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.”
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.…
Youth ministries are supposed to be communities where teens discover and embrace the love of Jesus, discover his purpose for their lives, and experience being part of the family of God. When toxic volunteers, parents, or congregation members enter this equation, we move away from the positive outcomes we strive to provide for teens.…
In this episode, we discuss things you should be doing with your volunteers seasonally and ongoing volunteer recruitment. We also share tips on how to grow your volunteer team!!! Send your youth ministry questions to us at talkyouthministry@gmail.com Hope it helps, AC & Kurt…
A story about one woman’s attempt to serve at her church’s VBS: I’ve been attending a small church. I’m not sure they have picked up on the fact that I’ve been coming, though. I think they don’t get a lot of new members, so maybe they don’t recognize it when it happens. …
Summer camp is one of my favorite events of the year. I’ve watched God do some amazing things at camp in the lives of students, and even in the lives of leaders. I’ve watched cabin leaders become small group leaders, weekend leaders and even one on one mentors to students.…
Meeting people for the first time is stressful for many, especially when it comes to students. I wanted to give you tips for helping your youth ministry volunteers meet students, because often times, they are meeting students that may not want to meet them.…
Today our hearts and prayers are with the city of Charleston and the members of Emanuel. The horrific shootings that have occurred in our communities, remind us that we live in uncertain times. Yes, we should pray for the people involved, and we should also seriously think through the safety of our students and ministry.…
I love when driving from here to there means I get to geek out on snippets of NPR! There’s always something super interesting. Like the story of a girl who took it upon herself to fix an aged piece of art hanging in her local cathedral.…
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.…
Tight budgets are commonplace in ministry. That means that decisions about spending money are equally as common. Someone in our church recently asked me, “Why can’t the church do ‘x’ when it’s only thirty bucks a month?” “It’s a great idea,” I affirmed, “but there are so many other great ‘thirty dollar’ ideas people have proposed.…
