September 2011
1 post
MY FIRST YEAR BLOG HAS MOVED
Check out http://growmoore.tv to keep up on what is going on in my first year.
August 2011
14 posts
So honored to be on this team.
A few weeks ago I had the honor of preaching a message and casting the vision of what God has called us to do in order to reach teenagers for him in order to fulfill the mission he had called us to we were going to be moving our student ministry over to our second campus on the corner of Walnut and Demoree St.
http://vimeo.com/27512665
In order to make the move, we were going to need to upgrade...
From one Youth Pastor to Another - Video Series
I absolutely love being a Youth Pastor. I love everything about it. Over the years I have had my share of good days and bad while working in the harvest field of Student Ministry.
One of the things I have a passion for is pouring into other leaders that are as excited about reaching teenagers for Jesus as I am.
I recently offered a One-on-One Coaching Service to Youth Pastors across the...
Small...define that please?
Years ago I was speaking at a Regional Leadership Conference. After one of my sessions I opened it up for some Q and A. After about five questions I started to notice a theme, every question started like this … I’m a Youth Pastor at a small church” or “We have some great things going even though we are a small youth group and I was wondering”. They were all saying...
It's not WHAT we do, but HOW we do it.
Each week we do an activity in the field to build community with our students.
This week “WHAT” we did was play soccer.
But “HOW” we did it is what made it fun and memorable for our students.
We played “World Cup Soccer”.
We placed giant flags of different countries at the end of the field.
We had two host calling the game. The host had make believe...
Thoughts after a youth service.
Tonight was a pretty low-key night. Last week we had a big service with a lot going on. This week our adult and children’s ministry did not meet so I knew we would have a lower attended night. And we did.
I preached. We worshipped. We celebrated what God had done during the summer. All in all it was a good night. Not incredible - not horrible. I think we have all been there before.
...
KEEP IT SIMPLE CONFERENCE
January 20th - 21st
Visalia, California
For more info email your name and state you minister in to:
keepitsimpleconference@gmail.com
I love sharing JESUS.
God has opened doors for me to travel and speak at Youth Ministries as well as Youth and Leadership Conferences this fall and in 2012.
Here is where I will be speaking.
August 24th - Community Church Back to School Outreach - Orange, Texas.
Sept 6 thru 9 - Rockford First A/G Uth Retreat and Uth Service - Rockford, Ill.
Sept 30 thru Oct 1 - 209 Youth Conference - Buckeye, Arizona
Oct 28 thru...
Nine "Never's" in working with Teenagers.
Never yell at one of your students.
Raising your voice is a sign of lack of control. You are the one in charge, look them in the eye, speak to them firmly but never yell at them.
Never physically grab or shove them.
Can you spell L.A.W.S.U.I.T.? That is what you will have if you grab them.
Never use slang words around them.
Shoot - Dang - Darn - can easily be misunderstood or cuss words....
FOLLOW UP THAT WORKS
The idea in marketing is to be noticed.
You need to do something different, something that sticks out.
In the technological world we live in, teenagers get 10 face-book invites each day and at least 50 text messages. If we follow up with our first time guests by dropping a face-book message or a text message we will be one of 100’s of other messages they have received that day thru those...
Sun sets on an incredible summer.
At the beginning of the summer my family and I started on a brand new journey.
We not only moved from Tulsa to California, we moved into a new season of our lives. After 20 years of student ministry, God asked us to begin again and we have embraced the challenge.
This summer has been nothing less than a whirlwind of blessings. We sold our house, found a great rental just down the road from...
WatchThis past weekend I shared the vision of student ministry with our church. I was AMAZED at the response we got after this message. God is just getting started here in the Central Valley.
Setting out the Jars.
In 2 Kings 4:1-6 there is an incredible story.
A woman whose husband died was at the end of her rope. She had a son, no food and no money to buy food. In fact all she had was a tiny jar of oil. She came to the prophet and asked him for advice. He told her to go get several jars from her friends and bring them back to her home then pour the oil in the jars she collected.
Her and her son...
The Goal - College Ministry Part Two
The goal of our College Age Ministry.
The goal of our College Age Ministry is not to help College age kids find good christians to date. We are not a dating service, we are a church.
The goal of our College Age Ministry is not get a lot of 20something attending our College Age Service.
The goal is to get College Age students to accept and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus and find their...
July 2011
8 posts
College Ministry - part one
Since we arrived in Visalia a few months ago, we have been running hard toward what God is calling us to do to bring teenagers to Jesus.
While we’ve been pushing and planning for the Student Ministry we’ve also been praying and seeking God for His vision for our College Ministry here at VFA. We currently have a small group ministry for this age group and the students that attend...
HE did it again.
Last night we had our second Big Wednesday of the Summer and God blessed our efforts. At our first Big Wednesday we had 182 attend our service. Last night we had 251 in attendance, 60+ visitors and 27 young people accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior.
GOD IS SO GOOD!
To go along with how God has told us to reach teenagers here in the Central Valley we strived to once again KEEP IT SIMPLE.
...
This is going to be fun.
Tonight is our 2nd BIG Wednesday out of the 3 we are doing this summer. I’m really looking forward to it. The team has worked hard and I can’t wait to see what God does.
As usual we are keeping it pretty simple. We will worship, I will preach and to build community we are serving free burgers, playing some crazy lawn games, our house band will be playing on an outdoor stage, and we...
Keeping it simple.
Here at Visalia First Assembly we currently meet in Room 19. Room 19 is an all-purpose room used for youth, children, mens ministries, and several other organizations in the church. We also have access to a very large grass field that is located right beside the room we meet in on Wednesday nights.
As far as facilities go we have a room and a grass field. That’s it.
When I arrived here...
Stop Playing the Game Campaign
So many times in youth ministry we can get caught up in the game. The game of trying to find significance in gaining a stronger voice on twitter, facebook and our sphere of influence.
We can get caught up in the game of seeking for significance in knowing and being known by “superstar” leaders in the Christian world.
If we don’t guard our heart we will spend more time doing...
God is our Protector
Last night we were in week two of our four-week series GOD IS LOVE. I talked about how that God is good and because of that he wants to protect us, to shield us from harm.
The scriptures teach in Psalms 34:8 – Taste and se that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who finds refuge in Him.
I wanted our students to know that because God is good he offers us refuge from the attacks of the...
My favorite part of last night's service.
I really enjoyed last nights youth service.
We had a High Five Hallway - where our volunteers stood at each side of the door creating a tunnel for students to walk thru while getting high fives and hearing our workers cheer for them.
We had a nice worship set after the service - in which my son Jordan led - it was his first time leading worship here at the student ministry and he did a very...
WHAT we are talking about and WHY.
We had just come off of our first 3 Big Wednesday service and it was a great night. Students had a lot of fun. Great buzz with our volunteers. Now we needed to press onto the things that were next on our agenda for the summer. Advertising next 3 Big Wednesday’s Back Yard BBQ, starting new Sunday Night Core Group Meetings, and building our team of volunteers for our new ministry launch in the...
June 2011
4 posts
3 Big Wednesdays
My family and I have absolutely love being here in Visalia. We love the area, we love the people and we love our God that brought us here.
When we first arrived here in Visalia two months ago the student ministry was about 60 each week. Last Wednesday night we had 182 in attendance - 67 first time visitors and 36 students accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
Here is how it...
WatchInternship - Journey thru Romans
Casting Vision - Building the Team.
When I arrived in Visalia we had a team of 20 people serving in the student ministry.
They are a great team with amazing hearts for God and his people. However, knowing in my spirit what God was calling us to do, I knew 20 workers was simply not enough. We needed a bigger team.
So we decided to do a push for volunteers. Instead of putting “We Need Your Help!” in the bulletin we...
Step by step process.
Even before I arrived here at Visalia, God had laid many things on my heart. Dreams, Visions, and creative ideas that I thought would bring teenagers into His kingdom.
There are times, I am so tempted to jump in and launch all of these initiatives at once, however, not only would that not work it would also be very unwise.
I read a very good book one time that had a phrase that went something...
WatchI preached a message called SAM I AM this past weekend at the church. After the service we had 147 adults sign up to find out more about what is coming up in the student ministry and the role they can play in reaching teenagers for Jesus Christ. I will give you the details of our VIP Dinner, Vision Casting and Volunteer Recruiting plans in the next few blogs.
May 2011
11 posts
Forgetting the Mountain.
Lining the east side of city of Visalia is the Sequayah Mountain Range. For a guy from the flat midwest the snow capped mountain tops are absolutely breath taking. When I first arrived in town my eyes were always fixed on the mountain. When I drove into the city for the first time they were all I looked at. When I woke up in the morning, I glanced out my window and just stared. Off and on...
What are we going to do?
When you transition there are a ton of questions that go thru your mind each day. Questions like, where are we going to live, what is going to be our families favorite restaurant, or is there going to be a mini-mart anything like QuickTrip in the area. (For those of you from Tulsa…you know the power of QT).
I have found over the course of the past few weeks that questions abound in the...
This Wednesday ... the journey begins.
Well, it’s 12am and I can’t sleep. Wednesday night is coming.
Over the past 19 years of serving as a Youth Pastor I’ve been a part of and preached in at least 988 Wednesday Night Youth Services. But I have to say I have never been excited about any one particular service more than I am this coming Wednesday night.
This Wednesday I speak to our new Student Ministry for the very...
WatchA quick look at Visalia First Assembly of God.
Rest in Him.
When your transitioning from one ministry to another it is a crazy time. You know God is calling you to a new place and you are excited about what He is up too, but there is so much more to serving at a new church than just knowing you’re suppose to go.
First there is the church side. Taking time to get acclimated to the new office, meeting new people, learning new policies and...
Starting a Summer Internship Program - Part 3
Ministry Training
People want to make a difference. They want to do something to make a valuable contribution to the organization they are choosing to be involved in. Sometimes those contributions are made behind the scenes, where no one sees their hard work. While other times their contribution will take place on a stage where the entire world can stand and cheer.
Regardless of where it is,...
Starting a Summer Internship Program-Part 2
It was kind of crazy but before we even got here to Visalia I started getting names of young adults sent to me that had either been a part of the ministry in the past or were interested in interning for the first time this summer. So we decided, that with all the unstableness of transitioning and with everything else that we knew we would have to do in the coming weeks and months, why not go...
Starting a Summer Internship Program-Part 1
In coming to Visalia there have been several 20 year olds that have shown interest in being a part of the ministry via an internship program. So in a few weeks we will launch a Summer Internship designed to do more than use these young people to do all the grunt work we don’t want to do. We are going to take the summer to give them spiritual, leadership and ministry training.
Over the...
The Transition - Part 2
Once I let people know that we were no longer at Oneighty. I began to get calls from all over the country. I took calls from large churches, small churches, churches in rural communities as well as metropolitan areas.
After talking with eleven churches it became obvious to my wife and I that there were really only two potential places God could be calling us. We visited them both and liked...
The Transition - Part 1
In October of 2010 things started to change.
I was the Youth Pastor of Oneighty, one of the most well-known youth ministries in the country. I was working for Willie George, considered by many (including myself) to be the founding father of modern day youth ministry. I was blessed to have a talented staff, a great budget and a 90,000 sq. ft. youth center. So why did I feel this way?
It is...