I spend my days writing for and training youth workers JUST LIKE YOU.
Small Towns, Big Dreams, and The Struggle Between The Two
I am not from a small town. I grew up in New York City (Brooklyn) until I was 12 Population 2.5 million people I also grew up and served as youth pastor in Vero Beach, Fl Population 15,000 + I served in Panama City Fl. Population 36,686 I served in...
What Will You Do On Your Christmas Vacation?
I have a few Wednesday's off and I am thrilled. Our team, probably like yours, puts a lot of energy into our meetings, so resting our brains is priority one during this time. I don't know how you will spend your time this holiday season, but here...
3 Mistakes Made Last Night In Our Youth Meeting (And Why It Did Not Matter)
I have lead roughly over 1,000 youth meetings in 20 years and they all had mistakes and last night was no different. Here are the 3 things I saw wrong last night: 1. We started later than we wanted to. 2. The font size was too small (needed to be...
Your New Leaders Won’t Be Like Your Old Leaders
2013 is right around the corner and some you may be changing key leaders or even changing jobs. This fact makes it really important that we remember who our new leaders are not; they are not the old leaders They won't sing like the old leader. They...
What Is Your Back Up Plan?
What if you lose a key leader? Do you have a back up plan? We recently lost a student leader who played a key role in our group from a skill level and a social level. It was due to some relational and family things beyond my control. We did...
Where Did Angus Jones (and Other New Believers) Go Wrong?
To get the context of what I am going to say, you should watch both videos. I appreciate Angus's heart, I am afraid he did two things wring 1) He did not think through how he should go about making his faith public and 2) He did not entrust himself...
Youth Ministry Room Design Ideas: Plan Like NYC
Because of our new youth room, my mind is attuned to anything that is talking about space. So, the other day I was listening to Diane Rehm interviewing New York City Planning Commissioner, Amanda Burden. She had some great things to say about...
Would You Have A Beer With Jesus?
I heard the song If I Could Have A Beer With Jesus with my son the other day and we laughed. He laughed at me because he knew what I would say about it. I laughed becauseI thought country music has finally run out of song titles or real material....
7 Reasons Why I’ll Skip Your Youth Ministry Network Meeting
This will sounds grossly arrogant, but I don't "need" a network. Now, let me clarify, I do not need a traditional network. I'm in certain category, I am a 45 +, 27 year youth ministry veteran. Many networks are sponsored to pimp programs or sell...
Rivals 3 Week Curriculum Available: Grab A Free Lesson
Looking for three weeks of outreach and messages that take advantage of the football season? Look no more. Rivals is now available for purchase on Youthmin.org. You can read a full review at Youthmin.org. but you can only get a free lesson...
Our New Youth Room Walk Through Part 1 and 2
For those who may not know, or remember, our church was destroyed in the April 27th storms last year. You can read about the storm and the damage HERE and our recovery HERE. Just recently, we finished the youth and the children's building and have...
7 Promises I Make My Youth Group
I was recently reading an article by Frank Strong called Why Content Marketing Is The New Branding. It was a short, straight forward piece on why the online content, not our logo or mission statement, is how we are branded (known). Out of this...
From Idea To Reality In Four Steps
We are coming off a great night last Wednesday. We saw our kids fulfill one students desire to have a youth choir. We showed that a kids idea can go from thought to reality. Step one in bringing a kids idea to fruition is first to listen for...
Accepting Your Youth Ministry As They Are, Small and All
Much of the chaos we experience as youth workers is self induced. We get entrenched in a mindset and build around that. Now, if that mindset is whole and healthy, all is well. When our mindset is unhealthy, watch out. For me, the word "accept" was...
You Can’t Just Preach Your Way Out Of It
Preaching is a life giving way to affirm and to challenge students. Preaching should not be our go to method for solving problems in our youth ministry. There are problems we face both personally and professionally that require more than a message....
The Disciple Project OUTREACH MANUAL
HOW TO TRANSFORM YOUR DECAYING YOUTH MEETING INTO A FLOURISHING CITY-WIDE MOVEMENT