What’s your big dream for your youth ministry this year? And can you sum it up on a T-shirt? Leadership guru Peter Drucker made the “T-shirt” challenge famous—his argument was that big goals should be so easy to understand that they fit on a T-shirt.…
We are shorthand people who prefer shorthand solutions to complex problems. That’s true in life, and it’s true in youth ministry. In the past, our shortcut paths to deeper discipleship included… • What Would Jesus Do—”Go beyond your identity as a church-attender and have the courage to live like Jesus.…
Spider-Man is legit. Teenagers love him. Parents giggle at him. Youth workers recognize him. He’s a bumbling, awkward 16-year-old named Peter Parker trying to have an ordinary life though he’s been given extraordinary gifts and responsibilities. Kind of like the tension our teenagers often feel.…
“I still tell people about how great and accepting our youth group was,” a 30-year-old recently shared with me. When I was his youth pastor years ago, “Mike” never took the big step of becoming a Christian. Back then he described himself as an atheist-meets-Wiccan.…
Every small group has some genuinely quirky personalities. I know because I’ve been one of them. In high school, I accepted a friend’s invitation to his youth group. Then he wanted me to check out his small group. Each member had a perceptibly unique influence on the conversation about God and life, but somehow the diversity worked.…
You need a break, right? Of course you do. The struggle is real. Ministry is hard and demanding. You’re running a church-within-the-church that likely has its own worship team, small group ministry, administrative needs, and teaching cycle. Toss in the larger church calendar, and you’re one busy youth worker.…
Avengers: Endgame is a generational film—and I’m not talking about its record-setting opening-weekend box office haul. Your teenagers likely don’t remember a time when there wasn’t an Avengers film in the theater. After 11 years and 21 movies, they probably know the nuances of the Marvel universe better than the Old Testament.…
Your summer mission trip is on the launching pad—the countdown is on. Maybe you just completed your last leg on the fund-raising marathon (who knew teenagers could sell that many over-priced balls of cookie dough?). Your spreadsheet mapping the intricate details of the trip is filling up.…
Who are you “supposed” to call today? Which teenager “should” you hang out with this week? How many of your own family’s activities do you “need” to show up for this month? Look, we’re all busy—it doesn’t matter whether we’re full-time, part-time, or a volunteer.…
We all know how to maintain a health lifestyle—it’s common knowledge. Eat right. Sleep right. Exercise right. Sabbath right. So then why am I eating another slice of pizza on the go? Or going to bed later than my family? Or vowing to exercise “tomorrow?” Or taking church phone calls on my day off?…
