I was recently meeting with a ministry director who had been through a bit of a tough year. From an outsider’s perspective, his ministry was going well. Kids were involved and growing in their faith. Volunteers were showing up, engaged and leading with excitement. Yet something was a bit off. This director was leading several…
What do growing youth ministries have in common? What makes them so healthy? What causes them to grow while others don’t? I’ve never met a youth worker who didn’t want their youth ministry to grow. That would be like finding a 5 year old that doesn’t like cookies! It would be weird. However, even though…
No one warned us that we’d get mad at our church. You would hope that church work would be different, right? But church people are still people, and when the stakes are high and emotions are higher, most of us do a lousy job at holding a constructive conversation. The authors of “Crucial Conversations” say…
Several years ago I made the shift. I had always kind of enjoyed experimenting in the yard with different plant combinations, colors, and layouts. I would be lured in by the big bloomers at the big box stores and I would often come home from a trip to get some nails with a plethora of…
Most leaders lead backwards. The problem is they don’t know it. Until they figure it out and do something about it though, they will never lead up to their full potential. Last October, I accepted a new job. It was at a bigger church than I had ever served at and came with more responsibility…
My grandmother is without a doubt one of the most influential people in my life. It is her love and devotion to God that has inspired me to be faithful and obedient as I serve and love Jesus. There have been many times when I have been faced with a challenge in life and I…
There I was, sitting across a desk from an eager youth pastor (I’ll call her Cindy). We had just spent a few days with her church and prepared a youth ministry assessment report. The presentation went over like gangbusters. People were excited because we put a plan together to help them put effective systems and…
In youth ministry we are constantly in search of great curriculum and lessons that will both engage our students with both mind and heart. I find that too often that is a very difficult and sometimes impossible task. In my early years of youth ministry I would often find myself reading books for my own…