One of the more important issues to address in modern youth culture is how to help youth align their lives with God’s design for relationships and sexuality. There are so many mixed messages. Young people are so wounded and looking for love and acceptance. Girls are willing to give themselves away to a guy to get love, and guys are willing to give some relationship if they can get sex. Young people, who are so relationship hungry are being misled in ways that you may not even be able to imagine.
Category Archives: Youth Ministry
The Power of Friendship: Why Adolescence is All About Friendship?
Youth are significantly influenced by their friends. This is why it’s important to have youth leaders who can model what it means to be a good friend.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. -John 15:3
Friendship is important in every stage of development. But during adolescence friendship becomes central to everything. This is a critical stage of development because teenagers are building a foundation for having good friendships the rest of their lives.
One of the most powerful benefits of healthy youth ministry is that we can help kids understand God’s design for relationships. Jesus talked alot about friendship, and we know that he nurtured model friendships in his disciples. A teenager’s intense preoccupation with friendship is a good thing. It is an opportunity for the adults in their lives to imprint in them a road map for a lifetime of good friendships. Here’s how…
Questions Leaders Ask That Everyone Else Around You is Thinking
“The best journeys in life are those that answer questions you never thought to ask.” ~ Richard Ridgeway
I was talking with my daughter about what it’s like in her high school classes this week and she shared a profound thought. She said, “There is a girl in my class who is so funny, she always asks questions that everybody else is thinking.” We laughed out loud at some of the examples she shared. Then as I thought more about it, it occurred to me that this is a profoundly important leadership quality. People are often thinking things that they may not be comfortable voicing out loud. It helps others when we are willing to ask those questions that everyone else is thinking.
THE 4 STAGES OF YOUTH LEADERSHIP TRAINING
The 4 phases of youth leadership training are simply: You watch me. You help me do it. You do it, I help you. You do it, I watch you.
Leadership training for youth ministry back in the days when I started youth work was pretty simple. I was a student at the University of Arizona and I wanted to help kids meet Jesus. But I had no idea what I was doing. I was available, I was somewhat teachable, and I was wanting a mentor.
The first “youth leadership training” I got was through a very short conversation with an older more experienced leader in our area. He said, “You see that high school over there, Ashley? It’s full of about 3,500 high school kids who need Jesus. Let’s go.”
The essence of youth leadership is just as simple today. To reach the students in your area it takes leaders who are: Teachable, Available, Humble, and willing to be Apprenticed.
As I think back to the way my leader Jim apprenticed me to start building relationships with kids and sharing Jesus with them, he basically did four things. And I believe this is the essence of how to train leaders to reach the next generation, which every generation must do.
30 Things Teenagers Want in a Relationship
Teens think a lot about what they want in a relationship. This is an opportunity for youthworkers to help them align w/ God’s design for sex & relationships
Teenagers are intensely relational. They are figuring out who they are and what it means to be a friend. They are also thinking about what they desire in a relationship. This is a very normal stage of development. It is also an incredible opportunity for youth workers to help teenagers figure out how to align their lives with God’s design for sex and relationships.
A survey at a high school outreach camp asked a few hundred kids this question:
What is one thing that you want from a relationship?
Here are their answers:
21 Reasons Why People Don’t Listen When You Speak
Do you ever wonder, are people really listening when I speak? People may look like they are listening, but how do you know if you are actually impacting them? Afterall, the goal of speaking is not to just get people to sit still until you are finished talking. You want to impact them and help them grow.
You want to serve people in some way through your speaking. I’m still processing each one of the bullet points I’m about to share. I hope I never stop growing, and if I ever do, anyone please hit me over the head with a bag of nickles and remind me to keep improving!
HERE ARE 21 STUMBLING BLOCKS THAT MIGHT KEEP PEOPLE FROM LISTENING TO YOU WHEN YOU SPEAK
The Best Book You Can Use to Develop Youth Leadership
Youth ministry requires lots of leaders. If you want your church or parachurch to reach an increasing number of young people in your city, then you will need more leaders to do it. Developing youth leadership is a top priority. This is true for a couple of reasons. First, trends in youth ministry show us that it takes more leaders to reach fewer kids today than in previous generations. I talk about some of the reasons why in my recent post, 5 Trends in Youth Ministry & How to Navigate a Perfect Storm. If we want to reach more kids, then we need more leaders. But how do you recruit, train, and empower new teams of leaders year after year?
5 Trends in Youth Ministry & How to Navigate the Perfect Storm
Five trends in youth ministry point to a perfect storm on the horizon
The trends I’m referring to are:
1. Youth culture is more fragmented than ever before. (Why? Because families are breaking down, young people are more fragile, broken, and have greater needs.)
2. You need more youth leaders today to reach fewer young people.
3. Volunteerism is decreasing.
Youth Ministry Resources: Historic Foundations of Youth Ministry
Mark Cannister’s well-written article, “Doing it How They Did it,” is a fantastic overview of the origins of youth ministry. If you are looking for a brief primer on where youth ministry has come from and the implications for youth work today, I highly recommend his article below as one of the best youth ministry resources to have in your library. Download a PDF of the article here.
12 Step Checklist to Make You a Better Speaker or Teacher
Whether you are speaking to a large group, facilitating discussion in a small group, or mentoring an individual, you can never stop improving as a speaker.
“Communication is the real work of leadership.” –Nitin Nohria
Teaching through a translator in Torino, Italy