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.
One of the most difficult aspects of student ministry is learning to meet the needs of each individual student. Over the years, we’ve gotten pretty good at assessing and addressing the general needs of the larger group, but getting past the “one-size-fits-all” mindset is tough.…
Ever had someone believe in you more than you believe in yourself? Or, even deeper, ever had someone invest inexplicable belief in who you are and what you can do? Several years ago I wrote a book called Sifted. I’ve written many books over the years, but this was my first attempt to write something for a wider readership than the youth ministry community.…
Spiritual habits are the guardrails and health indicators for our journey with Jesus. They’re not spiritual hoops to jump through—they’re pathways for me to connect with the King. And in my life, spiritual habits have fueled my relationship with Jesus and generally made my life better.…
Every week, Sidney and I talk about the things a mentor talks to a mentee about. Sometimes it’s via text, sometimes it’s over a salted caramel macchiato—either way, we’re committed to spending time checking in. I ask her questions about school, family, and friendships.…
“We count people because people count.” That mantra was our church’s lifeline. Nothing happened without counting, and without a count, something might as well not have happened. During my seven years as youth director there, that statement echoed at every Thursday-morning staff meeting.…
Amid all the busyness, the Christmas season inspires people to intentionally draw near to God and to one another. Youth ministries can learn a lot from that about relationship-building throughout the year. Our youth program runs a solid midweek combo of large and small groups, with some big outreach events tossed in.…
These youth group activities provide ideas for service during the Thanksgiving season and a fun way for your group to gather the food for a Thanksgiving meal. Youth Group Activities: Serving and Thanksgiving In Matthew 10:8 Jesus said, “Freely you have received; freely give.”…
I get to hang around a lot of different students from a variety of places because of the nature of what I “do.” They come from varying ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds, and from parents who go to church and others who don’t.…
We live in the Kingdom of God, even when pain overwhelms us. Christine’s mom had been sick for a long time, so hospice sent her home to be comfortable and surrounded by family. We’d had numerous conversations with Christine and her siblings.…
Jesus’ disciple Thomas gets a bad rap with the shame-name we’ve given him. We teach using “Doubting Thomas” as the bad example, attaching his moniker to people we accuse of lacking—or having lackluster—faith. But note that when Thomas needs proof, Jesus doesn’t render judgment.…
