All roads may lead to Rome but not all youth programs lead to discipled young people. Youth Pastors have all kinds of words to describe their youth program, some call it youth group, others call it youth ministry, some call it student ministry but these titles don’t really give a true picture of what is…
It’s currently 2023, and even though I wrote this in 2011, things have not only changed but gotten worse. It is now a foregone conclusion that graduates will not be back to church any time soon, but, our calling as youth pastors and college and career directors hasn’t quit just because they have. Where we…
This article, as well as graduation forms graduation gift ideas graduation service sample and graduation song suggestions (over 40) Are a part of Launching Well: Graduating Your Senior Class In Style resource. If you are not subscribed to the Youth Ministry Round Up newsletter, subscribe now and receive all these graduation resources. “If it weren’t…
In his book, The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande shares several disciplines that use checklists to accomplish major and minor task such as construction companies, restaurants and hospitals. This got me thinking, “Shouldn’t there be a check list for youth pastors when it comes to discipleship?” You may think that more important jobs like airline pilots…
Are numbers in youth ministry important? Yes. Are they the only metric we should be looking at to determine whether our youth ministry is successful? No. Then why do youth ministries, still, seem to be hyper focused on how many kids come to youth versus how man kids are following Jesus? Let’s be honest, numbers…
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls – Proverbs 25:28 A city without wall is like a house without doors, open to everyone and everything. You can’t keep anyone out or anything in. Cities, houses and countries all need boundaries to be able to function. We, as humans,…
When I was younger, I could not see the correlation between privacy and power; I thought I would have all the energy and wisdom I needed when I needed it. I wasn’t until I got a little older, mostly through failure, that I took my private time, and what I did with it, more seriously.…
Many youth ministries are in decline and dying. Yes, there are cycles, ups and downs and seasons, but there are some youth ministries that are just plain dying. If you’re one of these youth pastors whose youth group is in decline, I feel for you. I’ve been there. A declining youth ministry is hard on…
It breaks my heart that so many young youth pastors who enter youth ministry are not being discipled by their pastors, deacons or mature men or women of the church. Sadly, lead pastors hire youth pastors with an expectation that they have it all together without committing to further developing them spiritually. Are you one…
This is part four of a four part series based on my new message series The Process. Your can check out the first post here. If you’re in interested in the series you can get a free lesson by signing up for my newsletter or you can purchase the whole series here. The anvil of…
