Youth Pastor Training and Leadership

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. 

The Old Testament can seem like this ancient, out-of-reach, or unknown part of the Bible. While there may always be parts we will not fully understand, it doesn't mean we should avoid teaching it. One of our goals as youth workers is to help students better understand God's Word. In this video, we will discuss 4 different ways to help students understand the Old Testament.

This training addresses two common challenges in youth ministry: busy student schedules and student complacency. In these videos, we will explore strategies to help overcome busyness by looking at key solutions to help students prioritize their faith. We will also look at practical ways to help students overcome complacency and reignite their interest in being part of your ministry.

Meetings, planning, and forecasting. These are all things a great leader does on top of everything else. However, sometimes, when we are in our planning mode, it can be hard to know who to have in the meeting, what to do, and how to do it. In this video, we will look at how to plan an effective brainstorm meeting. A chance where you get to dream, build, create, and innovate. You want to get this right and make sure you have the right people and parameters set for this meeting.

Giving away ministry to students helps them develop a sense of ownership. There are several ways to do this, one of which is to let students pick the type of music in your ministry environments. Check out the video to see some helpful parameters to doing that and why it can make a difference in the life of a student.

There are a ton of "things" you have to do to ensure that you are ready each week for your youth ministry programming. Rather than focusing on a bunch of to-dos, here's a helpful framework to make sure you are ready mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.

Burnout happens every week in ministry. People are dreading their jobs, turning their back, and trying to escape. What if there were some symptoms we could look for in our own life? Check out this video to understand what burnout is and how to avoid it in your life.

Youth ministry is truly an incredible calling, but unfortunately, it is not void of its times of struggle and disappointment. In fact, serving as a youth worker seems to come with some struggles and disappointments that are uniquely its own. So, what are we supposed to do when things don’t go as planned? How are we supposed to respond when we start to wonder if all this work and effort are returning void? How do we keep moving forward in our service to the Lord through youth ministry when we feel like we are walking through thick mud? I don’t have all the answers, but I do want to share some thoughts and four things that have helped me navigate my own encounters with disappointment over the years. My hope is that if you are struggling right now, something in this video reminds you of who you are, whose you are, and that what you do matters.

Over the years, there has been one particular student ministry event that has excited my students more than most and blown away my expectations each and every time. Not to mention that it’s proven to be a winner regardless of the size of the youth ministry I’ve been a part of or the ministry’s typical participation rate. Curious? Well, that event is a silent disco...in particular, a glow night silent disco. Sound fun? That’s because it is! So, let me walk you through all the ins and outs of hosting your own glow night silent disco for your ministry.

Whether you see it as a waste of time, a danger to society, a tool of a foreign government, or just the next version of Myspace that will go as quickly as it came, TikTok has your students’ eyes and attention. According to the Pew Research Center, TikTok claimed the #2 spot in the rankings of online platforms used by U.S. teens in 2023, surpassing the former powerhouses of Snapchat and Instagram. As we look at engaging our students and creating opportunities to share the Gospel with the lost, the question isn’t if TikTok will be banned or sold but how youth workers will redeem it and utilize it for the Glory of God. In part one of this three-part TikTok series, I want to share with you the pros of utilizing this social media platform in your ministry.

Whether you see it as a waste of time, a danger to society, a tool of a foreign government, or just the next version of Myspace that will go as quickly as it came, TikTok has your students’ eyes and attention. According to the Pew Research Center, TikTok claimed the #2 spot in the rankings of online platforms used by U.S. teens in 2023, surpassing the former powerhouses of Snapchat and Instagram. As we look at engaging our students and creating opportunities to share the Gospel with the lost, the question isn’t if TikTok will be banned or sold but how youth workers will redeem it and utilize it for the Glory of God. In part two of this three-part TikTok series, I want to share with you the cons of utilizing this social media platform in your ministry.

Whether you see it as a waste of time, a danger to society, a tool of a foreign government, or just the next version of Myspace that will go as quickly as it came, TikTok has your students’ eyes and attention. According to the Pew Research Center, TikTok claimed the #2 spot in the rankings of online platforms used by U.S. teens in 2023, surpassing the former powerhouses of Snapchat and Instagram. As we look at engaging our students and creating opportunities to share the Gospel with the lost, the question isn’t if TikTok will be banned or sold but how youth workers will redeem it and utilize it for the Glory of God. In part three of this three-part TikTok series, I want to share with you some ways to create engaging content while utilizing this social media platform in your 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.

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.

Summer is the time for cookouts, mission trips, pool parties, camps, retreats, and so much more. But what if you decided to take advantage of the change in your typical youth ministry rhythm and pace that summer provides and use it to pour into your ministry’s leaders this summer? In this video, I want to offer you a look into our student ministry and share with you three tips we put into practice every summer to be more intentional about leveling up our ministry leaders.

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.

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!

No matter the size of your ministry. No matter how long you’ve been there or what type of church you participate in, chances are, you’ve had experiences with parents who may be a little bit more “needy” than other families in your ministry. These are the families who are a little more opinionated or maybe more willing to share their opinions with you (and everyone else) more than the rest. We’re talking about the families whose emails you leave unread just a little bit longer because, honestly, you’re not totally sure how to respond. The families that call your phone you may send them to voicemail because you want to hear what they have to say before you answer or call back. It’s the family that on a Sunday after service, you’re standing in the lobby, and you see somebody walk into you, and you go, “Ohh man, that’s so and so, and I’m not sure I’m ready to have this conversation.” We all have families in our ministry who we just struggle with, right? We don’t hate them. We don’t dislike them. However, at the end of the day, they just make life a little bit more difficult for you, and we want to know how to navigate, how to engage, and how to care for these families really well because God has entrusted us with that task. God has placed those families in our church, so we don’t just want tactics or tips and tricks to figure out how to avoid these families or just pass them off to someone else. We want to be pastors. In fact, God has invited us into this as pastors, and we have a responsibility and, hopefully, a desire to care well for the people that God has placed in our ministry context. So, in this single-session Masterclass, Josh talks about difficult parents and five things to consider when choosing to pastor them well.