In episode 007 of Youth Ministry TV, David, Ben, and Kevin Libick discuss why Middle School Ministry is so unique and important. If you are a youth pastor overseeing 6-8 graders, this is a must watch!
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Youth Ministry TV! If you got something out of it, would you do us a favor and share this on your social media platform of choice? We desire to train, equip, and encourage youth workers just like you and this would further help us achieve that goal!
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In episode 005 of Youth Ministry TV we discuss the steps to discipling students, when to stop discipling a student, how to handle parents, and how to set expectations.
Steps to Discipling Students:
1. Decide why you will be meeting.
2. Set a duration to meet.
3. Set expectations and goals together.
4. Over communicate with participants and parents.
Tips to Discipling Students:
1. Unify your Discipleship process.
2. Set start & end dates.
3. Call certain students into discipleship.
4. Leave time for at risk students who need your time.
5. Set a limit on the number students you commit to.
6. Don’t be afraid to stop meeting with students who don’t follow through.
Thanks for watching! I hope you enjoyed and I would love to get your thoughts! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and leave us a comment. Finally, discipleship is a difficult process. Help your fellow #youthmin folks out be sharing this on Facebook or Twitter using the buttons below!
A subtle shift of attention, applied energy, and an investment of time has lead to ministries becoming infected with the disease within youth ministry. Is your ministry infected? Find out:
4 Symptoms of The Disease within Student Ministry
Raising Leaders
Do we want leaders? Yes. But not everyone is a leader. God uses both the outspoken extroverts AND the quiet introverts. We are called to make disciples, not leaders. Leadership is a byproduct of first being a faithful disciple.
Retaining Students
If your whole goal in ministry is to add numbers, you are missing the point and have the disease. There are a lot of fancy sayings like “Living things grow, dead things don’t” “If we’re counting people, and God cares about people, then I care about numbers.” These are fancy ways to say, “we care most about numbers.” Focusing on growth can take our attention away from faithfully preaching the gospel and get us looking for tactics and gimmicks that will get butts in chairs.
Developing Behaviors
We shouldn’t focus our time and attention on making good kids (modifying behavior). We should focus on getting students to fall in love with the person and mission of Jesus Christ. When students fall in love with Jesus they will naturally chose to live in a way that brings glory to Him. Simply teaching them obedience to the law will lead to spiritually dead pharisaical students.
Placing Students First
Placing students first means catering to their whims in ministry rather than championing Christ and allowing ministry to flow forth from there. Once again, this is subtle shift in focus that can happen unintentionally. So we must be intentional in the ways that we structure our ministries. Having a mission statement through which to run all ministry decisions can prevent us from simply throwing an event for the sake of making students and parents happy.
Thanks for watching! I hope you enjoyed and I would love to get your thoughts! Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and leave us a comment. Finally, we just like to give away free stuff because we love you guys and value your hard work in Youth Ministry. Click the button below to get some helpful parent resources that will help you engage and train parents.
Here’s the deal. I love finding ways to infuse theology in youth ministry. In Episode 003 of Youth Ministry TV, Ben and I discuss why theology is important, how we have incorporated doctrine into youth ministry praxis, and the tools we have used to do so. Take a watch!
Three ways to infuse Theology in Youth Ministry:
1. In your personal development.
2. In the development of leaders.
3. In your sermons.
In youth ministry we walk a fine line. One the one hand, we want to whip out a few pizzas and attempt to feed the 5,000. Every youth pastor desires that their flock would grow. We want to cast wide nets on the side of the boat that Jesus suggests.
On the other hand, we want to push students deep in their understanding of the gospel. Shortly after feeding the 5,00 Jesus exhorts the crowd to understand that He is the bread of life. In John 6:60 & 66 we find: “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” and “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” So how do we facilitate community & maturity in youth ministry?
A few years back, I wrote a piece on Understanding Discipleship, where I broke down the needed elements of holistic discipleship. Youth ministry is more than just fun and games and it’s more than just beating students with the Bible. Youth ministry is complex, layered, and ever changing. Take a read:
Welcome to the first episode of Youth Ministry TV! On our show you will find a couple of everyday youth pastors discussing the joys, struggles, trends, and tricks of student ministry. We hope you find this extremely helpful and encourage you to Subscribe to us on YouTube and iTunes!
In Episode 001 we promised you some awesome parent resources that will help you engage parents. Click the button below and you will get:
Parent Point Graphics
Parent Point Contact Cards
2 Parent Seminar Trainings (Facilitating Teenage Faith & Having “The Talk”)
David Hanson: Texas native, Texas Tech Red Raider, M.Div. at Truett Seminary, husband to Ashley, father to Ava & Ben, Student Pastor at The Fellowship in Round Rock, Tx, table tennis (ping-pong) extraordinaire, addicted to coffee. For anything else…you’ll just have to ask.
