On the flip side, when I hear some say "my kids" it has a familial undertone, indicating a close relationship. I think teens like that. Not the term "kids", but the familial undertone. When I hear someone say "my students" I don't sense the relationship so much as I sense "this person learns from me in a classroom setting" I think teens want to feel like they are more than just recipients of our knowledge. Instead of being called Pastor by your boss, imagine being introduced as "This is Joe, he learns from me."

I do think the language we use is very important, but saying student in my opinion says we think of you as higher than a teenager because even college students are often referred to as students. I do hate it when adults refer to teenagers as kids, but the word student like tim said is like splitting hairs.

I watch almost every sermon podcast from LifeChurch.tv. They're excellent! Now a bunch of my sr. high kids do, too!

Yeah, one would hope, but reality is, that's just not the case. It's rare that people in church intentionally think about marketing. If anything, it's more like, "Jesus isn't a product that needs to be marketed."

I disagree. Calling me "Pastor" doesn't limit my view of who I am nor does it limit my overall identity. I get the author's point, but I think he's splitting hairs.

(/whispering) I kinda want to play this game.

Thanks for your comment. I would hope that the senior pastor alone is not responsible for marketing. A church should have an evangelism/outreach/marketing team. Hopefully some of those people would have a clue or at least a passion to learn from people with experience in church marketing.

Absolutely true principles, too often we forget the people and just remember the messes.

Great visual reminders!

It's not that most churches think marketing is evil -- it's just that usually the pastor in charge doesn't have any knowledge of marketing and never peruses it. That's why we're stuck with text-based black and white newsletters with nasty clipart. They're trying the best they know how, I guess.

Secrets don't make friends. We need names :)

That has always bugged me. I didn't know about the fix!

The elders in Revelation repeat "Holy, Holy, Holy..." over and over and over again.

Thanks for the tip! I'm gonna check into that.

I agree, I am tired of the same ol' same ol'. We seem to like repeating the same 8 songs on an album and call it good. Hollywood and Christian music seem to be stuck in the same rut of not being creative in their content.

Great ideas, Grahame, as always. :-)

Just wanted to see if there's interest for posting and plugging detailed youth night resources, discussion starters and ideas.

Helpful and thought provoking thoughts Brian. I think friendly competition, in a spirit of fun, can play a positive role in group building. That's very different to the more 'violent' activities you describe. Personally, I've never seen the attraction of laser tag, paintball and the like. I do have ethical and professional reservations with 'simulated gunplay' and it's never played a role in my youth ministry. I've always tried to be a bit more creative (and productive) in outdoor pursuits and activities, to seek to build confidence, self esteem, a sense of achievement, outdoor skills, team building etc. I've not always succeeded, but that's been my goal.

Important to think though regardless of where you stand on the issue.

Yeah, this has been the case for a long time. All the public schools around here forbid cell phones in the locker rooms.

http://www.rememberthemilk.com is what I use. Love it!

Now I need an assistant to remember to type all that stuff in :)

True that.

also...just because a door is opened, that doesn't mean God opened it.

My church is in the processes of evaluating our website and moving it to a different company. I'll pass this along to some of our church leaders. Thanks for this link!