When it comes to church and youth ministry, numbers matter. They aren’t all that matters though. The question isn’t should we count; it’s what should we count? I don’t see this as a tension to resolve as much as it is a tension to manage. Churches that are anti numbers tend to be uninformed and…
Recently I’ve become bothered by a common theme I’ve encountered among many program-sized and smaller corporate-sized churches (whose average Sunday attendance is between 150-600 people). These are churches that are typically well staffed, with at least one full-time clergyperson and many times two or more. They have either completed a successful capital campaign in the…
And one standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer; three is even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12 This passage makes me smile when I think about it in the context of children’s ministry. Have you ever been the only volunteer in…
No matter what your ministry context is or what denomination your church is a part of, we all have a common problem. As a matter of fact, it’s probably the greatest challenge church leaders face in ministry. If we don’t find a way to overcome it, we will shortchange our ministry potential. But if we…
How many of you are permanent youth directors working in churches or other ministries right now? I was a permanent youth director in Nashville for about two years…until I moved. Then I was a permanent youth director in a suburb of St. Louis for four years…until I was called to another church. I’m coming to…
Have you ever wondered why your volunteer keep showing up each week? Why they come back the next week after they were spit up on the week before? Why they return after spending hours cleaning up after the pizza party that got a little wild? Maybe it’s for the smell of powdery, sunshine-filled hope they…
“It’s easier if I do it myself,” I responded to a volunteer. It was a Sunday afternoon and we were preparing for our youth group Super Bowl party that evening. I had run to the grocery store and picked up drinks, stopped by the restaurant to pick up wings, and gathered all of the meal…