Chaos, at the end of the day, is confusion. Everyone on earth was confused and disoriented for a good part of 2020 and even into 2021. Most people feel the compulsion to something when chaos hits, look for the easiest person to blame. This is the human condition, most people are lashing out because control is out of their grasp. Good thing you work in a church and people are always kind and gracious to their pastors when it comes to decision making. Church people can be the most cruel.

The news of needing to change and doing something different when what we were doing was working and leading the way for the rest of the church, was hard to hear. There were lots of questions, lots of head shaking, lots of internal thoughts that probably weren’t very productive. We were left with, how do we move forward with the kind of attitude God would have us have towards the situation?

Leadership is such a tricky thing. Everyone aspires for more but very few have the resolve to lead through hard situations, difficult circumstances or when there is no right answer. Being a leader is convenient when praise or accolades are involved. Being a leader is not a sought after role when the tough call needs to be made. How can you help the leaders you serve under? How can you honor them with your leadership?

Change is a natural part of life. We graduate from middle school, start a first job, move on from our first job, get married, have children, and the list goes on. Change is everywhere but that doesn't make it easy, especially when it has to do with our church.

Why is starting a new job at a church so hard? I would argue that a large reason the transition is so difficult is because it not only affects your professional life, but it also affects your personal life.

Growing up my father was a pastor which meant we moved a lot, and I got to experience a lot of different churches. At each of these churches I heard a common phrase repeated often, “healthy things grow.” I have often pondered about the truth behind this statement. Beyond growing up a pastor's kid, I currently work with Middle School and high school students. In my view Middle Schoolers and High schoolers are some of the most unhealthy groups of people, yet, they grow. They grow physically, they grow mentally, and many even grow spiritually. In the same way, if a church is growing numerically, but people are not being transformed, does that make it a healthy church?

I’ve been in youth ministry both vocationally, as a volunteer, and then back to vocationally for over 12 years. Youth ministry now, not the same as 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago. I want to take you back to three years ago, when a student in our ministry attended her first event at our church—a big fall event to start the year. She walked in and we immediately smelled the alcohol. She was wasted.

Ever felt misunderstood as a leader? Or like you’re not sure if your team really gets what you’re trying to say? Ever walked away from a conversation or a meeting wondering, “what just happened?” If you’re anything like me you have thought these things and probably a lot more. Don’t stay there, move forward.

It was April 10, 2020. The date is important because there were a few things going on in our family during that time: my dad, brother, and sister-in-law had Covid, our kids had been home from school and doing “distance learning” for four weeks, my husband had transitioned to being a high school Zoom teacher and I was a virtual youth minister. We were preparing as a church for our first “virtual Easter” and it all felt so, so sad.

There are important relationships to manage at your church and then there is your relationship with your lead pastor. No relationship may be as grand of a dance as that one is. How you interact, serve & honor them is a really important part of being a leader in your church. The plight of some youth pastors is that their lead pastor never believed in them, supported them, had their back or just plain didn’t care about the ministry to the next generation. How can you have an amazing relationship with your lead pastor, where you look each other in the eye and care for what the other is doing in a meaningful way?

How you do anything is how you do everything. That statement has been floating around in my brain for a long time. At first I disagreed, then I totally agreed, then I wrestled with it more. The reason I wrestled with it is because I didn't want it to be true. I didn't want to believe that I wasn't disciplined in all areas of my life. The reality is there are certain areas of my life that I struggle with being disciplined in. The more I was honest about my life I could see patterns develop. How I do anything is how I do everything.

I learned a valuable lesson and continued growing and learning for the first number of years in youth ministry. Your volunteers need simple to understand expectations, clear roles and obvious ways they can “win” with students. Anyone who gives up their personal time or time with their family needs to find what they are doing to be valuable and that they are doing it well.

Youtube is here to stay! It is the #2 search engine behind google and is only increasing in its influence on all generations! For churches around the country, March 2020 changed everything and churches were flocking to youtube to go live, add content and try to connect with people since everyone was quarantined to their home. Literally everyone was begging for subscribers for that coveted custom url. Everyone is doing it, but not everyone is doing it well, consistently or with a strategy behind it.

As someone who has worked with teenagers for a long time, I know this to be true: they don’t actually care what adults do with their hair or what jeans they wear, or if we send a laugh-cry emoji when we think something’s funny or if we type our text messages in full sentences. It’s true that they don’t think we’re cool, but honestly—that was not a battle that was going to be won, period(t). No longer being cool comes with the territory of adulthood.

Lets cut straight to the chase, the one small shift that can make the greatest difference in your ministry is to give ministry away. I know, not profound, not cutting edge and its not the first time you have every heard this idea. The difference between this idea being a catalyst for your ministry or just another saying you say out loud but do nothing about is what you do next.

Starting at a new church is scary, exciting and motivating all at the same time. You want to exceed expectations, you want to make a good first impression and lets be honest you just want the students, their families and everyone else to like you. There are 7 ways to make sure the first three months at a new church set you up a great tenure.

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So what do you do when a student tells you too much? Where the line between being the caring youth pastor that is just there as a listening ear, there to encourage, there to hold them accountable and being the discerning adult that gets mom and dad involved, getting the authorities involved, getting professional help involved? What happens when the student tells you that they don’t want anyone to get in trouble or that they are adamant about not telling their parents or involving the proper authorities?

When you say the words, “I can’t”, you are stealing your dreams from yourself. You have to eliminate that word from your vocabulary.

Criticism will happen at some point in your ministry career. How you handle the criticism is important for your longevity and mental health.

Recruiting volunteers during a season, where a lot of people aren’t back in person, can be really tough. What are some opportunities you have to recruit well in this season of uncertainty.

Creating moments for students to experience God is worth taking time to think through. Moments can be faith shaping.