Category: youth ministry
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The Bible is Useful
Recently we took a survey of Youth Specialties customers. The results of one particular question completely shocked me. Here it is: When I was looking through the initial survey results I turned around to Tic, and said… “Wanna know why so many youth groups are struggling to keep students for the long haul? There’s the…
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The plot and sub-plot of every youth group meeting
Youth group meets every Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM. And every Wednesday night at 7:00 PM a cast of characters arrives on scene. Each character is three-dimensional. And each character is coming to youth group for their own reasons. Every Wednesday there is a plot and a series of sub-plots. And it looks something like…
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Interview with Jim Britts
A few weeks back I drove up to Oceanside and shot this interview with Jim Britts. If you don’t know Jim, you need to! He’s a youth pastor at a local church who, together with his executive pastor, had a crazy idea of making a move. And along came To Save a Life. Let’s face…
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Welcome Back, Tic
Life is crazy. I don’t know about other people, but my life is full of surprising moments. One of those crazy twists just took hold as today it becomes public that Tic Long is back at Youth Specialties. My first 5 thoughts about Tic coming back: Woohoo! Is this for real? This is going to…
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My Transition to YouthWorks
On January 1st, 2010 I will become an employee of YouthWorks. Before I talk about YouthWorks I do want to mention some things about Zondervan. A lot of negative things have been said and written (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) about Zondervan through this process. I want to convey publicly what I told them privately. They…
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Longitudinal Youth Ministry
There is something so cheap about a program that graduates students. Maybe it’s just that I don’t like to let go? Or maybe it’s just that I can’t reconcile the theological ramifications of shoving a copy of My Utmost for His Highest in a kids hands and saying, “Thanks for the memories. Have a nice…
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Hey youth workers… do you believe?
Here’s the deal. Dirty little secret time. I think a lot of youth pastors, youth ministers, youth directors don’t believe in the power of adolescents to flip their world on its head. Adults think they can do it all. And they backfill that belief with anecdotal information to make themselves feel better. They think kids…
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YS/YW Announcement… What’s Going On?
Finally! That’s totally how I felt yesterday when the news came to me that we were making an announcement about the deal for Zondervan to sell YS to YouthWorks. (Here’s the link) The last few weeks, since Marko’s departure, have been a roller coaster for me. The facts presented to the staff on that day…