All About the Heart and Soul of YouthWorkers
Is it burnout or just a funk? In direct sales, you know right away if you’re succeeding or not – you either have the sale or don’t. In sports, you know if you scored or not, you can measure your stats to gauge success or failure. You can measure or see the results of your…
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There have been some great pieces on the Youth Worker Movement lately about discipleship in youth ministry, and how we can be better about that work. Our focus of discipleship, or “disciple making” in youth ministry is rooted in the United Methodist Church’s mission statement of “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of…
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The to-do list for the Youth Valentine’s Dinner and Auction event I inherited was extremely detailed and even divided into subcategories – things to do for the meal itself, for promoting the event, for decorating, for soliciting donations, for organizing the youth, for ticket sales, for setting up and for cleaning up…you get the idea.…
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Want to know something crazy? Normal people get two days off of work every week. Youthworkers usually get none. Don’t think I’m right? Check your calendar. You might be saying, “I get Mondays off” (except for those two hours of staff meeting…) Or you get Fridays off (except any weekends with a retreat or a…
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“So, it seems like you read a lot of books?!” Yeah, I get that often. My college-aged son says he was raised at “the library” and he means our home not a publicly funded book depository. And this photo below shows you what is on my reading pile for today. What is wrong with…
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It’s important to be responsible, do whatever it takes to get the job done right and strive for excellence. But it’s even more important to remember that it’s not all up to you. Other capable and competent people are involved, things will get done if you’re not there and God is still going to be…
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I’m having a hellish month of scheduling, which means I’m not able to process life events in real time. For example, last Monday I got to spend breakfast explaining to my 4 & 6 year old boys how mommy was going to go to the doctor because some stuff was broken inside. They needed to…
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Numbers matter. They matter to your doctor when it involves your blood pressure, cholesterol and weight. They matter to your spouse when it comes to thermostat setting and it’s 25 degrees outside. They matter to you when you need to know whether you have enough money in the checking account as you write your monthly…
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On average, youthworkers can probably be most easily summed up as “the person that drove the van to Six Flags.” It’s an average; there’s a lot of good, smart work being done on one side of that median description and a lot of inept efforts that lost the church credit card and forgot to buy…
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Last night our youth did another night of 3 Questions, a conversational family program I started this year. (If you’re unfamiliar with the format for 3 Questions, you can read about it [HERE].) One of the questions asked by the dads in the room was, “What about life is too hard for teens and what…
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ARTICULATING FAITH: Thoughts on “What do you believe? American Teenagers, Spirituality, and Freedom of Religion,” a video by Sarah Feinbloom Written by Amy Valdez Barker “A compelling educational peacemaking film without being didactic, sectarian, or doctrinaire. Every public school, congregation and youth program in the country should have a copy of it.” Rev.…
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Having done a dumb thing or three in Youth Ministry over the years has led me to consider 3 Simple Ways NOT to start Youth Group in the fall. Maybe you’ve been there, maybe you just did this, or maybe you are about to do this and I can save you a future confessional moment.…
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This article was originally published September 12, 2011. I had a conversation recently with a middle school principal. He was talking about the difficulty of the transition from elementary school for the students as well as the parents. For the students, the challenge is the switch from an almost embryonic environment where they’re surrounded all…
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In our conference call this Monday morning (you were asleep; we didn’t want to bother you) we were hashing through some of the unique challenges in planning ministry and mission and arrived at a great truism: the one constant in youth ministry is that everything is always changing. The way we used to do it…
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Sundays in a large church with an average worship attendance of about 1100-1400 people begins at approximately 7:30 AM. The preaching pastor prepares for the first service and spends some quiet time in reflection with God. A group comes in and prays for him/her and then begins the marathon of three worship services; 8:30 –…
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We virtually met up with Jeff Dunn-Rankin & Mark DeVries (left to … [Read More...]
A quote from Perkins School of Youth Ministry in January has stuck … [Read More...]
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