Get Off the Roller Coaster: Fighting Against the Ministry Identity Crisis with the Gospel
Paul refused to let ministry success go to his head or to let ministry failure go to his heart.
If you tend to your soul, your church as a whole and the youth ministry will be healthier. A leader’s energy and ambition to change lives, while admirable, can lead to burnout if not kept in check. We are not our students’ savior; Jesus is.

Paul refused to let ministry success go to his head or to let ministry failure go to his heart.
If I am faithfully following God’s call on my life, and if that call means that I minister to teenagers rather than adults, then the way that some people regard me is irrelevant.
All ministers would tell you that loneliness is a part of their story, yet I think youth ministry holds a unique place on the perpetual loneliness shelf.
My ministry role does not define me—Jesus does.
Jesus moves from solitude to community to ministry. He teaches his disciples to do likewise.
A rich theology of embodiment is particularly important for student ministers, whose focus on caring for others often lends itself to patterns of body-dismissal that are perhaps less God-honoring than we might imagine.
