Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

Send us Fan Mail As youth pastors, we often find ourselves in a season of frustration.  Whether it's from an unsupportive senior pastor, difficult students, difficult parents, low turnouts, lack of overall support or just flat out being attacked by the enemy.  How can we find motivation during these times?  Today, we talk about 7 ways to navigate these tough student ministry seasons to come o...

Send us Fan Mail Summer camp is one of the most effective ways of building relationships with students...but it can also be super expensive and not exactly budget friendly for your youth group.  In this episode, we give 8 tips on how to keep cost low for your summer camp so that students, parents and the church can afford it.  If you aren't doing a summer camp this year, these will be great i...

Send us Fan Mail Whether you are looking to level up your game as a small group leader or you are a youth pastor leading a small group team, today's episode will give you a great framework for improving your youth group's Bible study time!  We have 6 categories to work on so that you can build better connections with your students and keep your time productive.  Here are some other episo...

Send us Fan Mail The midweek program for your youth ministry is probably your biggest turnout of the week. Today we are sharing some best tips and strategies to make your youth group night run smoothly so that students can have fun, connect, build relationships and worship Jesus.  If you are feeling confused or stuck on how to make your student ministry more fun and effective or maybe you are just...

Send us Fan Mail ** 50th Episode Giveaway!!  Details below! ** To celebrate our 50th Episode, we are having a giveaway over the next 50 Days!  Once per week, we will be randomly selecting 1 winner and on the 50th day, we will be selecting our Grand Prize winner.   *Weekly winner receives: - 1 "SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL DONUT SHOP. GO TO CHURCH." T-Shirt.   **Grand Prize winner (announced on 6-1...

Send us Fan Mail Being a woman in youth ministry comes with a different set of challenges.  In today's episode, we have a candid conversation about what being a female youth pastor is like and some of the struggles women in ministry face.  Whether you are a male or female in youth ministry, this episode will be an interesting one for you to check out.  Please support us by signing up for a FR...

Send us Fan Mail Youth ministry summer camps can be so impactful to your youth group with the connections made not only between leaders and students, but between the students and also between leaders.  The downside is: church camp can be rough.  Lack of sleep, lack of comfort, lack of personal space, etc.  In this episode, we discuss some ways to make your student ministry camp experience as enjoy...

Send us Fan Mail For youth pastors to have a successful student ministry, communication needs to be very clear and consistent.  In today's episode, we go over 8 areas of communication which will help improve your youth ministry and establish excellent relationships with parents.  Some of the topics we will be covering are: gathering parent contact info, student info cards, email distribution...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes it’s nice to play youth group games and not have to spend the entire day planning them.  Today, we are going over our favorite LOW PREP Youth Ministry Games.. These might require some equipment or possibly a little work, but are generally very easy and FUN to pull off for your Student Ministry.  If you'd like to have a PDF of these games (with their rules) so that i...

Send us Fan Mail Burnout is a real thing and it happens all the time to those working in ministry.  As a Youth Pastor, there are steps you can take to help prevent burnout occurring in your volunteers so that they feel equipped, energized, cared for and ready to go.  Since volunteers are so crucial to any ministry, it's so incredibly important to make sure that they don't suffer from fat...

Send us Fan Mail For a FREE PDF of this weeks games list with instructions, email us at MinistryCoachPodcast@gmail.com In this episode, which is part 3 of our 3 part series, we go over the best games for Summer Camp.  If you are looking for some fun camp game ideas, we break them down in categories of: Night Games, Field Games, Up in Front Games and finally Free Time Activity Games.    This episod...

Send us Fan Mail ***Email us at MinistryCoachPodcast@gmail.com for THE ULTIMATE Youth Ministry Summer Camp CHECKLIST!***  Last week we went over the pros and cons of Prepackaged Camps vs. DIY Camps.  This week, we go through the ultimate checklist for DIY Church Camp Planning to make your week go as smoothly as possible.  In this episode, we go over from start to finish the planning, promotion and...

Send us Fan Mail Are you trying to decide between a Pre-Packaged Camp or a DIY Camp?  Today we take a look at the pros and cons of both.  This is the 1st in a 3 part series we will be covering for church camp ideas.  This episode compares several aspects of both styles of camp to see which may be right for your youth ministry.  Does your youth group prefer larger or smaller camps?  Do you want to...

Send us Fan Mail Service projects can be an excellent way of not just serving your community, but also growing your youth group in their discipleship, their compassion for others and their connection to each other.  Today we list 6 different service project ideas that you can implement into your youth ministry that will impact your youth group and your community.  Last week's episode was all...

Send us Fan Mail If you are looking to start a student leadership team in your youth ministry or maybe you are just looking to refresh your current student leadership program in your youth group, this episode is going to help you do that from start to finish.  In this podcast, you will learn how to announce your student leadership team, see who should be eligible to join student leadership, how to...

Send us Fan Mail It's hard to ever be fully prepared for any job you are just beginning, but as the years go by, you learn valuable information and experience that you only wish someone had told you about before you began your journey.  Today, we talk about 5 things I wish I knew before I became a Youth Pastor.  Also, make sure you stick around to the end of the video to hear the new "Qu...

Send us Fan Mail "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." - Benjamin Franklin.  If you are feeling overwhelmed with your workload in youth ministry, this might be a good time to take a look at how well you are planning your weeks.  In today's episode, we give practical time management tips and strategies so that you can be more productive at work.  When your days are dictate...

Send us Fan Mail We've all been there...your message is ready to go, worship is dialed in, you have all of your announcements in order and all of a sudden you realize !!!!!!  You have no game planned!!!  That's okay, we've got you covered!  In this episode, we talk about 7 easy and fun NO PREP games for your youth group.   If you'd like to have a PDF of these games (with their...

Send us Fan Mail What's the #1 reason students don't come back to your youth ministry?  Getting kids to come to your youth ministry is usually a top priority but getting them to stay needs to be equally important.  Today we are talking about some of the best practices for getting new students connected to your youth group.  We also go over some of the things you shouldn't be doing t...

Send us Fan Mail A New Year, a new budget in your Youth Ministry!  In today's episode we talk all about how to plan your budget so that you can do the big events you want to do (camps, retreats, missions trips, outreach events, etc.) as well as the week to week needs to maintain your ministry (Bibles for students, game supplies, incidentals, etc.). We also talk about the best practices to mak...

Send us Fan Mail Back in Episode 027, we shared some embarrassing moments and ministry fails with you guys and today we are back sharing more, but this time they are from YOUR submissions!  Thank you for those of you who contributed!!!  Stick around until the end to hear some more bloopers from this podcast as well.  Enjoy! To contact us, please email us at MinistryCoachPodcast@gmail.com This epis...

Send us Fan Mail In our last two episodes, we discussed onboarding your new volunteers as well as getting them trained...as a bonus, today we are talking about the Three  C's of Leadership: Character, Chemistry and Competency and how seeking these qualities in your staff can help you have the most effective team in your youth ministry. Be sure to check out Episode #031: Training Your Voluntee...

Send us Fan Mail **For a FREE PDF of the Student Ministry Volunteer Application, email us at MinistryCoachPodcast@gmail.com and we will send one to you!** Now that you have your volunteer(s) onboarded and acclimated to your team, it's time to train them the right way.  In today's episode, we go over  the 4 week training schedule of how to get your new volunteer(s) ready and able to be an...

Send us Fan Mail **For a FREE PDF of the Student Ministry Volunteer Application, email us at MinistryCoachPodcast@gmail.com and we will send one to you!** Back in Episode #011, we covered the best way to get the RIGHT volunteers for your ministry and today we are taking that to the next level by going over some best practices of onboarding and training your new volunteers.  Since volunteers are pa...

Send us Fan Mail When it comes to our PERSONAL Social Media accounts, we have the freedom to post whatever we want...right?  Today, we are taking a look at what Social Media looks like for Youth Pastors and staff and where can we draw that line of what we post or comment on. This episode is also available at our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ministrycoach Audio Equipment: Microphones...