Helping Teens Make Healthy Decisions By Duane Smith, Small Church Ministry Architects One of my favorite periodicals is Youth Culture Update, a monthly publication produced by the Center for Parent /Teen Understanding, to help parents and youth workers understand the influence of modern culture upon our teens.…
In the News Washington, D.C.—Christians who are discouraged and disillusioned by the 2016 presidential campaign are being reminded not to give up. In response to a New York Times article that characterized evangelical Christians as despairing, Carmen Fowler LaBerge writes that the word “despair” should never apply to Jesus’ followers.…
The other day a youth pastor friend asked me a question that pinpoints a major shift that’s changing his ministry landscape: “How do I get my kids to care about worship? Nothing seems to be working.” My friend isn’t alone. The “worship problem” is quickly spreading, and deepening, in youth ministry.…
“Nick” belongs to my church and attends the middle school Christian club where I speak every Tuesday. His younger brother is my son’s best friend. But Nick doesn’t have a best friend; in fact, he doesn’t have any friends. Determined to change that, this honor-roll student recently snuck an over-the-counter medicine onto campus and tried to make the concoction known as Lean.…
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.…
Hey parents, Thank you for the way you’ve reached out and supported what we’re trying to do to stay connected with your students and families during this season. As a parent of teenagers, I understand the responsibility you feel to take care of your family… I’m so thankful for those of you who’ve reached out to me (and I know many others) checking on us, offering to help, and supporting us.…
It’s the buzz word around ministry these days. We move our students from large group time to small group time to discipleship. We want to see student’s grow in their relationship with the Lord and this is how Jesus modeled it for us.…
Our number one mission in youth ministry is to share the love of Jesus with our students. We can talk about the love of Jesus or we can demonstrate the love of Jesus. We can tell them they are loved but unless we demonstrate love to them our words really are just words.…
Well, you’re not going to brag about it, but things are going great in your ministry. Your fall kick-off went better than expected, and you’re finally seeing breakthroughs in teenagers who’ve left the sidelines to get in the game with Jesus.…
Medical malpractice is decided by a jury of peers, and in this series of posts I’ve acted as a jury of…one. I’m biased, of course, in my perspective—because I’ve been immersed in the youth ministry world for 30 years. So I have a “seasoned bias.”…
