The first article addressed the frequently asked question about tips for maintaining your ministry for the long run when just starting out. The article addressed the need to have a team of friends to do ministry with, and when you see them as your friends you feel encouraged and as though you are not alone in the journey.…
From time to time we’re going to take a pause form the normal posts to answer a few questions from you: The youth ministry nation. Here are a couple we have recently received: I’m just starting out! What are some things you did early on in your ministry career that helped you make it for the long haul?…
An article from Jonathan McKee at TheSource4YM.com About 10 days ago many of us cheered when we finally read some good news on the front page of the newspaper: “Teenagers Having Less Sex.” Really? If that’s true, then we need to keep doing something right!…
You know those kung-fu movies where the master beats the living snot out of the student in an effort to make them a better warrior? Usually there’s a moment where the trainee gets one, small hit on the master, and the student exults and the master cracks the faintest of smiles.…
As I think about caring for and training volunteers and leaders I can’t help but remember the days when I was one of those weary and worn volunteers myself. Then again, I still volunteer quite a bit (as do a lot of youth ministers) with youth camps, retreats, and of course lock-in parking lot patrols.…
One of the keys to keeping new leaders and continually improving the skill set of your volunteer team is to keep them trained. Here are a few ideas to help you get your team ahead: Take everyone to a conference Few youth budgets in the world can handle the strain of flying a team of volunteers across the country to one of the large youth ministry conferences.…
How often do we give advice that it equivalent to adding EQUAL to cow manure to try to make it easier to swallow for the recipient of our advice? I don’t know about you all out there in ministry world, but for me I struggle with giving the 100% accurate, God-fearing guidance when people come to me with their problem.…
What and Why….I can still hear the owner of the old camp that I once worked at. During staff training he always taught a class called “Interpersonal Management Skills.” He knew that my staff would be working in very close quarters for 8 weeks.…
For fans of The Office, you already know. But for those who don’t watch this show, for whatever reason, Robert California is the new CEO of Sabre’, and works half the time out of the Scranton Branch. With the recent premiere, and our first episode with the new boss, he had a great leadership principle that played itself out in the episode.…
I have always liked the title of Josh Griffin’s blog: “More than Dodgeball.” My guess is that titles like “More Than Dodgeball” are in reaction to a youth ministry approach that has been pretty popular in the past 20 years, featuring a bunch of splashing in the kiddy pool without wading into the deep end.…
