Global eNewsletter December 2006

We at Global Youth Ministry hope that your December has started off great! It was wonderful seeing many familiar faces as well as making many new friends in Charlotte, NC at the recent Youth Specialties Youth Worker's Convention! Talking to the exhibitors around our booth, learning about what God is doing in their lives, and explaining to others what God has called us to was an amazing experience. We hope you got as much out of this experience as we did! If you are new to us or old friends, our heartbeat really is leadership development around the globe. We have provided several resources in this month's eNewsletter that we pray will be helpful as you invest in today's youth!

Truth is what transforms the lives of teens and the more truth from God's word that you can translate into a teenager's life, the more opportunity God has to transform that teenager's life!

Teens are downloading content everyday! They are on the web, listening to cd's watching TV...filling their lives with a lot of stuff. This month we want to give you some helpful tips to cut though that clutter and help download the truth of scripture into their lives! Here are some tips:

Be Transparent. The days of the mysterious and removed tie wearing preacher are over, at least for students it is. They want to know that you're real ... Especially if you're about to tell them how to live their lives. Be willing to drop your guard and show that you are a real person with real, everyday struggles. Too often we feel like we have to have everything perfectly together, nice and neat to teach. Life is not really that way. You will help you students if you model living out God's world in the real world where everything is not nice and neat.

Be Around. You must earn the right to speak truth into their lives. You'll earn the right by spending time with them. This does not mean all of your time, but deliberate planned time. Oh yeah... church doesn't count! It's your job to hang out with them at church. Get out there and get your feet dirty. Get into the schools and visit them for lunch if you can. Sports Events, FCA meetings, going out to eat, and just goofing off ROCKS! Every moment doesn’t have to be a teaching moment. Love first. It teaches a lot.

Be simple. College students want to talk about deep stuff and get all philosophical. (Keeps them off the subject of the way they live. HA!) Theology not lived out is just religion, and religion is a cup with a hole in it - It will never fill you up. Don't load up with a hundred points and a poem. They'll only remember the last thing you say - if that much! So make sure that you have one main point that your students can get.

Use the Nugget Principle. They need to walk out of your gathering with one truth to chew on. Many of us are wasting good stuff by packing too much in. Jesus didn't gather up the disciples and quote Matthew to them. He gave them truth - one nugget at a time. Jesus' goal was never for the disciples to just know more stuff. He wanted them to live out what they learned. Help your students leave with an idea of how they live out what they have just learned.

Be realistic. If it's not in them it's not going to come out of them. Lost people sin. That's what they do. Immature believers do immature things. We often want an Abraham type of walk out of a brand new believer. That's not realistic! Too often we have built a pass/fail mentality into ministry that says, "Either you do everything exactly right, or you're out!" Instead, you must create an atmosphere of forgiveness. People need to know that there is life after failure. The church doesn’t tolerate failure well … This is not good for a new young believer. Remember that the disciples changed overtime and not over night.

It is possible to download truth into teens' lives! And when you do, you see change! Their relationship with God will begin to grow and it will leak its way out into every other relationship in their lives.

**Be sure to visit www.globalyouthministry.org/jumpstart for more FREE resources. Global Youth Ministry also develops verse by verse comprehensive Bible studies available in our online store. Each unit provides everything you need for one month of youth ministry! Visit the church curriculum section of our site for great resources to teach Biblical truth to your teens!
(Top)

Global Youth Ministry and the Institute for Global Youth Studies is finishing up training with our new mentors and within the next several months there will be 7 mentors living around the globe! These mentors' primary focus will be on identifying and investing in young leaders whom them can mentor and teach the biblical principles of reaching their country's youth. In some locations our mentors will travel, youth ministry does not exist and in others, it is very weak. These are exciting days and you can be apart of this effort!

Please support these mentors in prayer, by sending in your dollar pledge on the first of each month and through encouragement. We have launched a new section of our website called the Mentor Blogs. Be sure to visit here and read about their work that is going on around the world!
(Top)

FREE RESOURCE - GEEK SPEAK

Tips for good-looking web, print and video pictures! Have you ever seen an ad in a magazine and wish you could afford to hire a professional photographer to give you that high-quality picture for your promos? Well, the world of professional photography and graphic design is changing. Gone are the days of a single picture costing thousands of dollars. Many websites are popping up in cyberspace to aid you in your quest for that perfect look. These websites are a royalty free community of photographers that sell their pictures (in most cases) for a mere dollar or two (some are even free!). Just find the picture you want, buy a couple bucks worth of credits and download your pictures. Just remember that you need the highest resolution for print and the lower for web and video! Here are some of those websites and registering is free!

www.dreamstime.com
www.sxc.hu
www.istockphoto.com

Drew Mehta
Program Manager (and graphic artist)

(Top)

WHAT'S THE POINT?

Global Youth Camps help FOCUS your youth group with ONE POINT...that God can use them as catalysts of real change! We know you believe there is more to youth ministry than just "showing up," so we design Global Camps to help you mobilize your whole group and infuse them with a God-sized vision! Our camps have just one theme with one central message so that when your students leave they will walk away with a clearer vision of God's desire for their life, for their youth group and with a plan for sustained change. They won't get four different points on four different nights. Everything at camp culminates in a point they can get...and it makes all the difference!

Don't just take our word for it...watch and listen to the testimonies of other youth leaders who have been to Global Youth Camps and hear what they have to say.

Dial Up? View Video Here.
High-Speed? View Video Here.
(Top)

CAMP EARLY BIRD DEADLINE -
JANUARY 19!

We have 14 camps to choose from this summer in some incredible locations! The early-bird price starts at just $199 per participant! These fees do increase after January 19, so call now and reserve your space to take advantage of these great rates before all camps fill up!

(Top)

14 Great Camps to Choose From!

Date	Location
May 28 - June 1	Cohutta Lodge, GA
June 4 - 8	Cohutta Lodge, GA
June 11-15	Cohutta Lodge, GA
June 11 - 15	Laguna Beach, FL
June 15 - 18	Cohutta Springs, GA
June 18 - 22	Cohutta Lodge, GA
June 18 - 22	Shocco Springs, AL
June 25 - 29	Cohutta Lodge, GA
June 25 - 29	Eagle Eyrie, VA
July 2 - 6	Cohutta Lodge, GA
July 2 - 6	Shocco Springs, AL
July 9 - 13	Bradenton, FL
July 16 - 20	Cohutta Lodge, GA
July 23 - 27	Blue Ridge Assembly, NC

Call to Register Today! 877.251.2800

(Top)

By the time you read this eNewsletter Kyle and Julie Riddle will be on their way to Kenya to spend at least a year investing in young leaders. You can can help reach teens in places like Kenya by sending at least $1 a month on the first day of every month.