More Rest. Less Stress! For the past decade, our family has had a Christmas vacation tradition. Before dawn on the morning after Christmas, we hop into an RV and join some of our closest friends for a week of camping and riding dirt bikes in the beautiful, wide-open Southern California desert. …
December is here which means Christmas lessons and Christmas parties of some sort are probably in your youth group’s immediate future. A common youth ministry temptation is to mistakenly lump our entire youth group together; to assume they like the same things, come from similar backgrounds, socioeconomic situations, etc.…
20 Interview Questions for Youth Workers Are you a youth worker? Chances are high that sooner or later you will find yourself in search of a new church in which to serve. Are you a Senior Pastor, Christian Education Director, or an Associate Pastor? …
To steal a line from the GEICO commercials, “When you are a youth worker, you go to youth group…it’s what you do.” Volunteer, part-time, or full-time youth worker? No matter the role you play in your youth ministry, strategically…purposely…ditching youth group from time to time is good for you and for your youth group!…
Fall is a season of new beginnings. A new school year. A new football season. A new wardrobe (or so I’m told…not so much in Southern California). AND a host of new expectations for your youth ministry. Your Senior Pastor expects attendance to increase.…
Summer is on the home stretch with the finish line in sight, so now is a good time to begin thinking about your volunteers as you head into a fresh fall season. I think many youth workers make a fairly basic mistake this time each year: In the push to recruit brand new volunteers, they assume the ones they already have will simply “re-up” for another season.…
Here are 3 easy games to keep in your back pocket. At some point this summer, it’s going to happen. You will need a game to bail you out in a pinch. It won’t be during your mid-week program because you’ve planned that well in advance (you have planned that well in advance, right?).…
If your junior high ministry is like most, you are in need of help, and are constantly on the lookout for suckers (errr, qualified candidates) to join the cause. And, if your junior high ministry is like most, because you are in need of help, you likely accept just about anybody with the courage to say yes.…
Teaching junior highers; I’m not sure a higher calling exists! Churches often make the mistake of seeing junior high ministry as a place for young, or spiritually immature, leaders to cut their teeth and learn the ropes of ministry. This is a massive mistake, largely due to the fact that young teens are in an enormous season of developmental change and it takes a mature leader to help junior highers navigate these changes well.…
Last week I had the joy to “preach” in our church’s weekly staff meeting. Somebody teaches every week; I hadn’t in a very long time. Afterwards, no fewer than a dozen people pulled me aside to share how much they appreciated what I had to say.…
