Tag: youth ministry
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Towards Holistic Youth Ministry
I’ve been blogging the Harbor Mid-City journey as we head towards a launch of student ministry. Up until now in the life cycle of the church plant youth ministry has always been around– part of the DNA– but never emerged as a priority. That’s changing rapidly as the church has formed to the point where…
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Youth Group vs. Youth Ministry
Last night I sat around a table with some people to talk about youth ministry in our church. As I’ve mentioned a number of times, our church is in a working class neighborhood of San Diego. We are a community of people with tangible needs. There is real poverty. Real educational problems. Real family trouble.…
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Fears of a new venture
What does youth ministry in this neighborhood look like? That’s the big open question in my mind this week. A week ago I met with a couple of leaders of Harbor and let them know… I think I’m at a place where giving my energy to lead something makes sense. I’ve completely enjoyed stepping back–…
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Youth Ministry Today
Some months ago I chatted with Tim Baker about utilizing some of my posts from this blog over at Youth Ministry Today. I was happy to see the first one pop up today. I love what they’re doing over there, and if they can take stuff that I write here and make it useful for…
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Ah, ministry to students…
Before Thursday night, I had spoken to exactly zero groups of high school or middle school students in the past school year. None. Zip. Zilch. For the most past that was intentional. I needed a break.That part of my life felt tired when I left Romeo. The grind of preparing 1-2 talks per week, year…
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Youth Worker Book of Hope ON SALE NOW!
At work today Mandy handed me an envelope from Zondervan. Holding it, I could feel a lump in it. As I opened it I joked to myself, “Geez, are they paying me in cash these days?” To my delight it was not a bundle of cash, it was my copy of The Youth Worker Book…
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Youth workers are nuts
I guess I’ve always known this. Heck, I know I’ve been nuts a long time. But this weekend I got a lot of glimpses at just how crazy some youth workers are. In fact the craziest youth workers are volunteers who wil bring 45 kids from Kansas to Los Angeles for an event– by car–…
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What to Say When the Youth Pastor Leaves
It’s June. Professional youth ministries most dangerous month. I’ve served in three churches and all the hiring, firing, quitting, and retiring with the youth ministry seems to happen in June. It’s a wicked combination of the end of the school year and for a lot of churches, the end of the budget year. I could…
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Getting Started in Investing, part 3
“Hey honey, are you spending more money at the grocery store or something?“ This was something I found myself saying to Kristen over and over again in our tenure in youth ministry. With a growing family it just seemed like every month we made a little less money. We had a budget. We did our…
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Getting Started in Investing, part two
Here’s a scenario for you. You are serving at a church and things go sour. I mean, they go really sour. Meetings are arranged behind your back. Students stop coming to events and making excuses to avoid you. Your weekly staff meeting with the pastoral team becomes a finger pointing competition. And all roads are…