Volunteers are the backbone of our student ministry. Without them, I’d be dead in the water. Their time investment, passions, gifts, and heart for students make it all work. In a student ministry of any size, a team of volunteers who love Jesus and love teens is the difference between success and failure. With that…
If you’re in a leadership role of any kind, ministry or otherwise, you will lead a meeting at some point (or at least help to lead one). Here are 5 simple, really important things you can do to make your meetings fun, successful and productive for your team:
If you’re a youth pastor or leader, how would your students respond if I asked them what the most important thing you want them to know is? There are so many important things you want to teach. So many things you want them to hear, to own, and to hang onto. But I want to suggest…
Everybody feels inadequate sometimes, right? Yesterday was one of the worst days I can remember. I just couldn’t shake this feeling of not being good enough. This morning, I woke up still in that rut. I wasn’t reading my Bible or doing anything spiritual…I was brushing my teeth when a thought came to mind. I…
You’ve got to live in a cave if you are an American and don’t know about the Brian Williams scandal. In all of that, there’s a serious lesson to be learned for all who teach in any capacity: what you say matters. Every word has the power to destroy us if we aren’t carefully and…
The responsibility of teaching is one that should never be taken lightly. Every time I speak to or teach my students or any other group, I make the following promises: I will always be honest. I won’t sugarcoat the facts or shy away from the truth. I won’t attempt to present things in a false light…
To be successful, every organization, church, or business needs a clearly defined mission and vision. (Tweet this) Without defined goals, processes, and systems, nothing can be measured or evaluated. No progress can be made. The challenge for leaders young and old is not understanding the power and importance of these two vital identity components. The challenge…
Does it sound weird to you that a coffee from Starbucks can do more to impact a student than your latest, greatest idea for a youth ministry program? Maybe you’ve never thought about it, but it’s true. There is a really good mini-article in this month’s Group Magazine called The Relational Economy that simply sums up a truth that…
I started to write this post with some really wordy paragraphs about church growth and ministry strategy but it sounded lame so I deleted it. Instead, let me admit to you what one of my biggest struggles has been. I struggle with a constant feeling of insufficiency. Why? Because I’m a doer. Because I’m in a…
I’ve been asked by three different people in the past two weeks what advice I have for someone who is tasked with starting a student ministry from scratch. It’s a frustrating, intimidating job. My advice is this: Pick a school district and make it your mission field. If you don’t already have any students “built…
