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.”
I could hear my heart beating in my ears. The oxygen in my lungs felt like concrete, dragging me down. I could barely breathe. Everything was riding on this, and I had only one shot. But I missed. Again. In the sun and sweat of the playground, it felt like the 40th time I’d whiffed at kickball (reality check—maybe it was really only the second or third time).…
One thing that I think youth workers are really good at is embracing change. We are trained to watch trends in culture, and we’re always attempting to adapt. Look at how quickly we embraced social media, and began using it to better our communication with our students.…
It’s easy to see teenagers like caterpillars that are wrestling free from the numbing rhythms of their everyday life and into their butterfly life—where they figure out who they really are and what they really have to give to the world.…
Help Wanted! Or, how do I know if I’m called to youth ministry? Calling is a strange concept, and men and women far wiser than I have tried to tackle to subject. And the methods we see in scripture used to call men and women to Kingdom action often make our efforts to figure it out even tougher!…
It’s a bracing truth: How people see you affects how they see Jesus. The same is true of a ministry. Our programs represent Jesus, but do they also reflect him? No ministry is perfect, of course, but [tweet_dis]when teenagers come and see your youth ministry, do they see Jesus?[/tweet_dis]…
Truth be told, many of us are discipling our teenagers with unsharpened axes. We’re dull inside, because we’ve refused to take a break and invest in our long-term relationship with Jesus. We just keep swinging, through season after season in ministry, surprised that our work seems harder and harder.…
“I don’t really look at numbers; I’m more interested in spiritual growth.” “You’re so numbers-focused—do you even know anyone’s names?” “Numbers aren’t the only way to gauge ministry success.” I work in a pretty large church. I’ve heard all of these “numbers” criticisms, and then some.…
A youth minister’s schedule can be hard on marriages and families. There a million youth events and many youth pastors are expected to be involved in everyday church happenings. Youth workers can easily find themselves far too busy and with spouses and children desperate for time and attention.…
Being a small group leader is great and scary at the same time. I took a group of guys from freshman year to senior year. It was great, but there were some things I had to learn to be okay with throughout the four years that I wish I knew at the beginning.…
I’ve done 5,000 zoom calls over these past few months. You probably have too. On a recent one, someone asked me this pivotal question: “Jeanne, if a microphone were put in your hands and you were told that you could communicate any message to the Christian leadership world, but you could only use one sentence, what would you say?”…
