Summer Is a Liar
In a ministry context, summer is a serial liar. Summer is NOT a slower time for youth ministry, and it’s NOT chock-full of margin as it might claim. We won’t have a more relaxed schedule, and we won’t have time to catch our breath.…
Tag: planning
Summer Ministry’s C+ Temptation
Youth ministry in the summer has always been a struggle for me. Ministry momentum slows way down because my teenagers refocus their time on summer jobs, family vacations, camps, and trips to grandma’s house. Attendance is frustratingly inconsistent: Without warning, we can go from 24 kids to 87 kids any given week.…
Gratitude: Preach It Like You Mean It
Gratitude gets wonky when we sit down at our Thanksgiving banquet table and look side to side, doesn’t it? Look to your right, and there’s your neighbor who went to school for fewer years than you, works fewer hours than you, and makes twice as much money.…
Make “Less” Your “More” in Your Holiday Planning
From the last porch light of Halloween through the last light of the Christmas tree, our holiday schedules are packed! Cramming their way into our margins are school Christmas parties, staff get-togethers, and family dinners—and we haven’t even touched decorating, cooking, shopping, and wrapping.…
Downshifting Your Summer Strategy
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. …
The 5 Must-Have Adults on Any Mission Trip
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!…
New Year’s Resolutions: Failing On Purpose
I hate New Year’s resolutions. And I’m betting than I’m not alone in my hatred… I’m a very driven person. I succeed in many areas of life. But I typically do what many of us typically do when the calendar flips—I catalog my shortcomings and vow to do better.…
Look Ahead and Ask Who, Not How
In addition to all the extra tasks and events during the Christmas season, it’s also one of the busiest times in ministry. There are Advent services, volunteer opportunities, meetings, social events, and parties. Plus it’s almost January, so we’re making sure summer camps and mission trips are booked.…
How Many Do-Overs Do We Get?
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).…
Big Dreams Require Little Details
What’s your big dream for your youth ministry this year? And can you sum it up on a T-shirt? Leadership guru Peter Drucker made the “T-shirt” challenge famous—his argument was that big goals should be so easy to understand that they fit on a T-shirt.…
