Youth Pastor Training and Leadership

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.

Youth ministry is a grinding mill of unreal expectations, often combined with a surprising lack of support or resources. When you couple that with a youth pastor who is trying to do too much and trying to be too much -- it's a recipe for disaster leading to stress, anxiety, and ultimately burnout. As a youth pastor, you don't have a lot of leverage to fix the church's attitudes toward ministry, but we can improve our own attitudes. Hopefully, the result will be men and women who lower their stress, anxiety, and burnout and stay in youth ministry for many years to come.

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.

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.

No matter how good your youth ministry is, people will be more prone to come on board, stay, serve selflessly, and recruit others to join when they feel like they belong to a group of people; rather than feeling like just someone who is accomplishing some random mission and vision. So how do you build clear expectations, space, relationships, and community when it comes to recruiting and maintaining volunteers? Join me in this one-session Masterclass on-demand to find out.

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.

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.

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.

As youth ministry leaders, it's important to know your audience. Knowing how they think, how they learn, and what's going on inside of them is important. In this masterclass video, we'll share some practical insights and tips to help you understand who your students are and creative ways to minister to them. 

Session 1 Synopsis: In this 25-minute on-demand training session, youth pastors will gain valuable insights into the unique characteristics, behaviors, and trends of Generation Z and Gen Alpha. This session will explore key trends in scripture, technology, theology, and cultural influences that shape these young people's lives. The trends will be found through Barna, Ligonier, and other academic youth ministry areas. By leveraging this knowledge, youth pastors can create more engaging and meaningful ministry experiences that resonate with Gen Z and Alpha, fostering deeper connections and spiritual growth. Join us to enhance your ministry's effectiveness in reaching the current generations in your youth ministry. 

Session 2 Synopsis: This 25-minute on-demand training session builds on the foundational understanding of Generation Z and Generation Alpha by offering practical steps to integrate these insights into your youth ministry. Learn how to adapt your teaching methods, build meaningful relationships, and create engaging interactions that resonate with these generations. We will provide actionable strategies and real-world examples to help you develop plans that leverage current trends in technology, social media, and cultural shifts. 

When you think about your students and student ministry, here are two questions I’d like you to consider: 1) What are you doing to help teenagers take more ownership and be more active or engaged during your small group experience? 2) Instead of allowing students to be passive participants in this formative time, what can you do or dream up that could give them regular opportunities to be discipled and grow in their faith in practical ways? Now, I don’t claim to have it all figured out, but we have created and implemented an idea in our student ministry that seems to be effectively answering these two questions. That’s why I want to share this idea for you to use in our own ministry or to serve as inspiration to try something different to move your students from “renters” to “owners” of your student ministry.

The students of Gen Z and Gen Alpha are seeking to belong before they believe. As youth workers, we can either fight against that felt need or come up with creative ways to meet a student’s need and desire for belonging. It starts with asking a simple question: What are some concrete ways that I (and those who serve alongside me) can help teenagers find belonging within our youth ministries? From there, it’s honestly a mix of creativity and trial/error. In this video, I want to act as a catalyst for your imagination as you seek to answer this question in your ministry by sharing three ways our ministry does to foster unity and belonging.

Could disruption and doubt be gifts of the Spirit that move us (and the students we work with) beyond our comfortable categories and into a wild and holy trek taking us “further up” and “further in”? Could the desperation so many churches and youth workers feel about their future and the uncontrolled velocity of our culture be the ants in the pants the church needs to move us beyond a Gospel that has been reduced to showing up for meetings and not causing a stir? In part one of this three-part module, author Brock Morgan tackles the consistent elements of yesterday and today, like character development, individuation, and doubt; but he invites all of us along as the capital-C “Church” into greater collaboration as we partner with students to creatively form the ministry of tomorrow. You’ll find yourself encouraged by how you are practicing youth ministry and challenged to think differently, so you don’t hold on too tightly.

For anyone who has ever felt unqualified to share the Good News, this training is for you. My Eight: Embrace and Engage in the Wonder of Evangelism uses Scripture and stories from Dr. Newton’s life to make plain how not only are we, as Christ-followers, more than capable of sharing the Gospel, but we are also called to do so. It does away with the idea that you must have a microphone or a stage to make Jesus known, but instead invites us to see the beauty and joy of embracing and engaging in evangelism everyday.

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!

As youth ministry leaders, we all have things that we’d love to do (know that we need to do) but often don’t have the time or clear vision for. Sunday and Wednesday are always coming, and the teenagers in our care need our attention. But what about their parents? What about the people who actually have the biggest influence on them? What are we doing to engage, equip, and empower those who God has called lead their children? In this MYM training, Family Ministry Pastor Chris Sasser will share a few ideas and tips on how we can engage, equip, and empower parents in our church as they seek to love and lead their teens.

As a youth pastor, not only are you responsible for preparing/preaching weekly sermons for your students in a large group setting, but you’re also tasked with equipping your leaders to teach the Bible in a weekly small group/discipleship setting. Each of these settings is unique and come with their own issues to navigate. Each of these settings has significant value. Each of these settings requires a youth ministry leader to think and prepare differently. In this two-session Masterclass video, Matthew will share some of the different needs that students have when they are sitting in a large group environment versus a small group environment. In session one, Matthew will explore the uniqueness of preaching in a large group setting and some tips that may help you in your leadership and preparation. In session two, Matthew will delve into the nuance in preparation, student needs, and leadership that comes with teaching/leading others to teach in a small group environment.

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.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a parable of a man going on a journey who gives three servants a certain amount of money before leaving on his trip. After a long time, the man returns home and praises/blesses the two servants who used what they had been given to increase what the man had given them. However, to the third servant, who had hidden what he had been given instead of using it to make more, the master is angry with this servant. He calls this man wicked, takes away the money that the servant had been given, and gives it to another of the servants. We usually look at that parable as an end-times type of language, but when Jesus is talking, the Jewish audience’s perspective would have been about living life, and those questions that Jesus is raising are actually about stewardship. Jesus is kind of building this picture of how God has given us so much, so what are we doing with it? Not later, but right here and right now. So, I wonder if there’s room for us to explore that parable with our youth groups. Not through the lens of “Where are you going to go at the end,” but “What are you doing with what God has given you. . .your time, talent, and treasure?” In this video, we wanted to explore that with you and share eight thoughts to help your students to realize that they actually do have resources to steward.

Partnering with parents intentionally and success in student ministry go hand in hand. We all know that parents are hands down the biggest influencers in the lives of their students. So, it makes sense that if we want the parents in our churches and communities to invest in their teenagers’ spiritual lives, one of the best things we can do is invest in these parents. Most parents I’ve spoken to would say that they have a desire to grow in their parenting and in their ability to invest in their students’ spiritual lives at home. However, most also say they don’t know how or where to start. This is where I believe the church can come in with great intentionality and provide parents with a space to learn and grow alongside a community of other parents who are in the same boat. One of the ways our church looks to create spaces for this is through parenting events. These are events that are geared to help parents by providing them with great insights from quality experts, practical tools and resources they can use at home, and connecting them to other parents in our church or community for support and encouragement. We are in the middle of planning one of these parent events right now, and I thought you might find it helpful to get a look into the four big questions we ask/answer before we start planning or promoting a parent event.

Delegation is a buzzword in many churches and amongst many of us who lead in ministry. On the one hand, delegation in the context of leading in youth ministry is incredible because it leads to empowerment. On the other hand, delegation in the context of leading in youth ministry is challenging because it requires giving up control. In this video, I want to share five tips that I’ve learned and utilize in my ministry to intentionally loosen my grip in an effort to empower others.

Have you ever gotten better at something simply because you began to realize through some experience just how bad you were at it? In a world where our teenagers live at such a break-neck speed, constantly wired in with a phone in one hand and a speaker in one (if not both) of their ears, I wonder what it would be like if we invited them into a new place—maybe a place that would cause a little bit of discomfort and disruption. What if we took our group not to necessarily go and save the day or do a project but to go into a place they wouldn’t usually go to and just watch—kind of practice noticing? That’s the topic for this video—considering what it would look like to invite your students into practicing what it means to slow down a little bit and notice what’s (and who’s) around them, helping them experience something beyond themselves and learn how to notice the needs of others.

Youth ministry (much like life) has its share of hard seasons, times when you find yourself crying out to the Lord to hear your prayer and longing to take refuge under the shelter of His wings (Psalm 61). Maybe you’ve been there. Perhaps you’re there right now. Maybe when you look around you, all that you see right now is the towering walls of the valley that surrounds you. These are hard places to navigate. These are rugged valleys to walk. But my brothers and sisters in Christ, my fellow youth workers, you are not the first to walk this valley, and you don’t have to navigate this dark place alone. In this video, I want to share a look into my heart and offer you a lot of encouragement and a little advice from someone who’s walked this valley.

As a growing and thriving youth ministry leader, you know that the health of your ministry is directly connected to the health of your volunteers. But January is a natural time for your volunteers to start slumping slightly. How can you, as a ministry leader, encourage them to remain committed to the mission of Jesus? How can you, yourself, go from surviving the winter/spring semester to thriving? In this two-session Masterclass video, we will look at three key shifts leaders should take this January to remain hope-filled, give you three tips to help your volunteers stay motivated, offer three offbeat ideas to ensure that you remain healthy/motivated, learn three things that every volunteer needs from you, and discover how you can prepare yourself to be ready to ride the natural wave of momentum that is available to almost all of us in the summer and fall.

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.

As youth ministry leaders, we work hard to promote and create student environments that our students get excited about inviting other students to be a part of. That's why it's always exciting whenever those friends and new students actually show up to check out our ministry. The question then becomes, what are we doing to connect with those new students so that they feel seen, welcomed, and want to return? Let me tell you some things that we do in our ministry to make that happen.

Written by Dr. Danny Kwon. Parenting well is the hardest job on the planet. Partnering with parents in youth ministry may be the second hardest job. You've probably studied teenagers' needs, their culture, and even their ever-changing lingo in preparation to be the most dynamic youth worker your church has ever seen. But when was the last time you studied their parents? What are their fears? What motivates their decisions? And why do some of them seem so hard to please? A Youth Worker's Field Guide to Parents is for youth workers who struggle to communicate with and relate to the moms and dads of the teenagers they want to reach the most. Whether you're a veteran youth worker or just starting out, or a church leader who wants to embrace parents more effectively, this three-part module will provide you with tips for peacemaking, insights for better empathy, and the motivation you need to make these important relationships work.

By Dr. Noel Forlini Burt. What are the words that resonate most with you in this season of your ministry? Do the words tired, worn out, or burned out on religion describe the state of your soul? Has serving the Kingdom become something you dread rather than delighted in? The longer we give ourselves to ministry, the more we understand that the words from Jesus found in Matthew 11:28-30 are not aspirational. For us to be sustained in ministry, they must become our lived reality. Amid busy ministry seasons, Jesus invites us to take a real rest. Jesus invites us into the overflowing, ever-deepening, unforced rhythms of grace. You’ve been teaching other people about this life for a long time. It’s time you remembered it for yourself. 

Go and make disciples. Isn’t that what Jesus asks every youth ministry in the world to participate in? And every church, for that matter? If that’s the case, how are you orienting your ministry calendar to ensure maximum discipleship is taking place? And how are you measuring those things? In this Masterclass video, we’re going to unpack the three elements of Jesus’ Great Commission and give you six thoughts on ways to weave discipleship into your ministry calendar.

When students actively participate in the church, they find a sense of belonging and ownership. They become part of a community that supports and encourages them, fostering lifelong connections and friendships. By integrating students into the fabric of your church and community, you'll create an environment where they feel valued, heard, and empowered to make a difference.

Are you looking for some ways to be a team player, increase the serving opportunities for your students, connect with the kids/parents who be your future ministry audience, and grow your ministry in the process? Let me show you how our ministry has learned to be intentional with connecting children's ministry to youth ministry.

Illustrations are not the most important part of preaching and teaching God's Word to teenagers. However, thinking through our illustrations helps our listeners, no matter their age, hold onto what is the hope of Jesus. Join lead teaching pastor, founder of the "Through-Line Cohort," podcast host, and highly sought-after youth ministry communicator Chad Poe for a time of challenge and instruction on effectively communicating biblical truths for lasting Kingdom impact.

The experience of living as a teenager is, in some ways, the same as it's ever been. But in other ways, that experience has dramatically changed (and not only because of social media; and not only because of the pandemic). Marko will provide youth ministry leaders with a quick overview of the history of modern youth culture, highlighting the Belonging lens through which most teenagers now view everything (with a bunch of implications and applications).