency room isn’t too difficult. Ideas are great, but we must be able to execute our “plays” well. Not only do we develop a plan, we must develop a plan for successful execution.

3. Coach Well (Communicate)
This is simply communicating with your leaders and students what your goals are for this school year. For example, I tell me students we are doing our B2S Lock-In as an evangelizing attempt. I explain we really want to connect with students who aren’t involved in a student ministry. This helps to get everyone on the same page.

4. 2 Point Conversion (All In)
With your plan in place go all in! Don’t hold back. We only have a short time with our students before they’re gone. The time you spend with unconnected students may determine if they come back or turn away the Gospel. Just love on them and leave the rest up to God.

5. Watch the Replay (Evaluate)
Lastly don’t forget to evaluate your game plan before, during, and after your “Back to School” outreach. We always want to improve our “game” and this is crucial in doing so.
Feel free to comment it up on this post or shoot me a tweet @ryancampos10. I’d love to hear your “Back2School” ideas! Keep serving!

Ryan.

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