Summer is over. Camps, conferences, missions trips, and VBS are in the rearview mirror. Fall is staring you in the face. August is a transition month for most student ministries. There’s a different mindset ...

I want to acknowledge and confess my deepest struggle and frustration as a youth worker. It comes from that overbearing parent who thinks you are doing youth ministry all wrong. It comes from parents who consta...

I'm in countdown mode. My fall programming starts in 5 weeks... And I'm on vacation for two of them. Needless to say, that means I'm knee-deep in program prep for the fall. I'm recruiting adult leaders, tra...

At a recent youth worker convention, one presenter made the observation that the average youth pastor has a four-year tenure before experiencing frustration, failure and burnout. This is a sad commentary on the...

When I told some of my friends that I would be attending a meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers at Westmont College, their responses fell into three basic categories: • Horror: "What? Why? That ...

Disorienting. That is the most accurate word to describe the experience of working in a local church without a Senior or Lead Pastor in place.  I have experienced it three different times in my career.  Ri...

Encouragement is one of the greatest blessings you can give to others in your youth ministry (or outside of it for that matter). In English, it’s related to the word ‘courage’ but in Greek it has a far ri...

There are few things more exciting to a ministry minded individual than arriving at a new job or ministry assignment.  Seeing new faces, new possibilities, and praying new prayers about what God could do throu...

I started in college ministry in 1999 with some very unfortunate motivations, and I don't think I'm alone. I had pure motivations, too; but if I'm honest, at least part of me set out to build my own kingdom ...

A year ago I made one of the best decisions. One of the bravest decisions I could make. I started going to counseling. It’s kind of weird to write. Because I didn’t think I would ever really need to sa...