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.”
Growing up I’ve had several people in my life that have made a lasting impact. I am totally the man I am today because of the people who took the time to invest in me. I feel privileged to have been able to do the same in the lives of the students I get to invest in.…
In honor of everyone else’s brilliance, we thought it might be fun to [tweet_dis]share the most un-brilliant things we’ve done in youth ministry[/tweet_dis]. We’re limiting the list to 10, but we could easily turn this into a multi-part series. Heck, we might even be able to categorize by the liturgical calendar if we could get organized enough to find a pen.…
In this episode, we discuss modesty in youth group when it comes to clothing by the pool. We also discuss grade transitions: Elementary to Jr. High and Jr. High to High School. Send questions or topic ideas to talkyouthministry@gmail.com. Hope it helps, AC & Kurt…
In this episode we go to the email bag. We discuss what to do when the ministry you’re serving in is not what you thought. We also discuss parents. Remember, you can leave a question or topic suggestion at talkyouthministry@gmail.com. Hope it helps, AC & Kurt…
As March comes to a close, so does this little series. And because I’ve got a whole bunch of thoughts rattling around in my noggin, I figured I’d wrap up our discussion about how to last in youth ministry by listing a handful of them with a very brief explanation.…
I am not sure why I’m locked on to this topic about youth workers getting fired. All is good in my world. But I thought I’d put out a third post and make this a trilogy. Check out the 5 Steps After Getting Fired and the Steps 6-10 posts.…
A couple weeks ago I was talking to a young youth worker in his early 20’s who said, “Kurt, I want to be a youth ministry lifer like you. How do I do that?” To which I responded, “Well, I don’t even know if I’m a youth ministry lifer!…
(I’m picking up the convo where we left off last week; see Steps 1-5). You’ve been fired, you didn’t see it coming (though, I’d push you back on that and say, “Really?”), you’ve gone home to sequester yourself for 24 hours.…
Good Morning America: “Uh Bob, uh, tell us your impressions of Baby Steps.” Bob: “Mash potatoes and gravy, Marie. I couldn’t be happier about Baby Steps. I was a terrible disaster and now, because of Baby Steps, I’m on TV in front of millions of people.…
Does your church or youth ministry need small groups? Allen White had a great post on this and it got me thinking about the varying forms of community that people of all ages crave at different levels: Massive: Conferences, conventions, concerts, local cross-church gatherings and multi-youth group mission trips can serve this.…
