If you’re a volunteer youth worker who needs to take a break, this article might help you. If you’re a youth pastor with maxed-out volunteers, this article might give you perspective. I am a longtime volunteer youth worker and full-time staffer at my church in a non-youth ministry role. …
We’ve been here before… Our annual summer mission trip is just around the corner and we’re pulling leaders out of our….directories. How did this happen again this year? I was so good at planning ahead. Then badda bing, badda boom, it’s May!…
At the end of this summer, you want to look back on your missions experiences in awe—the transformation in your teenagers was not only obvious but ongoing. Your kids crushed it; your leaders crushed it; you crushed it! And then the biggest question… Now what?…
Do you have a burning youth ministry related question that you just can’t quite seem to find an answer to? We’re here to help! Don’t miss your opportunity to ask us anything… well, almost anything. Lesson planning, discipleship, middle school boy’s hygiene, working with parents—our Youth Ministry team of experts will take your question and unpack it in depth on an upcoming podcast episode.…
“Helloooooo!!!” I greet teenagers as they walk up the stairs to our middle and high school student ministry area. There’s a platform at the top of the landing where kids gather before they make their way into the youth room. I love this space.…
In this week’s Whiteboard Wednesday experiment, we recognize the reality of our context in youth ministry: We are key players in a “spiritual war” that’s focused on young people. We can, and must, play a strategic role in fighting for the true identity that Jesus sees in them (and in us).…
Today’s teenagers are glued to their tech devices. They have tablets, laptops, and especially cell phones that suck them in and demand their full energy and attention, often to the exclusion of other important things in life—including sleeping, live interaction with family members and peers, and schoolwork.…
Say you could snap your fingers to create the perfect senior pastor. What do you envision? What traits would you want more of? less of? Or perhaps you simply desire more consistency? [tweet_dis]Senior pastors are brain-twisting enigmas.[/tweet_dis] (Keep in mind: the person who just wrote those words is a senior pastor!)…
Andy Stanley recently said something to the effect of, “The church should be the safest place to talk about anything.” I’m no Andy Stanley, but the other day while talking to one of our interns I said something that I thought was equally brilliant: “Always make extending the conversation one of your goals.”.…
I had an interesting conversation not too long ago with a fellow youth worker who was feeling overwhelmed. Our conversation kind of centered around this statement, “The world is getting crazier and crazier, and it almost seems like what we’re doing isn’t working.”…
