Even though I’m a volunteer, I started a tradition of meeting with parents of students who attend my small group Bible study. It’s great! Parents typically don’t contact me because they don’t want to intrude on their kid’s world. I don’t contact parents because I think they’re busy. Since I started this last year, my [...]

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As volunteers get set for a new school year, I wanted to share some ways to start out strong. a. Determine to last through the awkwardness Even secure people who are stable in every way can feel self-conscious when they begin working with students. Stepping into youth culture to care for students is about as [...]

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One of our volunteers at The Landing was telling me about how she keeps in touch with her small group (even some who have moved on) through Facebook. She’s having great success and being very effective with this so I asked her to write a guest post. Here’s what she wrote: Keeping connected through Facebook [...]

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It happened again last night. I’m so happy when it does because it gives me more respect for parents. A student I was taking home after small group told me that his mom had looked me up online and has gained a lot of trust and respect for me. I’ve written about this before, but [...]

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I was talking to one of my all-star students tonight who’s heading off to college this week. Here are a few comments I made to him that all college-bound students need to hear from their youth pastors: 1. Don’t push you parents out the door too quickly when you get there. You’ll want them to [...]

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First off: Never say the word ATTITUDE to students if you want to them to hear anything you would say following the word attitude. That word is more like a weapon than a tool. A student is coming to help me with a project today. He texted me a few minutes ago to say his [...]

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We ended our small groups for the summer this week. We also had a few other endings… the home we use for small groups is up for sale, so we won’t be meeting there again, one of our leaders is moving to Sacramento so she won’t be back, and many of our students are graduating. [...]

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I came across this tiny tree today at the home improvement store. I chuckled at the sign attached to it which read “shade tree”. I went back later & took this picture because it’s a great reminder for me to see who students and leaders can be rather than limiting them by how they appear [...]

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Here are a few things that are working well for Saddleback HSM: 1. Our staff started a Facebook group called iPray. It’s a closed group that students have to request to join. They can post what they need prayer for and pray for each other. 2. Groups – Before or after almost every event there [...]

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This week we have the Radicalis conference happening at Saddleback Church. That doesn’t mean ministry stops. I still have a group of high school small group students to teach tonight and tomorrow night. We always meet beforehand for dinner at 6:00. Last summer I recruited a co-leader to help me with small group and to [...]

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