I remember standing in front of a group of young people and uttering the words “There’s a new sheriff in town.” How arrogant, stupid and self sabotaging was that?! Even though I said it in a joking manner, the underlying truth was, I believed it. I believed I was the solution to this “problem”. It…
Teenagers, by nature, are inappropriate. Their immature brains, sometimes, come up with terrible things to say and do without any guardrails or filters. I’ve never had to create a formal code of conduct, mostly because I’ve never needed one. The students who came to my youth group were mostly well behaved, I had a good…
I’m not a a soccer guy, but this story I heard from the World Cup caught my attention. The Japanese national soccer team won their game against Germany but that’s not the only reason they made headlines. Pictures of their locker room started floating around because of how immaculate it was, but that’s not all.…
I have played hundreds of games with youth groups, camp groups, retreat groups and more (I have a playlist here if you actually want to see some of them) and I thought about what a burden games are to those who don’t enjoy them or who feel chained to them. First, you don’t have to…
I have been working in youth ministry in the local church, camps and campus ministry for over 30 years, but when I started, no one told me about the risks involved with working with youth. The risks I am about share with you, I discovered on my own. Risks of Youth Ministry should be a…
I was a big comic book reader. In many of the comics I read I would see an ad for Tony Atlas body building, like this. In my view, the guy/girl usually getting sand kicked in their face, in the church, is the youth pastor. The “bully” could be anyone, the pastor, a board member,…
You keep calling that one student who used to be very active to come back to youth, but every time you call they tell you they’ve been busy. Yes, they’re busy, they’re busy in another youth group that values them. To the other group they’re not just a number, they’re part of a bigger picture…
Brandon Staley could not have said it better than this in regards to Raider Coach Jon Gruden’s toxic emails and subsequent resignation . I have been an imperfect leader/pastor most of my life and I have always treasured the trust people have given me. I’d like to think I have lived up to that trust,…
I had the pleasure of interviewing Sean Buono, author of Youth Empowered. We walk through the process, and it is a process, of empowering students in your youth ministry to serve. Purchase Youth Empowered (I am an Amazon Affiliate, any purchase helps support the ministry) Here’s the abbreviated transcript of our conversation. Tell me a…
Today I welcome my first two time guest, Ryan Latham. Ryan and I go back a ways and wrote a book together called Prepared for Impact. Ryan is the founder of Renewed Leadership, a staff training organization for churches and businesses. Today he brings you some critical tips to saving your jobs if your church…
