Serving in youth ministry is both rewarding and challenging. As a leader, you’re a catalyst for helping teenagers grow as disciples of Jesus, a counselor who must deal with upset parents and discouraged adolescents, and an EMT who has to treat the occasional dodgeball injury. Often, all in the same day. As you walk through the ups and downs of your calling, we’re here to support, encourage, and equip you with ideas that will fuel your journey as a Jesus-centered leader.
What You’ll Find
Our leadership topics are designed to give you the knowledge and skills to confidently guide your ministry. We’ll cover the must-know areas—including working with parents and volunteers, planning and productivity, and the broad range of skills you need as an adolescent specialist in ministry. And, most important, we’ll help you grow your own relationship with Jesus so your leadership flows out of a “deeper well.”
This is my first year in youth ministry… I just jumped into a new youth ministry role… What should I do first? Three Checkpoints for Your First Year in Youth Ministry Your first year may be the most important year in a new ministry setting.…
Anchors & Sails A constant struggle for many youth workers is trying to determine what lessons/topics to teach, and when. And unless you use a pre-produced curriculum that has a well thought out and ordered scope and sequence my hunch is you struggle, too.…
Ten years ago my wife and I made the biggest transition in the history of our lives together. We moved from Michigan to California. My first thought when we started discussing it was, “You don’t move away from family.” And my reasoning was, “It’s just something you don’t do.”…
I remember being taught 2 Corinthians 2:11 at a young age. We are not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices, schemes, plots, and plans. He will take full advantage of our ignorance. As sad as it sounds, I believe we have all fallen prey to the enemy because of our ignorance at times.…
For generations, youth workers have fulfilled the call to love students into the knowledge of Jesus and make disciples. As I think about the declining number of teens involved in youth ministry and church in my own community, I wonder if it’s time to evaluate how we are fulfilling our call.…
“I’m not gonna die here.” Sometimes we just have to say that out loud. Matt Damon’s character in The Martian declared it in a key moment early on in the movie. How many things in ministry require such a declaration? Fundraising?…
I wrote a post a while ago (click here to read), and I mentioned that I have twenty questions ready to go when I meet a new student. I’ve gotten more responses on wanting those twenty questions than anticipated, so I thought I’d just make it a post.…
The everyday ways people influence one another is astounding. I see what you see – the pain it can cause, as well as the life it can create. I believe there are seven types of people influencing our decisions daily: Family/Parent Friend/Peer Consultant/Advice Strategist/Planner Positional/Boss Guru/Model _______?…
Small Thinking Can Make A Big Difference! Any time youth workers get together one question emerges: “So, how many you running these days?” As a species, youth workers are infatuated with numbers. We talk about how many students went to camp, how many first-time visitors we’ve had, how many percentage points our average attendance increased.…
Note: You might want to watch this episode of Let’s Talk Youth Ministry before or after reading today’s post to get a broader sense of the context. Whether or not I’ll cast a vote to put the first female in the oval office in a few months remains to be seen, but when it comes to creating a youth ministry culture that is female-friendly…I vote YES!…
