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…
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…
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 one sense, what we do as youth ministers is unique in the world of church ministry. Our job definitely includes some of the most fun – and perhaps, also, the most heartbreak. But in another sense, our…
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…
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…
Several years ago I walked around a shopping mall with a student who was weighing the cost of whether he would walk with Christ as a disciple or go the way of the world. He had a new,…
I remember one particularly galling Wednesday night several years ago. The previous days had brought a familiar mix of high-effort, low-response, excitement, frustration, and discouragement, all in one package. And when I walked away from a house that…
