Five People You Want On Your Youth Ministry Team

One of the most fun parts of my job as a youth pastor is getting to work with an amazing team of adult leaders. If you're trying to do youth ministry on your own without a team around you, you're making youth ministry way too hard on yourself. Here are five people you want to have on your youth ministry team. If you don't have them, keep searching, looking, and asking until you do:

The constant encourager
Ministry can be tough, and you need someone who will support and encourage you as a leader through the difficult times. This person isn't a blind follower who compliments you no matter what, but rather a solid friend who cheers you on and constantly reminds you that God is still in the business of transforming lives, even when things don't seem to be going well.

Video of the Week: "Don't Rob the Youth" from the Gospel Coalition

I love this conversation about the role of youth ministry in the local church, especially the question of how to integrate students into the broader church. Well worth five minutes of your time:

Don't Rob the Youth from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Helping Teenagers Respond to What They've Heard

"Who can tell me what we talked about last week?"

I'm really hoping that I'm not the only one who has asked that question in front of a group of teenagers—most of whom heard my message just one week prior—and received nothing but silence in response.

Or perhaps you've experienced this: you deliver a passionate message at youth group about how Jesus told his followers they would be recognized as belonging to him by how they love one another (John 13:34-35), only to later overhear a group of girls gossiping about another girl in the youth group.

These kinds of experiences can deflate, discourage, and sometimes even anger us. Isn't anyone listening? Don't my hours of message preparation and writing small group questions matter to any of these teenagers? What am I doing wrong?

Since I've had more than my share of those (and similar) circumstances as a youth pastor, I've had a lot of time to think about what I can do to deliver messages that actually stick and actually matter. And after all that thinking, here is what I've learned: the hardest part about preaching to or leading a small group of teenagers isn't the preparation, and it isn't the delivery or leading the discussion.

The hardest part is getting your message or Bible study to make even one bit of difference in a teenager's life.

The theologically astute of you will no doubt remind me that we as youth workers are simply the planters, the ones who water the seeds. It is the Holy Spirit's job to make anything grow. That being said (and affirmed), I still think we can be better planters and watering cans by doing one thing better: making it crystal clear what we expect teenagers to do with what they just heard, read, and discussed.

It doesn't matter if you're leading a small group Bible study or preaching to hundreds of junior and senior high students; unless you help them understand what they are supposed to do with what they've just heard, they're likely to disregard—or forget altogether—just about everything they've taken in. And if you're not doing that, then all the hard work and time you put into your preparation is just going to waste. Here are some ways to help teenagers internalize and respond to what they just heard:

Teach and preach with transformation in mind, not just information. It's easy to make the mistake of approaching a lesson or message by asking only "What do these teenagers need to know?" It's just as crucial to ask this question as well: "How can God use this information to transform their lives?"

Youth Ministry is Just a Fad

I've been a youth pastor for a little over ten years now. I believe deeply in what I do and in the kind of ministry I lead. Not only do I lead a ministry to high school students, but I also seek to equip youth leaders in their ministry by maintaining this blog and writing youth ministry curriculum. I believe that God has used youth ministry to help teenagers come to know his Son Jesus and grow in a relationship with him. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be doing what I do.

So why do I think that youth ministry is just a fad?

When I search the whole of church history, I see a host of things that were "big" (and even effective) at one point in history, but after a period of time, they became less central to the Church and its mission: Cathedrals in Europe, Christian monasticism, traveling revival preachers, and the song "Pharaoh Pharaoh" all come to mind. While we still see vestiges of those things today, one can't deny that they are more a part of our history than they are our present. I don't think youth ministry is immune to that fate.

Video of the Week: Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell - The God Debate

Comedians Jamie Kilstein and John Fugelsang square off in a pop debate about the existence of God. This video could be a really good discussion starter on apologetics, the existence of God, or simply popular views about Jesus and Christianity. Check it out:

How To Successfully Brand Your Church

Branding and marketing is a difficult practice for many local churches, Christian non-profits, and even individual ministries to really grasp. Some churches have a logo that shows they haven't thought about their brand for about 45 years. On the other side of the coin, some youth pastors are so concerned about their youth ministry's logo and corresponding t-shirts that they really need to close their free trial of Adobe Creative Suite and step away from the MacBook Pro.

But branding and marketing aren't really about logos, websites, signage, or even advertising. Branding is communicating who you really are (or perhaps more accurately, who you're striving to be). Due to the dishonest nature of much of the marketing in our culture, some leaders bristle at the thought of deliberately branding and marketing their church or ministry. In reality, every church markets in that they communicate to people (both those who are part of there church and those who are not) something about themselves. The trick is to do this in a way that communicates what your church is "about" (or again, what you are striving to be "about").

Since I'm no expert on branding and marketing, I'm grateful that Jesus actually addressed the issue of how leaders can successfully brand their local church (or youth ministry).

Surprised? I figured you might be. But he did.

Jesus actually let us know 2,000 years ago what brand his followers was to use that would let people know that his disciples were serious about following him. He may not have provided it to us in the form of a logo, but he was abundantly clear about it nonetheless:

Video of the Week: Small Group Promo Video

I love this video (inspired by Shoot Christians Say). In the past year, we've realized at our church that we've been using a lot of lingo that might be familiar to "insiders" (people who've been around our church awhile) but is confusing to the very people we want to reach: people who haven't been to our church and may not yet know Jesus. So, we poked a little fun at ourselves with this video as we transition to actually calling our small groups "Small Groups." Enjoy:

Small Groups Promo from The Heights Community on Vimeo.

The Supposed Superpowers of a Youth Pastor

Youth pastors are pretty great people. I might be biased (being a youth pastor and all), but I make that claim having known a lot of youth pastors. Youth workers not only tend to have big hearts, but they have some talents that sometimes border on superhuman feats of strength and skill. They can pull off an amazing summer camp on a tight budget. Part-time and bi-vocational youth pastors somehow find a way to prepare a Bible study each week and care for students between their two other jobs. And most youth pastors can still genuinely love teenagers even after a night of zero sleep at a lock-in.

Despite all that, youth pastors aren’t the superheroes some make us out to be.

Now, I don't think that I'm too bad of a youth pastor. I've learned a ton from experience and mentors, and I even have a fancy degree on my wall. But I'm no superhero. And even if I were, I probably would use my powers for my own benefit, and not for others. Still, I've found that some people believe that all youth pastors have a certain set of superpowers. Today, I'd like to set the record straight and let the world know that there are some superpowers that youth pastors don’t in fact possess:

I can’t make your teenager come to church. Listen, I really want your teenager to come to church to experience a loving environment and hear about Jesus. But if I could will him to come to church, I would have already done that by now. I’m happy to give him a call and extend a friendly invite or meet him for coffee if he’d be up for that. I'm flattered that you think your teenager would go to church if I told him to. I just don’t have that kind of influence over every teenager’s actions.

Lies We Tell Teenagers About Their Suffering

Every teenager you work with suffers. Suffering is a common experience we all share, yet it is one that we talk very little about in the church world. It's no wonder why we avoid talking about suffering. It's uncomfortable, it hurts, and there are no answers that bring about a resolution to suffering this side of heaven. I can fix a lot of things, but I can't fix suffering. So, we prefer to ignore it, pretend it is gone with the passage of time, or numb ourselves to it with our favorite distraction.

Suffering is a central theme of the Bible, yet it's one that occupies far too little of our time in youth ministry. Many proclaim a desire to bring the Gospel to the lost as Paul did; precious few care to join him in his prison cell. And because we ignore Jesus' call to suffer with him as he did, we also lead others astray in the area of suffering. If every teenager we encounter suffers, then suffering is a topic we have to get right when we teach, counsel, mentor, and lead. Unfortunately, I believe we get it wrong more often than not. Here are four lies we tell teenagers about their suffering:

Lie #1: Jesus will alleviate your suffering. Jesus does not always alleviate our suffering--he didn't even do it for Paul! (See 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.) Some people walk with a limp their entire lives, and it never goes away this side of heaven.

Video of the Week: John Piper, Matt Chandler, and David Platt on Social Justice and Young Evangelicals

Really, really interesting conversation among John Piper, Matt Chandler, and David Platt on social justice and younger evangelical Christians. Definitely worth ten minutes of your time, especially since teenagers (to me, at least) seem geared towards projects and movements that involve social justice.

Some questions to think about as you watch the video:

• Do you agree that social justice needs to be tied to personal evangelism?
• How can we help teenagers "be where they are" and serve, love, and share about Jesus where God has planted them?
• What role do you think social justice issues ought to play in youth ministry teaching and programming?

Social Justice and Young Evangelicals: Encouragements and Concerns from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.