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Theology of Presence
Good Youth Ministry is relational. You probably know that. You’ve probably read books and articles about what it means to enter into the lives of your students, to be a presence in their lives, and to...
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Top 5 ways to win over parents
Let’s face it, student ministry is a young person’s game. In fact, if you are a young person and doing vocational youth ministry, you are in the sweet spot. You can relate well to students, you have...
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The Culture of a Student
The age of one-size-fits-all youth ministry is over. It has to be. We live in a dynamic time filled with beautiful diversity. This is an exciting time to be in ministry to youth. Our world is smaller...
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3 Mistakes of a New Youth Pastor and How You Can Avoid Them!
I remember when I moved out of my parents’ basement to pursue a Bible College education. My parents had oddly renovated our basement in such a way as to have two rooms connected by one door so that my...
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Using Social Media to Build Community
The parachurch ministry, Young Life, has a saying in regards to contact work. They say that in order to reach teens you need to “go where kids are.” This may be hard for us to comprehend because many...
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Incorporating Interactive and Contemplative Worship into Youth Ministry
It all started with a simple quest to find a meaningful way to wrap up a series we had been doing on the life of David. I randomly found a prayer station experience based entirely on his life while...
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Overcoming hurt from a teenager you’ve “saved”
I answered your calls. Shared the good news about Jesus Christ with you. Shared my personal story. Opened my heart. Opened my home. Given my resources. And after all of that, how could you do THIS to...
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3 Lies We Tell Ourselves as Youth Leaders
Having worked in ministry for as long as I have, there are a number of similarities I’ve found between youth leaders. First, we seem to have a disproportionate amount of pizza in our diets. Second, we...
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5 Ways To Retain Juniors And Seniors
I have seen it over and over again. Dedicated students who have been a part of the ministry for years lose interest, disengage or simply walk away when they get into their later high school years. They...
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What is in the color of skin?
Coming from a predominantly Hispanic background, it was always instilled in me to never date a black person. My grandfather was a horrible racist and only God knows the things that would come of this...
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The Spiritual Gift You Should Desire
The most sought after spiritual gift of this generation is leadership. That’s no secret. Leadership is blogged about and idolized. We have trainings on leadership, encourage young leaders to pursue it,...
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A Video Training Series: Teaching (Part 1)
Teaching students as a leader is a great responsibility. More so, being prepared and how we prepare will dictate how well that teaching time goes. The truth is a prepared teacher will be a better...
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The 3 Most Powerful Words in Youth Ministry
“I like you!” What if these truly are the 3 most powerful words in Youth Ministry? Youth Ministers use the word love a lot (maybe too much). “I would love to have lunch with you guys.” “I would love if...
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Finish Well
My friend Adam, an ordained elder in the Rio Texas Conference, gave me these words when I was leaving my first church, “Finish well.” This was the best advice I was ever given when getting ready to...
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Don’t Tell Your Kids You Want Them to be Happy
After working with thousands of students for the past few years we have realized that many well-meaning, supportive parents aren’t helping their kids as much as they think they are. About half of the...
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Five Areas Leaders Must Be Repetitive
One of the things Jesus did was patiently teach his followers over and over. Jesus had 30 years of preparation in His life and then three years of ministry. It was during those three years that He...
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Why We Choose to Lead As My Family
I choose to lead with my wife and family, when I lead my ministry, especially in the area of family and parent ministry. I know in some ways we are weird. While my wife is not a paid employee of our...
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10 Facts about Date Rape
Every two minutes “another American is sexually assaulted” according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), and 44% of the victims are under 18 years of age and 80% of the victims...
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Crazy Volleyball: Youth Group Game with Lesson Ideas
If you have the ability to play volleyball in your space, then I hope you play it frequently. It’s a great game and is awesome for team building. However, unless you have some seriously competitive...
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FREE Webinar: Foundations of Youth Ministry
Brian Aaby, our Director of YS SEARCH & YS COACHING, led a FREE webinar on Exploring the Foundations of Youth Ministry with YS Coaches Summer Sipes and David Fraze, and a handful of other...
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