Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

Send us Fan Mail With the new year comes a fresh start for your student ministry!  Maybe you aren't huge into "New Years Resolutions" but if you are in youth ministry, you at least have goals for 2023!  Are you looking to improve your youth room?  Are you planning on starting a student leadership team?  Are you looking to find new youth group games?  Are you planning on coming up wi...

Send us Fan Mail Whether you are a fan of the Netflix series "The Crown" or not, here are 6 excellent leadership principles that you can take away and apply to your youth ministry.   "The Crown" focuses on Queen Elizabeth II from the 1940's to modern times as she leads the world's most well known monarchy.  Season 1, which is where these leadership principles come fro...

Send us Fan Mail LINKS FOR CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEAS BELOW!  The holiday season is an excellent time to show your appreciation to your youth ministry volunteers and staff.  It's not too late to show them how much they mean to you!  In this episode, we talk about 5 ways that you can let your volunteers know that their presence in your student ministry is impactful and noticed. We love hearing from...

Send us Fan Mail There is always so much excitement when you see new students at your youth ministry!  You want so badly for them to connect with the other students and to love youth group; however, there might be some things you are unintentionally doing that are making these new students feel uncomfortable and maybe even unwelcome at your student ministry!  Today, we take a look at 5 things you...

Send us Fan Mail How can you balance your role as a youth pastor and a parent?  What are some ways that you can help your family love Jesus and the church and avoid them having resentment.  In this episode, we discuss 3 key things you need to keep in mind to help balance your life at church and your life at home.  This episode is a follow up to a previous episode we released about parenting and mi...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we will be explaining my 6 favorite Youth Group Games to play at Youth Ministry Christmas Parties!  Bonus: One of the games has 11 mini-Christmas games which can also be used as icebreakers!  **FOR A PDF OF THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR ALL OF THESE GAMES - EMAIL US AT MinistryCoachPodcast@gmail.com - and put in the subject or description "CHRISTMAS GAMES" and we...

Send us Fan Mail If you have children (or are planning on having children) and you are in youth ministry, you'll come to know the struggle of balancing a life at home with your life in your ministry.  Where do you draw the line on your obligation to family and your obligation to the church family?  In this episode, we discuss the best practices of having a healthy balance between work and fam...

Send us Fan Mail This episode covers 6 free time youth ministry games for your youth group to play pre-service. When students arrive at your midweek youth group or Sunday morning church service, it's always nice to have some games and activities that they can play to help bond, build community and get to know each other in an easy way.   Instead of having them just sit in a chair staring at t...

Send us Fan Mail Communication is half (if not more) of the battle in youth ministry.  Have you ever had a poorly attended event?  Have you ever gotten 150 phone calls, emails and texts the day of a youth group event from parents and students wanting to know the details?  Have you ever had someone say, "I had no idea about this" when it comes to the specifics of a program you are putting...

Send us Fan Mail If you are in leadership long enough, it's going to happen...you will have to let someone go.  Whether it's a paid staff member or a volunteer, you will be faced with that awkward moment of having to let them go.  In this episode, we discuss several of the most common areas of why you might have to let someone go in your student ministry: a moral failure, poor performanc...

Send us Fan Mail Do you sometimes feel like you've lost your heart for youth ministry?  Is the passion just not there anymore?  Is it from burnout?  Compassion fatigue?  If you do feel like your heart is gone, how do you get it back?  In this episode, we discuss 3 ways you can get through this season and start to regain your heart for ministry. We love hearing from you all and we do our best...

Send us Fan Mail Whether you are new to Youth Ministry or have been at it for a long while, this episode covers 4 mistakes you should avoid as a Youth Pastor.  Although these aren't the ONLY mistakes, these are ones that are very common in Student Ministry and can be very detrimental to both you and your ministry. We love hearing from you all and we do our best to provide powerful and insight...

Send us Fan Mail For some youth pastors, getting up on stage or standing in front of their youth ministry is where they shine.  Delivering a powerful message that God has put on their heart and eloquently presenting the Bible.  For others, standing in front of your youth group might make a wave of fear or anxiety rush over you.  What happened to all those great points you had planned to lay out fo...

Send us Fan Mail We get time to spend building relationships with our students at our weekend services and our midweek programs, but have you ever considered connecting with your students outside of youth group?  This can be a great way to get to know your students better and build those strong bonds! Today, we will be talking all about 6 easy ways that you can connect with your students outside o...

Send us Fan Mail Are you looking to hire a youth ministry intern?  If your student ministry at the point where you are ready for that?  Today, we will be talking all about the benefits of hiring an intern.  We will be covering the topics of: why you should hire an intern, how to know if you are ready to hire an intern, what can you delegate to an intern, what is the difference between an intern an...

Send us Fan Mail Are you feeling overworked in your youth ministry?  Do you find it hard to get everything done in time?  You are not alone!  With midweek youth group, weekend church services, planning a sermon, planning a game, meeting with staff and planning upcoming events, it's easy to feel overwhelmed.  The problem; however, might not be that your workload is too much, it might be that y...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever wondered if youth group games should even be a part of your youth ministry?  Is there any spiritual component to them or are they just a distraction?  Should student ministry just focus on the gospel message and keep the fun and games out?  Do fun and games attract students who only want to play fun and games and have no interest in Jesus?  If you are playing games a...

Send us Fan Mail Youth ministry games!  Whether you love them or hate them, they are one of the students favorite elements of youth group.  Assuming you only take a couple weeks off the entire year, that leaves approximately 50 Sundays and 50 midweek youth groups...that's 100 games!!!  So with something that's so integral in our program, why is it that they can become an afterthought?  P...

Send us Fan Mail Back to school in the Fall means it's time to have a Fall kick off event!  Whether you've been taking a break from your youth group over the summer, are looking to launch your small groups for the school year or are just looking to ramp up your youth ministry attendance, a kick off event is an excellent way to bring your core students back to consistency.  In this episod...

Send us Fan Mail Make sure you pick up a copy of James Clear's book " Atomic Habits ".  It's so easy to get caught up with big vision planning of your ministry and thinking outside the box of all the things you can and want to do - and those are good things and are things we SHOULD be doing; however, it's the implementation of those things is where things get tricky.  In t...

Send us Fan Mail Summertime is an excellent time to plan fun events for your student ministry.  Your students are out of school so some of the constraints that might hinder events the rest of the year (sports, homework, etc.) aren't happening so its a great chance to plan some unique events for your youth group.  Don't let your opportunity to connect with your students fizzle out in the...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we discuss 5 tips that can help you deliver better sermons for your youth group.  Whether you are a seasoned pro or a rookie, these strategies will help you construct a framework for improved sermon execution so that you can keep the attention of your students and more effectively communicate the Gospel message.  We love hearing from you all and we do our best to...

Send us Fan Mail There can be a million different ways you ended up in student ministries, but was it an actual calling or just a job?  If it is a calling, what are some of the ways we can know that?  In this episode, Kristen shares her journey from volunteer to full time Youth Pastor and how she knew this was the calling on her life.  She also shares some ways to understand if being a pastor in y...

Send us Fan Mail The maturity difference between a middle school student and a high school student can be night and day.  So how do we approach youth ministry when focusing on high school students?  How can we create a thriving high school ministry where students want to come and invite their friends?  Today, we interview Hayden Feindel, the High School Pastor from North Coast Church - Carlsbad to...

Send us Fan Mail Your staff has been working hard all year and they have been serving others so what better way of acknowledging your appreciation for them then by planning a leader retreat.  This is a chance to get away, have fun, relax and spend some time connecting as a team AWAY from a weekend or midweek youth group service.  Today we will be going over 5 tips that will help you plan your next...