Jeff Slack
Posted By: Adam McLane on January 30 2009
Did you go to youth group as a teenager? I went to the Crystal Cathedral’s youth group starting in 1980 when Jon Byron was the youth pastor. I got saved through that ministry in 1981 through my team leader Mark Swartz (after a year of evangelizing and answering all my questions).
How long have you been in youth ministry? 1986-1992 Volunteer. 1992-2006 full-time youth pastor. 2006-2008 jr. high small group leader, youth speaker, curriculum writer.
How did you first get involved in youth ministry? I started volunteering in the jr. high department at Crystal Cathedral in 1986 under Roger Tirabassi. I stayed there until 1991. We began attending First Baptist Garden Grove and I volunteered there under Steve Jenkins (I was actually an engineering major at this time and I was working in the environmental engineering field as a project manager). I was speaking at a summer camp and the other speaker, Jerry Huson, approached my wife and I and told us God had laid it on his heart to tell us we should be in full-time youth work. We prayed and within a year I took over the youth pastor job when Steve Jenkins moved on after 16 years. I spent 11 years there as a volunteer, intern, interim youth pastor and fulltime youth pastor. I then left and was hired as the jr. high pastor at the Crystal Cathedral. Within 3 years I was the Youth Pastor over the Department; which included four different ministries. Since leaving the Crystal Cathedral in 2007, I have stayed active in youth ministry by helping at Mosaic Inland as a small group leader and coach to the youth pastors; writing curriculum for Interlinc, speaking at various camps and youth ministry conferences and starting a new non-profit to help families grow closer together.
Who do you look up to in ministry? Jerry Huson (Men’s Pastor at Mariners) Steve Jenkins (San Diego Christian College) Jim Burns (HomeWord) Chap Clark (Fuller) Keith King (International Youth Initiative) Erwin McManus (Mosaic) Francis Chan (Cornerstone Church) All these men have personally spoke truth into my life and I value all of them immensely.
What is the last book you read? Wide Awake by Erwin McManus
What has you excited about working with your group right now? The spawning of new small group leaders from our adult team and watching my daughter minister to her jr. high friends.
What’s one thing you think you do well that other people could learn from? Networking/Connectivity
What’s a word or phrase your youth group would use to describe you? Funny and Deep
Comments
YS Update Signup
Receive the latest and great in your ministry resources straight to your inbox!
Featured Resource
The Me I Want to Be, Curriculum Kit
Becoming God's Best Version of You, Five Sessions
