Nine Christmas Party Games For Youth Or Kid’s Ministry
It's that time of year. You're getting ready for your Christmas party. You want it to be engaging, fun, and ...
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Ministry Amidst Loss & Grief
Loss is a part of life. Whether it’s a pet, a family member, or a friend, we may find ourselves ...
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Preparing For A Successful Year – Four Tips
All around the country, folks are preparing for a successful new year of school. Buses are running their practice routes, ...
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After The Program: What’s Next?
For many of us, VBS 2023 is over. We've loved seeing volunteers serve, loads of kids on campus, and many ...
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Am I Doing This Right?
There was a time when I wondered, "Am I doing ministry right?" This feeling went on for years. Yes, I ...
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Creative Options For Continuing Education
If you’re one of the Youth, Children’s, or Family Ministers out there whose church provides funding for continuing education, you ...
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Oversharing In Ministry: The Shocking Truth – Are You Guilty?
Matt, who had been serving as a summer youth ministry intern, was excited to share a devotion with his middle ...
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Maximizing Summer Ministry: Rest or Ramp Up?
Many of us will wrap up our school year within the next few weeks. I have always appreciated the transition ...
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VBS Tips for First Timers
Love it or loathe it, Vacation Bible School looms on our advance planning calendar. Maybe you’re new to ministry altogether ...
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Why You Can’t Reach Parents
What would our ministry look like if we could truly partner with parents in the way that we would like? ...
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Compassion Fatigue – Recognize the Signs
You love this job. You love the people with whom you get to work, and you love the Lord! So ...
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Lead Well This Year
We are in another year of ministry. And whether this is your first, fifth, fifteenth, or fiftieth, each year can ...
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Job Hunting Mistakes To Avoid
You need this job. You binged the entire Netflix catalog. Your bedroom/office is becoming smaller every day. And your budget ...
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Five Ways To Prepare For Next Year
It's nearing the end of the calendar year. Some of us are overly busy in Advent and Christmas services, while ...
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Four Strategic Decisions For Summer Ministry
Ministry in the summer can fly by. Summer can feel like a whirlwind from ending the school year, celebrating graduations, ...
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Organization For The Overwhelmed
Have you ever double-booked yourself? Or maybe had a complaint from the church finance team because you've lost receipts again? ...
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That Happened At Church: Great Feedback
Have you ever experienced feedback? Even the best feedback can be challenging to receive. Now imagine receiving that feedback on ...
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Is It Ok To Struggle With Your Faith?
Short answer, yes. It is perfectly normal to struggle with some doubts about your faith. The more thoughtful answer is… ...
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Isolation & Loneliness in Teenagers, Part 2
We Need To Be Prepared In Part 1 of Isolation and Loneliness in Teenagers, we shared normal stressors in the ...
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Making Change In Ministry
You know the urge. You look around the youth room, your program, or even the team and think - I ...
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Long-Range Planning The Right Way
Have you ever tried to do long-range planning, only to discover you get too busy to put that plan into ...
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Ministry Planning For Success & Not Burnout
Did you know that poor planning can actually lead to ministry burnout, conflict, and a failing ministry? Planning is more ...
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Hiring A New Youth Or Children’s Minister
What if you are hiring the wrong person? Where do we find quality candidates that will fit our church's culture ...
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3 Reasons You Will See Staff Changes In 2021
I can see the end in sight, the light at the end of the tunnel. The vaccine has arrived, and ...
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5 Ways To Personally Navigate This Season
How will you continue to navigate this season? March 8 was the first Sunday that many churches throughout the world ...
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When Spirituality Is A Struggle
Right now, spirituality is a struggle for many of us. I’ve recently been following Jon Steingard, former lead singer of ...
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Faces On Zoom: Blank Screens And Ceiling Fans
We’ve all done it, right? You put time, effort, and energy into prepping a virtual lesson for the youth group ...
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5 Reasons To Change Churches
We have all been there as youth ministers… attempting to discern when and why to change churches. Hopefully, these ideas ...
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WHAT DO YOUTH WANT?
It’s time to set the annual calendar for the youth ministry. Who do you invite to the meeting- church pastor, ...
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Give Yourself A Break
I do not know who needs to hear this but give yourself a break. You are doing the best you ...
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Schools Are Out: Protecting The Most Vulnerable
Whether schools are out for summer break, or as we are experiencing in this current situation where a pandemic has ...
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Summer Of Opportunity
“Losing what we thought our summer would be, just sucks!” I said that to a student a few days ago ...
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What About VBS?
VBS is a time-honored tradition in churches, and for many, is their single largest event of the year. VBS helps ...
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Grief In Times Of Trauma
In part one, Dealing With Grief, we discussed how we can understand grief. As we move into part two of ...
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Dealing With Grief
There is an emotion in the midst of everything I do these days. It is like a cloud, heavy and ...
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HOW TO ENGAGE STUDENTS BEYOND ZOOM
It has been several weeks of creating ways to do ministry differently. I imagine by now you have problem-solved some ...
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5 WAYS TO STAY HOPEFUL, FRUITFUL, AND PRODUCTIVE IN SOCIAL DISTANCING MINISTRY
Whether you are serving in youth ministry, children's ministry, or family ministry, you are now doing ministry differently. The challenges ...
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7 Ways To Minister In Times Of Social Distancing
You are in social distancing, so should ministry stop? Absolutely not! Here are 7 ways to minister in times of ...
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5 Ways to Hurt Your Ministry In Times of Social Distancing
It feels that the Covid-19 situation has rapidly escalated, leaving us in ministry unsure about our roles. To help you ...
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3 Ways To Grow Your Children’s Ministry In 2020
A fresh new year. Blank pages on a calendar. This year, it’s even a fresh new decade! What better time ...
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YOU MAY BE YOUR MINISTRY’S WORST ENEMY – PART 2
You may be your ministry’s worst enemy. A few weeks ago, in part one, we discussed one way you may be ...
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ONE WAY TO COUNTER A TOXIC GROUP CULTURE
Toxic people create toxic groups and quickly derail your mission. As leaders, we need to learn how to overcome a ...
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3 WAYS TO INVEST IN THE MOST ANXIOUS GENERATION
No one seems able to agree about the exact dates for Generation Z. The youngest members may have been born ...
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FINDING YOUR WAY WHEN YOU FEEL LOST AND DEFEATED IN MINISTRY
Regardless of how you got into youth ministry, I think there is one thing you and I have in common ...
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5 LEADERS YOU NEED ON YOUR TEAM
You know that you need a team of leaders. To get this team, you will have to recruit people. It ...
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