This is part 2 of last night’s post, When Students Attack. I highly recommend reading that post before reading this one. As I mentioned last night, at some point, when nothing else positive can be accomplished, it’s time to end the conversation and let the truth sink into the student’s mind. Today that paid off. [...]

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I had dinner with a student tonight to talk about a Christian club he started at his school. I’m very proud of this student and gave him a lot of encouragement and ideas. I also made sure I expressed to others in front of him how proud I was. Tonight, however, we’ve exchanged a few [...]

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This blog post is a little bit heavy. I share it with the intent of helping others think through their actions if they ever have to remove a student from their ministries. This isn’t one I enjoyed writing, but if my goal is to help other in-the-trenches youth workers, I have to share the ugly [...]

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I love our students. They’re incredibly helpful around the church, passionate about the causes of Christ, eager to sign up to go on mission trips, etc. With some of them, however, there’s a huge disconnect with the work of the church and their interactions at home. I’m not surprised anymore, but I am at a [...]

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I loved this guest post over at MoreThanDodgeball.com. Here’s a snippet. Go there for the rest. Perhaps I am the only person, but I am pretty sure I am not the only one out there who has a student that just doesn’t like me, and I mean really doesn’t like me. In many cases it [...]

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I’ll explain this pizza at the bottom. Yesterday I confronted a student because I found out he recently got lessons on how to make joints. I used anger in this situation to sternly demand he not go down that road. I didn’t yell, but I wasn’t easy on him, either. He clearly got the message. [...]

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MoreThanDodgeball.com has a GREAT post about dealing with angry parents. Every youth worker needs to be prepared for this ahead of time so we won’t be thrown into a tailspin when we have the encounter. Here’s a clip, go there for the rest. Own it: If you screwed up, admit it. Nothing and I mean [...]

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A parent of one our students is trying to deal with some issues with her high schooler. We’re going to talk through some ideas so I’ve been brainstorming on the topic. Here are some principles I’ve come up with. Maybe they’ll be helpful for others. Discipline shouldn’t be: – A tool for venting anger – [...]

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Recently two issues came up that I had to decide whether to address or let go. All youth workers struggle with this decision at some point. Sometimes we let things go that we really should address. Sometimes we harp on issues beyond what’s needed to make the point. Issue #1: In one of our high [...]

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Here are a few gossip killers for your youth ministry: 1. Put the truth out there – knowledge kills gossip because the nature of gossip is to be 1/2 truths and secretive. If there’s gossip going on about your ministry, get the truth out there or at least dispel the myths. 2. Bring the parties [...]

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