I recently had to postpone 2 events in the past two months because the sign up was not good. These were traditional events. a lock-in and a D-Now (Disciple Now). Students had helped plan both, but did not sign up. It makes a youth worker shake his head and question everything. Don’t. It’s the…
The old deodorant commercial says, “Never let them see you sweat” , but they didn’t work with teenagers. If the makers of that commercial knew how little time our kids spent practicing the basic disciplines of the Christian faith; they would know it was the youth workers who were sweating . Pew Research say that Millennial’s…
I hate it when a kid leaves our group. When a kid leaves, depending on the kid, several bad things can happen: We lose momentum We lose other kids We lose leadership We lose workers We lose a friend We lose our job, if it’s a bunch of kids Kids can leave for any…
I am a news junkie. I like to know what is going on. News organizations have started ramping up 2012 Presidential hopefuls for the Republican party. A phrase I keep hearing is “a purity code”. The various parties, both conservative, liberal, and tea, all have a code. They are asking “are they____________ enough to…
I started using Squidoo about 3 years ago. Squidoo was started by author and marketing expert Seth Godin. It was a fun hobby and challenge, but I have recently had some breakthrough ideas for using Squidoo for even more ministry purposes; like using it to build a platform for greater interaction between you, my fabulous blog…
As of May 2021 the United States unemployment rate is 5.8. It’s not huge until you think that 5.8 percent of 350 millions people is a little over 20 million people. That is a lot of people out of work. Just like our nation, our youth ministry has a spiritual and physical economy. In the…
I have taught a few parent classes over the years. Some were well attended, others were not; but all of them were worth it. Here are some reasons that youth workers of all ages and every phase of life; from no kids to empty-nester grand parents should teach a parenting class. Parents need a place…
Before launching anything, you have to have a certain level of buy in. Whether it is a small group, discipleship group, evangelistic event, or a leadership group you need kids to buy in. You have to have kids who are interested, that have some want to. How do we get that? How do we do that?…
If I could have banned a word last year it would have been the word: awkward. From sit-coms to general conversation, the word just creeped in to describe anything uncomfortable to talk about. Although I don’t like the over use of the word it completely describes my youth ministry and just about every other youth…
You know if someone leads with the words, “Don’t take it personally, but” you are about to be offended. Many of us take our youth work very seriously. Sometimes too seriously. We work hard at these things like peaching, programming and relationship building, and we don’t like to be challenged. We don’t make widgets. Widgets are…
