Some youth workers don’t like their main youth meetings. In fact, preparing for their meetings make them anxious. For some, its the pressure to “get it right.” For other youth workers, they have a casual “God will do it” mentality and do not pour a ton of effort into their meeting. This attitude could be…
Bernadette Jiwa is a story telling marketer. She helps businesses tell the right story so they can see more customers, make more money and be sustainable. In some recent advice to a restaurant owner, she makes some excellent points I’d like to translate for your youth ministry. “But here’s the thing, people don’t come back…
In my first job as a youth pastor, I thought I thought I “had the right” to have lunch with my students on campus. This wasn’t true, but trying telling my 22 year old self that. Regardless, I cared more about my rights than doing real ministry for and with students, teachers and administrators. Now,…
Do you ever wonder why students don’t listen to your advice? I do. I have had several encounters with students as a substitute teacher and I ask, “Why won’t they just listen to me? Don’t they know I’m trying help?” Every parent, youth pastor, teacher, or adult who works with teens has said this. It’s…
If this is your first time here. Welcome. You can check out the beginning of this series here if you like. “Engage” – Captain Picard, Star Trek Do you remember the days of walking into your middle school cafeteria and looking for sympathetic eyes of those who might let you sit at there’re table? I…
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. – Leo Buscaglia Some might say I cared too much in youth ministry and I probably did. I…
I’ve treated every youth ministry I’ve led with the mentality of, “What we do every week is equally as important, or more, as what you do in band, football practice or key club” If I did not put the value on what we did every week, no one else would. Many youth ministries operate sloppy…
Texas Coach Tom Herman said something interesting after the Texas Longhorns beat the Georgia Bulldogs in the 2019 Sugar Bowl, “This locker room finally became player led instead of coach fed” This is a powerful statement about how discipleship in our youth ministries should look. Coach fed must happen at the beginning, but it should…
The real threat to your youth ministry isn’t outside the church, it’s inside. The world doesn’t care if churches have youth who have meetings The world doesn’t care if kids go to camps or retreats for spiritual renewal. The world has an entirely different expectation for our youth ministry and it does not include number…
My friend Ben Birdsong recently volunteered to review my new planning resource for youth workers called My Youth Ministry Playbook. He bought the resource and I had no idea what he was going to write. Planning, strategy, and communication are all essential elements of a good youth ministry. These three core fundamentals all begin with…
