Our ministry tries to take evangelism seriously, so we have a history of trying all sorts of things to help our students reach out to their unchurched friends. One of our Friday night events included (among a whole bunch of other stuff) a dance area.…
Here’s another GREAT post from our friend, Scott Rubin! Our middle school service had already started this past weekend; Tyler was walking in a few minutes late. I said “Hi” & held out my fist for a bump, but he skipped saying “hello”, and got right to the point.…
It appears that the multi-campus strategy for church growth is here to stay…for a while, anyway. And regardless of how you might feel about it, if your church decides to launch a new campus or two or three, you will quickly find yourself trying to figure out what that looks like in your youth ministry setting.…
At Summer camp last month, one of our counselors faced a classic dilemma but at an increased level of intensity. One of the 7th grade boys in his cabin was homesick. But this young man wasn’t the “normal” kind of homesick.…
Small groups was our very first request for a topic (you can send your topic requests to talkaboutym@gmail.com). So here we go! Small Groups are the lifeblood for many youth ministries, and for good reason! I’ve often said that if I was told by our Pastor that we could only do ONE thing in our ministry the one thing we would do is small groups.…
Posted By Kurt Johnston I apologize for the distance between my last post and this one…been a bit crazy. A sixth contributing factor to my longevity is to simply choose to lead differently. Here are a few ways I have tried (I don’t always get it right) to lead over the years: Here’s a new idea: SERVANT LEADERSHIP!…
Posted by Kurt Johnston This is the 5th in a little series about some of the things that have helped me last for almost 25 years. There is no silver bullet here, just a little insight about things that have seemed to make a difference in my journey as a youth worker.…
Posted By Kurt Johnston I once heard an respected Christian leader joke, “I’d love being a Pastor, if it wasn’t for all the people!” Pretty funny joke, actually. Yet in the often fast-paced, performance-driven, growth-oriented, program-dominated ministries many youth workers find themselves in it can be very difficult to find the time to, or even the value of, keeping people as the primary focus of our energy.…
Posted by Kurt Johnston I have a confession to make: I loathe fundraisers. I’m pretty sure it goes back to my first junior high ministry that I served in during the late 80’s. At that church we only did one fundraiser per year, but it was a doozey.…
Posted By Kurt Johnston This weekend, we wrap up our series called, “The Guy/Girl Thing”. It’s a series dedicated to helping junior highers begin to navigate relationships with the opposite sex. Here is what we’ve covered so far: Week 1: Developing Healthy Friendships With Each Other.…
