Author Archives: Jay Reynolds

About Jay Reynolds

Jay is doing Middle School Ministry at Hope Community Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he oversees their mid-week outreach and worship service called Hazardous and hopes to ROCK YOUR FACE OFF. He is married to Liz and is the dad of Coali the black lab and Citgo the orange tabby cat. You can find him on his blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Put Instagram to Work

by on in Experience.

We’re always looking for ways to leverage technology for our ministries. It’s about finding a way to bridge the gap between where students hang out and the truth we find in Christ. Over the past year, we have started to utilize Instagram as a useful tool to make that bridge happen.

WHY USE INSTAGRAM FOR MINISTRY?

Because it’s where students hang out online! This wave of technology should change the way we approach ministry. If we are going to continue to reach students, we need to also occupy this space.

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Your Pick, Captain!

by on in Leadership.

Remember gym class back in middle school? You had all the fun games – variations of baseball, dodgeball, parachutes, and those scooter things. Man, those were the days.

Remember when your class broke up into teams?

Were you ever the kid that got to pick the team?

What was your strategy? C’mon, you know you picked either the most skilled kid or the smartest kid – the one that knows everyone’s skills. How you picked a team then is probably very similar to how you would pick a team now.

And this idea of choosing your team – as leaders in ministry, we’ve got to consider it.

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Electrifying the Experience

by on in Experience, Small Groups.

Middle schoolers are excited, full of energy, creative, and loud! That’s why we love ’em, right? That’s who they are and how they are wired. So are your environments and programs electrifying the experience for them?

For me, I think they should… I think they need to. If we are going to reach this generation, then we should be creating environments where students want to be and where they want to bring their friends. We have the honor to think through the details and be creative in order to make it happen. Because focusing on details and creativity can lead to an electrifying experience.

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