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 week we’re going to focus on some youth ministry best practices and hope that it generates some helpful conversation as you agree, disagree or have no opinion either way! We want you to know upfront, that we don’t believe that there is a PERFECT way to do youth ministry.…
Have you ever been in a teaching funk? Most teachers have, and it feels like I’m in one now! I love teaching God’s word and I am fortunate enough to be the primary teacher in our junior high ministry. Like most pastors, I’m critical of my own teaching.…
No purple ministry. I get it. We need boundaries and we need guidelines. Historically, we’ve (the Church) made BIG mistakes and so we are afraid of repeating those mistakes so we say “no purple ministry, girl leaders help girl students and guy leaders help guy students.”…
Posted By Kurt Johnston I apologize for the distance between my last post and this one…been a bit crazy. A sixth contributing factor to my longevity is to simply choose to lead differently. Here are a few ways I have tried (I don’t always get it right) to lead over the years: Here’s a new idea: SERVANT LEADERSHIP!…
Posted by Kurt Johnston This is the 5th in a little series about some of the things that have helped me last for almost 25 years. There is no silver bullet here, just a little insight about things that have seemed to make a difference in my journey as a youth worker.…
Posted By Kurt Johnston I once heard an respected Christian leader joke, “I’d love being a Pastor, if it wasn’t for all the people!” Pretty funny joke, actually. Yet in the often fast-paced, performance-driven, growth-oriented, program-dominated ministries many youth workers find themselves in it can be very difficult to find the time to, or even the value of, keeping people as the primary focus of our energy.…
Suddenly I feel cornered in a dark alley, surrounded by naysayers, no-hopers, knuckleheads, and the Knights Who Say Nee (didn’t see that last one coming, right?). I mean, I can’t turn and spit without hitting someone pontificating that Christianity in the United States is terminally ill, and that youth ministry is pretty much a failure any way you slice it.…
