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The Judas Syndrome May 14

“How can I be more like Judas today?”

This is probably the one thought that doesn’t enter your mind while you’re doing youth ministry.  But if you stop and think about it, Judas had it all going for him.  He was a trusted disciple (you don’t get to carry around the money unless someone trusts you), and was privy to an inside look at Jesus’s ministry.  So the question really isn’t: how can I be more like Judas today?  But more:

“Can I fall into the same trap of spending time with Jesus without growing closer to him?”

As youth leaders, our days are filled with bible studies, organizing retreats, praying for students, teaching, volunteer meetings, tracking down parents to get permission slips signed, but our days are filled with doing things for Jesus.  We can get so caught up in doing ministry, doing things for Jesus, that we forget we also need to do things with Jesus. Studying for that lesson you’re teaching or watching the latest YouTube video that all your students are talking about is important to your ministry, but it shouldn’t take the place of your own personal time getting to know Jesus.

The reality is that it is possible to be so “near” to Jesus and associate with Him closely; teaching the lessons, preparing the camps, praying the pizza gets there before your students turn you into a piñata, that we don’t focus on our own spiritual growth.  Putting our energy into our numbers or trying to justify our positions in the church will only strain our relationship with Jesus.

I think this is one of the reasons youth leaders burn out so quickly, because they’ve neglected their own relationship with Jesus.

Judas took his relationship with Jesus for granted.  He had a pretty decent opportunity when it came to ministry; he was able to work right alongside of Jesus.  He was able to pray with Jesus, he was able to hear the parables first hand, he was able to see the miracles and he was even lucky enough to be taught by Jesus in the flesh.

Judas had awesome opportunities for ministry, but he let the pressures and expectations of others control how these opportunities impacted his life.

Speaking from personal experience, I can remember many times where I was so overwhelmed by other people’s expectations that my personal time with Jesus became obsolete.  I focused so much time and energy on all the other aspects of ministry and I thought all the work equaled spiritual growth…my spiritual growth. (Boy, was I wrong!)

Our greatest purpose in life is to draw closer to God; to become so close to Him that we become His reflection.

Although the ministry and the work “behind the scenes” are vitally important, don’t let it be the thirty pieces that destroys your relationship with Jesus.  We can’t help our students grasp the concept of Jesus and His unconditional love for them and the importance of spending time with Him if everything we do says just the opposite.  Don’t get me wrong, I love youth ministry (I really do!), but I can’t help others grow in their relationship with Jesus if my relationship with Jesus isn’t growing.  Jesus says in John 15:5;

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

If we keep our relationship with Jesus a high priority, He will provide the “fruits” of our ministries.  When we make a conscience decision each day to hang out with Jesus and get to know Him more, the days where we act more like Judas will be few and far between.

Nate Eckert is a 38 year old youth pastor who loves being in the trenches of youth ministry.  He fights the good fight in McHenry, KY at McHenry Baptist Church.  Nate has been married to his wife, Heather, for 11 years and we have 2 beautiful daughters, Riese and Sarah.

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Dispatches from the First Year: Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes May 9

Our church is experiencing a time of great change. Our Senior Pastor is retiring from the ministry, our Associate Pastor is being located to another Methodist Church in the district and our Preschool Director is resigning. Change!  E-mails, letters and announcements have been made to all of staff and the congregation and as a result many people feel emotional, frustrated, unsure, and full of uncertainty.  The overarching feeling is that we are unsure of what the future holds for this church.

I have experienced church change especially because I was raised as a PK and moved constantly as my Dad pastored at various churches. However, it’s different when you aren’t a part of the change but you’re experiencing the change. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with uncertainty or fear because of the realization of not being in control during a time of change. Except, I think that we as believers need to understand that how we handle change is a good reflection of our Lord and Savior.  In the midst of change I think it’s most important to experience the full power of relying on Christ.  It’s when we aren’t in control that we recognize the significance of surrendering, submitting and relying on the plans Christ has for us. We can get too caught up on our feelings toward the change that we fail to realize that Jesus has something beautiful to create from it.

Samantha is a 22 year-old newbie, serving 200 students at the North Raleigh United Methodist Church in North Carolina.  She will graduate in May 2012 from Asbury University, with a degree in Communications and an emphasis in Leadership.  She is blessed with an amazing family that includes two great parents, three sisters, two brothers-in-law, and two nephews.

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Will They Accept It From a Woman? May 7

Through a series of completely expected and understandable events, I, a late 20s female, became the middle school boy’s small group leader. I’m not sure terror is a strong enough word to describe what I felt walking into that small group after teaching the Bible study for the whole group that night. I’ve worked with that group for years, but never just me and them without the buffer of other girls or a man around. I had no idea what to expect, and was more than a little concerned that I wouldn’t be able to help them. What could we possibly have in common? Do we even speak the same language?

If I have anything to offer, will they accept it from…a woman?

They had to have been able to sense my fear (boys can do that, right?). I think I might have been actually shaking a little as we sat down and prayed. Then, the strangest thing happened. One of them remembered they had seen me at the football game Friday night, and asked what I thought. After a 10 minute, in-depth discussion of Cooper High’s defense (general consensus was it was awesome), I rolled the conversation back around to our lesson that night. We were working in Hosea, and it turns out this group of young men had a lot to say about that particular book. After years of leading high school and college students, I was floored by the understanding and passion of these middle schoolers. I was more surprised by how much they thought along the same lines as me, and where we disagreed, we still understood each other.

For whatever reason, these boys found encouragement in a woman (and this woman found in them someone,) who would sit and listen to them, who would talk with them, who would pray with them, and who would be honest with them. We found something in each other that would never had been discovered if there had been a man leading that group on a regular basis. Week after week, I found that we all had something very important to give each to other, because of and in spite of the gender and age differences

As I locked up the building that first night, I was reminded that we often have more in common than we do not.

I think we sometimes get so worried about raising up Godly men and women, we forget that men and women are just people.

Yes, there are basic and important differences in the genders, each reflecting the image of God in different and glorious ways. But, at the end of the day, we are still reflecting the image of the same God.  We are not called to just be an example to those of our own gender; we called to make disciples of all people. There are specific times and places that girls need a woman, and boys need a man to talk to. However, we make a grave mistake when we assign that to all situations.

Be encouraged that all of your youth need you; they need the example of people living out the love of God.

For me, Paul’s words to the Galatians seem a little clearer, especially on Wednesday nights.

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

How have you been able to connect with students that you didn’t seem to have anything in common with? What were the greatest challenges and blessing in that?

Chesna Riley is the youth minister at Brook Hollow Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Abilene, TX. She studied theatre and music at Hardin-Simmons University, and has still not completely given up on her dream of being a professional wrestler. She spends all of her free time knitting and reading, unless it is football season. Chesna loves teaching middle schoolers and high schoolers, she passionately believes that God is working through them to teach the church as whole how to worship and serve in Spirit and Truth. You can follow her blog at chesnadawn.blogspot.com, or on twitter @Chesnabeast.

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T-Shirt Giveaway Winners Apr 24

Congratulations to the following YMs and churches for winning our T-Shirt Giveaway Contest!  You’ll be contacted by us very soon!

Dan Doebel
Grace Evangelical Free Church
Davenport, IA
Craig Brown
Colonial Heights Baptist Church
Ridgeland, MS
Rhonda Gailes
FBC Blowing Rock, NC

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Student Ministry: Filling in Valleys or Moving Mountains? Student Ministry: Filling in Valleys or Moving Mountains? Apr 23

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with “events.”

As a student participating in events like summer camp, Disciple Now, Passion Conferences, and the like, I always left feeling on top of the world.  The feeling would last a week, maybe a month – always ending with me crashing back down to reality.  I couldn’t feel the same “high” day in and day out.  I couldn’t worship with hundreds, thousands of people on a daily basis.  I couldn’t sit under great motivational or spiritual teachers every Sunday.  Life didn’t reflect what I was given at those “events.”

“Events” create a sense of anticipation in our hearts.  That’s why holidays and birthdays will always carry excitement.  We get something special.  We celebrate something that only comes around every once in a while.  We look forward to those moments.  We circle them on our calendars and hope we can survive the mundane “everyday” until the next “event” rolls around.

Sadly, this is how many churches approach Youth Ministry.  Sure we do the Sunday School thing, we do the Wednesday night thing, and we attempt to create mini-“events” to satisfy the spectators.  We look for what can entertain or preoccupy.  We go out of our way to fill the voids between Disciple Nows and summer camps.  We put on shows in hope that the show will somehow keep kids around long enough for the Spirit to do its work.

But what if Youth Ministry was never meant to be a show at all?

What if instead of filling in valleys so students can travel from one mountaintop to another, we were supposed to move the mountains altogether?

Paul in Galatians 3 faces the challenge of these mountaintop experiences (read verses 1-9).  Paul describes the high of his ministry to the Galatians as if “Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified” before their very eyes.  Imagine having an encounter with Christ that when your students described it they said it was like He was crucified in front of us!  Talk about a mountaintop experience!  But the emotional high didn’t last.  After having such a tremendous encounter with the Spirit of God, they tried to manufacture the rest by being “perfected by the flesh.”  Doesn’t that sound like what we’ve just described?  We try and find Spirit-filled “events” where students can encounter Christ only to get back from those “events” trying to appeal to their flesh to keep them interested.

Paul in Galatians 3 is addressing a different issue than the one that most Student Ministries will face.  The Galatians were returning to works of the Law instead of relying on faith in Christ to save them.  Most of our students aren’t falling into strict moral practices when they return from summer camp.  More than likely we deal more with our students returning to the same patterns of behavior they had before camp.  The heart of Paul’s argument rings true for both scenarios.  Both instances have those encountering the Spirit returning to the desires of their flesh.  Both groups, the Galatians and our students, are pulled back into the natural routine of thinking we can live out our salvation on our own terms.

As Youth Ministers, it is our responsibility to keep the focus on the Gospel (sustained by faith, not feelings), no matter what it may mean to our group attendance.  If our ministries are to be found bearing fruit for the glory of God’s name, we must be about the business of pursuing Him undistracted.  Too often I’ve seen Student Ministries get so caught up in pursuing entertainment for their students that the Word of God was barely mentioned.  Too often I’ve seen student ministers bring in bands or speakers who claim to be “Christian” who only end up being personalities who care more about how many likes they get on Facebook than they do sharing the Gospel with your group.

Paul asserts that the focus should be on continuing on in pursuit of faith and not in side-stepping faith by pursuing the flesh.  What does your group focus on?  Are you more concerned with humor, music, or gimmicks to draw your students in or are you concerned with their faith being challenged and shaped?  Youth Ministers are called, like Senior Pastors, to shepherd their groups following the model that Christ set before us.  This means we deal with the heart of our students and address their depravity and selfishness on a daily basis.  Jesus always addressed the heart of the people who followed Him.  Through His teaching and actions, He pointed to their need for Him.  And He would often speak rebuke and correction to the ones who got too wrapped up in the “event” of following Him (John 6:26-27).

If we, as Youth Ministers, refuse to follow the example of Christ and lead our students to real, Biblical relationships with Christ, how can we expect our students to abide in Him after the emotional effects of mountaintop experiences have worn off?  Can we, as Youth Ministers, trust the sufficiency of God’s Word over the momentary attraction of entertainment? The answer is a resounding “YES!”  God’s Word is more than sufficient if we can break the routine of scheduling sitcom-like services in hope of keeping students entertained.  It takes much work and even more prayer, but He is faithful.  Trust in His ability to work on the hearts of your students.  Structure gatherings in such a way that you engage your students at a deeper level than just hoping they are enjoying themselves.  Pay attention to when your students start climbing towards the emotional mountaintop and be prepared to ground them in the Word.

I want to make it clear that I am in no way opposed to disciple nows, summer camps, conferences, concerts, or even funny or entertaining activities in youth services, but it is eternally important that Youth Ministers are actively attentive to the hearts of their students.  There must be a deeper concern for mountains being moved by faith in God’s Word than for hoping to keep them high on the mountaintop with a show.  May we, as Youth Ministers, strive to teach and show students how to walk in the Spirit, with mountains moved and focus set, lest they fall from the emotional mountaintop and are crushed by unmet expectations.  May the peace that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Grace and peace from your fellow worker.

John Turner is the husband of Amy Turner and father to Eden and Ely Kay.  In his spare time he is also the Student Pastor and Worship Leader at Bono Baptist Church in Godley, TX.  John is also a writer and speaker. John is a regular speaker at chapel services in his area and maintains his own blog at jot711.wordpress.com.  You can also find John on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jot711.

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Dispatches from the First Year: Submit to God Apr 16

We are in the process of creating a Next Generation (NextGen) team here at our church. We plan on combining both children and youth ministry together to create a unified building system within the younger generation of our churches.

We strive to start educating, preparing, and molding the children of this church when they are young and continue to do so as they enter into youth ministry where we challenge them to use that education and implement it into their faith outside of the church. This process is in the beginning stages but it’s exciting to see once a week both leaders in children meeting come together with the two leaders from youth ministry and discuss our goals and future for our programs.

However, I believe the most important part of this process is submitting to God.

We can have the greatest ideas in the world and we can have all the resources too but if our plans are not aligned with the will of the Father then all our work and dedication means nothing.  When we gather once a week we begin our meetings with goal setting for our programs and then we conclude our time in prayer and singing together in worship.

In the past few months that we’ve implemented this NextGen team we’ve become more unified and our ministries have grown because we work together.  I trust that as we continue to work together and submit our goals and programs to the Lord that our ministries will grow and produce good fruits.

Samantha is a 22 year-old newbie, serving 200 students at the North Raleigh United Methodist Church in North Carolina.  She will graduate in May 2012 from Asbury University, with a degree in Communications and an emphasis in Leadership.  She is blessed with an amazing family that includes two great parents, three sisters, two brothers-in-law, and two nephews.

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Taking a LAP: Making Wise Entertainment Choices Apr 16

It’s no secret that it’s easy for a believer to get frustrated with the entertainment industry.  There are times that I simply want to pick up my television and chuck it right through the front window of my living room (if only I knew I wouldn’t have to pay for the window and the TV, as I have a wife who enjoys the living room window and three boys who enjoy watching TV).

It’s the blatant disregard for anything wholesome that really gets under my skin.  Have you watched network TV or been to the movies lately?  It is becoming harder and harder to find “entertainment” in any form that can be thoroughly enjoyed without having a side order of guilt added to my plate.

You may think I am blowing things out of proportion, but every time I think that, I immediately remember God’s word:

“You shall not make yourself a carved image – any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth (Ex. 20.4).”

I had to stop chewing because God demands my attention above everything else, and ponder on why we as Christians have forsaken God for the sake of entertainment.  Making idols in entertainment is so very easy, because these things are created and marketed so you will love them.  But are they wise, godly choices?

In the Old Testament, there are more stories on idolatry then one can count, and one in particular came to mind, the story of Nebuchadnezzar and his image of gold in Daniel, chapter 3.  If you are unfamiliar with the story, here is a quick rundown:  Nebuchadnezzar decided to make a statue out of gold in Babylon so everyone, upon hearing a symphony of music, would bow down and worship the statue that he set up.  We are talking about nations of people who, would regardless of what they were doing, stop and bow down every time they heard the music to a statue made of gold.  Crazy, right?

As a father and spiritual leader in my family, I like to ask a few questions regarding the entertainment choices that we make under my roof.  I call it ‘taking a LAP’, and it’s been a helpful Maybe they will help you in your own ministry, both familial and otherwise.

Learn:  What did I learn through reading God’s Word? That He hates idolatry!  Whatever form it takes, whether it is music, movies, work, money, or people, God desires that He be the only thing I worship in my life.

Apply:  How do I apply this to my life? By evaluating the things that compete for my attention, and asking myself “Is this something that is worth my time and attention?”  As well as, “Does this glorify God and draw me closer to Him in any way?”

Present:  How can I take what I have learned and present it to others as a testimony of my walk with Christ? For me, the answer lies in my boys.  I have a responsibility to them, and that means that I have to responsibly evaluate the things that I let in to my mind, heart, and soul, to insure that I can raise them through action, and not just word.

How do you make wise entertainment choices within your ministry or family?

Mike Kane is currently the youth pastor for Blast.ed Student Ministries at Norcross First Baptist Church in Norcross, GA. A graduate of Luther Rice Seminary, Mike has a passion for sharing and teaching God’s Word with teenagers as well as adults. He is married to his best friend Lea, and has three boys; Ian, 11; Eric, 9; and Aaron, 2. For more information on the Blast.ed Student Ministry, please email Bro. Mike or visit his facebook page.

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Man Up: Teaching Boys to Be Men by Example Apr 8

It’s no secret that manhood, at least popularly speaking, has become a mockery.

Network television routinely caricatures men as blithering idiots, woefully incapable of taking responsibility for themselves and wholly devoted to the pursuit of comfort, leisure, and no-strings-attached sex.  Marketers offer variations on the same basic cultural chords, utilizing these commonly accepted “masculine” enticements to sell food, beer, trucks, and all manner of personal hygiene products.  And judging by the it’s-fairly-obvious-I-used-half-a-bottle scent of AXE on most of the middle school boys in your church and mine, their efforts seem to be at least somewhat successful.

So what does this have to do with your student ministry?

If your church is anything like mine, chances are close to 50% of the students you serve are boys.  A major component of your calling as someone who loves Jesus and loves students is to guide these young men on their journey from adolescence into adulthood.  That’s a high calling, and one that is increasingly difficult to answer in a culture that is thoroughly confused as to what true masculinity looks like, and is as a result leaving a shocking percentage of young men in what author Tim Elmore terms the “toll booth” of adolescence.

Elmore shares his thoughts on the growing issue of “extended adolescence” in his book Generation iY, arguing that our culture is failing to equip the rising generation to “pay the price” that maturity requires.  The net result of this failure is a generation that, in large numbers, is unable or unwilling to face the demands of real world reality, and instead retreats to the comfortable and familiar world of adolescence.

This phenomenon plays itself out in many ways:

Relationally – Many young men are either unable or unwilling to function in mature, long term relationships, especially with women.

Financially – Many young men are uninformed, ill equipped, and undisciplined with their money, leading to a staggering rise in consumer debt, especially among college students and young adults.

Professionally – Many young men are finding work life – in which they are expected to arrive on time, operate according to stated workplace standards, and take personal responsibility for themselves – difficult to navigate.

Spiritually – Many young men are walking away from their Christian faith – or at least the active expression of it – after leaving the comfortable “spoon-feeding” of many church student ministries.

It is not my intent to be a doomsayer, and I’m well aware that there are many exceptions to this overall pattern.  But it is impossible to deny that a problem doesn’t exist.  But how do you respond?

How can you stem the tide of culturally confused masculinity and extended adolescence and instead help boys become godly, responsible men?

You’re gonna have to grow up.

Maybe that’s a tough pill to swallow, but I believe it’s good (and necessary) medicine.  If your students are to grow from boys into men – the biblical kind, not the cultural kind – and you have any measure of real influence in their lives, then tag, you’re it.  A few practical suggestions on how this might play out:

If you’re married, show your young men what it looks like to love, serve, and lead your wife Ephesians 5 style.

If you’re single, show your young men what it looks like to negotiate the often treacherous dating world with godliness, maturity, and wisdom.

If you’re a father, show your young men what it looks like to love and lead your children spiritually and practically.

If you’re bi-vocational, do your “other job” well.  Work as unto the Lord.  Don’t gripe, don’t slack.

Learn how to manage your money.  Get out of debt.  Learn to leave simply and generously.

I realize these aren’t profound suggestions, but I have a hunch that if student pastors began providing their young men with a window into the “non-ministry” aspects of their lives, it would leave a tremendous impression.

I’m convinced that for far too long, many student pastors have been content to be a “big kid” with their students, functioning in a “big buddy” type role.  That’s not a terrible thing, except when it’s an excuse to extend our own adolescence instead of growing up.  Our calling from God mandates that we do more than just that.  So I’m not suggesting that you put your youthful energy and enthusiasm on the shelf; I’m simply challenging you to offer more, both for your own sake and for the sake of the young men entrusted to your care.

I feel compelled to offer at least two caveats in light of this challenge:

First, don’t fake it.  If you’re struggling to grow up in one of these areas, don’t pretend that you’ve got it all together while you secretly crumble inside.  Be honest enough to admit where you’re falling short.  This type of vulnerability will actually provide a tremendous teaching opportunity as you seek to help boys become men.

Also, don’t do this alone.  Chances are, you couldn’t even if you wanted to.  Enlist the support of other godly men in your faith community to come alongside you and take part in this life shaping process.

The responsibilities of ministry can pull you in many directions at once.  But in the midst of all the planning, meeting, teaching, traveling, and other, often random activity, don’t miss this opportunity and responsibility.  Let’s stem the tide of culturally confused masculinity and raise up a generation of humble, courageous, and Christlike young men who will reject low expectations and embrace God’s high calling instead.  You know where that process begins.

Tag, you’re it.

Todd Blount has the privilege of serving kids, students, and families as Family Pastor at Fellowship Church in Prairieville, LA.  He is native of south Louisiana and a graduate of Baylor University (B.A., Communications) and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div., Standard).  He has been married to his beautiful wife Kerri for five years, and they have two crazy kids, Tristin and Jude.  You can find Todd on twitter (@toddmblount) or read more of his thoughts at his blog, toddblount.blogspot.com.

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Dispatches from the First Year: God is Not Your Science Project Apr 4

One of the highlights of my middle school career was winning an award for my display in our school science fair. My topic was geysers, which doesn’t sound like a terribly difficult topic to explain, except for the fact that my audience was vast numbers of elementary school students.   My task was to teach these students about geysers in a way that was both accurate and engaging. To do this, I had everything from display boards to demonstrations to pictures of Yogi Bear (he lives close to a famous geyser in case you didn’t know).

In the midst of my efforts to explain the ins and outs of geysers, I got so caught up in trying to make the topic interesting and exciting that I neglected the task of being accurate.

I didn’t make anything up about geysers, but I ended up oversimplifying the whole topic to the point that I made it something that it wasn’t.  While this isn’t that big of a deal when it comes to middle school science projects, it is a much bigger deal when it comes to God and His Word.

As I prepare talks for weekly gatherings and other events for our students I consistently find myself trying to explain away any issue brought up by a particular verse or passage. Now hear me out, I think it is vital that those who teach students utilize different illustrations and get creative in explaining biblical truths. But I have seen a tendency in my own life to do that to the extent that I make God someone He isn’t.

It all comes down to the fact that I don’t want to give students a small God because a small God is not the God of the Bible.

God is infinite and all glorious and we are finite and all sinful, therefore, we will never be able to fully comprehend all that God is. Even in heaven we will be growing in our knowledge and understanding of God forever. We can know God truly through His Word but we will never be able to know Him fully. God is beyond both our comprehension and our control. This is the God that I want to teach to students because this is how God has revealed himself in the Bible.

I don’t want to give students a small God because that is no God at all. Why would I want to give my ultimate worship and allegiance to a God that I could completely understand? The fact that I am not able, as a finite and sinful human, to comprehend or control God is not something to fight against but to rest in. When life hits our students head on, they need a God that is greater than their circumstances and mightier than their problems. A God like that is only found in the pages of the Bible. Yes, I do want to be creative and I do want to help students understand God but not to the point that He is no longer God. God is not like my science project; I can’t just explain him away.

As St. Augustine said, “Since it is God we are speaking of, you do not understand it. If you could understand it, it would not be God.”  We serve a great God and we must preach a great God.

Cam is a 23 year old first-time youth minister, making it happen at LaGrange Baptist Church in LaGrange, KY, with a group of about fifty students.  He graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies, and is currently working towards his M.Div in Pastoral Studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  He has been married for a little over a year to Kerry-Lyn, and they live in Louisville.

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Jekyll Island & Student Life Apr 2

Student Life is excited about the progress happening at Jekyll and looks forward to watching their economy grow over the next few years.  Read below for a press release of the exciting changes happening at Jekyll.

Student Life will be hosting camp at Jekyll Island, June 11-15. Wade Morris will share from God’s word and Kristian Stanfill will lead students in worship. For more information on Student Life at Jekyll Island click here.

Associated Press: Sunday, March 11, 2012

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Al­though Georgia’s new beach­front convention center on Jekyll Island won’t open for two months, its staff is already booking dozens of meetings and trying to win back business from groups that moved their annual gatherings to other resorts years ago.

The new 128,000-square-foot convention center at Jekyll Island, Ga., will open in May. Officials say more than 200 meetings and conventions have been booked.

What Jekyll Island had to offer had grown outdated and musty, so officials undertook a $50 million makeover with the 128,000-square-foot convention center as its centerpiece. The idea is to reverse years of slumping vacation and meeting business on the state-owned island about 90 miles south of Savannah. Construction on the convention space finished last month, and Gov. Nathan Deal plans to attend a grand opening ceremony May 20.

“That’s what we’re holding on for, once the new conventions start coming,” said Butch Bishop, a co-owner of Jekyll Island’s grocery store and a variety store that sells T-shirts and rents fishing equipment to tourists. “Our business had dropped off several years in advance of the construction. This was needed.”

Other key pieces of the project – two new convention hotels and 40,000 square feet of space for shops and restaurants – won’t be finished for another two years. But that hasn’t stopped the Jekyll Island Authority, the agency that manages the island, from aggressively wooing the new venue’s first visitors.

More than 200 meetings and conventions have been scheduled between this summer and 2016.

Jekyll Island spokesman Eric Garvey said the groups vary in size, but each event includes at least one overnight stay. The convention center’s initial bookings are expected to bring $40 million worth of meeting expenses, hotel bills, dinner checks and souvenir shopping.

Garvey said the authority has set a goal of landing 120 conventions a year, roughly doubling the island’s previous convention business. Part of that strategy involves going after convention groups that once were regular customers on Jekyll Island but stopped coming years ago because it lacked modern lodging and meeting spaces.

“We lost a lot of business down to Amelia Island and Sawgrass” in Florida, Garvey said. “So we’re working hard to win it back.”

In the past decade, complaints piled up from convention groups about Jekyll Island’s outdated meeting space and hotels. Some groused the meeting rooms weren’t big enough. Others noted leaky fixtures, musty carpets and an overall lack of frills in their hotel rooms.

The island’s previous convention center was built in 1961. And Jekyll went for 35 years without a new hotel until a Hampton Inn & Suites opened in 2010.

The aging amenities cost Jekyll Island the annual con­vention of more than 1,000 Rotary Club members from western Georgia. After meeting on the island for 40 years, the group pulled out in 2003 and started gathering in San­destin, Fla.

Margie Kersey, of Law­renceville, the district governor for the Rotary group, said Jekyll Island staffers have called to invite her and other leaders to come tour the new convention center in hopes of luring back their business. She said they might consider it, especially after the new hotels nearest the center have opened in 2014.

“The convention venue and the hotels are the two huge, huge things for us,” Kersey said. “Believe me, there is a very vocal contingency that would love to stay right here in Georgia. I’ve got my fingers crossed.”

Private developers are building two hotels, but they won’t be ready for some time. The 135-room Hyatt Place is slated to open in spring 2013, while a 200-room Westin should be finished by 2014. The island has other hotels, but they’re not adjacent to the convention center.

Jekyll Island’s makeover was planned as a shared public-private venture, with taxpayers footing the bill for the convention center, development of a beachfront park and new roads to tie the whole project together. Private partners were brought in to build hotels and shopping areas.

But now the state is taking over part of the development that was supposed to be privately funded. Plans for the project’s new retail space hit a snag last month when the developer had to bow out because it was unable to get financing to start construction.

Garvey said the Jekyll Island Authority has taken over the retail development, which now will be built with at least some state funds. No decisions have been made, but Garvey said it’s possible another private partner might share the development and that overall construction could be scaled back to as little as $6 million.

Jekyll Island Officials have insisted the retail development be finished before the last hotel opens two years from now.

“We’re going to get it done, and we’re going to do whatever it takes,” Garvey said.

Jekyll Island’s old shopping center was torn down to make way for the next construction, and its former tenants occupy trailers in a parking lot overlooking the beach.

Bishop’s variety store is one of them along with a bank, an ice cream shop, a beauty salon and a liquor store. Bishop said he is eager to move into a permanent home by the convention center, where he is betting more customers will come through his door. But he is not impatient either.

“We’re willing to wait for it to be done right,” Bishop said. “Putting off the expense of moving for a little while longer is not going to upset us either.”

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