Great Gift for Students

Sarah, a small group leader in our ministry, had ideas over the school year that she never got to do. There were songs that had great messages which would have made great discussion topics for her small group. As an end-of-the-year gift, she burned the songs to CD’s for her girls and gave a list [...]

Great Games For Your Youth Ministry

Video: Paper Airplane Toss For A New XBox

The greeters handed every student an sheet of paper along with their bulletin and pen when they walked in. This is how we used the paper.

Video: Minute To Win It – Junk in the Trunk

We played this in our High School Ministry service on Promotion Weekend. The players are incoming freshmen. Click the link below for Minute To Win It’s instructional video for this game. Minute To Win It – Junk in the Trunk Instruction Video

Video: High School Ministry Announcements

I captured this video of our announcements last weekend in Saddleback Church’s High School Ministry’s promotion weekend. Watch until the end. There’s a sweet Dorito’s commercial.

Too Much of a Good Thing Can Eclipse the Better Things

At our End-of-the-school-year Small Group Party, I always do door prizes. Most of what we give away is free stuff I gather from the youth ministry office or stuff I don’t want anymore. We always mix in a few store-bought trinkets. This year, however, I think I went a little overboard. We always gather the [...]

Counseling Through Questions

This post was written with the permission and encouragement of the person I counseled, but his name has been changed. This post is also likely going to ruffle some feathers. The purpose of the method was to help the student realize the big picture, rather than only his current feelings. Scott and I met the [...]

3 End-of-the-school-year Challenges For Students

We just finished another year of small groups. Every year I get concerned about our students putting their faith on the shelf. To help inspire them, I have a tradition of giving them 3 challenges as they move into summer: 1. Grow spiritually! Just as they should be further along spiritually than they were when [...]

Guest Post: Youth Ministry Resources

Thanks to Sarah, a youth ministry chaplain from NZ (New Zealand?), for sharing these links: – Postsecret.com – topic of lonliness – 1000awesomethings.com – contentment – www.TheTroubleWithParis.com.au – excellent small group discussion on hyperreality – www.creativemyk.com and www.sxc.hu for all our powerpoints -animoto.com for video making -www.toptenz.net for intros Disclaimer: I have briefly looked at [...]

Where is God When a Daughter Goes Missing?

Where is God when anything happens? He’s in the place he always is. God never changes (Jas. 1:17). Our alignment with him, however, does. I received a request to write on this topic as part of a new book that’s coming out called Where Was God When…? This is the scenario I was given: I [...]