Essentials in Youth Ministry: Small Groups
In my eight years as a small group leader to students (and their leaders), I’ve learned much about what to do and what not to do. About what works, and what doesn’t. So what makes small groups successful?…
In my eight years as a small group leader to students (and their leaders), I’ve learned much about what to do and what not to do. About what works, and what doesn’t. So what makes small groups successful?…
Retreats. Chaos. Logistics. Long nights. Long drives. Injuries. Fond memories. That is the sequence of words that follow in my mind when I think of youth retreats. When I think of what was most memorable in my time…
Every week, I receive another postcard for a new youth ministry conference pledging to have the magic bullet for today’s youth. Nearly all of these ministries and conferences have much value; I wish I could go to a…
We want to feel necessary. We want to feel important. An easy way to fill these desires as a youth worker is to make our youth ministries about us. We even do what I just did — call…
In a recent high school youth group meeting I was teaching on Psalm 51. To illustrate a point about the nature of sin, I shared a passage from St. Augustine’s Confessions, in which he remembers stealing pears one…
To guard, or not to guard… that is the question. Or is it? How has the idea of ‘guarding our hearts’ evolved? We see the phrase used in Proverbs (4:23), but everyone has their own idea of…
Read Part 1 of Harrison’s article, “The Philosophy of Sex”, here. Too often we believe that pleasure is not on the menu for Christians, or if it is, it’s like you’re swearing and getting away with something. The…
How many times have you told a group of students, “All you need is Jesus?” I know I have as many times as Michael Jackson did the moonwalk or as often as my junior high kids reference Lady…
Rooted Blog editor Liz Edrington kicks off our new series on the Theology of Sex. We’ll address the question of why and how we approach and address sexuality in light of the gospel in our ministry to students….