A few months ago I finally pulled the plug on an idea I had called Youth Pastor University. It was my plan to offer courses to youth workers on how to do various things in youth ministry. Sadly, I had neither the time or energy to do it well, so I dropped it. The great…
I was recently reading about a youth worker struggling with how much time they DO NOT spend with teenagers. Sounds odd right? I mean, youth workers spend time with teenagers to build relationships, impart spiritual truth etc, right? This post was not written by some “old fart” youth worker complaining about having to spend time…
This list is not in any particular order and includes bands you’ve probably never heard of. I love extra-ordinary artists that do not get the hype of average artists industries push as the next… I scoured the release list provided by Jesus Freak Hideout and listened to many artists I had missed and I’m so…
This is the fifth and final post in my series on re-evaluating your youth ministry volunteers, and it may be the most important. Often times a person will hide their health (all kinds) to keep their job. People want to keep their job so they’ll hide or mask the fact that there is something wrong so…
My 4th question in this series for re-evaluating volunteers is, “Can you tell me a story?”. Every youth ministry has a narrative. We are a collection of stories but we tend to focus on numbers, activity, and logistics. Stories matter. Stories tell me what kind of impact you’re making. Stories reveal the characters you are impacting and…
This is the third post in my series about evaluating your youth ministry volunteers. If you do not happen to have a team, this would be great questions to ask yourself if you feel your own commitment slacking. Small church youth ministries struggle because the mission isn’t big enough not only to keep kids engaged,…
This is part two in my series on the seven questions to re-evaltuate your youth ministry volunteers. In my last post, I shared the first question: Who has the leverage? My next question is, “What’s your passion level?” Let me offer a caveat before I get rolling. I understand that many youth groups do not…
I’ve had great volunteers. They’ve worked hard with me. Some were with me for a year, some almost a decade. Part of my role is to evaluate and re-evaluate them to see if they need to make a shift in the ministry laterally to another position or if they need to make an exit to…
I’m fresh off a trip to the National Youth Workers Conference where I hosted a few Idea Labs and co-taught a session on Discipling The Busy Teen, but I wanted to share a few games you could use at your next youth meeting. On our first night hosting we played a few games that were…
I have had a few moments over the past month or so that has encouraged me to keep creating. The first moment I experienced was meeting CJ. CJ is long time subscriber and commenter on my YouTube channel. We recently met for the first time at the NYWC in Memphis, TN. We only spoke for…
