Anyone use Barefoot Ministries? I need help!

[Jennifer Cluckey]

Let me start with a little story. Three weeks ago we had our NYI convention, I didn't want to go. I had to go because the NYI pres. couldn't go and I am the Vice-pres. It was awesome. The next day at church the praise band was singing and I felt led to go to the altar. Wow. I had an experience like nothing I've had before in my life. God very clearly told me that my calling is to work with teens in our church( possibly going into the ministry but I'm still praying about that one.) I have never been on fire like I am right now. Our NYI pres. has told me to pretty much go with whatever God lays on my heart and he'll go along for the ride. The problem is I need more Bible study myself and I have no clue how to get programs that will work with teens. We have a few that have been in church their whole lives but are still not Christians. I was looking into Barefoot Ministries but we would like some more info on it. If anyone knows anything else that will work please help me or point me in the right direction.

Back to our NYI Convention. When the teens left, a youth pastor gave a talk. Without getting into a long drawn out account of everything he said, he said that he had realized that the same old things aren't working for our teens anymore because they have to see something to believe. Everything he said struck a chord with me, and this was before my experience with God. I'm so excited because God is pushing me out of my comfort zone (I'm a follower not a leader) and I hope to quit my job soon so I can spend more time with our church kids.

Well I kind threw a lot of extras in there. Thanks for all who get through this thing to the end for listening to me.

God bless!

[Ron Davis]

I subscribed to Barefoot for one year then canceled. I just didn't use it that much. I have resources I like better. I'll respond more when I have time.

[Jennifer Cluckey]

Thanks so much Ron for any help you can offer. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!

[Ron Davis]

Another quick post to give you a couple of resources to check out. The first one is great because it's free.

http://www.thesource4ym.com

The other is one of my favorites called Blue Fish TV. It has inexpensive video clips. One of my favorite is a series of 4 clips called "The Life of Mary" Another thing I like about this site is that you can view an entire clip online before purchasing it.

http://www.bluefishtv.com/

[Jennifer Cluckey]

Ron,
Thanks so much for thesource4ym website. It is just so awesome. I really appreciate you taking the time to send that to me.
God bless

Jenni

[Zach Wingo]

I'm one of the younger youth workers whenever I go to conferences but I have usually tend to have the most traditional view. I remember very clearly, when I was a young teen hearing people talk about how the church needs to be more relevant and so we they we tried to compete with the world with concerts, movies clips, fun games, cool illustrations, etc.. Yet the more we tried, the more we were relevant to the world we failed. Sure the numbers jumped way up and we had amazing turnouts with dozens coming to the altar. But nothing lasted for any real length of time and then we moved on to the next cool thing.

I am a firm believer, more now than ever, that if you simply teach the bible then everything else will fall into place. I know a church who's senior pastor is the one who leads the youth group and he simply does a verse by verse traditional bible study and his youth group has over 100 students in a community where 30 to 50 is the largest youth group. I've seen youth groups who stay away from attempting to make it more relevant and do very very well. Games are good, videos can be good, but I believe they should be used as an afterthought to add value to the main teaching of scripture. I'm 25 and I've been focusing on this for the past 5 years and its worked very well in the public schools. Kids can get better entertainment from the world, they are more open to a real bible study than you would think. I'm talking about public school kids who have never been to church and one who I had to explain what sin was because the he had never heard of that word.

[Ron Davis]

I remember very clearly, when I was a young teen hearing people talk about how the church needs to be more relevant and so we they we tried to compete with the world with concerts, movies clips, fun games, cool illustrations, etc.. Yet the more we tried, the more we were relevant to the world we failed. ................... Kids can get better entertainment from the world, they are more open to a real bible study than you would think. I'm talking about public school kids who have never been to church and one who I had to explain what sin was because the he had never heard of that word.

I agree completely. There is no way with our limited youth budgets that we can compete with the entertainment that is available elsewhere. All we wind up doing by trying is looking silly and usually slightly behind the technology curve.

[Floyd Laabs]

Let me start with a little story. Three weeks ago we had our NYI convention, I didn't want to go. I had to go because the NYI pres. couldn't go and I am the Vice-pres. It was awesome. The next day at church the praise band was singing and I felt led to go to the altar. Wow. I had an experience like nothing I've had before in my life. God very clearly told me that my calling is to work with teens in our church( possibly going into the ministry but I'm still praying about that one.) I have never been on fire like I am right now. Our NYI pres. has told me to pretty much go with whatever God lays on my heart and he'll go along for the ride. The problem is I need more Bible study myself and I have no clue how to get programs that will work with teens. We have a few that have been in church their whole lives but are still not Christians. I was looking into Barefoot Ministries but we would like some more info on it. If anyone knows anything else that will work please help me or point me in the right direction.

Back to our NYI Convention. When the teens left, a youth pastor gave a talk. Without getting into a long drawn out account of everything he said, he said that he had realized that the same old things aren't working for our teens anymore because they have to see something to believe. Everything he said struck a chord with me, and this was before my experience with God. I'm so excited because God is pushing me out of my comfort zone (I'm a follower not a leader) and I hope to quit my job soon so I can spend more time with our church kids.

Well I kind threw a lot of extras in there. Thanks for all who get through this thing to the end for listening to me.

God bless!
Hey Jennifer,

We use the Barefoot Ministries yearly subscription regulalry for our Wednesday night youth group. We have found it relevavant to the most part and very cost effective. The other portion of this is that you do not have to worry about doctrinal conflicts if that has been an issue. They seem to be updating it regularly and trying to address the issues of being out of the 1950's in their curriculi and I think they have done a pretty good job. Keep up the great work with the youth!!!