About four years ago, my student leaders suggested our youth ministry begin hosting book clubs. They wanted a time outside of our regular youth ministry gatherings to come together and discuss interesting books.
As someone who loves to read, I...
On Sunday mornings, we utilize small group discussions as part of our large group teaching in our high school ministry.
Currently, we're in the midst of a series called “Jesus' Family Tree”. It's our way of talking about the characters in the...
Small groups are only as good as the questions asked in them. If that's the case, then what exactly constitutes a good question?
Good questions...
1. Are open-ended. They cannot be answered with yes or no. This is important because when given the...
As a youth worker, I've attended and led my fair share of small group Bible studies. Some have been really good and others have simply tanked. More often than not, the ones that have tanked are the ones in which the leader fails to ask...
This fall, my high school youth ministry watched and discussed clips from the movie, "Noah". Despite the fact that this movie angered plenty of Christians, I found it invaluable for sparking conversation about a story that we oftentimes ...
Over the past four weeks, my youth ministry has been experimenting with student led small groups.
Truth be told, this experiment was birthed out of a shortage of adult leaders. In an effort to keep the size of our small groups small, I invited...
In a recent blog post, Andy Blanks offers 20 ways to spruce up your Bible study. His suggestions are good and well worth a read.
That said, I struggled with one of them.
“Let students teach--Adapt your lesson so students are teaching each other,...
Yesterday, I talked about how to use positive reinforcement to handle disruptive students. I wrote this post in response to a question posed on an online youth ministry forum I'm a part of: “How do you handle disruptive students during a lesson or...
This is for the days you want to quit.
- For the days when you dread checking your e-mail because you know there’s going to be another nastygram from someone you’ve upset.
- For the days when staff transitions leave you feeling unsettled.
- For the...
My youth ministry discussion tanked on Sunday. Every question I asked fell flat. Despite my efforts to pry responses out of my students, they remained universally unengaged.
As a veteran youth worker, I know these days happen. Even so, they’re...