Lessons

If you're like me, you are always on the lookout for some cool new gadget you can use in your youth ministry that will open the lines of communication between you, your staff, the youth group, and maybe even parents. We found a really cool, and really free texting resource...

Do your students and parent know what your teaching this week? How about next week?  How about next month?  Is your teaching a road trip with a secret destination?  Multi-year curriculum development in a way to create a map for the road of your teaching.  It is not as hard as it might sound.   Don't be on the road to nowhere any longer!

Paul’s words in Philippians 2:12-13 capture my attention:

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good pleasure.

These two short verses provide what I see as the best description of the mysterious tension that exists in our lives between God’s power and our effort.

God doesn’t want his children holding grudges. Yet it is so easy to hold a grudge. Wrongs done, even among those or between those in the Body of Christ, easily submerge to become awful, dividing barriers.

Sometimes a student will reveal something monumental in their lives that we’ll need to help them through. Conversations I’ve had or other leaders have told me about include such topics as drug use, gender identity, sexual impurity, abuse, thoughts of suicide, among others. These can catch any youth worker off guard. However, it’s always an honor to be trusted enough by a student for them to reveal such big issues. When we know how to help them share, we can make experience easier for them.