3 Things A New Leader Should Never Do

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...

7 Steps To Creating A Life Giving Code of Conduct

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...

Building A “Leave It Better” Culture

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...

The Burden of Games

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....

The 9 Risks of Becoming A Youth Pastor

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...