In the often-chaotic cloud that is everyday youth ministry, one goal always rises to the surface—growing disciples who follow Jesus with an all-in commitment. You’re after life-changing, inside-out transformation—driven by a passion for Jesus that spills out onto the lives of others.
What You’ll Find
The Discipleship section offers practical ideas and insights about effective discipleship in youth ministry. We explore the method and models and strategies your ministry can use to help “seed” a generation of teenagers who are all-in for Jesus.
Lasting influence and transformation in youth ministry all flow through a relational “funnel”—and that means everyday ministry to teenagers is fraught with risk, because redemptive influence in relationships is a dicey proposition. I love what my friend Justin Mayo has learned about the power of risk as leader of RedEye (redeye.org),…
If a student who is deaf is using an interpreter, group members will need to take turns during discussions. If several people are talking at the same time, which is not uncommon in youth group meetings, the interpreter will be unable to communicate all the information.…
The various authors writing these (hopefully) helpful articles every day are entering a new season. Instead of an assigned topic for the week, we are each free to write about whatever we want. My articles appear every Wednesday. So I thought instead of everything I write being completely random, I’d pick a theme for each month and write four or five thoughts on that topic.…
A great weekend recently spent skiing with friends and family at Granby Ranch reminded me of some favorite memories in youth ministry. It was the winter of 1987 when I first donned a pair of skis on a trip with my youth group.…
Youth who are visually impaired need to orient themselves to the group setting in a different manner than those who are sighted. They will need to understand the group environment, including the position of all the participants and the format or structure of learning activities such as readings, or breakout discussions, so that they can prepare for them in advance.…
When I talk about identity, sexuality, and the gloriousness of God’s grace, I continually go back to two passages of scripture: Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 6:11, and John’s words in 1 John 3:1-3. To me, these passages highlight a lot about the ground we stand upon, God’s love, our new identity, and the freedom offered through Christ.…
This is the first in a series of posts on youth ministry and youth with disabilities. While accommodations may be needed to integrate people with disabilities into your youth ministry group settings, it is important to first emphasize what all group members have in common. …
I had a lot of great conversations around my last post. If you didn’t get to read it, here it is. I had a few conversations about the fact that a lot of the struggle is at the one-on-one level. And the question “What should I do if a student comes and says they are struggling with same sex attraction?”…
I was just at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference and sat through a workshop by Shawn Harrison, the author of Ministering To Gay Teenagers. I would definitely grab his book, it’s a great resource. The workshop was great also, but revealed that the silence of the church on this topic has placed us at a disadvantage in many ways.…
There are good reasons why competent adults find themselves uncommonly baffled when working with adolescents. As winsome as they may be at times, teenagers present youth workers and volunteers with challenges that other age groups do not. First, teens are often an involuntary participant.…
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