A Fall Resource Sale from YM360

Written by Kerry Ray. Do you ever wonder why it feels so difficult for you to gain any real traction with the students you are leading? It's probably not breaking news to learn that teenagers are busier and more distracted than ever. By most estimates, a "regular attendee" is defined as a student who shows up around 1.7 times each month. On top of that, recent studies suggest that teenagers are dropping out of the church in record numbers, with 80% saying they're doing so simply because they've lost interest or stopped seeing the church as necessary to their life. So what are you doing to address this when it comes to your students and your ministry context? Do you recognize and account for the differences between Generation Z and Alpha in your approach to ministering to them? Have you examined, tweaked, or started to strategize new ways to meet this generation of students where there are rather than where you want them to be? In this 7-session module, we'll ask some thought-provoking questions and identify some practical steps every youth worker or small group leader can take to address these issues, cut through the noise, re-evaluate our approach, and effectively meet students where they are versus where we want them to be.

By Dr. Allen Jackson. You want to lead students to be more like Christ. In a word, you want them to become disciples. The question is, how do you go about doing it?

"The best engine for a successful, thriving youth ministry is a strong kid’s ministry. What happens if you have a strong kid’s ministry but you don’t nail the transition from kid’s ministry to student ministry? How do you make sure you’re prepared? And then, on the other side of youth ministry, there are students dropping out of church at an alarming rate, and this is even for students who are regularly committed to their church during youth group and during their middle school and early high school days. What is behind that? 

This two-session masterclass will dig into each side of the critical transitions that have to be successfully navigated in youth ministry. It will provide you with several ideas, tips, and tricks to help you nail the transition from kid’s ministry into student ministry and help you discover ways you can we help students take meaningful steps into college while also keeping them connected to the church and to their faith."

By Dr. Ben Birdsong. Understanding the generations we serve can be a great tool for the youth worker. With this tool, we can understand the needs, struggles, and mindsets of each generation so we can faithfully point them to the truth of the gospel. With this tool, we can help parents to better understand their children and disciple them well. With this tool, we can help the older adults in the church better understand the generations who have come behind them. With this tool, we can listen to the heart cries of a generation, become a listening ear for them, and encourage them that Jesus will be with them and He never fails. In this module, we will dig into the latest information concerning Generation Z and Alpha in an effort to better understand who they are and how these insights should impact our approach to ministry to them.

Technology is one of the most frustrating and confusing issues parents in your church are trying to navigate regarding their teenagers. They spend countless days and nights feeling overwhelmed, under-equipped, and completely outmanned when it comes to knowing how to respond to screens. This MYM Live Online Training Event is not the typical “technology is evil, so let’s run from it and teach parents to do the same.“ Instead, technology and parenting expert Brian Housman is here to provide you, as a youth ministry leader, with some practical steps and prudent boundaries regarding technology so that you can educate and equip the parents in your church on leading and loving their students through setting healthy boundaries with screens without using shame or blame.

Written by Matt Andrews. For years now, youth workers and church volunteers have lamented that teens don't know basic Bible stories. But have you noticed more and more teens don't know anything about the Bible at all? Even though there are plenty of teen Bible study aids available, there's a giant gap between these tools and the total biblical illiteracy of many we're trying to reach. Slaying Biblical Illiteracy contains practical tips, as well as group and individual exercises, that will inspire youth to experience God's Word for themselves. Learn to use the same creative skills you use to plan retreats and youth group games to bring the Bible to life using the unexpected in fun ways that will grab and keep your teens' attention. Learn how to help youth work through their trust issues with Scripture and learn Bible study methods you can try out as a group, so that your youth are empowered to study the Bible for themselves, slaying biblical illiteracy and unlocking the influence of God s Word in their daily lives.

By Dr. Noel Forlini Burt. Within this 6-lesson module, we'll enter what we think to be familiar territory with the first few stories in Genesis. These are stories we believe we know well until we read them again and discover that there are places in the text we didn't notice before or that our Sunday School experiences were omitted due to the things that weren't palatable for us as children. There are some hard stories in this collection of texts. That's probably why we don't hear them preached very often. Nevertheless, these are important stories, so I want to dive into the things that I think we as ministers need to know about the book of Genesis: the world "behind" the text, the world "of" the text, and the world "in front of" the text.

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.

By Dr. Noel Forlini Burt. Over the six lessons of this module, we’re going to explore what it means to abide in Christ in good times and in our seasons of spiritual dryness. These six lessons will cover many different topics: childlike reading of Scripture as a means of abiding in Christ, persistence in prayer, and even recalibrating how we teach our own students during dry ministerial seasons. Each of these elements is, I argue, a different way in which we can abide in the One who loves us so much that He gave His life for us.

Written by Andy Blanks. The Bible is God's main way of making Himself and His ways known. Your effectiveness at leading students closer to God is tied to your ability to teach the Bible effectively. But teaching the Bible doesn't have to be intimidating!

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.

Youth ministry changes quickly depending on what's going on in the church, what's happening in the culture, the makeup of the current students involved in the ministry, and literally hundreds of other factors. These changes often go unnoticed because we, as youth ministry leaders, are too busy or assume nothing has changed. If we don't take a step back and assess our ministry, we are in danger of becoming less effective in our reach and discipleship. Having recently stepped into a couple of new ministry environments, each with its own unique contexts, I learned just how much value there is in the ability to quickly and accurately assess each context. With my degree in business combined with a fair amount of youth ministry experience, it occurred to me that the ability to perform a SWOT analysis could be a real game-changer for youth ministry leaders. So, in this five-lesson module, I will break down a SWOT analysis for you and discuss how to apply it to your youth ministry. 

In this single-session Masterclass video, we will explore the two-and-a-half ways that you can approach summer programming/calendaring, which will help you absolutely crush it. We will explore the pros and cons of these approaches in detail, along with one ministry failure story and one idea for each approach that you can try out. Nick also shares five outside-of-the-box connection ideas you can try this summer (complete with downloadable examples). All of this is to capture significant summer momentum and set yourself up for a fantastic fall return from a fruitful youth ministry summer!

Working with teenagers, especially post-pandemic, you are most likely fully aware that adolescent mental health issues are as significant and debilitating as they are widespread (and growing). In fact, according to the Director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy, “The average high school student today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the early 1950s.” So what can we do, as youth ministry leaders, to lean in and help our students who are coping with or struggling to navigate mental health issues? In this single-session Masterclass, Jon provides seven thoughts to help you get started.

Hey student ministry leader, how is your relationship with your senior pastor? No, really. This is an honest and completely serious question. How is the relationship between you and your senior pastor? Are you cordial? Are you on mission together? Are you distant? Are you close? Are you at odds with one another? Do you trust them? Do they trust you? Maybe a more important and impactful question would be this: What are you doing to build the relationship between you and your senior pastor? In this single-session Masterclass video, I want to provide you with nine thoughts on how you can build a healthy and fruitful relationship with your senior pastor.

Written by Zach Tucker. The Great Commission, as outlined in Matthew 28:19-20, provides a fundamental command for believers to go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe the teachings of Jesus. This command serves as the foundation for various aspects of Christian ministry, including student ministry missions. The imperative to make disciples among students and their families underscores the significance of developing a comprehensive student ministry missions strategy. This strategy is essential for nurturing a deep understanding of sharing the gospel and cultivating a sense of purpose among students. In this three-lesson module, we delve into the transformative power of short-term missions in student ministry, examining how such experiences impact students, parents, and the overall church community.

Written by Matt Andrews. For years now, youth workers and church volunteers have lamented that teens don't know basic Bible stories. But have you noticed more and more teens don't know anything about the Bible at all? Even though there are plenty of teen Bible study aids available, there's a giant gap between these tools and the total biblical illiteracy of many we're trying to reach.

Slaying Biblical Illiteracy contains practical tips, as well as group and individual exercises, that will inspire youth to experience God's Word for themselves. Learn to use the same creative skills you use to plan retreats and youth group games to bring the Bible to life using the unexpected in fun ways that will grab and keep your teens' attention. Learn how to help youth work through their trust issues with Scripture and learn Bible study methods you can try out as a group, so that your youth are empowered to study the Bible for themselves, slaying biblical illiteracy and unlocking the influence of God s Word in their daily lives.

As a youth ministry leader, we are called to make disciples. Part of that disciple-making process involves pouring ourselves into students, identifying and activating them to live out their faith by living and leading in a God-honoring way. So, how do we do that? In this one-session Masterclass video, we will discuss how to clarify what we want a student leadership team to accomplish, identify student leaders, invite them to lead, acquire parent buy-in, and activate our students to lead out in a life of service to Jesus through their unique giftings.

Mission trips can be incredibly impactful and provide opportunities for significant spiritual growth for your students. That said, mission trips can also be overwhelming. In this one-session Masterclass, we will go on a trip together to discover the benefits of taking students on a mission trip, how to plan for a mission trip, tips for fundraising, and some best practices while on the trip.

Middle school ministry is not the dressed up kids ministry or dumbed down high school ministry, and we need to intentionally pray, plan, program and present in ways that are effectively meeting the unique needs of these students. Especially after a national pandemic and cultural changes, now more than ever is the time to understand middle years ministry to the emerging Generation Alpha entering our student ministry.

Now more than ever, teens are struggling with stress, anxiety, and fear. The issues young people are facing are complex and wide-ranging. So how can parents and youth workers understand them better? What are the best ways to meet young people where they are and help them feel seen, loved, and known—by our youth ministries, by their parents, and ultimately by the God who cares for them so deeply? Coming off of his latest book, The Anxious Teen, Brock will provide in this seminar a context to help us understand today’s anxiety-ridden reality, he will teach skills and practices that will impact our youth ministries as well as help parents guide their children in moving forward in a lasting and healthy faith and life.

As youth workers and ministry leaders, we’re all trying to get better at making disciples. Maybe some of the answers to our questions about discipleship can be found by looking back at the Jewish roots of our faith—the very roots that produced our Master and Messiah, Jesus. But how can we say that we know about Jesus and His methods of making disciples if we haven't taken the time to gain a deeper understanding of the cultural way of life that surrounded Him? To know how Jesus did discipleship, we need a strong grasp of the ideas, practices, and beliefs surrounding the Jewish people of the first century. This live training event with author and youth worker Heather Quiroz will help you get to know Jesus from within His first-century setting and apply his disciple-making methods as you lead in youth ministry.