For 30 years I’ve rooted for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. If I told you how many times I’ve screamed at the tv, stormed out of a room or said so many potty words, you would blush. I was a true Notre Dame fan. I am a fan no more, mainly because the media…
I think we have to realize that there are many kinds of situations as to why a student who comes to church but not youth group. They live further away but attend a youth group near them Families can travel up to 45 minutes, one way, to come to church which makes bringing their teens…
All youth pastors have done it. And if you haven’t, you will. You’ll play the game that goes sideways and a kid get’s hurt. You’ll tell parents you’ll be back at this time and show up at that time. You’ll get loose lipped in a message or conversation and say something you should not have…
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…
Welcome to part five of my series The Five Plans Every New Youth Pastor Should Have. You can check out the beginning of the series here. Can I tell you when I most often felt the burn of burn out? It was was when the wheels in my head started to grind together effecting the…
In my opinion, and currently my experience, the weight of a small youth ministry is much heavier than running a large ministry. I want to share five weights small youth pastors have to bear that large youth group pastors do not. The weight of loss Bearing the weight of large youth ministry is certainly 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,…
Singer Carolyn Arends has a great song called New Year’s Day, where she commits to this idea, This will be my resolutionEvery day is New Year’s DayThis will be my resolutionEvery day is New Year’s Day Many people think there is something magical about the first day of the year and I understand that. It’s…
I recently watched a podcast episode about the value of reviewing your goals and I thought I’d pass them along to you. Principles of Review The unexamined life is not worth living – Socrates I would put it this way, “the unexamined youth ministry isn’t worth building”. Not reviewing your goals, events or programs means…
