Helping Students Return to School… Ten Quick Hints and Ideas. 10. Offer Sharing Times, During Regular Meeting Times/Small Groups to Talk, Before and After Their First Week. 9. Be Available Virtually and In-Person After-School for Students That Need to Talk. 8. Support Parents in the Back to School Process. 7. Teach “Back to School” Lesson […]
Global LeadershipSummit Takeaways, ten key things I personally took away from this year’s Global Leadership Network annual summit and GLS: Next Gen connections at Willow Creek Community Church last week. 10. TRUST: Leadership is based on and about trust. A leader earns the right to be trusted and freely trusts their team. 9. CONSISTENCY: Leadership […]
Learned From Being Homeless- ten things I learned from being homeless and how good god is in the middle of our struggles
Want to keep your students engaged and listening to your lesson? Consider the “7 Minute Rule” when it comes to planning your next lesson: I know traditionally, youth ministry lessons resemble a sermon/lecture (“Auditory Learning”) more than other kinds of presentations. The church is a setting for 20-minute-plus sermons, which might work for the adults, but it […]
Caught NOT Taught? “What are you teaching this week?” It is the question that students, parents, and others often ask us. We study, plan, and prepare for that moment when we stand up in front of our students and begin to speak. We are paid to communicate the greatest truths imaginable. We have the privilege and the responsibility […]
Running The Race Together, why my wife is involved in my youth ministry as a youth pastor working in a church with teenagers. By Dan Istvanik
Silver Bullets of Youth Ministry Success. We all want to know the “silver bullet”… the “secret sauce”… to youth ministry!
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 […]
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 […]
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.
