New Poll: Favorite Amusement/Theme Park

This week seems to be "Amusement Park Week" on this blog, so I added a poll on the topic.

What is your favorite amusement/theme park?

• Cedar Point
• Six Flags
• Holiday World
• Coney Island
• Kings Island
• Knotts Berry Farm
• Disney
  
• None of these

If you answer "none of these" on the poll, please leave your answer as a comment on this post. I'd love to hear the reasons you like your park, too. Is it clean, close location, cheaper, great rides, awesome water park, amazing shows.

Poll Results: Next Blog Series

The votes are in. Overwhelmingly you guys want to see a series on budgeting. Both personal and church budgeting will be covered in two upcoming blog series.

Here are the poll results:

30% (3 people) wanted Youth Minister's Budget (personal)
40% (4 people) wanted Youth Ministry's Budget (church)
10% (1 person) wanted Small Town Youth Ministry
20% (2 people) wanted Youth Ministry Blog Reviews
0 % wanted Parenting Mistakes
(1 person) wanted "Your ideas" (added to list already)

Order of my next blog series will be:
Youth Ministry's budget
Youth Minister's personal budget
Youth Ministry blog reviews
Small Town youth ministry


If you have any specific questions or topics you want covered, just leave a comment or email me and I'll answer/address them in the blog series.

New Poll: Next blog series

I have a few topics I want to blog about next, but I'm not sure which one to start on first. So I thought I would ask you (anyone who reads this) what you think. What series would you like me to write and post first?

Next Blog Series:
- Youth Minister's Budget (personal)
- Youth Ministry's Budget (church)
- Small Town Youth Ministry
- Youth Ministry Blog Reviews
- Parenting Mistakes
- Your ideas

I would love to hear your comments on any of these topics. And if you have another idea, just leave it in a comment and I'll think about blogging about it.

Poll Results: Have you ever had one of those days?

The last poll was a rather general question about life. Have you ever had "one of those days" you would like to forget?

It turns out that all of us have had a day like that.

100% (8 people) said they have had "one of those days"
0% (no one) said no

Be encouraged that you are not the only one who has had a bad day. We all have bad days. We all have days we do not want to remember. Even Jesus had days like that.

Remember that God loves you and will never leave you. If you need to, take some time to sit in His lap today and take comfort knowing He loves you more than you could ever imagine.

New Poll: Have you ever had a day you would like to foget?

Youth Ministry is not always fun and games.

Have you ever had "one of those days" you would like to forget?

Yes
No

Vote on the poll (on the right sidebar) and then leave a comment sharing a little about that day. I know that doesn't help you forget about it, but it might make someone else feel a little better about their day.

Poll Results: VBS & You

The summer is almost over. For youth workers that means its time to kick off the regular ministry year again. But during the summer, many of you were involved with a multitude of ministries - one being the VBS at your church.

According to the latest poll, all youth workers were involved with VBS in some form. Here are the results:

100% (2 people) are involved by teaching a class or leading an area.

I'd love to hear some stories about what made VBS memorable for you this year.

Poll Results: Promoting students to next grade

I asked when you promote students to the next grade and here is what you said...

66% (2 people) promote at the beginning of the summer
33% (1 person) say it fluctuates throughout the summer
0% (no one) promotes at the end of summer

New Poll: VBS & You

Summer means Vacation Bible School for most churches. As youth workers, this means that you are most likely involved in one way or another. Just how much involvement is the question this time around.

How much involvement do you have in VBS?
- in charge
- help plan
- teaching a class/leading an area
- helping where needed
- make my appearance then go home
- no involvement
- church isn't doing VBS

Answer according to the one that most fits your involvement. I know some of you are in charge and you also teach a class - your answer would be "in charge."

Have you had any really funny things happen at a VBS?

New Poll: Promoting to the next grade

With summer in full swing, I thought I'd see when you promote your students. When do they go from 6th to 7th grade within the youth ministry?

When do you promote your students?
- at the beginning of summer
- they stay in same grade, but can be involved in older group
- at the end of summer

Have you found one way works better for you? Why?

Poll Results: Summer vacation

With summer in full swing, here are the results from the summer vacation poll:

As a youth worker, when do you take your summer vacation?

42% (3 people) don't take summer vacations
14% (1 person) takes it before summer starts
28% (2 people) take it during the middle of summer
14% (1 person) takes it after summer is over
0% take it a few days here a few days there

I hope you have a great summer of ministry. I also hope you have a chance to relax a little and enjoy some of it, too.

New Poll: Summer Vacation

The last poll was about your day off during the summer. This time, I'm curious as to how you handle vacation during the summer. The summer is a very full part of a youth workers year. And this can make it difficult to take a vacation (even a small one).

When do you take summer vacation?
- I don't
- before summer starts
- in the middle of summer
- after summer is over
- a few days here, a few days there

In the past, I've taken my vacation sometime in the middle of the summer. It has to be an off week, as to not miss a big event. But this has helped me not be completely drained when the summer months are over.

What are you thoughts? What are the advantages to taking a vacation before, after or during summer?

Poll Results: Off day during the summer

It seems like a few people took an off day from voting on the poll.

So, what does your off day look like during the summer?
33% (1 person) take their normal off day
66% (2 people) take an off day, but it varies from week to week

I hope this summer you get to enjoy some rest with all that ministry you are doing.

Poll Results: Graduation Ceremonies

The end of the school year means graduation. And graduation equals graduation ceremonies.

What do people think about graduation ceremonies? Well, according to my poll, on this site, (of mostly youth workers) a majority of people do not enjoy the ceremony part.

Do you enjoy graduation ceremonies?
20% (2 people) do enjoy the ceremonies
80% (8 people) do not enjoy the ceremonies

This could be due to the fact that a lot of ceremonies last for hours. Or that most ceremonies are in places without A/C. Or it could be the fact that most youth ministers only know a small percentage of the graduating seniors. Even with this large percentage of people not enjoying the ceremonies, I don't know a single youth worker who would miss it. That's how much we love the students!

New Poll:

This is graduation season, so the poll revolves around graduation. (clever isn't it?) It is a simple poll this week, only two options.

Do you enjoy graduation ceremonies?
yes
no


I'm also interested in hearing about some funny, sad stories you might have about graduations. Maybe you went to the wrong one or sat through a four hour graduation and still missed seeing one of your students walk across the stage. Please share in the comments.

Poll Results: Summer Missions

The last poll asked whether you were taking a summer missions trip this summer. It turns out, this was not a big poll. Only 2 people voted. How did they vote...

100% (2 people) are not doing a summer mission event.

Interesting...

New Poll: Are you going to do any missions this summer?

With summer fast approaching (despite the recent cold temp. making us forget that its spring), I'm curious to hear what kinds of mission trips you all are taking. So, that is the question for today...

Are you going to do any missions this summer?
- no
- yes, overseas
- yes, national
- yes, local
- what is missions?


I would love to hear specifics about your trips. Please leave a comment and share where you are going and/or what you are doing. Thanks.

Poll Results: How many times a week do you teach?

The results are in...

The readers of this blog cover the spectrum of teaching responsibilities. Here are the specifics:

8% (1 person) normally does not teach
33% (4 people) teach 1 time a week
41% (5 people) teach 2 or 3 times a week
8% (1 person) teach 4 or 5 times a week
8% (1 person) teaches way too much each week

I'd be interested to hear if the person who teaches way too much teaches different age groups or how many lessons they teach multiple times.

Despite how much or little you teach, know that you have a great responsibility in sharing the Bible with the students. You are playing a role in how they will understand their world. Thanks!

New Poll: How many times a week do you teach?

How many times a week do you teach? It can be either a Sunday school, Bible study, small group, a theology class... Most youth workers, not to mention other ministers, have multiple teaching responsibilities during any given week.

How many times a week do you teach?

• I normally don't teach
  
• 1 time
• 2 or 3 times
• 4 or 5 times
• way too much
  

Plus I'd be interested to hear what kinds of classes you are teaching. Please let us know in the comments.

For me, I teach high school Sunday school regularly, lead a jr high small group each week, lead a high school small group every other week, and help teach the jr high Sunday night class. Plus twice a month I teach a 5/6 grade class during service. That seems like a lot as I type it in a row like that. :)

Poll Results: Most used Social Networking Sites

The latest poll on the site was on Social Network sites. I asked which one you use most. At the beginning of the voting, I was a little surprised that MySpace was leading, but it didn't take long for Facebook to just take over. What I did learn is that most youth workers use whatever networking site their students are using. Most use more than one, but only one can be the "go to" site. According to the poll, here are what youth workers use most:

84% (22 people) use Facebook most
11% (3 people) us Myspace most
3% (1 person) doesn't use them and thinks they are evil
(I don't know where the other 2% went, but hey maybe their still trying to figure out what a social networking site is)

New Poll: Which social networking site do you use more?

I'm working on an upcoming meeting/seminar about technology and teenagers. So I thought I'd ask you; youth workers, ministers, random people which sites you use more often? (now this will not be an exhaustive list, so if you can't find your site, leave a comment to let us know.


Which social networking site do you use more?

• Facebook
• Myspace
• Bebo
• mychurch.org
• holypal.com
• other
• I don't use them, they are evil

I know some of you, like me, use multiple sites to connect with people. Try to think of the one you use the most - if you could only check one today which one would it be.

If you have any stories (funny, inspiring, boring) about using a social networking site, leave a comment and share.