Should you stay, or should you go? This is the question we pondered together in Part One. Where are you at with it today? It’s easy to get overwhelmed by circumstances. Even as I write this, I am fatigued by some things happening in my own circle – and yet I hear off in another room the song “Mighty to Save” playing.…
So… what do you think of this sign? Apologies. I’m actually asking you the wrong question. It reminds me of how someone recently asked me, “Does the idea of the ‘church’ even work anymore?” That’s also not the right question.…
“Should I stay or should I go?” The Clash made those lyrics famous in the 1980’s. The question the song proposes is one you may find yourself asking these days, creating your own kind of internal clash. Whether you’re paid or a volunteer in your church, you may be pondering what the lyrics suggest: “If I go there will be trouble… and if I stay it will be double.”…
We can easily fall into the trap of only thinking about our position. It’s much tougher to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and process through what they are thinking or feeling. In hopes of helping us do that in one of the more sensitive areas of our culture, here are 6 questions I believe gay students are asking about us and our ministries: How is it possible for me to relate to Christians in a church context?…
Editor’s Note: The church-planting movement in America is growing exponentially, fueled and driven by an army of former youth pastors. Attend any church-planting conference and you’ll ram into a sea of youth workers who’ve migrated out of their niche and into the Wild, Wild West of broader church leadership.…
Relational ministry can seem like a no-brainer. It’s simply being “in relationship” with students, right? Well yes…and no. It IS being in relationship with students, but how we evaluate that is everything. Simple things, like sending a student a well-worded text message or showing up at a football game or choir concert, are great places to start relationship.…
Yesterday we ran down 10 quick hits on increasing relational ministry in your youth group; today we’re back with 10 more and hoping you contribute another couple in the comments, too! Here we go: 11. Set up shop at a fast-food place right next to the school that has open lunch.…
This week we’re going to simply knock out 20 ways you can increase the level of relational ministry in your youth group. Quick, random, hits that we hope inspire you to try something new, too! 1. Add a greeting time in youth group.…
When you prep your talk, think about three audiences in your youth group. It doesn’t matter if they’re all actually in the room or not, thinking about them will prepare you for when they are. As you look to an application of your talk, consider these three people in the crowd: The “So What?”…
Hopefully yesterday you took some time to think about the tightrope of ministry and how challenging each step of the journey can be. So what are some practical ways you can do youth ministry life well? Glad you asked! Here are 4 ways we try to put into practice ourselves: 1) Talk through the calendar before you go public with it.…
