Evaluating Your Youth Project 1: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
One of the top reasons youth projects fizzle, fail and die is that they are not regularly checked against purpose and evaluated against resources. We start things off guns blazing but have only packed enough ammo for the initial shock campaign – so we get stuck in youthwork no-mans land covered in sweat, blood and […]
Young People Are Not The Church Of Tomorrow
Talk given to Penrallt Baptist Church in Bangor, North Wales. Bless them for letting me do it! http://www.penrallt.org/sermons/rec/20140622am.mp3 Young People Are Not The Church Of Tomorrow
Where Would You Walk For Jesus? Advent Session 1. The Magi
This is part of the ‘advent in the youth group series’ I’m doing looking at the first ‘in-the-flesh’ worshipers of Jesus – for the intro & explanation click here. So this isn’t a session plan so much as a ‘well this is what we did’ run down. 10-Minute Meal We open each week with a […]
Will Jesus Always Be Called ‘Jesus?’ (Questions Teenagers Ask 3.)
Part three of my series on Questions Teenagers Ask. All posts in this series are responses to questions I’ve had from young people written in the style I answered them. Question: Will Jesus Always Be Called Jesus? What About At The Second Coming? Answer: Yea, I think so. Names in the Bible are hyper-important. They […]
Are There People In Heaven & Hell Right Now? (Questions Teenagers Ask 4.)
Part four of my series on ‘Questions Teenagers Ask.’ All posts in this series are responses to questions I’ve had from young people written in the style I answered them. Question: Are There People In Heaven & Hell Right Now – Before Second Coming? Answer: Great question! And the answer is yes but no! I […]
Stars and Stripes: 12 Ways USA and UK Youth Work Differ
When I started as a full time youth worker I read every book and listened to every talk I could get my hands on! I found some powerful principles and timeless truths that have been priceless in my ministry with young people. All the best, most current, official looking and practically driven books and talks […]
Style vs Substance: a youthwork showdown
“Don’t bother with the style – just get on with the substance.” “Stop trying to make it relevant, and just preach the Bible.” “If you’re teaching the Gospel, the ascetics won’t matter.” “If you’re showing authentic love, then style won’t be a factor.” Heard phrases like this before? Me too! In fact I’ve been slammed […]
Underage Drinking: You think you’re cool – we think you’re an idiot!
Have you ever been in a pub with some of your mates? You somehow managed to get in and get served now you’re sat at a table laughing loudly with bright blue drinks and empty glasses littering your table just like – you think – everybody else. Does a thought ever stray past your mind […]
The Youth Church Experiment: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Youth Church can be driven by cheese, polished with hero-worship, beached on consumerism, flooded with inappropriate age groups or simply swallowed – Jonah style – by so many One Direction puns that the best thing to do is vomit it up on some desert shore in the vain hope of finding some real mission to […]
A Quick Guide to Teenagers… for Churches
Here beginneth the rant… Teenagers are not: Less than fully human, undeveloped proper people or an under race of ‘not-quite-adults’ The Church of tomorrow or the future of your denomination Unable to handle more than bell pulling or collection taking Too irresponsible and immature to sit on councils and boards A convenient scapegoat for all […]
Training Teams and Leaders To be ‘F.A.T.’
These are the skeleton notes from last night’s ‘Monthly Meet’ training event for North Wales youth leaders. The aim of this session was to propagate conversation on how we can grow as effective team members and leaders and how we can inspire others to do so together. Intro. We began by mind-mapping basic and fundamental […]
7 Ways To Make Dodgeball Games More Extreme
We all love good dodgeball games! Not only does it unleash safe foam-fueled chaos in the youth club but it’s also a great cathartic exercise for leaders and young people to take out their frustrations on each other! Replace the balls with Nerf guns Nerf guns and bullets are fantastic! They’re soft, they’re fast and […]
7 Ways To Make Wide Games More Extreme
Continuing in the vein of making games cooler (ie stupider), here we look at everybody’s camp favorite: Wide Game! A good wide game goes way beyond capture the flag – it takes some serious creativity and leaves lasting impact. Try out some of these ideas and comment yours below: Obvious disclaimer – think carefully about […]
50 Great Ice Breaker Questions
When your stuck in a small group on the fly or just need to invigorate some conversation into a reluctant group of young people – try a few of the following great ice breaker questions! I’ve used most of these before – to hilarious results! They get people talking and laughing and they create some […]