12
Jun
Jun
Silver Bullets of Youth Ministry Success. We all want to know the “silver bullet”… the “secret sauce”… to youth ministry!
04
May
May
BORED WITH THE BIBLE? “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.- I Timothy 4:12 (NIV) I hear a few things quite often as a youth pastor, but two make me most sad. I hear […]
27
Apr
Apr
Youth Ministry Hints, Youth Ministry Resources, Youth Ministry Thoughts
Including Parents in Summer Trips
INCLUDING PARENTS IN SUMMER TRIPS, Summer trips (camps, conferences, missions trips…) can be a massive moment in the life of children and teens to create memories that last a lifetime. In many ways, it is a rite of passage. Even if the location is not that far away, it may be the first extended time away from […]
24
Apr
Apr
Youth Ministry Hints, Youth Ministry Resources, Youth Ministry Thoughts
Favorite Youth Ministry Podcasts
Favorite Youth Ministry Podcasts, there are quite a few youth ministry podcasts. Some you may have heard of and some you may not have heard of…yet! Unfortunately, there are even some of my favorites from over the years that are no longer around. I don’t have a podcast of my own, partly because there are […]
20
Apr
Apr
Youth Ministry Hints, Youth Ministry Resources, Youth Ministry Thoughts
The Conversation, NOT ” The Talk”
The Conversation, Not the Talk… When my son turned ten and entered 5th grade, during the summer, we had what many parents call “the talk”. It is the classic father-son moment talking about birds and bees. You can picture the scene sitting on his bed, talking about all the details of life and answering a […]
17
Apr
Apr
Doing Minsitry Your Way? Ten of the WORST Reasons for doing youth ministry the way you are doing it? 10. It is what my own youth group did when I was in youth group. 9. It is what the church has always done? 8. I just don’t feel like being creative? 7. It is the […]
13
Apr
Apr
We all know the time-honored phrase and what accompanies it, “Why are you hitting yourself?” It is repeated by older siblings, classmates, and others as they grab our hand, overpower us, and beat us silly.
While it may not happen physically to us, as we get older and stronger, it still does sometimes happens in adulthood, even in ministry settings. It continues through micromanagement and controlling leadership that beat us up emotionally, socially, and spiritually.
06
Apr
Apr
Building Blocks of Constructive Teaching, as we face a continued conversation about the deconstruction of faith. Maybe it is time we, in youth ministry, reclaim our place in the conversation and actually claim our place pre-deconstruction. Is it possible that the seeming flood of well-known Christian voices grew up in an era of youth ministry […]
30
Mar
Mar
Youth Ministry Hints, Youth Ministry Resources, Youth Ministry Thoughts
Talking to Students about School Shootings
Talking to Students about School Shootings. Ministry is about a lot of things, but a growing need in youth ministry in our current era is to help teens process crisis-based tragedies like school shootings. Events like what happened again this week are happening more and more often, and students have questions, anxiety, and concerns about […]
27
Mar
Mar
Sunday Experience or Sunday Service… A few years ago, I was at a church that INSISTED on using the word “EXPERIENCE” in describing their Sunday morning gathering. The staff was not allowed to use the word “SERVICE; it was considered old fashion and outdated. Listening and observing, I had thought about it quite a bit as […]