I would love the opportunity to partner with you. I am available for Camps, D-Now Weekends, Revivals, Outreach Events, Youth Worker Training Sessions, or any other ideas you may be working on for Speaking and/or Leading Worship.

Here are some examples of the topics I speak on:

• Who’s Your Daddy? – a closer look at God as a loving father.
• Best practices for keeping your kids/teens safe online.
• Technology in Ministry – it’s not just for the youth pastor anymore….
• What churches are missing by largely ignoring the internet…
• Our kids are safe at church, right? Best practices for child/teen safety
• Open Source, Freeware, and what it means in Ministry…
• Technology: Worship enhancement or Worship distraction?
• The least of these: reaching out to the unchurched in uncomfortable, yet Christ-centered ways…
• Mandated Reporting and implications on ministry. and others upon request…

A little about me:

I am a Youth Pastor with 12 years experience in both full-time and bi-vocational roles. I have worked in the Information Technology industry since 1997, and currently own my own Web Design and IT Contracting Firm in Indiana. In 2004-05, I worked for the State of Missouri as a Child Abuse Investigator, before transitioning to Full Time Youth Ministry. In 2007-2009, I helped start and administrated Common Ground Community Youth Center in Odessa, Missouri, a multi-denominational effort that reached “street kids” with no church affiliation. I have led youth in worship settings for the last 8 years of ministry.

If this doesn’t fit your needs, please remember me and pass on my info to other youth workers.

Thanks for your time, and hope to connect with you soon.

Brent

Contact me Here…

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For example, here is my comparison…. (Keep in mind we use a lot of 16×9 format DVD’s…)

Hope this helps you.

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10. Google Docs (Free) – With every update, Google improves what you can do on your Docs with an android phone or tablet…

9. QuickOffice ($) – Works great to open attachments, including PDF files

8. Google Reader (free) – This is a great way to follow and categorize RSS feeds.

7. Evernote (free) – I use this to catalog, organize, and share ideas.

6. B&N Nook/Amazon Kindle (free) – I have a Nook (am working on replacing it with an iPad2), and these apps work reasonably well to catch up on reading while in waiting rooms, etc…

5. WordPress (free) – I use this to maintain several sites and blogs. It improves with each update.

4. CloudPrint (free) – This is a great app to implement Google CloudPrint from your phone or tablet.

3. GrooveIP ($) – I use this to make free calls over wifi or 3G using Google Voice, making it a reality to lower the minutes on my voice plan.
If you use 3G, it does use the data on your plan. It can even integrate into your dialer.

2. Document Scanner ($) – Smartphone cameras have finally gotten to the quality to enable the camera to capture photos as PDF Documents. It works well

1. Bible (YouVersion) (free) – How can I not put the Bible first? But really, YouVersion is the best Bible App I have used in many years of smartphone use…

What are ones that you use that are not on the list?

Bonus:

Would you like to go to an Android Tablet for free?? 

You can get an Asus EEE Pad or Moto Xoom for free!

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Maybe You are a Youth Worker that has been told you are too young/old/boring/playful/whatever to effectively serve in youth ministry. Maybe you have been sucked into church politics without even knowing it and you are now paying the price. Maybe you’ve been bullied by a youth parent/deacon/elder/Sr Pastor/whoever. Maybe you fantasize about what youth group would be like if “that kid or those kids” suddenly stopped coming. Maybe you want to hang it up, go work 9 to 5 in a cubicle somewhere. Maybe you have the feeling that nothing you are doing in your church matters, or you made a mistake coming to the church where you are serving.

Maybe you feel horribly inadequate and ill-equipped to deal with all the junk that is thrown into the laps of your teenagers and families. Maybe you have felt the constant pull between church expectations and building deep relationships between spouse and your children.Maybe you’ve had that deep feeling tearing away at you that something is not matching somewhere between your beliefs and what your church is teaching. Maybe you have that desperate wish to tell someone you are not “fine” ; that you are really dying and wasting away inside, your soul is screaming for something, somewhere to give.

I’m not going to tell you to just suck it up, or that it will get better. It really may get worse first, in a way you can’t even imagine. I’m not going to tell you to count it joy, that you are doing something right. While Biblical, it is the wrong time to hear it.

I will tell you I have been there.  I will tell you that you cannot walk through this alone. I will tell you that the longer you hold it in, the worse it will be when it finally comes out (because IT WILL, one way or another). I will tell you that you are not the only one who has ever experienced this. I will tell you that I will gladly talk, pray, cry, or whatever else to help you walk through this.

Youth Workers, we are in this together. It is not God who wants to see us like this, but the enemy that seeks to kill, steal, and destroy.

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I did my homework by researching what the different Intel Atom processors had to offer. I looked at touchscreen versus non-touch, and it came to one issue – cost. If I went touchscreen, the cost was going to almost double. but going touchscreen offered some options with special needs students. When all the smoke cleared, I had found a deal on an “open-box” Asus eeePC 101MT, for within $30 of a base Acer Aspire One from a major retailer’s store on eBay.

The Asus eeePC MT series is a set of “netvertibles” having a standard netbook size and hardware, with a touchscreen that swivels into a “tablet” format. If you want it as an “iPad-killer”, it’s not going to to the job. However, if you are looking for a solidly built netbook with some great touch options, you are in luck. Hardware-wise, It will run Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional, but it ships with Windows 7 Starter.

The use we had in mind is the ability for students to look up information about a topic we would study on a given night. It comes from our “Connected Classroom” idea of “If the students are using technology in the schools, why not in youth group? So far (about 6 months in) the equipment has worked fairly well for its intended purpose. We have been on(or under) budget and and our student ministry has also found ideas that were not even on the drawing board when the equipment was purchased that we are making use of the equipment, simply because of availibility.

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One of those things are “Family Parties”. As a Youth Pastor, I get invited to family functions of the youth I minister to, which means I get to interact with the grandparents, cousins, crazy uncles, etc (there are some stories here, maybe for another day). I love the laid back atmosphere you get in Rural Ministry. For example, If multiple people show up to a party paking firearms, its not a big deal, provided that someone also brought paper (or improvised) targets or sporting clays (also known as clay pidgeons). It gets really interesting when you are invited to shoot with them. In some areas where I have served, this scenario would bring law enforcement and/or the evening news.

The level of interaction you get when at these functions are priceless in understanding the teenagers you work with. Its one thing to see your teens interaction with their immediate family, but it can be a whole different story when elements in the extended family come into play. If you’re lucky, you get to meet and thank that aunt, uncle, or grandparent that encouraged one of your teenagers to get involved in church, which resulted in them coming to your youth group.

These are some of the best times you can enjoy in ministry.

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The “they don’t get me” syndrome can happen when a Youth Pastor decides that their church has no clue how important Youth Ministry is, and it is completely up to the Youth Pastor to make sure the whole church knows it. This is a problem. Or maybe it’s the Senior Pastor that once served in Youth Ministry and you take it upon yourself to share your vast knowledge of all things Youth Ministry (that you have acquired in your whole 3 months of experience)  and just how much things have changed since 1971.

The ”they don’t get me” syndrome in essence makes Youth Pastors look like rotten little brats. It makes us look like we are throwing a tantrum, just to make our voice heard in the mix of all the ministry activities in the church. It forms an “us against them” image to all parties involved. That is not healthy. It paints a picture of the church that is closer to the one found in 1 and 2 Corinthians than that we find in Acts 2-5.

So how do we fix it?

The ”they don’t get me” syndrome fix starts in two places – Your spirit and your heart. Pray for God to show you what you should be doing with all the time you are spending thinking about how people in your church fail to understand the Youth Ministry. Find what that root of discontent is, and kill it. NOW!

Start to build bridges to the other ministries in the church. Understand that “those people” don’t have to understand all the details of Youth Ministry. They just need someone they can trust to do God’s work in the lives of students. It may be as simple as getting some quilters to make some cookies for small groups once in a while. Find ways to build relationships throughout the generations of your church(include yourself here as well). It will not be quick or easy, but the rewards will be eternal.

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Guide each of us that trek in the trenches of youth ministry. Help us celebrate the breakthroughs with Teenagers and their Parents.

Help us completely rely on You in good times and tough times. Refresh us through your Word speaking to us.

Help us boldly proclaim your Word through our actions and our speech.

Help us make a difference in our communities. Help us realize the value of a generation.

Amen.

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The students were taught a series based on Matthew 5:8 called “Blessed are the Pure in Heart” . They explored what it di and did not mean to be pure in heart.

Here is a link to the Camp Video we showed in the recap service this Sunday…

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What does your church to to involve Parents in the Youth Ministry?

put your thoughts below…

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