Somehow, it’s working… For the past 10 months we’ve been trying to nurture a “community within a community” inside our youth ministry. We call it Squad, and it’s changing how we do everything. It began a year ago, when a few adult leaders and I talked about getting more of our teenagers serving in leadership roles.…
Every other day lately it seems like I receive a new coupon telling me what I can buy my mom on her special day in May. In the restaurant world, Mother’s Day is seen as one of the busiest of the year.…
Once I served in a church so consumed with numbers that it had a permanent apparatus in the back of the worship center dedicated solely to them. It displayed last week’s attendance, this week’s attendance, attendance from a year ago, and, of course, the most recent offering numbers.…
“We count people because people count.” That mantra was our church’s lifeline. Nothing happened without counting, and without a count, something might as well not have happened. During my seven years as youth director there, that statement echoed at every Thursday-morning staff meeting.…
In this week’s Whiteboard Wednesday experiment, we explore a surprising way to “measure” and promote discipleship—or spiritual maturity—in teenagers. Do you know how to measure spiritual maturity in your teenagers? It’s usually one of those “know it when you see it” things.…
As the launch of a new school year approaches, remember to include on your calendar some strategic touchpoints with parents. It’s essential to partner with them and be available as you work together to nurture teenagers and their faith. Being available makes a profound positive statement to parents and boosts their confidence in you as a youth worker.…
“I…Am…Not…a…Loooooserrr!” It’s one of my favorite lines from Disney’s underrated 2000 movie The Kid, starring a Bruce Willis so young he still has hair. In the film, Willis’ arrogant and successful Russ Duritz has a mystical encounter with his pudgy, awkward 8-year old self. …
I watched Bo Burnham’s comedy special Make Happy on Netflix for the first time in the fall of my freshman year of college. In the final song, Burnham emulates Kanye’s famously long and rambling rants from the Yeezus tour. It focuses on performance—and the joys, anxieties, and resulting pain of making your living on-stage.…
Fall is the perfect time to build youth ministry hype. Fall is a prime-time outreach for students. It’s the time of the year where students are injected back into their mission field. And I’ve learned that as a youth minister, one of our many jobs is to create a place where it’s easy for students to invite their friends.…
Aquaman is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Justice League—for decades, he’s earned no respect from the comic-book superhero world. Yes, he has the power to influence the undersea world, so why does he work a day job at the very land-based Hall of Justice?…
