I have been doing some much needed catch up research on Generation Z. Generation z turns 20 this year! So much focus has been on the Gen Y/ millennials that I truly missed some much needed focus on Gen Z. There is a lot of difference between Gen Y and Gen Z. The one I want to highlight today is that Gen Z is image focused. They are the emoji and photo generation. They COMMUNICATE in pictures. They look at a chunk of text and say TLDR. (Too long, didn’t read). They are highly literate but choosing not to read. So what does this mean for bible study?

I don’t think it means we need to give them an emoji bible as seen here. Although creative, I don’t think this is our next step.  Although it is interesting to note that there is an actual emoji translation of Moby Dick now.

I do think that we need to remember that Gen Z does not know where to start with The Bible from day to day.  We have found that when we give them chunks of scripture and then have them do basic scripture discussion questions that are used in international countries, our students are learning how to look at God’s word for more than just “words” but allowing time to meditate and chew on the WORD.  There has to be time to let His Word work on our heart and when we just “read it”, we miss it.  This is what students are missing.   One of the ways I think we can use images to help our students in studying God’s word is to begin to have them draw doodles of what they see as they read.  I’m calling it divine doodling.  As they wrestle with a passage over and over again, I ask them to draw a doodle that represents what they just read.  I believe that it helps them process what they read through their image based literacy.  I’m truly just dabbling in this, but it is very intriquing to me.  I don’t want a generation to not know how to open the bible and meditate on His word.  Our students want to know how to study His Word…but it’s just dealing with the TLDR blockade.

Anyone else coming up against this?

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a Connection Algorithm like Sheldon’s that would help you connect a girl to the student ministry or a girls lifegroup?
I remember the first day on the job as a girlsminister. Such an algorithm would have been very handy. It was our fall retreat! I was surrounded by cliques of girls and I couldn’t figure out how to get inside of one of those circles. They all seemed to be looking at me—the new girl—and sizing me up. Didn’t they realize I was an adult and the girls minister?! I think I thought there would be instant connection like there was when I worked summers at the large Christian camps. Just because I was camp staffer, I often had students come up and start talking with me about some pretty heavy things. But, this was not how it was on my first day on the job. There were some sweet people that tried to come over and introduce themselves but mostly it was cliques. My go to entry line was, “Hey do you guys know where I could get a soda?” and then when the conversation tanked, I’d say, “wow better go look for that soda.” Then on Sundays and Wednesdays there was the hallway that I renamed “The Gauntlet”. It was a horrible hallway because you had to walk down it to get into the sunday school room and lining every square inch of wallspace were groups of girls that weren’t talking to me but to each other. Very intimidating! I’m very thankful for the gauntlet and for that first fall retreat because it reminds me of what it feels like to be new in our student ministry. It’s scary!
That’s why I worked with some leaders and girls over the years to have a algorithm of sorts or a strategy to receive new girls into our student ministry. The idea is the 1-2-3 CLICK! method. Now understand that we don’t just go around saying “hey new girl…this is how we’re going to get you connected in three clicks.” This is just something that I have used to explain to students or leaders to help them understand how to continue reaching out to new people that have been introduced to our student ministry.

Here’s the basic premise:
1. Meet a girl who is unconnected and introduce her to her peer group.
2. Take her to coffee or introduce her to a peer or leader which will take her to coffee to get to know her.
3. Get her connected to a lifegroup of girls who have hung out with her or introduce her to a relationship building catalyst like our Snowball Girls Retreat. AND CLICK! She’s in.

I have observed that typically after 3 intentional relationship connections from you the leader—to a healthy peer group—and then to a bonding event or small group with that healthy peer group, the student will click into a place they feel welcomed and known within your student ministry.

As we have grown through the years, it has become imperative to utilize volunteers like our Chris and Debbie who are not only lifegroup leaders on Wednesdays, but also are moms that have journeyed through our student ministry alongside their students. They are the faces on Sunday AM when we have girls walk up to the check-in table to get connected. On Wednesdays we use our amazing ministry assistants Carol and Julia to connect girls to lifegroups and introduce them to a peer that will “show them the way” for the evening.
In addition to that, we have had a SOUP N STUDY at my home on Tuesday evenings or a WAFFLES N THE WORD group that meets in homes on Sundays. Surprisingly many girls that would not walk into the big student group have shown up at my home to meet girls in a smaller context. That may be something you could add to your connection plan as well.
How do you get girls connected and help them feel safe, loved and known in your student ministry?

Just found this cool tool from google.

And I am loving it just for the coolness factor.  Here is how you could use it to promote an event. Or you could use this as a teaching intro…some pretty cool uses.  Check it out!

Snowball Girls Retreat Promo

Sometimes you need to create a killer presentation really quick. Sometimes you want to put your slides on pinterest or slideshare. Well I am loving this new to me slide presentation software. You can utilize the app or you can use the web based tool. It’s sweet looking. https://www.haikudeck.com/

Here are some early glimpses:

I’ve been playing around with a new tool called Homage.  I used it to create an intro video for my request for more lifegroup leaders.  I did this all on an iphone in about 5 minutes.  Check it out here!

One of the small groups I lead is a 7th grade girls group. Wonderful group of girls…but we can’t even get an ice breaker done without subconversation and chatter happening every second.  There are a majority of girls that have something they want to add. There is a minority of girls that sit back and allow the many conversations to wash over them and they get left behind in the chat tide. And then I find myself frustrated that I’m constantly having to corral the conversation. So, last week…we began an excercise in taming our tongues.

Meet our tongue depressors.  This is how they work.

I introduced this as an ice breaker. The girls received a tongue depressor and a label. They could decorate their depressor anyway they wanted as long as they incorporated their real name in the design.  Then I discussed James 3 and how we need to tame our tongue.  I shared that with our group over the weeks, we had become undisciplined in the way we valued other’s words, God’s word, and even the own words that we choose to use.  Instead of considering what we should say, we all were just spouting out words over each other and not having any boundaries.  As a result, we are now going to undergo some tongue taming.  During the bible study time each student will have 5 clips that are given to them on their tongue depressor.  Each student can say whatever they want, but it will cost them a clip.  Now when they toss a clip in, they have the floor until I call on another student or another student tosses in a clip. Reading the scripture out loud when asked does not cost a clip. This was a helpful exercise in instilling boundaries. We were able to actually go deeper in conversation and the girls visibly would shake their heads when they would normally blurt out the first thing that popped in their mouth. You could tell they were beginning to value what was worth saying and what could wait.  Girls that had not talked before were able to enter into the conversation. As they begin to value their words, God’s words, and their own words better…they will get more freedom with our conversations.  This was a difficult thing to implement, but at the end—I got a bunch of the same statements from the girls mouths.  It was the words: Thank You!  What about you? How have you created conversation boundaries?