BTF Ministers Connection

Indexed » Blog Archive » True for boys & girls..

I love the Indexed blog. This one is great for youth ministry.

Why Church? – Real World Parents.

Youth Specialities has a web site that is meant to help parents of teenagers called Real World Parents. As a step parent of a couple of teens and a couple of young adults, I try to read up on these things. I also look into this, so that I can pass along information to other parents, since I am also a leader in our churches youth ministry.  I think this article can be used by not only parents, youth leaders alike.

Cross posted at Ministy & Meteorology?

I have to go back awhile. At the end of March, at the last Big Ticket Festival Tour stop in Lansing, I had a mild heart attack. I wasn’t sure at the time. It wasn’t until the end of the week and getting admitted into Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey that we had the answer.  So then there was rehab and such to get my heart healthy again(which it now has become). Then I was behind at work and family came into town…you get the picture.

I’ve been meaning to write, but the words just weren’t there. So for this first Big Ticket Festival when we are trying to connect people in ministry (lay persons and clergy), it feels like a bit of a let down.

So we are looking at what we can do to be better integrated into the Big Ticket and how we will reach out to all in ministry. Because Big Ticket partners with Chosen Youth Conferences, and my wife is an admin there, I will be around with Chosen events and probably any of the Big Ticket pre-events this year again. This site, Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook are one way, but how else can we get things together?

I’m looking for ways to get us together and start connecting, almost in an Acts 2:42-47 way.

Thanks,
Jeff

I subscribe to and  read a lot of ministry blogs, especially youth ministry. I found this while reading this morning. Here’s the lead in:

If you haven’t been discouraged in youth ministry yet, hang on, you will be. Discouragement is a part of the profile we cannot avoid.  How we respond makes all the difference.

I agree wholeheartedly, most of the pain in the church is compounded with the poor way in which discouragement is handled. Doug Ranck points out a good process to deal with it when it comes knocking at your door.

Here’s the link.

Cross posted on Ministry and Meteorology? Blog.

This past weekend I had the awesome opportunity to help out at the Big Ticket Festival Tour in Grand Rapids, MI. Jeff couldn’t go due to work, but our DD-16 was able to go and help out at the voting table.

I was blessed to be able to sit in the booth with my laptop and show people at the tour this site as well as the main site. Most people I talked to first were asking questions about the schedule at the Festival, pricing, camping and so on and I was so happy to be able to show them! As we talked further though, I discovered most of them were in some sort of ministry and so I was able to connect with them and tell them what BTF Minister’s Connection was all about! So, if I met you in Grand Rapids, please be sure to say hi and let us know you stopped by the site!

There were 11 bands that competed to win a spot on the Indie Stage at The Big Ticket and 3 of them will continue on. They are: Rick Hopkins, Icris and Sargent Avenue. Congrats to those bands. If your favorite band wasn’t chosen, they still have another opportunity! There are 6 wild card spots that will be filled with bands from each of the Tour stops. As soon as I have more info on when they will choose those, I will be sure to post it.

I am looking forward to helping out at the next two legs of the tour. They are going to be in Highland, MI on March 21 at Cornerstone Church, starting at 2:00PM and in Lansing on March 28 at Trinity Church, starting at 11:30AM.

If you are in any type of ministry and will be attending the Big Ticket Festival, we would love to connect with you here, at the Tour and at the Big Ticket Festival!

Even if you are not planning on attending the Big Ticket Festival, we’d still love to connect with you as a minister. It has been Jeff’s hearts desire to help other ministers by praying for you, talking with you about ministry issues and so on. To get connected, simply register as a contributor and post a blog. You can also leave comments on posts by us or other pastors and pray for them as well.

In closing, here are some photos from the tours so far in Traverse City and Grand Rapids. Be sure to check out all the links on the right where you can get connected with the Big Ticket Festival and BTF Minister’s Connection!

Voting Table in GR

Stacy, Street Team and Church Partners; Mary, BTF Minister's Connection

I listen to a lot of podcasts, read a lot of blogs, and keep up with things on some of the bigger social media sites. I love to learn, especially when it comes to ministry and specifically, youth ministry.

So recently, I was listening to the Fuller Youth Institute podcast with Kara Powell. She was interviewing Leroy Barber on Sabbath Rest for urban youth workers.

During the interview, there was an interesting interchange about senior pastors expectations for youth pastors. One youth pastor talked to his senior pastor and told him that they probably wouldn’t see fruit for 5 years. His senior pastor accepted that. That seems to me, not to be the norm. While sitting in a youth worker seminar at a Youth Specialties convention, Len Evans brought out a interesting statistic (at least I think this is where I got it from the convention was in 2002) that youth pastors time expectancy at a job is, on average 3 years.

We are called by God, whether we have a degree or not, to walk slowly beside the ones we minister and realize that once the salvation has started that is a long process of healing and reorienting their life toward the path that God would have them take.

I look at this website, the Facebook group, the MySpace page, and Twitter account as a way to facilitate that process. We are all here to walk next to each other whether in paid ministry or in volunteer ministry and help each other with the path that God has appointed us to and help spread the Light of His Word.

Cross posted at Ministry and Meteorology? Blog

Today was the first Big Ticket Tour and the first face to face with other ministers since starting this ministry (BTF Minister’s Connection). The music was awesome and so was connecting with the church partners, pastors, youth pastors and leaders!

There were 8 bands that performed and they were all amazing. Three of them were chosen to play on the Indie Stage at the Big Ticket Festival in June.

The next stop is Grand Rapids, MI, Feb. 28. I (Mary) will be going down there to help out again and to meet with other ministry leaders in that area. Jeff has to work, but hopefully he will be able to go to Highland, MI on Mar. 21 and Lansing, MI, Mar. 28.

I look forward to meeting more ministry leaders at one of the tours or at the Big Ticket Festival! So, if you stumble upon this site and are planning to attend the tours and/or Big Ticket, be sure to let me know so I can say hi!