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Welcoming Everyone: Youth, Disabilities, and the Body of Christ
Just like the community in which the character Produce lives and works in the movie Where Hope Grows, the mission of Young Life is being transformed by our friends with disabilities. Since Nick Palermo...
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Trending This Week (5.15)
Every week we pull our favorite links from across the inter-webs. This week’s trending links include a look at what the latest Pew Research info says affects youth ministry, 5 things every college...
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You Think It’s a Promotion… You’re Wrong
Unfortunately it’s a story I have seen repeated all too often. Youth Pastor, you think taking on more responsibilities will lead to a greater role and/or possibly a promotion. More likely it will lead...
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How To Recruit Volunteers And Keep Them
Finding good help is one of the most difficult aspects of our job. We know that good youth ministry means that students need many adults in their lives who will see them, love them, and model an...
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Trending This Week (5.22)
Every week we pull our favorite links from across the inter-webs. This week’s trending links include a look at the relationally grounded pastor, why Jesse Herring loves being a small-church youth...
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Looking to the Future of Youth Ministry
Kenda Creasy Dean shares some thought provoking ideas about the future of youth ministry in this YS Idea Lab with Brian Aaby. As I listened through the conversation, I want to highlight a few things...
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Our Hopes and Prayers for Graduates
I hate roller coasters. I really hate everything about them. I hate the ghastly heights, the incredible speed, the shaking to and fro, the claustrophobia I feel at being locked in, and even the smell....
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Trending This Week (5.29)
Every week we pull our favorite links from across the inter-webs. This week’s trending links include 28 ways to ask your teens about their day, a look inside a youth minister’s summer, overview of the...
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Young, Single, and in Youth Ministry
I accepted my first youth ministry position at the tender age of twenty, and I joked that I didn’t know why I was entrusted with the life of teenagers. And to be honest, many parents felt the same way....
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10 Awesome Road Trip Game Ideas
JACOB ECKEBERGER is the Content and Community Manager at Youth Specialties, an itinerant worship leader, the spouse of a church planter, and a long time volunteer youth worker. You can find him...
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Talking Youth Ministry with Kurt Johnston and Maina Mwaura
Last week, Maina Mwaura hosted longtime youth worker Kurt Johnston to talk about things that work in his youth ministry at Saddleback. There were a lot of great ideas but I wanted to focus on a handful...
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Trending This Week (6.5)
Every week we pull our favorite links from across the inter-webs. This week’s trending links include reflections on a week in Ferguson, secrets that every grad and parent should know, how to handle hot...
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Should I Stay or Should I Go?
I have a confession to make: I never really wanted to be a pastor. Don’t get me wrong—I genuinely love people, and I’m passionate about helping people know the triune God. However, for the first twenty...
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Navigating a Broad Spectrum of Spiritual Maturity
If your students are anything like mine, then they’re all over the spiritual map. I have teens who love Jesus, teens who want to know more about Jesus, and teens who couldn’t care less. I also have...
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Trending This Week (6.12)
Every week we pull our favorite links from across the inter-webs. This week’s trending links include ideas for making the most of summer, the power of pop culture, summer risk management, and plenty of...
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Five Things You May Have Forgotten
When asked “what do you do?” most youth pastors can identify some major areas of his or her week (church meetings, youth group and message prep). Obviously there are other small areas that require more...
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Helping Youth Develop Coping Skills
Students often share their struggles with me. Maybe a teen’s parents are fighting, a grandparent died, a sibling is acting out, the teen was sinning or was sinned against, or maybe the teen didn’t make...
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Trending This Week (6.19)
Every week we pull our favorite links from across the inter-webs. This week’s trending links include discipleship being counter cultural, 7 ways to parent with grace, a mixtape for summer road trips,...
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Incorporating Parents in Youth Ministry
When I began in youth ministry years ago, I was encouraged to involve college-age students and young adults in our youth ministry. The idea behind this approach was that in order to reach youth...
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So You’re The New Youth Leader?
Let me run a few scenarios by you to see if any sound familiar: Your church is aging. The leaders have decided that to save the church, youth must be a top priority. The only paid staff members are the...
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