Dr Paul Allen

Hope Church Australia (Photo credit: Pastor Paul Allen ) A lot of Christians think they aren’t cut out for youth ministry . But if you love Jesus and you care about kids, everything else falls into place. In my five years working with middle school students I’ve met multiple 80 year olds who are incredible youth leaders —and it’s not for their spunky personalities and crazy dance skills. They love Jesus and they love kids. When you boil it down, that’s what really matters. If you start with Jesus, all of the intricacies of youth leading should align conceptually, biblically, and practically. You should be able to trace everything back to Jesus. Here are ten things every youth leader should know: 1. Have a purpose for everything Let’s be honest. From the outside looking in, there’s a lot of weird stuff that happens at youth groups. Beach ball ballet, cricket-spitting contests, fruit baseball, and an endless list of games, skits, and programs that don’t seem to make any sense at a...

Danny O'Connor DOC (Photo credit: Art By Doc ) The subtle and not-so-subtle pulls of the idolization of youth manifest themselves in three areas.  The first is an elevation of youth over the aged. This reverses the biblical paradigm. The second is a view of being human that values prettiness (not to be confused with beauty and aesthetics), strength, and human achievement. Think of the captain of the cheerleading squad and the star quarterback. The third is the dominance of the market by the youth demographic. That is to say, in order to be relevant and successful, one must appeal to the youth or to youthful tastes. These manifestations of our youth-driven culture deserve a closer look. The trend of exalting youth and sidelining the elderly stems from a deeper problem summed up in the expression, “Newer is better. ” We celebrate the new and innovative while looking down on the past and tradition. There is a compelling vitality to youth and to new ideas, but that does not ...

This is a remarkable story. Erik Fitzgerald was a youth pastor in Georgia when he awoke one day to the terrible news that his wife and son had been killed in a car accident . The video above is the story of what happened after he met the man driving the other car. In trying to describe how he sorted through the grief of those days, Erik says this: “We have a tendency to look at our lives as little 3×5 snapshots. And we tend to get focused on whether our 3×5 is okay or not. We lose sight of the fact that God is doing bigger things. His story is bigger than just ours. He paints on a canvas the size of the universe .” You really should take time to watch the rest of this above. I promise. You will be glad that you did. Related articles The Power of Forgiveness (thefaithbook.wordpress.com) The Bigger Picture (thetheologizer.wordpress.com) Pastoral Vocation in Youth Ministry (king.typepad.com) A Baptist youth pastor murder/suicide (mojoey.blogspot.com) A La Carte (Fe...

Author Matt Marino. Take a look at these two shocking items: 1. 20-30 year olds attend church at 1/2 the rate of their parents and ¼ the rate of their grandparents. Think about the implication for those of us in youth ministry: Thousands of us have invested our lives in reproducing faith in the next generation and the group we were tasked with reaching left the church when they left us. 2. 61% of churched high school students graduate and never go back! ( Time Magazine , 2009) Even worse: 78% to 88% of those in youth programs today will leave church, most to never return. ( Lifeway , 2010) Please read those last two statistics again. Ask yourself why attending a church with nothing seems to be more effective at retaining youth than our youth programs. We look at our youth group now and we feel good. But the youth group of today is the church of tomorrow, and study after study after study suggests that what we are building for the future is… …empty churches. We build big groups ...

Saddleback Church Refinery (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) A veteran youth minister evaluates the state of youth ministry and “big church”–he doesn’t like what he sees: We look at our youth group now and we feel good. But the youth group of today is the church of tomorrow, and study after study suggests that what we are building for the future is … empty churches .  at Pastor Marino says is not necessarily new, but it is helpful to have a man who has spent his entire ministry working with youth to say these things. Equally eye-opening are the comments that follow his post where other youth ministers either applaud or argue his premise.  In response to one, Marino says: The blog article comes from a seminar I put together a few years ago for the Urban Youth Workers Institute. Interestingly, when I did the seminar people over 35 would sit with their arms folded and youth workers under 25 would literally be standing and cheering. I can say that they resonated with what I w...