Time Out: The priorities of the pastor
Time Out (by Jerry Schmoyer) Gaining recognition is fairly easy in life and ministry. What isn’t easy is succeeding in the things that really matter. We can all find some way to achieve in some area – but unless it is what God wants it isn’t really success at all. There is way too much to do in life and ministry to do it all. Therefore we must focus on doing what really is important. No one sits around bored because there is nothing to do. We all are making decisions, large and small, about how to use our time. The key is to make the

Podcast: Leading a team of volunteer youth workers
Last Monday the youth pastor at NewSpring Community Church, Brad Cooper, joined us for LIVE YM Talk to discuss our topic of, “Leading a team of volunteer youth workers.” As a youth pastor who works with hundreds of teenagers and adult leaders, he shares from his experience about how to lead a team of leaders. Some of the things we talked about: Setting expectations for adult leaders The process of “basic training” Helping leaders use their gifts and passions withi

Freebie Friday #153: Talking happy face to use for youth group video announcements
A couple months ago Joshua Griffin posted a big, yellow smiley face they used for a teaching series at Saddleback. I looked at it and thought it could work great for another personality for youth group video announcements since it works very similarly to our good f

Walt Mueller and MinistryQuestions.com coming up in LIVE YM Talk
We have a couple exciting LIVE YM Talks coming up! If you haven’t joined us yet on Mondays at 2:00 PM, it’s always a great conversation among youth workers from all over the country. We gather together in an online chat room and on the phone to learn from each other. We have two exceptionally good talks coming up the next two weeks. Answering recent questions and debates from MinistryQuestions.com: Monday, November 30 Not sure why I didn’t think of this sooner. It just

Time Out: Youth pastor as maestro
Time Out (by Jerry Schmoyer) We’ve all heard many analogies of pastors (and youth pastors) being shepherds of their sheep. In the Fall of 1988, in the issue of Leadership Magazine, Fred Smith used orchestra conductors as examples of pastors. I’d like to apply that to youth pastors as well. The purpose of an orchestra conductor is to make the chosen selection of music come alive through the musicians he leads. A youth pastor is to make the Word of God come alive in the youth he leads. Before he can do that he must have a reverence