Chuck Knows Church

A colleague of mine found this funny but informative video blog entitled "Chuck Knows Church." What I like about it is that it teaches some basic Christian Education in a fun way that young people can really relate to.

I hope you enjoy it!

www.chuckknowschurch.com

3 Practical Ways to Do Student Ministry Right

Youth ministry can be a challenging but rewarding experience. To make the most of this calling here are some practical ways you can do that ministry.

1) Talk through the calendar before you go public with it.
One of the biggest things I learned at my second church was making sure you clear your ministry calendar with your family calendar first. This will save you a ton of headaches as you navigate little league, board meetings, and  those  pesky things like birthdays and anniversaries. The 24 hours it takes to complete this step are critical to success in youth ministry life. Trust me.

2) Establish some (mostly) non-negotiable family boundaries.
What night is your date night? How many nights of the week are you out doing church stuff? When is the best time for the family to be all together? There has to be grace and flexibility on a regular basis, but outline what are the non-negotiables and create some boundaries for yourself in ministry. If you skip this step, you’re going to say “yes” to everything and “no” to your family. (my family used to call me "Mr.-meets-a-lot")

3) Build a team and empower them to help carry the load.
Youth ministry is bigger than one person—if it’s all about you, prepare for burnout. You can hang on for a while, but while you hang on, you’ll also bottle-neck growth in your ministry and other leaders. You are cheating others out of the opportunity to become leaders if you micromanage your ministry. Empower others to take significant parts of the ministry so that you don't have to.

Great Youth Ministry Websites

Here are just a few web sites for adult youth works / parents of youth to check out.

Youth Ministry Exchange
By youth workers and for youth workers, YMX is the place to discuss all things youth ministry, with thousands of threads on every imaginable subject. Some sections are free, but a $5 annual pass gets you access to the whole thing—and it’s totally worth it.

The Source for Youth Ministry
Jonathan McKee started this site (formerly Jonathan’s Resources) as a labor of love for youth workers. Chock full of free resources and ideas (the game section alone is amazing).

The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding
This website, from CPYU founder Walt Mueller, is really for parents, but youth workers find it extremely helpful. It’s loaded with blogs, articles, links to relevant stories, and more resources than you can imagine to help you learn about youth culture

YouthMinistry.Com
When Group Publishing partnered with Doug Fields’s Simply Youth Ministry, they resurrected this long-dormant domain to create a new site, distinct from their two other sites. They’re just beginning to move from a commerce-only site to a content-and-commerce site.

Youth Specialties  

Truly my favorite for all things concerning youth ministry, with thousands of pages of articles, ideas, and free stuff—plus the most comprehensive youth-ministry job bank anywhere (with over 700 listings at any time).

Division of Ministrywith Young People (DMYP)

This is the United Methodist General Church’s web site for youth and young adults. It features youth ministry that is happening globally and how your local church can get involved.