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.

In most youth ministries and with most youth pastors, saying the words "All-Nighter" is equivalent to speaking the name of Voldemort; you just don't do it. But what if I told you that a well-planned, well-placed, and well-thought-through All-Nighter could become a favorite (and valuable part) of your ministry year? Let me show you how and why we do an annual All-Nighter in our ministry.

Have you ever planned and promoted an event only to have nobody show up or tell you they missed it because you didn't communicate it well? Jake Rassmusen combines his knowledge and experience in both the youth ministry world and also as the Director of Marketing and Strategy at YM360 to help you better promote and communicate your events so students will show up.

P.T. Barnum once famously said, "Without promotion, something terrible happens...nothing!" I would argue that the same can be said when it comes to leading games in a youth ministry environment. In my experience, without consideration, planning, and attention to these four things, your games will fall flat.

Every Youth Pastor longs for dedicated help, an extra pair of boots on the ground to assist you in reaching, leading, and discipling teenagers. But are you and your church really ready for a youth ministry intern? Do you have a plan in place for training them up to do the work of ministry? Having served as an intern in multiple churches, I've seen firsthand the good, the bad, and the ugly of internships. So, let me share with you some important do's and don'ts of bringing on a youth ministry intern.

As the founder and director of GENERATE camp, I get questions all the time about the games we create and how others can do the same. So allow me the honor of sharing with you some methods that we use at GENERATE and how you can implement those methods to make the games at your next big event, DNOW Weekend, or camp/retreat absolutely amazing!

Kairos: is a four-session sermon series that will challenge your students to set aside “tick-tock” time to engage God intentionally and expect Him to break into their lives in timeless ways. By examining four stories of Jesus, this series will encourage your students to look beyond what sits immediately in front of them so they can see that God’s will, goodness, and grace are always working beneath the surface, setting up a framework designed to propel their lives deeper into His Kingdom.

Table Talk is a four-session sermon series that will focus on four conversations Jesus had while sharing meals with His disciples and others. This series will challenge your students to evaluate their heart posture toward things like repentance, love, busyness, and pride and consider how their lives can reflect the heart of Jesus at the table.

With All You Are is a four-session sermon series that will help your students understand that because God has given Himself to us, we are called to love Him with all we are. Your students will realize that when they give all of themselves to loving God, they become who they were made to be.

Idols is a four-session sermon series that will challenge your students’ idea that idols are merely ancient statues that have no power over our lives. This series will explain to your students that, even though they may not look like they used to, many idols are still at work today. Idols will equip your students with the tools they need to recognize and identify the idols in their lives and give them the steps to reorient their lives to God.

BABYLON: is a four-session sermon series that will help your students understand that as they follow Jesus, their liveswill look drastically different than the world around them. Students will learn what it looks like to stand strong in their faith even when they are faced with all the world’s temptations, and they will be better prepared to live for God in our modern-day Babylon.

One Charge: is a four-session sermon series that will explore four separate parts of the life of Joseph. This series will challenge your students’ perspectives on power, authority, and their responsibilities in the Kingdom of God. They will learn that God has much more planned for their lives than they think and will be better equipped to handle the weight of God-given authority.

SMOKE: a four-session sermon series, will explore four incredible Old Testament stories where God interacted with His people through smoke and fire. This series will challenge your students to step into God’s presence, power, provision, and priority. As they stare into the smoke and see how God reveals Himself, their hearts will be set on fire by God’s present-tense presence

WARRIOR: a four-session sermon series that will help your students better understand and be prepared for the spiritual battle that rages all around us. Students will learn that, as followers of Jesus, we are all warriors in a daily high stakes spiritual battle, but we can have confidence because Jesus has already won the war. In addition, they’ll learn to understand and utilize the different pieces of spiritual armor God has gifted us to fight this battle so that we can experience victory in Jesus.

Four-Letter Words: Learning To Make More Of Jesus And Less Of Ourselves, a four-session sermon series, will challenge your students to shift their perspective on the priorities in their life and ask the questions: What could our faith look like if we actively put Jesus in the number one spot in our life? What could God do in us and through us if we began placing everything we want secondary to everything God wants for us?

Uncharted: Living Off The Map As A Pioneer, a four-session sermon series, will challenge your students to become pioneers who are willing to trust and to listen for God’s direction, look to the Holy Spirit as a guide, and use His Word as a compass to discern the best way to move in that direction.

Follow: Learning What It Means To Be A Disciple, a four-session sermon series, will help your students understand that when they give their lives to Jesus, they aren’t just making a decision about their life after death; they are making a decision about their present life and what it means to follow Jesus as His disciple.

Live Differently, a four-week sermon series, teaches students God's intent for sex and and challenges them with God's call to live a holy life in a world of sexual immorality.

In Difference Maker: Impacting the World for Christ, a four-session sermon series, your students will learn what it means to be a difference-maker as they learn from four biblical leaders that made a tremendous difference.

Filtered: Learning to Love God Through Technology, a four-session sermon series, will help your students become serious about loving God by giving them handles to place technology in its rightful place.

We have a lot of questions about our faith — how do I read my Bible, how do I pray, or how do I make a difference? What if the answers to these questions are not as difficult as we think they are? In How Do I, a four-week sermon series, we will be answering some of these questions to help us grow in our faith.

Using the book of Luke, Pictures of Jesus, a 4-week sermon series, will look at four incredible pictures of Jesus, prompting students to a deeper love for and faith in their Savior Jesus.

In Audacious: Having Faith That Changes History, a four-session sermon series, we’ll look at the lives of four people in the Bible who lived out an audacious faith and changed the course of history. We’ll unpack their stories and talk about how we can live out an audacious faith today.