This article originally appeared as a guest post from Jonathan McKee on StudentMinistry.org It doesn’t matter the size of the town, I see the same thing in almost every place I visit: the body of Christ divided into different buildings only blocks apart. Typically, the lines of communication between these churches are frayed if they even exist at...
This article originally appeared as a guest post from Jonathan McKee on StudentMinistry.org“My 6th grader is hangin’ out with a 12th grader!”“Sorry, we don’t have enough leaders to divide into smaller groups.”Last week I had the opportunity to speak at a small-town Christian event in Ohio. I ate lunch with a group of youth workers from the area before...
This article originally appeared as a guest post from Jonathan McKee on StudentMinistry.orgThe location wasn’t anything special—a multi-purpose room of a small little church. But about 70 students, gangbangers and high school dropouts from the community were gathered, laughing, playing games and having fun.Games? Really?!30 minutes later the leader told a story and began a discussion about real life...
In the spring of 2012, I was speaking at a camp in rural Wisconsin and I brought up the subject of sex to my middle school audience of about 500 kids. Unsurprisingly, I received a handful of the typical "Why are you talking about sex with this age group?!" comments.My answer? "Well, somebody's got to!"Since that camp, I've been...
An Effective Strategy to Get More Help!I've never met a youth worker who hung a sign on his office door reading, “No more volunteers PLEASE!”Let's face it, we all need volunteers? What do we do? Is it possible to build a staff quickly? The good news I have to tell you is this: you can build your team of...
Dear Youth Pastor, We're glad that you're serious about becoming a better youth leader, and helping your volunteers become better, as well. Heck, that's why The Source for Youth Ministry exists... Helping Youth Workers Reach Kids! This collection of tools is everything you need to lead your team through an exciting 1-2 hour training seminar on "growing...
Got volunteers? Getting them is one thing... but what's the trick to keeping them? Glad you asked. 1. TIME No- not the magazine- the other thing that we don't have enough of. Yes, no matter how you slice it, our volunteers take time. But think of the alternative. Either you spend 20 hours a week with...