Youth ministry is hard, and the odds are you will want to quit at some point this year. We’ve all had bad ministry moments, and it’s not uncommon to end up in your car at the end of the night wondering what in the world you’re doing. We all struggle, and it’s normal to think…
I just blinked, and it’s December! What an incredible time of year. We have less than 30 days left to accomplish our goals for the year. We have an incredible opportunity to impact lives for God. It’s a season of nostalgia and traditions and joy. Joy. We associate it with the holiday season. It’s displayed…
I remember when I first started out in youth ministry. It was all about the numbers. I felt successful when I could brag about the amount of kids I had showing up on a Sunday night. This gave me a false sense of validation and patted my growing ego. I soon found out though, that my…
We don’t hate church meetings as much as we say we do. We just hate lousy church meetings. At least that’s the contention of Patrick Lencioni, author of “Death By Meeting.” When a fellow youth pastor recommended Lencioni’s book, I assumed the author was handing out tips on how to have shorter meetings and to…
I’ve never met a leader who dreamed of having a toxic culture. Leaders want to lead a healthy culture, and volunteers want to serve in one as well. Nothing will make a great volunteer or staff member run away faster than a toxic culture! I’ve had the privilege to work in some healthy cultures, and the nightmare…
I remember the day as clear as if it were yesterday. Sitting at the table in the office, with the letter that would change everything. It was my letter of resignation. I had written it about a month earlier and it was time to share it with my boss, the pastor. We had worked together…
Every ministry faces growth barriers. No church grows all the time without facing a plateau or season of struggles. The question isn’t if we will face growth barriers, it’s what will we do when they come? We will all face growth barriers, but we don’t have bow down to them! You can overcome them and…
Take heart, don’t lose heart. Have you ever found yourself discouraged in ministry? If you’ve been serving in ministry for more than eleven days, I’m going to guess that your answer is “yes”! I hit an all-time low several years ago. The church was growing, and we had just opened a new facility, but volunteers…