There When They Need You
A while back, I got an email from the parent of a kid that hadn’t been part of our ministry in years. They just stopped coming. She talked about how influential I had been in their kid’s life and that he was hurting and in need of some care. All sorts of thoughts and feelings […]
The Apps We Use for Ministry
We use all sorts of apps to pull off what we do on a weekly basis––apps that help us preach and teach better, communicate better, manage our people better, plan services better, manage our events and projects better, produce sound, video, and lighting better, and manage our time
What Grows Your Group?
Four Things that DON’T Grow Your Youth Group 4. Fun Games It’s fun to play games at church or youth group. In fact, fun and laughter are great for building community in your group. But games don’t grow your youth group. In fact, if you play the wrong games, you can actually drive kids away who think they’re […]
Best Format for Youth Group
Over the years I’ve experimented with a variety of formats for running youth group. And, I see a lot of other people experimenting, as well. Of course, you have to experiment until you come up with what feels the best for you, for your group, and your context. But, IMO, this is the best format for our […]
Letting Kids Know We Miss Them: Sending Group Selfies
So for the last few months, I’ve been pushing a little harder to see our team put more energy into making sure that every student in our ministry knows that they are loved and cared for. One way we do this is by being very intentional and systematic about our retention strategies. One part of this system […]
Limiting Our Growth on Purpose
Our growth started reaching into a certain direction the last couple of months. But, it’s too much for us to handle well. So, we had to put a cap on it. We had to limit our growth in that direction. I hated having to do it but it had to be done. We’ve been attracting […]
Core Commitments for Growing a Ministry
There are probably a million little factors that contribute to the growth of any youth ministry ranging from the unilateral work of God to the kind of experience that is found when attending a program to the level of relational authenticity. Some youth ministries grow by sheer force of personality and charisma and some by […]
Jim Murphy