Essentials in Youth Ministry: Church

When I was a kid I remember staying with some relatives who were very devout Christians, and while we were with them we had to go to church one Sunday. I was asking my aunt about the day…

Essentials in Youth Ministry: Others

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…

Resisting the Urge to Do Cutting Edge Youth Ministry

In my early twenties upon moving to Birmingham, AL, I attended for three months a mega-church with an impressive growth rate. The pastor regularly boasted about the church’s increasing attendance in between opportunities to talk about the large…

False Reasons for Youth Ministry

In the past 10+ years of Christian ministry, I have been in churches where the expectation for youth ministry was nothing more than glorified baby sitting. There was actually one time I heard a parent talk about how…

Incarnate

Christmas: Where rubber meets the road.  Where God enters time and space.  Where the kingdom of God intersects earth. I watched the movie ‘The Nativity Story’ several nights ago, and I had a really interesting experience of having…

Ministry Across America: American South

1.) Please describe the context in which you minister (geographically, ethnically, socio-economically, etc.) I serve in the American South in a suburban context in Birmingham, AL. My students are almost entirely white and upper-middle class to affluent. Attending…