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Help! I’m a Youth Minister Struggling with Porn!
As a youth minister, it’s an already confusing task to lead youth to the feet of Jesus when you yourself need to take the journey. How can we bear students’ sins and sufferings when we’re barely...
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Putting Names to Numbers: Why Keeping Track of Attendance Matters
“I’m not a numbers guy.” “We had 150 kids show up to our event last Sunday!” “This is the time in our season where numbers dip.” Throughout my many years of doing youth ministry, I’ve either heard...
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11 people you need on a Student Ministry Leadership Team
1. CHURCH LEADERs! (Elders/Deacons/Personnel Committee) One of the best things you can do in youth ministry is bring church leaders into the ministry; helping them to see what is really going on and...
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Lessons From The Response to the Nashville Statement
The Preamble of the Nashville Statement begins with: “Evangelical Christians at the dawn of the twenty-first century find themselves living in a period of historic transition. As Western culture has...
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Shaky Ground
I was standing to the side, near the audio and sound equipment. As I cued the PowerPoint for the Youth Pastor, I listened intently as he finished another powerful sermon and began to make an altar...
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Charlottesville, Dehumanization and Student Ministry
It’s becoming increasingly challenging to turn on the news, open Twitter or see the constant updates coming to my Apple Watch about the horrifying realities our country (and our world) are facing. A...
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Thriving as a Leader
I don’t think any great leader hopes to just survive in ministry, to just make by. No, I believe all great Christian leaders have a strong desire to thrive in ministry and in Life. They want their...
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When I Visited a Student in Jail
One of the most challenging situations I’ve ever been in as a youth leader was the time I went to visit an incarcerated student from our church’s youth ministry. This young man had shown up to youth...
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6 Strategies for Engaging The Hurting Teen
Courtney woke up to the smell of stale weed. Laying still, she closed her eyes and remembered the cold blade against her skin and the weight of him on top of her. Her focus fell on the thin, hot pain...
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Falling to Stand Up
“It is one of the most difficult things I have ever done!” This statement has come from the lips of parents who, even though they could have prevented the outcome, refused to intervene and allowed...
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Same Team? Dealing with opposition from volunteers
I stood in the kitchen of our youth house with another volunteer named Chris as he tore me to pieces. I was 21 years old and in my first year of full-time youth ministry. He was one of several...
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When You Wonder Why: Questioning Your Calling and Who You Are
If you are in ministry long enough, or just alive long enough, you will most certainly find yourself in the place of wondering why. Not just why you are here, but what good you are doing. Wondering if...
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Five Choices I Made That Enabled My Alcohol Addiction
In June of 2016, I resigned from my position at a church as the youth pastor in order to seek treatment for serious alcohol addiction. Just prior to my resignation, virtually no one besides my wife and...
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Key Relationships to Nurture in Your Youth Ministry
The relational component of youth ministry should never be overlooked. The fact is with programs, calendaring, preparing for teaching and activity planning the thing that gets lost are the deep...
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Church, You Need a Full-Time Youth Pastor
Church, we need to go out for coffee. I have been watching. I see you struggling. You are anxious about many things and sometimes anxiety can lead to poor decision-making. I’m aware that church...
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Prayers After the Water Subsides and the Fires Die
Over the last 2 weeks, youth workers from across the U.S. have been battling both storms in the south and southeast, and fires in the west. The YS Staff has been checking in with youth workers one at a...
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Review of the NIV Revolution Bible for Teen Guys
OVERVIEW There are a number of study Bibles on the market for students; and for a number of years, among those, has been the NIV Revolution Bible, a study Bible designed for teen guys. This year,...
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Review of the NIV True Images Bible for Teen Girls
As a person that got baptized at age 11 and began to seriously follow Christ at age 24, I have gathered a not so small collection of Bibles. From various translations to different overall...
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Out Of The Box Encouragement
It is no secret that ministry can be a discouraging gig! Especially youth ministry. For some reason, it can drive you to disappointment, discouragement and depression quicker than just about anything....
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Hurricane Irma and the Problem of Evil
As youth ministers, most of us have encountered questions about God’s power after tragedies. “Why does God allow these things to happen, if God is all-powerful and loving?” After Hurricanes Irma and...
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