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Issues in Youth Ministry: Jason Curlee
What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is struggling with today? In my opinion so often I see that youth ministry is struggling with being relevant. For the past few weeks I have...
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Ten easy steps to guarantee a successful youth ministry
UPDATE: Please read the comments below. This is not a serious post. It’s satirical sarcasm and does not contain a hint of truth. It’s a joke written by the founder of Youth Specialties describing in...
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Issues in Youth Ministry: Joshua Michael
I chose to take the whole Junior High route in answering my questions. Being that I primarily work with junior high students I am going to answer each question as it pertains to junior high ministry....
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Issues in Youth Ministry: Greg Stier
What do you see as some of the main issues youth ministry is struggling with today? A solvent and solid theology of youth ministry as family ministry. I’m convinced that our grid is jacked. Parents...
View ArticleIssues in Youth Ministry: Summary, highlights and discussion
Here’s a summary list of every issue in youth ministry that’s been mentioned by one of the series contributors. Whew! There certainly are a lot of issues that need to be addressed. Discuss: Which of...
View ArticleHow to grow a youth group
1. Be passionate about your own personal relationship with Christ. 2. Develop and train volunteers who are also passionate about their relationship with Christ. 3. Hang out with kids and pray like...
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Frustrations with no signs of spiritual growth in teens
We’re all in youth ministry because we want to see teens move from being spiritually apathetic to being spiritually passionate, so when time passes and we see no signs of growth, it gets frustrating....
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Q&A: Practical ideas for implementing Deep & Wide ministry
Eric Groezinger writes with the following question: I’ve been challenged and motivated to consider [implementing the Deep & Wide ministry strategy]. My challenge is discovering how to implement...
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How to handle difficult and disruptive students
We’ve all had them — students who cause trouble, play on their cell phones all night, are disrespectful, and generally seem mad at the world. Although we love these teenagers as much as we love the...
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Youth group curriculum reviews: What’s hot, what’s not
Some of the feedback I’ve heard about what you’d like to see added to Life In Student Ministry are reviews of different curriculum so you know what’s worth your money and what isn’t. Personally, I...
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Freebie Friday #109: Free book download for new believer follow-up
The media is has really latched on to the Online Missions Trip over the past two weeks and given it more publicity than I ever imagined. In fact, last week I did 2-4 radio interviews per day, plus...
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Deep and Wide Youth Ministry with Dare2Share
Related Articles Questions about Deep and Wide Youth Ministry Podcast: Deep and Wide Youth Ministry model Deep and Wide Youth Ministry Q&A [podcast]
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Freebie Friday #122: The Cure for the Common Youth Ministry
Paul Turner, a 15 year youth ministry veteran, emailed me this past week with an interesting projected called, The Cure for the Common Youth Ministry. Just shy of 100 pages long, his ebook begins by...
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3 things I want my students to know before they graduate (part 1)
Graduation is coming up in a couple months and it’s caused me to reflect a bit on our ministry overall, from 7th grade through 12th grade. By the time they graduate, what should they know? Where should...
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3 things I want my students to know before they graduate (part 2)
READ PART 1: Yesterday I shared 3 things I want my students to know before they graduate – part 1. This second part addresses how we try to accomplish those three things in our ministry. Obviously,...
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Discipling teens through summer missions trips [podcast]
Last Monday Jake Dudley and Julio Nieves joined us to talk about using summer missions trip as a discipleship opportunity. Both Jake and Julio were with me during my last to Haiti last week and...
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Why my youth group is going back to Haiti this fall and spring
It’s only been a couple weeks since we returned from Haiti and already we’re planning our next trip back, most likely in October. It’s becoming clear to me that short-term missions is one of the most...
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The passion, process and principles of youth discipleship [podcast]
Paul Turner of TheDiscipleProject.net joined us to talk about the passion, process and principles of youth discipleship. It was a good discussion revolving around many issues and questions we all have...
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Why the “teaching method” of discipleship is boring to teens
Adam McLane was in Haiti last week and shared some great thoughts via video about discipleship, spiritual growth and youth ministry. I love what he says because it’s exactly the same thing I’ve been...
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Freebie Friday 202: Discipleship study on salvation and witnessing
I really like this week’s freebie! It’s contributed by Stephanie Blackwell of Cottonwood Church. She sent me a 4-session Bible study series titled, “Outspoken: On understanding who you are in Christ...
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Discipling teenagers via student leadership [video]
Last week I had the privilege of meeting with Jonathan McKee of TheSource4YM.com while visiting California. We talked a little about how we disciple teenagers through helping and training them to serve...
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What is a student leader and why do we need them?
Tomorrow I’m being interviewed about my new book, “Ministry By Teenagers”, a book my friend David R. Smith and I wrote together about discipling teenagers to do so much more than just showing up,...
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Growing students into servants
I first met Jason when I picked up his friend Jay from church and Jay asked, “Can I bring my friend Jason along?” I said, “Sure, plenty of room.” Jason sat in church, actually listened, and when I...
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Your spin and the twist it creates
Anyone else intrigued by this story? Cameron Mitchell, a 20-year old Christian and competitor on the Glee Project show, was increasingly challenged by the directors and producers to use sexuality as a...
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Deeper Ministries… True Disciples
Are today’s youth ministries “deep?” Are we developing “true disciples?” I’m not knocking these inquiries at all. They’re good questions. But at the same time, I find the questions themselves curious....
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How to get teenagers to read the Bible [Adam Wormann]
This week we’re doing something new here at Life In Student Ministry. I asked you all on Facebook what questions you’d like us to answer and this week each of the authors here will answer the most...
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Getting teenagers to read their Bible starts with us [Tim Schmoyer]
This week we’re doing something new here at Life In Student Ministry. I asked you all on Facebook what questions you’d like us to answer and this week each of the authors here will answer the most...
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Teens love Jesus, but not reading the Bible [Jonathan McKee]
This week we’re doing something new here at Life In Student Ministry. I asked you all on Facebook what questions you’d like us to answer and this week each of the authors here will answer the most...
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Students reading their Bibles isn’t your problem [Mark Riddle]
This week we’re doing something new here at Life In Student Ministry. I asked you all on Facebook what questions you’d like us to answer and this week each of the authors here will answer the most...
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You really should eat something [Tony Myles]
This week we’re doing something new here at Life In Student Ministry. I asked you all on Facebook what questions you’d like us to answer and this week each of the authors here will answer the most...
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Get alone and get real
I asked you all on Facebook what questions you’d like us to answer and last week all of the Life In Student Ministry authors tackled the same question, but this week each of us are taking a different...
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The best thing you can do for families in your ministry
If you follow me on Twitter or are a fan of the Life In Student Ministry Facebook page, you’ve probably seen that I’m working on a book to be published by Group Publishing. I wrote this in it today and...
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Arrogant Student Leaders
A couple weeks ago I received this question through my youth ministry website… I’ll edit for brevity: Jonathan, I recently moved churches, from a church in MN to a church of the same denomination in FL...
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Using long car rides to connect
A bus full of middle school students, a 7 hour trip and about 10 adult volunteers. If you’ve been in youth ministry for even a year or two, you may have experienced this situation. Kids pile in as far...
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Approaching God with conditions [Time Out]
Time Out: Weekly quiet times for the youth worker’s soul. A friend of mine is a pastor, and had someone approach him with the question, “Can I be gay and still be a Christian.” (From what I understand,...
View ArticleLeveraging social media for discipleship and evangelism
Two weeks ago I spoke to a group of youth workers at SHAPE Conference, which follows a TED style of short talks with a lot of round-table and group discussion. Each speaker was asked to talk about a...
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The missing link in discipleship
Discipleship. Many of us would say it’s the goal of our youth ministry. We invest countless hours into developing it in the lives of our students and their families. It’s what some of us are hired to...
View ArticleIs the Internet changing how we talk about faith?
After you watch this video, you’ll totally agree with the premise, although you may think, “Is the Internet really changing how we talk about faith or is the Internet is finally catching up with what...
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How we tell God’s Story makes an eternal difference
One of the things I love about working at Epipheo Studios is how much I’m learning about storytelling. While at a first glance we may look like an animation studio that makes cool videos, at heart we...
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Telling God’s Story with 22 tips from Pixar
After yesterday’s post of how powerful storytelling really is and how that influences how we tell God’s Story, I thought it appropriate to follow-up with a few other storytelling resources for you...
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Lesson plan about giving it all up to follow Jesus [Freebie Friday]
Our Weekly Freebie Friday: #297 Below is a youth group lesson plan you can download and use sometime when teaching about discipleship and giving up everything to follow Jesus. The purpose the study is...
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Releasing vision to empower disciples
I recently saw Mark Riddle, a respected church and youth ministry consultant, post a series of tweets that got me thinking. Much of this feels true to me. Does it to you? Mark paints with a broad brush...
View ArticleRedesigning your discipleship model for making disciples [video]
At the D6 Conference last week I had the opportunity to talk with Mike Glenn, the Sr. Pastor at Brentwood Baptist Church. He shared with me the story of how he realized that his church’s discipleship...
View ArticleFamily ministry in the church starts in my home [video]
A reoccurring theme for me at the D6 Conference a few weeks ago was that family ministry in our church communities really needs to start with family ministry in our own homes. Of course, I’ve given...
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What is the goal of biblical teaching?
Most churches have small groups, bible studies, Sunday morning messages, Sunday school, accountability partners, support groups, and more. What is the goal of biblical teaching that happens in these...
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How to disciple families for a multi-generational impact
Last week I shared 6 questions every pastor must ask about their family. Each of these questions come out of my own experienced over the past year or two. Some of them are questions others have spoken...
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The 7 guiding principles of family-based student discipleship
This past summer I spent a lot of time with other leaders at Red Door Church brainstorming what student discipleship could look like here. Parents as Spiritual Leaders As I’ve already discussed, we’re...
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What church budgets reveal we believe about the family
It’s been said that if you want to see where someone’s true values lie, take a look at their checkbook. I’m thankful that churches are taking family ministry more and more seriously, but I think the...
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How to capture the hearts of spiritually apathetic teens
I recently received a question from a pastor who asked this: I need some advice on how to get things going for youth who have lost interest in church. I’m looking for ways to find a good way to teach...
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FREE online family ministry training for the next 4 days
I love what the D6 Conference guys do around this time every year: they take some of their best family ministry training sessions from last year’s conference and make it available to you for free. As...
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