We all know ministry can be a humbling experience. We say the wrong thing or let a student get us riled up. Maybe our lesson sounded better in our head as we prepared to teach than it did when we actually taught it. If you keep volunteering long enough, you’ll have plenty of humbling experiences.
One [...]
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Many of us became youth ministry volunteers either because somebody helped us get through our teenage years or because we want to help others avoid the same mistakes we made during our adolescent years. However, many times leaders get overwhelmed by students once they start volunteering.
Last year I spent a few days substitute teaching at [...]
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Fortunately, we don’t have to spend hours listening to mind-numbing music, read every youth-related website or subscribe to dozens of magazines to get a handle on today’s youth culture. The Center For Youth/Parent Understanding has everything you could want to know about today’s youth culture. They track youth trends and have information about all of [...]
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Tonight after church I stopped to get gas. The pump shut off about 5 times before I got 12 cent’s worth of gas in my tank. A little frustrated, I moved to a different pump. That pump would not accept my ATM card. That was it. Time to go across the street to another gas [...]
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A major struggle with ministries is when passions collide. One leader may have a passion for outreach while another is passionate about spiritual growth. As Doug Fields points out in his youth ministry training, neither are bad and both are necessary. In fact, if everybody on the team is passionate about outreach the ministry would [...]
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Youth ministry conferences are a great source of training, encouragement and spiritual renewal. I hope every youth ministry volunteer can get to a training event at least once per year. When we take time to learn, get recharged and grow in our faith, we last longer as volunteers, our ministry is stronger and we’re more [...]
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Lately I’ve had a deep desire to reconnect with God. Sometimes as a youth ministry volunteer I feed spiritual scraps to my small group students because that’s all I have to give. When I was the paid professional youth worker I went through times like this, too. I know we all do. Unless I continually [...]
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The Purpose Driven Youth Ministry (PDYM) Conference is a great training event because it educates and motivates youth workers of all types to create health in their ministries. The folks at PDYM know that once you create a healthy youth ministry, spiritual and numerical growth will be a natural result. This conference is about changing [...]
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I am a member of Saddleback Church where I also serve on the volunteer staff of the high school ministry. It’s so great to see our pastor making an impact on the world… even though it’s brought both very good and bad reactions among different groups.
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Since 1999 Dennis Beckner has been volunteering in the youth ministry at Saddleback Church.
