Youth worker job descriptions include very little of the actual job requirements. They leave out the endless meetings, one-on-ones, clean-up duty, parent interactions, and about a hundred other details that mak...

Why would we want to take a three-month break from our calling and the spiritual lives of students?

There were so many emotions running through my heart as I sat in my family's minivan, ready to begin my college career. As my parents stared out the windshield, the silence signaled the start of a new journ...

For a hot summer day, this is a fun game to play at a pool party. Purchase several bags of ice, and keep these in a cooler until needed. Form two teams, and using the bags of ice, create a relay race. Each t...

I didn’t think it would ever happen, but it has! I am now a youth pastor and a father of a student. This new season of my life and ministry career has got me thinking also about the seasons of youth ministry that have moved me from friend to father.

I was one year away from my wedding with many decisions to be made and many people to organize. My soon-to-be husband and I were knee-deep in save-the-dates, centerpieces and compiling an iPod list of music for...

If you have children now or in the future, there will come a time when they grow into teenagers, and the transition from cool youth worker to parent of a teen becomes painfully real. It was for me.

Here is a fun introduction game that can be played at a youth gathering or church camp or retreat. This game works well for those groups that have new people or for mixing it up at the next big event when peopl...

When I think of youth ministry, I think of a grand and gracious adventure!

The hard faith journey does not end with the completion of eighth grade. The larger percentage of students own a personal faith during the middle school year, but the final steps of solidifying belief often happen in the first six months of the freshman year. The things they have begun to believe will be challenged immediately in high school.