You can't just create leaders...you have to launch them too.

Ice cream and garbage, that was our lesson for the night. Some of the students went to get ice cream cones while the rest of us picked up litter as part of our adopt-a-park service project. It sparked a great ...

While on vacation, my extended family and I went boating, something I have fond memories of from childhood vacations. As is often the case when extended family gathers, as we sat around the beach, people star...

Somewhere along the way, lines of demarcation developed between parental spiritual guidance and youth ministry discipleship. Parents would subconsciously think, or even overtly say, “You’re the profession...

    As a youth worker for the past twenty-five years I feel like I’ve seen it all. Well, almost. And what I haven't seen I’ve experienced first hand as the son of two youth workers. The sadd...

I learned about adventure early in life. It pretty much happened because I had a boat. That might sound weird unless you grew up on an island as I did, but that boat gave me a kind of freedom as a fourt...

How a 70-year-old ministry transformed to reach kids in the 21st century Imagine an allegory set in a steampunk world of adventure and technology—with heroes modeled on the real-life heroes of the Bible. I...

It’s a new school year, which means that lots of families are checking out new churches for their teenagers. We used to not be very good at welcoming new visitors or friends brought by our students, but since we’ve made some simple changes, we’re seeing a changed atmosphere and a new passion for inviting.

Recently, a pastor friend of mine read for me Judy Brown’s poem “Fire.” Brown does a masterful job of capturing what our job as youth ministers should be: making space for God to do His work. She uses th...

  She was the golden child. The person we point to as the example of all that is good about the church and youth ministry. She was passionate about following Jesus, deeply committed to serving others, an...