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.”
Lent is an odd thing. For some, it’s their chance to be noticeably religious for 40 days. For others, it’s a dare to do something zany for that time. How many people have heard another person say, “I’m giving up Mountain Dew for Lent!”…
Time to get highly pragmatic: Theology = What you believe about God. Practical Theology = How you put into practice what you believe about God. Concerning a theology of sexuality: I’ve discovered most youth pastors have one. Concerning a practical theology of sexuality: I’ve discovered that most youth pastors are wrestling with what a practical theology of sexuality should look like in their churches and the ministries they lead.…
A few weeks ago, I shared some of my experiences as a gay teen in high school. I followed up that post with a plea to see gay teens beyond their sexual orientation. Both posts have sparked some great discussions online and offline, and that’s what I was aiming for.…
I’ve learned that the things that frustrate us the most as youth pastors/youth worker/volunteer are the things we can’t control in the first place. I believe that one of the top reasons we get frustrated is that we forget to remember the things that should keep us grounded in the mission of what we were called to do.…
Last week I shared some perspectives from my story as a gay teen. This week, I would like to continue offering some perspectives that I hope help youth workers understand how most gay teens feel inside church settings. As an “out” gay teen, I was never invited to youth group or church.…
Recently a friend emailed me and asked what I do to prepare for speaking. There are a million ways to deliver a message (and not all are effective), but not much has been written about how to prep for a talk/series.…
We can easily fall into the trap of only thinking about our position. It’s much tougher to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and process through what they are thinking or feeling. In hopes of helping us do that in one of the more sensitive areas of our culture, here are 6 questions I believe gay students are asking about us and our ministries: How is it possible for me to relate to Christians in a church context?…
This year with my small group I decided to try somethings that I didn’t do with my last group, and boy has it paid off. So I thought I’d share with you five things that I’ve tried this year in my small group that has brought them closer, and has also made them more interested in their life with God.…
The past two weeks, Leneita Fix and I have been trying to expose some of the big elephants within the youth room – all of our youth rooms. One of the last ones I would like to highlight is the issue involving our students and our supposed ownership of them.…
(Before you read any further, pray. Please do. This topic is less about what you already think and more about us digging deeper to what we have missed. Maybe we can listen to God on this and let Him have the most important word on this.…
