Category: The Youth Cartel

  • Ignore Your Limitations (YouTube You Can Use Sample)

    For the past six months I’ve written a free, weekly resource for adults who minister to teenagers called, YouTube You Can Use. It’s exactly what it is called. All I do is take a popular, short YouTube video and write some prompts designed to make it easy for you to have a Bible-based discussion with…

  • The Youth Cartel Updates

    Lots of cool things happening with The Youth Cartel. Here’s some new things to point out.  Middle School Ministry Campference – Save the date. We’re doing it again. This time we’ve moved a few hundred miles south to Seymour, Indiana. And I’m using inclusive language because I’m going to be a part of it this…

  • A Parent’s Guide to Social Media

    Last week, I put together a sweet little seminar for parent’s called, A Parent’s Guide to Social Media. It’s an hour-long training session aimed at removing the fear about what their teenagers might be doing online and back-filling it with the latest research, then helps to build a theological framework for raising kids in a…

  • Speaking & Writing update

    Forgive the pause in my normal posts to share some life updates. Speaking & Training My 2012 speaking/training schedule is now has it’s own page. As far as I know, everything listed there is available for you to register to attend. There are two primary things which seem to be taking off for me in…

  • #MSMC12

    I’m really excited to be a part of this years Middle School Ministry Campference. What the heck is a campference? It’s a little word we made up at The Youth Cartel to describe a gathering of like-minded people at a camp. In this case, it’s unique because it’s specifically designed for adults who minister to…

  • How is The Youth Cartel doing?

    I’m loving this season of life. In 2005, I did a start-up but it was different. The scale was much smaller and I had a full-time job. So in some ways this season feels familiar and in other ways it’s all new. If you’ve read the blog for long you know how much I value…

  • 4 Tips for YouTube You Can Use

    YouTube You Can Use is a free weekly youth ministry resource I publish every Monday at The Youth Cartel. It includes a link to a YouTube video as well as a discussion starter, some related Bible verses, 3 ice breaker questions, and a thought question I call wrestle with this. To give you some behind…

  • Beginning life in the Cartel

    For those who missed my earlier announcement: I’m no longer with Youth Specialties. Starting today I’m joining my friend Marko (Mark Oestreicher) to launch a brand new kind of youth ministry organization, The Youth Cartel. I’ve spent 3 months waiting for September 1st to arrive. Words can’t express how excited I am to get started today. Our byline is “Instigating a…

  • Viva la Cartel!

    After three amazing years of working at Youth Specialties, it’s with a crazy concoction of sadness and excitement, that I’m sharing today that I’m leaving Youth Specialties to start a new venture. It’s impossible to put into words the emotions I felt just now as I wrote, then again as I rewrote, and over the…