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6 Signs You’re An Immature Leader
We all need to grow in leadership. It’s something you will never arrive at. It’s something that will keep on molding and growing and adjusting and morphing. I wanted to list some symptoms of things...
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The 10 Commandments of Proper Ministry Administration
I have a dirty little secret: I’m not a full-time youth pastor. I’m one of these bi-vocational guys you hear about from time to time who attends a full-time day-job, then returns home for a brief...
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Don’t Forget The Skills
My first foray into adding life skills into our youth ministry happened at a previous church I served. The town was rural, impoverished, and I had moved there through my masters program from one of...
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New Year New Budget: What To Do First
For most of us in youth ministry January marks the new budget season. For some of us that is like getting a late arrival Christmas present where we got exactly what we asked for and the whole rest of...
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Managing What Matters
For as long as I can remember, I have loved planning. I get excited when it’s time to purchase a new paper planner and thrive with schedules and routines. But loving to plan doesn’t necessarily mean...
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Trauma-Informed Youth Ministry
I went to a training on creating trauma-informed systems of care. I was impacted by the implications on schools and youth ministries. People often look to the church for hope in the midst of tragedy....
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3 Ways to Get Students More Involved
It’s what we all want; for our students to be excited and passionate about what we’re doing. We put so much time and effort into what we do, wouldn’t it be awesome if everyone was just as passionate as...
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We Need Pitchers Not Belly Itchers!
Do you remember the old, school-yard baseball game chant – “We need a pitcher not a belly-itcher”? Did you ever have the traumatic moment playing some version of baseball and have a group start...
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Recapturing The Gospel In Your Ministry
It was one of those board meetings… You know? One of those board meetings when you realize what certain board members really think of you and your ministry. One of those board meetings where you get...
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Full Steam Ahead
Youth ministry is an exhilarating calling! The challenge is, things can become kind of busy. It’s important to remember that we’re not the only ones with hectic schedules. In light of the most recent...
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How Rape Culture Is Implanted In Boys At An Early Age
Just turn on the news and you will see stories from the #metoo and #churchtoo movement. This movement is driven by large numbers of men and women (mostly women) who are reporting sexual misconduct...
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Practical Steps On How To Kill “That Thing” In Your Ministry
We all have that one program, event, that we are running in which at some point it was held for a purpose but over time it just is what it is. It’s that thing in which you may have inherited or even...
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How to Run Your Ministry a Year Ahead of Schedule
It never seems like we have enough time in youth ministry, right? I can’t count how many of my fellow youth workers I have heard stressed out about the lack of time they have to get everything done....
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February: The Make or Break Month for Your Ministry
The new year is an exciting time of new commitments, fresh vision, and an unexplainable sense of hope that is often lost somewhere in the 11 months following until January rolls around again. It’s easy...
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Ash Wednesday: Let Us Return to God
It is Ash Wednesday: the day we are called to be reminded of our mortality by receiving ashes – the symbol of mourning and repentance – in the sign of the cross on our foreheads… From dust we came and...
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Roles Of Children In Dysfunctional Family Systems
When we think of a DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY it’s like a machine which is run by gears with weak or cracked cogs. As one cog breaks it puts more stress on the other cogs of that gear and then on other cogs...
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Managing Momentum in Youth Ministry
Growing up as a kid in rural Indiana, our winters gave our neighborhood gang of kids a lot of opportunity to sled. Our favorite game was to run and flop belly down on our flexible flyers and make the...
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You Can’t Compete With Sports
Many of us in ministry have love-hate relationship with sports! We have students that haven’t attended midweek programming in months or years due to sports. We have volunteers that can’t commit to...
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Preparing for your Winter Retreat
If you haven’t had your winter retreat already, many of you are planning or in the middle of preparing for a youth winter retreat. Here’s a few tips to get yourself ready and make the most of the days...
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Unconditional Worth
Unconditional worth means that each person has infinite, unchanging worth as a person. This worth comes with a person’s creation, and cannot be earned nor lost by poor behavior. This is not the same as...
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