Youth Ministry Curriculum and Resources

Coming up with fun and engaging games for your youth group can be a daunting task. Through years of creating summer camps and working with youth ministries, J. Roger Davis has created SEVEN Youth Group Games books, each packed with 25 field-tested must-play games. The Youth Group Games: Book Bundle includes Water Games, Relay Games, Group Building Games, Large Group Games, Stage Games, Messy Games, and Dodgeball Games. This bundle is the perfect resource to help you hit a home run with your students at your next mid-week service, retreat, or event! 

What would happen if you, your ministry leaders, and your students chose to live for God’s glory for 100 days? There’s really only one way to find out! 100 Days of Choosing God’s Glory: A Devotional Challenge is a must-have for anyone who wants to learn how to make God famous. This one-of-a-kind devotional will challenge readers, young and old, to glorify God, teach them what glorifying Him means, and help them figure out how to do it. God is going to glorify Himself one way or another because He deserves it, but you and everyone who is a part of your ministry have a chance to participate. 

Grab a copy of 100 Days of Choosing God’s Glory for every person in your ministry, take the challenge together, and experience what it feels like to let God work in and through you. You’ll be blessed! 

Best-Ever Games for Youth Ministry contains over 200 field-tested games that are easy to use in many settings and include classic games with new twists, indoor and outdoor, games that teach, and games that build community.

Game Master and Youth Minister are two titles that often go hand in hand. Whether you have the experience or not, approaching games for your events and retreats can often become an overwhelming task. Creativity can become stifled as other tasks and to-dos overwhelm your plate. Youth Group Games was designed by J. Roger Davis, who has decades of games experience. These books are designed to help you have easy and effective games ready for the next time you put on a big event.

Game Master and Youth Minister are two titles that often go hand in hand. Whether you have the experience or not, approaching games for your events and retreats can often become an overwhelming task. Creativity can become stifled as other tasks and to-dos overwhelm your plate. Youth Group Games was designed by J. Roger Davis, who has decades of games experience. These books are designed to help you have easy and effective games ready for the next time you put on a big event.

Game Master and Youth Minister are two titles that often go hand in hand. Whether you have the experience or not, approaching games for your events and retreats can often become an overwhelming task. Creativity can become stifled as other tasks and to-dos overwhelm your plate. Youth Group Games was designed by J. Roger Davis, who has decades of games experience. These books are designed to help you have easy and effective games ready for the next time you put on a big event.

Game Master and Youth Minister are two titles that often go hand in hand. Whether you have the experience or not, approaching games for your events and retreats can often become an overwhelming task. Creativity can become stifled as other tasks and to-dos overwhelm your plate. Youth Group Games was designed by J. Roger Davis, who has decades of games experience. These books are designed to help you have easy and effective games ready for the next time you put on a big event.

Game Master and Youth Minister are two titles that often go hand in hand. Whether you have the experience or not, approaching games for your events and retreats can often become an overwhelming task. Creativity can become stifled as other tasks and to-dos overwhelm your plate. Youth Group Games was designed by J. Roger Davis, who has decades of games experience. These books are designed to help you have easy and effective games ready for the next time you put on a big event.

As our students go through life, they encounter people and situations that lead them to pack and carry some enormous emotional baggage that holds them back from living in the grace and freedom that Christ provides. As youth pastors, we are in a unique position to help both students and their parents "lighten the load" along the way. In these training sessions, we will look at eight specific bags kids tend to pack as they grow up, how these bags tend to get packed, and the long-lasting negative impacts they can have. Each session will offer practical strategies we can use and equip parents to employ to leverage their influence and prevent some of these bags from getting packed in the first place.

You know the disappointment of planning a parenting event for your ministry and having few, if any, parents bothering to attend. You watch as the parents in your church sit on the spiritual sidelines of their teenagers. You feel the frustration as parents respond to the cultural tides their teens face with fear, anger, and resentment. The easy path for you is to step in and become the disciple-maker of the teenagers in your church. The most rewarding path, however, is to find a way to inspire parents to do it. But how do you do that? Our session together will give you the tools you need to equip, encourage, and empower the parents (grandparents and guardians) of the teenagers in your church. And learning how to leverage these tools will help you to leave a legacy of impact that will last long after you are gone.

We all know that "partnering with parents" is important, but nobody ever goes on to tell you what successful "partnering with parents" looks like exactly or how I am supposed to do that impactfully from my youth pastor role. What if there was a better way to meet the spiritual and felt needs of the families within your church? What if making that church-wide change could start inside your youth ministry and with you as a youth ministry leader? Join Chris Sasser as he shares some practical steps to building a whole family ministry and how your youth ministry can act as the catalyst for change.

I once heard it said that when you get to the end of your time in ministry, you want the people who know you the best to love and respect you the most. How are you doing with that? If our spouse and our kids are our first and most important ministry, are we honoring the Lord with our time and our attention to them? In this one-session Masterclass, I want to give you ten tips to consider that can help you to do great ministry while being a great spouse and a great parent.

Game Master and Youth Minister are two titles that often go hand in hand. Whether you have the experience or not, approaching games for your events and retreats can often become an overwhelming task. Creativity can become stifled as other tasks and to-dos overwhelm your plate. Youth Group Games was designed by J. Roger Davis, who has decades of games experience. These books are designed to help you have easy and effective games ready for your next mid-week service, retreat, or big event.

Messy Games is one of seven books within the Youth Group Games line. Getting out of the norm and adding a little mess to your recreation time always adds a lot of fun to your service, retreat, or event. Some of these games will stink, and others are sure to make your group go bananas! Utilizing his decades of experience, J. Roger Davis shares his expertise on 25 must-play messy games he has used over the years!

Partnering with parents doesn't have to be rocket science. Sure, your steps towards a partnership need to be thoughtful, but they can also be as simple as they are purposeful. For example, here's a little secret that isn't that much of a secret at all: Parents love people who love their kids. Let me share with you some ways that I take some first steps towards a partnership with parents in my ministry by intentionally encouraging parents along the way.

Do you want to be respected as a youth ministry leader? Do you desire to not only partner with parents but be trusted by them as well? There is one essential element that will act as a master key to opening all three of these doors. That key element is excellent communication. From content to consistency to conciseness, let me walk you through the things I have found in my ministry that are essential for every parent email.

As youth workers, we know full well that "...all have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God...." (Romans 3:23 ESV). But one of the more difficult parts of youth ministry, in a practical sense, is how we walk alongside a teenager and their parents when that teenager has been caught in sin. Allow me to share with you four practical ways we partner with parents through a student's sin in our ministry.

There is nothing like the honor and blessing it is when, as youth pastors, we get a front-row seat to watch God moving and working in the life of a teenager. One of the best moments is talking with a student about their decision to follow Jesus and follow through with being baptized. It's amazing and humbling at the same time. But the logistics of it all can also be a little intimidating. How does that process work in your ministry? Are you intentional in this pre-baptism meeting to walk a student through what baptism is, what baptism isn't, how it works, why we do it, and even what needs to come after? Are you making an effort to involve the parents in this entire process? Allow me the opportunity to share with you how we do one-on-one baptism meetings with students at our church. There's even a downloadable baptism meeting guide and checklist for you to adjust to fit your ministry context.

One of the things that I learned very early in my years in youth ministry was that the ministry I was doing WITH my students was about a lot more than just the ministry I was doing FOR my students. No middle schooler and less than half of the high schoolers who participate in your ministry actually get to your ministry events or activities on their own. And pretty close to 0% of your students pay for your ministry's camps, retreats, lock-ins, or other events. Parents are essential. And your ability as a youth pastor to earn the trust, respect, and buy-in of parents can quickly make or break your ministry's reach and impact. That's why I want to share three "must-do's" if you want to build trust and relationships with parents.

All of us in youth ministry have upset a parent and had to deal with the ramifications of it. If you haven’t had the experience yet, trust me; it’s coming, and it’s not fun. So, what do you do when you have upset a parent? How do you approach making it right or even winning back any lost trust? There’s no need to make a mistake when dealing with angry parents when you can learn from mine! Let me share with you three things that I’ve learned over the years to do when you need to deal with an angry parent.

The 7 Best Practices for Teaching Teenagers the Bible is a resource for youth workers that teaches seven meaningful practices they can use to help teach the Bible in a transformative and dynamic way.

Disciple: The Ordinary Person’s Guide To Discipling Teenagers, written by one of the leading voices in youth ministry, Dr. Allen Jackson, is a practical, down-to-earth guide for leading teenagers to pursue Christ.

In Youth Ministry For The Longer Haul: A Field Guide For Longevity, youth ministry veteran and author Chris Trent passes along over three decades of hard-earned advice, knowledgeable insights, and practical wisdom. Chris knows firsthand the value of ministry mentors. And throughout the pages of this book, he mentors you, the reader, so that you too can experience success in navigating the pathway to longevity in youth ministry.

When you think about the state of youth ministry today, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you cheer or fear? Is the glass half full or half empty? Mark Oestreicher offers a fresh take on what’s right in youth ministry—and discovers that perhaps things aren’t as broken as some of us might have thought.

Few areas of Christian ministry are as intense, unpredictable, and chaotic as junior high ministry. Read Controlled Chaos: Making Sense of Junior High Ministry to gain a little bit of hope and help so you can effectively serve the middle school students in your church.

There is a difference between religion and faith. Religion tells stories. Faith has a story to tell. Redefining Normal is an invitation to reclaim the life of faith from inside the religion of Christianity. Dave Rhodes challenges readers to a journey of becoming extraordinary disciples.

Inside the pages of Jesus Centered Youth Ministry, you'll discover the foundation for a ministry that is Jesus-centered along with the bricks for building it. You'll discover that not only is it possible to create this kind of ministry, it's also essential that you pursue this path.

Youth Ministry in a Post-Christian World: A Hopeful Wake-Up Call is the collection of humble, story-driven, pragmatic, and Jesus-focused reflections of a fellow youth worker forced to reconsider everything he knew about youth ministry: everything except the gospel, that is.

Teaching Teenagers in a Post-Christian World: Cultivating Exploration and Ownership will help youth workers shift from being content dispensers to conversation cultivators. Instead of treating teenagers like consumers—even when we really believe in what we're selling—let's create learning environments that lead to faith exploration and ownership.

On the Spot: No-Prep Games for Youth Ministry is a helpful resource including over 20 games not needing any preparation. Each 15-minute game is easy to use whenever your teenagers need to have some "fun in a flash."

Building a Youth Ministry That Builds Disciples: A Small Book About a Big Idea offers a blueprint for building in teenagers the ultimate ministry goal—a lifelong love of Christ.

Youth Ministry on a Shoestring: How to Do More With Less offers encouragement and inspiration to begin a "new" way of looking for resources. Lack of funding doesn't have to mean a lack of fun. From the people and things in your church and community, you'll uncover a whole new world of possibilities that can help you do ministry—and do it well.