There is nothing fair about life or ministry, yet, we spend an enormous amount of time and energy trying to make everything fair for ourselves, our our youth ministry, and our leaders. Jesus was not fair. Jesus chose less qualified people and shunned the most qualified. Trying to be fair: Decreases trust in our leadership.…
I hate games where you can get punched for doing something that is natural for you to do. There’s the game where you try to get people to look at a circle you make with your fingers. There is the Door Knob game where you have to touch a door knob immediately after you’ve passed…
Do you want to show some love to the people that have helped you and your youth ministry out this past year? Don’t know what to get your volunteers or leader? Here’s a list of expensive and inexpensive ways to bless those working in the harvest fields with you. Gifts For Volunteers Restaurant Cards Books…
Some things will never change in youth ministry like middle school boys not taking showers, high school girls in conflict and church politics. Maybe this pandemic has drawn attention to your youth ministry in ways that are not flattering and you’re being scrutinized and evaluated like never before or maybe you’ve been on the battlefield…
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…
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…
This is Part II of my interview with Youth Pastor and Risk Taker Mark Cox. You can read part I here How did the students, leaders, parents, and pastor respond to your wanting to change things? Right off the bat, there were mixed reviews. Don’t get me wrong; a lot of people were supporters of…
Our gigantic youth ministry experiment commences tomorrow night. Can’t wait to see what happens!- Tweet from Mark Cox 9:11 PM Aug 24th via web This is the tweet that was that catalyst for the following interview. I love it when youth pastors take risks. I hate it when other youth pastors see other youth pastors take…
In my naive days, I thought the youth ministry was my world, my silo, separate from other ministries. In reality, the only reason you have this full time, professional, role is because your boss, your pastor, signs those checks. So, try your best today to remove yourselves from harming the relationship that could be the…
It’s simple, you can’t build a 2200 sq. ft house on a 100 sq. ft foundation and yet we have all tried. You’ve tried to build your youth ministry on hype but hype is short lived. Those who want to build their youth ministry large, must build the foundations wider and deeper. Scripture says, “When…
