*if you enjoyed the episode, I’d love if you stopped by itunes and left a few stars and a review. Someone asked me about a situation concerning A PDA issue in their youth ministry and thought I’d expand on that with some other youth ministry policy issues you should think through. Let me make a…
My wife introduced me to a new show on Netflix called Seven Days Out. The show follows the journey of big events seven days before they happen. They feature episodes ranging from the Westminster Dog Show to A League of Legends World tournament. In between, there’s an episode about the revamping of the greatest restaurant…
My friend Ben Birdsong recently volunteered to review my new planning resource for youth workers called My Youth Ministry Playbook. He bought the resource and I had no idea what he was going to write. Planning, strategy, and communication are all essential elements of a good youth ministry. These three core fundamentals all begin with…
When I was a full time youth pastor, I loved me some calendars and planners. Wall calendars were my favorite because I could see the next three months at a glance and make notes. One year, I was literally putting information on four calendars every time I came up with an event or meeting. I…
Be SMART with how you set and accomplish your goals. pic.twitter.com/iUKPQSnp90 — Larry Kim (@larrykim) April 2, 2018 We all have goals, but we don’t all reach them the same way. I should have titled this Are SMART Goals A Dumb Idea For Certain Kinds of Youth Pastors, but that was too long . Certainly,…
One of my biggest headaches in youth ministry, was the sign up system for events. It is an exercise in futility. Names on sheets of paper feels archaic. At this point in history, it feels like you’re asking students to churn butter. How do you fix that? Let’s face it, It doesn’t matter how many…
I was looking at my calendar for next year. It’s packed. The question is: What’s the point? Do I want every weekend of my life packed? Does a packed schedule = success or just business. It is a question of timing. When is the right time to do an event or no events? Students want…
I’ll say it again. I never believed in competing with my brothers and sisters in Christ. It was never my group vs theirs or my calling vs their calling. We are not called to be competitors but rather to be competitive. You have to ask yourself why you need to stay competitive in the youth…
“Where is everyone tonight?” “I think a lot of them went over at First Church to their outreach.” “Man, what is going on?!” Ever have this conversation before or after a youth meeting? I know youth workers like to say they are not in competition with their brothers and sisters in Christ, and they are…
I was eating today at a Japanese restaurant. I hadn’t planned on eating at the grill for one simple reason: I had seen all the chefs tricks before. It made me think, how often do students say the same thing about your program : “I’ve see this trick before”. It could be that you’ve beat…
