Youth Ministry for the Longer Haul Podcast

Have you ever wondered if we’re doing all we can do to reach students for Jesus in a way that will last into their adult years? After hanging out with teenagers and trying to point them to Jesus for over 30 years now, I have and still do. Jody and I believe that part of experiencing youth ministry for the longer haul means we’re willing to evaluate our methods and effectiveness on a re...

For many youth workers, fundraising is a necessary part of helping our student experience programming that we believe could help point them to Jesus. We know that for many of our students to be able to experience events like camp, mission trips or weekend retreats, they’re going to need financial help. In this interview with Bubba Crowder we get to the heart of fundraising and share some ide...

We are just returning from attending a great conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We had a BLAST at Conclave ! While there, we were able to sit down with some great youth ministry thinkers. Today we’re sharing with you a great interview with Dr. Scott Pace where we talked about the importance of how students understand identity. Scott and Ed Newton has a great new book out called Student Mi...

Our hope for you as 2019 comes to an end is that 2020 gets off to a great start. We can’t thank you enough for trusting us with your time each week. We don’t take that for granted, so we want to be sure to continue to help you accomplish your goal of experiencing longevity in youth ministry for both your current gig and potentially your lifetime. In light of that, we always want to be...

Family ministry can mean a lot of different things in the context of ministry. For some, it means that their entire ministry is family-focused and inclusive. For others thinking in a youth ministry context, they think of family ministry as their efforts to minister to the families of the students in their ministry. Regardless of your definition, I think we can all agree that some level of family m...

Here we go! Episode 100!!! Wha what! Thanks for hanging with us and trusting us with your time. We’re celebrating episode 100 with Clay Scroggins, Lead Pastor of Buckhead Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Clay is also the author of How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge and a brand new book called, How to Lead in a World of Distraction. In this episode, Clay joins us to talk through how distr...

We all love to be appreciated! I know I do! When it comes to volunteers in our youth ministries, we big-time need to know how to encourage and appreciate what they do for teenagers. In this episode, we interview Erin Wells. Erin works with Jody at High Desert Church in California as the Student Ministry Director. It wasn’t long after Jody got to High Desert that we started talking about havi...

It’s safe to say that the reason Jody and I are doing the Longer Haul Podcast together is that we first met while attending a network meeting. We’ve both greatly benefited from networking with others over the years and we think you can too. In this episode, we interview Zach Wyatt, a networking guru from Chattanooga, TN who knows youth ministry and knows how to establish GREAT youth mi...

We believe in longevity, but we know that all of us eventually have to experience a transition and work for a new church. How you approach the first year of ministry at your new church is crucial. Jody recently experienced this when he left Georgia and headed to California. As he approaches the end of his first year of ministry there, he’s here to talk about what that first year has been lik...

Whoa! What a summer! We both had an amazing summer, but we have been BUSY! If you’re like us, you LOVE summer youth ministry. But by the end of summer, you’re completely worn out. Youth ministry without a summer, though? NO THANKS! In this episode, we take a look at what we’ve been up to all summer and we couldn’t help but to throw a few tips in along the way. LINKS MENTION...

We love student mission trips! Sometimes those trips are fairly close to home and sometimes they’re super far away, but they’re almost always incredible. There is something about getting kids outside of their comfort zone that can be truly life-changing. Giving them the opportunity to share the love of Jesus with others is giving them the opportunity to live out the great commission th...

Almost 19 years ago, Wendy and I (Chris) had our first kid. I remember being overwhelmed at the thought of being a Dad. We had no idea what we were doing and we had no idea how it was going to impact our being in youth ministry. It’s been quite a ride these last 19 years. Last month, that soon to be 19 year old graduated from High School. He’s grown up in youth ministry and been on pra...

Under the category of “things you didn’t know you’d have to know as a youth pastor”… Budgeting. Whether having to create a budget, maintain a budget or fundraise to get a budget, youth pastors have to become proficient in the skill of budgeting. Brent Baskins is a youth ministry professor at Shorter College and spends a lot of time helping youth pastors be the best th...

Today we’re opening the youth ministry vault and sharing with you 5 great summer youth ministry ideas and here’s the bonus… We both share 5 each so it ends up being 10! Plus a bonus idea, so really 11! If you’re still looking for some ideas for this summer or are hoping to freshen things up in the future, this episode is for you. The secret is not so secret anymore! Our Fac...

Recently on our super secret Facebook Group, we were asked to address the topic of how to deal with discipline with teenagers. We immediately loved the idea as we remembered how much of a challenge this issue has been over the years. Because we knew it was a tough topic, we decided to invite back as a special guest, veteran youth pastor Seth Buckley. The wisdom he brought to the discussion did not...

Episode 90! We’re pumped! We both started doing youth ministry in the ’90s so we thought it’d be fun to do an episode highlighting all of the things we’ve seen change over the years… can you say overhead projectors??? It turned out to be a fun one with a few great tips along the way. If you didn’t serve in youth ministry back then, you’ll definitely be scr...

Trust us when we say that there comes a time in all ministry callings where something will not go your way and you will face discouragement. Don’t get us wrong! We love what we get to do! Youth ministry can truly be one of the most rewarding gigs out there. But with great potential for reward comes the great potential for disappointment. When that happens, what do you do? How do you stay the...

We had a chance to sit down with teaching pastor and youth ministry communicator, Nick Person. Nick LOVES youth pastors and clearly has a heart for youth ministry. We’re all likely going to face changes in our calling at some point in our ministry or at least be asked to do things that we didn’t sign up to do. In this episode, Nick talks about how his journey started in youth ministry...

When Alan Smith found out he was going to be transitioning at his church from being the youth pastor to the campus pastor, he also learned he’d be mentoring the youth pastor that took his place. Alan started mentoring his youth pastor by writing out lessons for them to look at together. Before he knew it, he had the makings of a book. So, he and his wife set out to put together Let’s G...

Ben Trueblood knows his stuff. As the Director of Student Ministry for LifeWay Christian Resources, Ben and his team are passionate about pointing students to Jesus through everything they do. Years ago Lifeway did a study often referred to as the “drop out” study that revealed how many students leave the church when they graduate high school. If you’ve been in youth ministry ver...

Some of our episodes and interviews can be tough. This week’s episode is one of those episodes. The truth is though, that if you’ve been in youth ministry very long, you’ve probably had students in your ministry who have struggled with self-harm or suicidal thoughts. In this episode, you’ll hear from Dr. Jamie Dew. Jamie is the Dean of the College at Southeastern. That soun...

We all probably recognize the importance of discipleship when it comes to our youth ministries.  While there are a ton of different ways to approach this, we’ve not seen any that are more effective than a DiscipleNow. So whether you’re a DiscpleNow pro or whether you have no idea what one is, you’re gonna find this interview with Jon Messarra is solid gold.  Jon is the Yoda of Di...

One of the major challenges in youth ministry is that often we can serve for years and years before we actually see fruit from the seeds we’ve planted in the lives of teenagers. We’re convinced, though, that youth pastors ARE making a difference in the lives of teenagers and that often God uses youth pastors when they least expect it. It’s often the little things done or said tha...

When it comes to serving in youth ministry, it can be really challenging navigating the world of finance and salary. We often have questions like: Am I getting paid fairly? How am I supposed to support a family on what I’m making? Is it ok for me to ask for a raise? These are common questions youth pastors have and can really impact longevity in youth ministry in a negative way. There’...

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Seth Buckley from First Baptist Spartanburg. He’s been a youth pastor since 1982 and is still going strong. You’ll want to listen to this interview as he gives some quick things he’s learned that he believes are keys to longevity. Long story short, we love talking about longevity, but Seth… TOOK US TO SCHOOL! PODCAST GROUP! C...