Thursday, September 26, 2013

Do you want to be a GUEST Blogger?


Youth Speaker's Coach is looking for a few Guest Bloggers to join our blog-writing crew. If you have some practical communication, speaking or preaching advice for those who speak to students, we would love to publish your original thoughts and ideas (posts between 500-1000 words) here on YSC.

Just send me an email at mattmaiberger@gmail.com and with your guest-blog post submission!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

3 Quick "C's" to Upping Your Communication Game with Students Immediately


Want to improve your communication skills with students for next week?

Try implementing these 3 quick tips to up your game immediately:

1. Contact

As in better EYE CONTACT. Start using the 5-second-rule and improve your eye contact. Engage a specific student with 5-seconds of eye contact. Then, break eye contact and connect with a different student in the room.

2. Content

As in strong, BIBLICAL CONTENT. Add in an "illustrated Bible story" next week. Get students up front with you and have them act out the Bible story while you narrate it.

3. Connect

As in CONNECTING THROUGH STORY. Intentionally "tell" your stories next week. Engage the students' five senses in the story. What did it look like, smell like, sound like, feel like and taste like? Use a couple "character voices" in the telling your stories.

Interested in more practical tips to becoming a better youth communicator? Check out the new Kindle book, How to Become a Youth Speaking Ninja


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

First Cohort is in the History Books!

The Youth Communicator's Cohort held it's first conference call for 2013/2014. It was great! The group discussed Message Outline & Structure.

Want to listen in to the first call?

Thursday, September 19, 2013

"To Boldly Go Where No [Youth Pastor] Has Gone Before"


Beginning today, 40 youth pastors, youth speakers and youth workers are beginning a nine month journey to sharpen their communication skills for students, accelerating their growth as leaders in God's Kingdom and boldly go where no youth pastor has gone before. Never before has this specific group of leaders, from all over the United States, gathered for this purpose.

Thus begins the 2013/2014 Youth Communicator's Cohort!

Please be in prayer for this cohort of kingdom workers as they conference call together this afternoon.

Ready to jump in to the Cohort with both feet?

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOW TO JOIN!

Monday, September 16, 2013

3 Reasons You Should Call in to The Cohort

The 2013/2014 Youth Communicator's Cohort begins THIS THURSDAY, September 19. There are over 35 youth pastors, youth speakers and youth workers poised to begin 9 months of intensive communication coaching and encouragement. 

Why should YOU join them?

1. You need the encouragement.

Ministering to students can be discouraging. You have one of the toughest jobs in the church. Many times you feel undervalued, over-extended, and unappreciated. Sometimes, we feel that way too. Take the time to invest in your spiritual and emotional health as a youth pastor. We are here for you.

2. You want to improve your communication skills.

Whether you consider yourself a seasoned communicator or beginning novice, we have youth speakers from most regions of the country and all skill-levels. You will find great skills sharpening, coaching and training among your student ministry peers. Invest the time in your communication growth and YOU WILL IMPROVE!

3. It's FREE.

Over the next 9 months you will receive communication coaching and training that is normally valued at over $899. Act now - and it is FREE! We believe in your ministry and we believe in what God has called you to do. All it takes is an investment of your time each month. We believe in YOU!

Ready to take the plunge?


Here's what you will learn:

Cohort members benefit from monthly training on the following topics, plus communication "Master Classes" facilitated by seasoned student ministry veterans like Pastor Richard Crisco, Saddleback HS Pastor Josh Griffin and Student Ministry Expert Josh Mayo:

SEPT 19:  Message outline and structure

OCT 17:  MASTER CLASS with Pastor Richard Crisco

NOV 14:  Blocking, movement, and gestures

DEC 12:  Biblical Exegesis

JAN 16:  MASTER CLASS with Saddleback HS Pastor, Josh Griffin

FEB 13:  Refining your message

MAR 13:  MASTER CLASS with Youth Pastor & Student Ministry expert, Josh Mayo

APR 17:  Improved Illustrations/Storytelling

MAY 15:  Openings & Closings

It's not too late to join over 35 of your fellow youth pastors, youth leaders and youth speakers from around the nation for an unforgettable journey of youth communication coaching, encouragement and training in this monthly communication-centered conference call.

REGISTER BY CLICKING HERE...

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

FREE Illustration of the Month (100 Great Quotes on Prayer)

This month's free illustration is a list of great quotes on prayer.

Enjoy!

100 GREAT QUOTES ON PRAYER

1. "You can do more than pray after you have prayed; but you can never do more than pray until you have prayed."  A.J. Gordon

2. "God does nothing except in response to believing prayer."  John Wesley (Famous evangelist who spent 2 hours daily in prayer)    

3. "Prayer strikes the winning blow; service is simply picking up the pieces."  S.D. Gordon

4. "One should never initiate anything that he cannot saturate with prayer."  

5. "The greatest thing anyone can do for God or man is pray." S.D. Gordon 

6. "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.  Martin Luther

7. "The most important thing a born again Christian can do is to pray." Chuck Smith

8. "Prayer does not change the purpose of God.  But prayer does change the action of God." Chuck Smith 

9. "Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers." Sidlow Baxter

10. “God shapes the world by prayer. The more prayer there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces of against evil …” E.M. Bounds

11.  “Prayer is where the action is." John Wesley

12.  "Satan does not care how many people read about prayer if only he can keep them from praying. Paul E. Billheimer

13. "0h brother, pray; in spite of Satan, pray; spend hours in prayer; rather neglect friends than not pray; rather fast, and lose breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper - and sleep too - than not pray. And we must not talk about prayer, we must pray in right earnest. The Lord is near. He comes softly while the virgins slumber." Andrew A. Bonar

14. "Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees." Corrie ten Boom

15. "Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still." E.M. Bounds

16. "The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day." E.M. Bounds

17. "God's cause is committed to men; God commits Himself to men. Praying men are the vice-regents of God; they do His work and carry out His plans." E.M. Bounds

18. "The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity. If we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God's standing challenge, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not!'" (J. Hudson Taylor) 

19.  "No learning can make up for the failure to pray. No earnestness, no diligence, no study, no gifts will supply its lack." E.M. Bounds

20. "The little estimate we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give to it."  E.M. Bounds

21. "It is necessary to iterate and reiterate that prayer, as a mere habit, as a performance gone through by routine or in a professional way, is a dead and rotten thing."  E.M. Bounds

22.  "Satan trembles when he sees the weakest Christian on his knees."  William Cowper

23. "If the church wants a better pastor, it only needs to pray for the one it has."

24. "Seven days without prayer makes one weak."  Allen E. Vartlett

25. "Prayer is the real work, Evangelism is just the mopping up."

26. "You may as soon find a living man that does not breath, as a living Christian that does not pray."  Matthew Henry

27. "Prayer will make a man cease from sin, or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer."  John Bunyon

28. "He who has learned to pray has learned the greatest secret of a holy and happy life."  William Law

29.  "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness."  Martin Luther.

30. "There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God." Brother Lawrence

31.  When asked how much time he spent in prayer, George Muller's reply was, "Hours every day. But I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk and when I lie down and when I arise. And the answers are always coming."  Source Unknown.

32. “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying.  He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.”  Samuel Chadwick

33. “I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.”  Charles Spurgeon

34.  “The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelization in history.”  Andrew Murray

35.  "If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.” (Robert Murray McCheyne)

36.  “One day George Mueller began praying for five of his friends. After many months, one of them came to the Lord. Ten years later, two others were converted. It took 25 years before the fourth man was saved. Mueller persevered in prayer until his death for the fifth friend, and throughout those 52 years he never gave up hoping that he would accept Christ! His faith was rewarded, for soon after Mueller’s funeral the last one was saved.”

37. On persevering prayer: "I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it.  Yet at the 101st blow it splits in two.  I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before."

38. "Eighteen-year-old Hudson Taylor wandered into his father's library and read a gospel tract. He couldn't shake off its message. Finally, falling to his knees, he accepted Christ as his Savior. Later, his mother, who had been away, returned home. When Hudson told her the good news, she said, "I already know. Ten days ago, the very date on which you tell me you read that tract, I spent the entire afternoon in prayer for you until the Lord assured me that my wayward son had been brought into the fold." Our Daily Bread, July 19, 1989.  [Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) was a famous missionary in China.  He was founder of theChina Inland Mission which, at his death, included 205 mission stations with over 800 missionaries, and 125,000 Chinese Christians.  He spent 51 years in China]. 

39. Spurgeon's "boilerroom." Five young college students were spending a Sunday in London, so they went to hear the famed C.H. Spurgeon preach. While waiting for the doors to open, the students were greeted by a man who asked, "Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would you like to see the heating plant of this church?" They were not particularly interested, for it was a hot day in July. But they didn't want to offend the stranger, so they consented. The young men were taken down a stairway, a door was quietly opened, and their guide whispered, "This is our heating plant." Surprised, the students saw 700 people bowed in prayer, seeking a blessing on the service that was soon to begin in the auditorium above. Softly closing the door, the gentleman then introduced himself. It was none other than Charles Spurgeon. Our Daily Bread, April 24.

40. "Prayer does not influence God. Prayer surely does influence God. It does not influence His purpose. It does influence His action."  S.D. Gordon

41. Prayer "is the root, the fountain, the mother of a thousand blessings."  Chrysostom 

42.  "Prayer is the greatest of all forces, because it honors God and brings him into active aid."  E.M. Bounds 

43. Prayer should not be regarded "as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty."  E.M. Bounds 

44.  "I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came at some time; no matter at how distant a day, somehow, in some shape, probably the least I would have devised, it came." Adoniram Judson 

45. "Our prayer must not be self-centered. It must arise not only because we feel our own need as a burden we must lay upon God, but also because we are so bound up in love for our fellow men that we feel their need as acutely as our own. To make intercession for men is the most powerful and practical way in which we can express our love for them." John Calvin 

46. "We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties." Oswald Chambers 

47. "Faith in a prayer-hearing God will make a prayer-loving Christian." Andrew Murray

48.  "The battle of prayer is against two things in the earthlies: wandering thoughts, and lack of intimacy with God's character as revealed in His word. Neither can be cured at once, but they can be cured by discipline." Oswald Chambers

49. "Prayer breaks all bars, dissolves all chains, opens all prisons, and widens all straits by which God's saints have been held."  E. M. Bounds

50. "A life growing in its purity and devotion will be a more prayerful life."  E. M. Bounds 

51.  "Four things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds prayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer."  E. M. Bounds 

52. "Prayer is the acid test of devotion."  Samuel Chadwick 

53. "As is the business of tailors to make clothes and cobblers to make shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray."  Martin Luther 

54. "Prayer is my chief work, and it is by means of it that I carry on the rest."  Thomas Hooker, Puritan 

55. "The true church lives and moves and has its being in prayer."  Leonard Ravenhill

56. "We can do nothing without prayer. All things can be done by importunate prayer. That is the teaching of Jesus Christ".  E. M. Bounds 

57. "Prayer wonderfully clears the vision; steadies the nerves; defines duty; stiffens the purpose; sweetens and strengthens the spirit."  S.D. Gordon 

58. "The secret of all failure is our failure in secret prayer." The Kneeling Christian 

59.  "...True prayer is measured by weight, not by length. A single groan before God may have more fullness of prayer in it than a fine oration of great length."  C. H. Spurgeon

60. "If you want that splendid power in prayer, you must remain in loving, living, lasting, conscious, practical, abiding union with the Lord Jesus Christ." C. H. Spurgeon 

61. "Little praying is a kind of make believe, a salve for the conscience, a farce and a delusion."  E. M. Bounds (Emphasis added)

62. "The word of God is the food by which prayer is nourished and made strong."  E. M. Bounds 

63. "If the spiritual life be healthy, under the full power of the Holy Spirit, praying without ceasing will be natural."  Andrew Murray 

64. "We do not pray at all until we are at our wits' end."  Oswald Chambers

65. “The great people of the earth today are the people who pray!  I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor those who explain prayer; but I mean those who actually take the time to pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. That something else is important, very important and pressing, but still, less important and pressing than prayer. There are people who put prayer first, and group the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer. These are the people today who are doing the most for God in winning souls, in solving problems, in awakening churches, in supplying both men and money for mission posts, in keeping fresh and strong their lives far off in sacrificial service on the foreign field, where the thickest fighting is going on, and in keeping the old earth sweet a little while longer.”  S.D. Gordon (Emphasis added)

66.  “Up in a little town in Maine,things were pretty dead some years ago. The churches were not accomplishing anything. There were a few Godly men in the churches, and they said: 'Here we are, only uneducated laymen; but something must be done in this town. Let us form a praying band. We will all center our prayers on one man. Who shall it be?' They picked out one of the hardest men in town, a hopeless drunkard, and centered all their prayers upon him.  In a week, he was converted.  They centered their prayers upon the next hardest man in town, and soon he was converted.  Then they took up another and another, until within a year, two or three hundred were brought to God, and the fire spread out into all the surrounding country.  Definite prayer for those in the prison house of sin is the need of the hour.”  Dr. R.A. Torrey

67. “Therefore, whether the desire for prayer is on you or not, get to your closet at the set time; shut yourself in with God; wait upon Him; seek His face; realize Him; pray.”  R. F. Horton

68. “Time spent alone with God is not wasted.  It changes us; it changes our surroundings; and every Christian who would live the life that counts, and who would have power for service must take time to pray.”  M.E. Andross 

69.  Make time to pray.  “The great freight and passenger trains are never too busy to stop for fuel. No matter how congested the yards may be, no matter how crowded the schedules are, no matter how many things demand the attention of the trainmen, those trains always stop for fuel.”  M.E. Andross

70. “There is no other activity in life so important as that of prayer. Every other activity depends upon prayer for its best efficiency.”  M.E. Andross

71. “…the man on his knees has a leverage underneath the mountain which can cast it into the sea, if necessary, and can force all earth and heaven to recognize the power there is in 'His name.'”  M.E. Andross

72. When prayer has become secondary, or incidental, it has lost its power. Those who are conspicuously men of prayer are those who use prayer as they use food, or air, or light, or money."  M.E. Andross

73. "If the Christian does not allow prayer to drive sin out of his life, sin will drive prayer out of his life. Like light and darkness, the two cannot dwell together."  M.E. Andross

74. "We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly world, and can bring its power down to earth." Andrew Murray

75. "...[the] power of prayer can never be overrated. They who cannot serve God by preaching need not regret. If a man can but pray he can do anything. He who knows how to overcome with God in prayer has Heaven and earth at his disposal." Charles H. Spurgeon

76. "Prayer is a spiritual law which cooperates with the mind of God. It has more in it than merely petition. It clothes itself in reality and power, with the force of God Himself. It is an attitude of spirit and mind. Language is secondary in true prayer." Gossner.

77. “What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use— men of prayer, men mighty in prayer"  E.M. Bounds

78. "Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work."  Oswald Chambers.

79. "It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray; but we must patiently, believingly, continue in  prayer until we obtain an answer;  George Müller

80. “Those persons who know the deep peace of God, the unfathomable peace that passeth all understanding, are always men and women of much prayer.” R. A. Torrey

81. “Prayer can never be in excess.” C. H. Spurgeon

82. “The trouble with nearly everybody who prays is that he says ‘Amen’ and runs away before God has a chance to reply. Listening to God is far more important than giving Him our ideas.” Frank Laubach

83. "Time spent in prayer will yield more than that given to work. Prayer alone gives work its worth and its success. Prayer opens the way for God Himself to do His work in us and through us. Let our chief work as God's messengers be intercession; in it we secure the presence and power of God to go with us." Andrew Murray

84.“Yes, worship of the loving God is man’s whole reason for existence.” A.W. Tozer

85. “The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.”  A.W. Tozer 

86. "We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power.  We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results."  R. A. Torrey

87. "Prayer is not learned in a classroom but in the closet."  E. M. Bounds

88. "Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential part."Andrew Murray

89. "Prayer is weakness leaning on omnipotence."  W. S. Bowd

90. "Our prayers lay the track down which God’s power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without rails."  Watchman Nee

91. "Whole days and weeks have I spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer."  George Whitefield (Great  Evangelist during American Revolution era, during the  First  Great  Awakening in  America)

92. "I ought to pray before seeing any one…Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place. David says: ‘Early will I seek thee’…I feel it is far better to begin with God-to see His face first, to get my soul near Him before it is near another." - Robert Murray M'Cheyne

93. "There is no power like that of prevailing prayer, of Abraham pleading for Sodom, Jacob wrestling in the stillness of the night, Moses standing in the breach, Hannah intoxicated with sorrow, David heartbroken with remorse and grief, Jesus in sweat of blood.  Add to this list from the records of the church your personal observation and experience, and always there is the cost of passion unto blood.  Such prayer prevails.  It turns ordinary mortals into men of power.  It brings power.  It brings fire.  It brings rain.  It brings life.  It brings God."  Samuel Chadwick

94. "The main lesson about prayer is just this: Do it! Do it! Do it! You want to be taught to pray. My answer is pray and never faint, and then you shall never fail…" John Laidlaw

95. "A man who is intimate with God will never be intimidated by men."  Leonard Ravenhill

96. "Prayer is the secret of power."  Evan Roberts

97. "Since the days of Pentecost, has the whole church ever put aside every other work and waited upon Him for ten days, that the Spirit’s power might be manifested? We give too much attention to method and machinery and resources, and too little to the source of power."  Hudson Taylor

98. "Where there is no vision of eternity, there is no prayer for the perishing."  David Smithers

99. "Prayer is buried, and lost and Heaven weeps.  If all prayed the wicked would flee from our midst or to the refuge." Evan Roberts

100. "Ministers who do not spend two hours a day in prayer are not worth a dime a dozen - degrees or no degrees."  Leonard Ravenhill


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

How to Become a Youth Speaking Ninja released!

Today is the day!

The book, How to Become a Youth Speaking Ninja, has been released exclusively for Kindle!


You can purchase this practical youth communicator's tool right now from Amazon.com for only $2.99!

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE... and be sure to leave a review on Amazon!