Tag: youth group

  • 4 Outside of the Box Program Ideas for Youth Ministry

    Here’s 5 ideas that are outside of the norm for youth group. (Nothing wrong with traditional youth group, just sharing ideas.) My hope is that these ideas will spark you to create programs that your community actually needs as opposed to building your ministry purely on a combination of felt need & what you experienced…

  • Go to Haiti with Me April 6-9

    Join Adam McLane on a vision trip to Port au Prince, Haiti this April 6-9. Thought about going but run into a bunch of obstacles? This trip is for you!

  • FREE RESOURCE: YouTube You Can Use

    Each week I produce a free resource called, YouTube You Can Use. The concept is simple. I take a viral video from YouTube and write a small discussion starter and/or devotional based on the content. Currently, more than 1100 people around the world receive it each Monday. They use in their youth groups, in small…

  • The Deep End of the Pool

    Universally, the first day of summer camp includes a swim test. For the safety of everyone the adults needs to know who can swim and who can’t. Those who can swim can go into the deep end while those who can’t need to learn. We need to teach our students to swim As Jon and…

  • Love is an Orientation DVD

    I’m proud to be a part of the youth ministry session of this project with Ginny Olson. Together we talk about ministering to LGBT students in your youth group, creating a safe environment, and bullying. You can pre-order the DVD curriculum from Amazon here.

  • Inside out youth ministry

    A couple Sunday’s ago our senior pastor, Ed Noble, was talking about the inside out revolution underway at Journey. He gave an example about an area of the property where the church used to meet weekly for a big, family dinner. Now that space is used to run a food pantry for families in our…

  • Lie to me, baby

    Maybe we are just a little too authentic in youth group? Last night, our high school ministry night met. We were down a couple of adults and up a few students. Actually, the night felt right at that balance between “out-of-control” and “in control” that is some of the secret sauce of youth ministry. As…

  • Shut up and drive

    People are showing up and I have a million things running through my mind. Do I have all of my personal stuff? Do I have all of the stuff we need that the church needs to bring? Are all of my leaders here? Did I double check fuel levels? What about oil changes, we good…

  • If Sunday morning is about teaching…

    Then how are you measuring what people are learning? As a youth worker I’m always aware of leakage in my teaching. That is, the difference between what I am teaching and what learners are learning. There is a naughty little educational word called “retention” we need to deal with. If there isn’t, what is the…

  • Retreating

    A couple weeks back I wrote about our free retreat. I just got back. It was a quick, but profitable time. I’m more convinced than ever that when you are good news first, not only will the Good News be received, but the news of Good News will spread like wild fire as a result.…