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.”
My 16-year-old son, Cole, recently attended a conference dedicated to helping teenagers develop leadership skills. Cole, like many guys his age, isn’t a big fan of debriefing his life learnings with Mom and Dad. So we were caught off guard with how eager he was to talk to us about the various things he’d experienced over his weekend away—which he did for the next 15 minutes (which may have been a personal record).…
Over the past year and a half, we’ve added two children to our family. One is our adopted 18-month-old son and the other is our newborn daughter, just seven weeks old. It’s been a crazy adjustment, to say the least. We’re working each day to try and figure out life with two small children, plus an entire youth group.…
How can I serve you today? You know you can use a little help with something. Maybe it’s a phone call someone wants you to return or some copies you’ll have to make before your next lesson. Some of those things require you, but I’m guessing not all of them do.…
Companies and organizations often do “exit interviews” and they do so for many different reasons. But the biggest one is that they get really honest answers. They do this so they can learn, become better at what they do and more faithfully care for their employees.…
Relational ministry can seem like a no-brainer. It’s simply being “in relationship” with students, right? Well yes…and no. It IS being in relationship with students, but how we evaluate that is everything. Simple things, like sending a student a well-worded text message or showing up at a football game or choir concert, are great places to start relationship.…
Yesterday we ran down 10 quick hits on increasing relational ministry in your youth group; today we’re back with 10 more and hoping you contribute another couple in the comments, too! Here we go: 11. Set up shop at a fast-food place right next to the school that has open lunch.…
This week we’re going to simply knock out 20 ways you can increase the level of relational ministry in your youth group. Quick, random, hits that we hope inspire you to try something new, too! 1. Add a greeting time in youth group.…
In times of terror and tragedy, how can we talk with teenagers in a way that will help them cope and even thrive? I was encouraged to have some great conversations with my 14-year-old son this week regarding the Boston Marathon Bombing, the Ricin mailings, and the Texas Fertilizer Explosion…not to mention the other “regular” stresses that have impacted his everyday adolescent life.…
(Here’s the 2nd installment from Brent Lacy from his new book, Rural Youth Ministry. Enjoy! – Stephanie) Article 2) The Value of your Community in Rural Youth Ministry You won’t be very long in your new place of Rural Youth Ministry before you hear some form of the following statement – “you’re just a transplant; what do you know? 
(Dear Small Church Friends, I am SO pumped to bring you this 3-part series from Brent Lacy, a rural youth ministry guy. He recently published his first book, Rural Youth Ministry through Group’s new line, Everyday Youth Ministry. I asked him to write this series because I know that many of you serve in rural settings and so I thought he could serve you best in this area.…
