Getting Results

Adolescent Spirituality, What Can We Expect? By Les Parrott III

How much commitment are teenagers capable of, anyway?
Adrift at Sea By Charles N. Neder

Youth ministry is drifting far from youth, the church, and scripture. What kind of leadership is it to say, "Just copy this?"
Are You an Ambitious Youth Worker?

Here's what your peers said about the role of ambition in youth ministry, taking a senior pastorate, and competition between local youth groups.
Are You Asking the Right Questions? By Tim Baker

Seven questions to consider as you take stock of your deepest and most basic youth ministry motives.
Coping With Stress and Burnout in Youth Ministry: A conversation with Carmen Renee Berry

We can ignore long-term stress, we can spiritualize it-but something will die.
Crazy for Youth By Will Willimon

Disrupting families, unsettling children, agitating elders... craziness like Jesus', and in it is our salvation.
Free Man in Paris: A correspondence with Rick Mumford

By any youth worker's standard, he had the ultimate job. The dream gig. So why, after so much success, did Rick Mumford pack up his stuff and move his family across the Atlantic Ocean to literally start life over in France?
Is Bigger Really Better?: A Youthworker Roundtable

Meet three youth ministry veterans who-through a few thousand miles of intercontinental travel, some tears, and vastly different experiences-all found value in moving "down" the ministry ladder.
Junior High Structure-NOT an Oxymoron By Heather Flies

"I believe kids respond to whatever behavioral standard is set for them."
Masters of Indoctrination: What We Can Learn from Our Enemies By Diyana Swingler

"Young people are here and now in church life, therefore they're a part of the present church. The future is allusive. We have to be grounded in the present, that's what the communists grasped about their young people and put to good service. Our young people offer a great resource that must be harnessed here and now, which in return prepares them for the future."
Preparing Well: Spending Productive Energy on the Youth Talk By Ben Hardman

When I first began in ministry, I was an absolute expert in student culture. I listened to the same music, watched the same films and television shows, and I knew and understood how they thought. Years later, I became much more knowledgeable in biblical culture, but now my struggle is understanding our students' culture. The challenge is finding a balance
The Power of One By Mike Yaconelli

Youth ministry needs to lower its sights and go for smallness, silence, and glorious ruin, one kid at a time.
The Power of Team Leadership By Roberta Hestenes

Why ministry should be organized not hierarchically but according to gift-based teams—and how to get there.
The Purple Zero Syndrome By Rich Grassel

Youth workers in small churches have the decks stacked against them in many respects—and plenty of advantages, too. From the premier consultant on this topic, here's a look at getting the most out of what you've got.
The Tensions That Don't Go Away: A Reflection on the Strength of Antagonistic Muscles and Ministry By Mike Collison

I've been considering how muscles and physical movement offer a metaphor for ministry strength and movement. In youth ministry, it's easy to focus on a single hot new idea, program, paradigm, or style. But like an individual muscle, it has no movement or strength without an opposing idea, program, paradigm or style holding it in tension. To develop physical strength muscles must face resistance and challenge. In ministry, an unchallenged and under-examined idea possesses little strength. Strength is found in holding opposing ministry ideas and practices simultaneously. Tension handled correctly can bring health.
What Attracts and Keeps Students at Your Church? By Kara Powell

Think about the last student who showed up at one of your youth ministry events for the first time. Did they come back? If not, why not? If so, that's great, but do you know what your ministry did that kept them coming back to your church?