By Sharon Galgay Ketcham, PhD Justin’s eyes flash with fear, “What if I’m not good enough?” I’m sitting across the table from a high school junior before his theater audition. He hasn’t come to youth group for months, his grades are dropping, his moods are erratic, and his new pastime is watching YouTube. I volley back, […]
Texas Methodist Foundation funded grant, the CYMT Youth Ministry Innovation Lab, announces new cohort of churches NASHVILLE, TENN. (August, 2019) – The Center for Youth Ministry Training (CYMT) is proud to announce a new advancement for the CYMT Innovation Laboratory for Youth Ministry. The Center for Youth Ministry Training launched the Innovation Laboratory in 2017 […]
by Dwight Johnson I enjoy playing basketball and have enjoyed playing since I was about seven years old. I have always enjoyed all the moving pieces of the game both from the physical standpoint and also from the strategic one. Basketball challenges every aspect of an individual and some of the best athletes of the […]
by Abby Johnson From Part of the Suburbs to Serving the Suburbs I live in a large city, but the church I serve cannot be classified as urban. It is on the edge of the city, far from its urban center and into the affluent suburbs. I came from an affluent suburban neighborhood myself, and […]
by Paige Bach In my first year serving at a small church, there were fifteen youth regularly attending programming. In my second year, the number dropped to ten. By my third and final year, I had a core group of just four youth consistently coming to programming. At first glance, this seems bad. You might […]
In consulting with churches through Youth Ministry Architects and CYMT, I hear over and over again about how students become less active or drop out of youth ministry around the age of sixteen. I’m sure you are aware of the culprits: sports teams, jobs, and – dun dun dun – the driver’s license. I would […]
My Problem I can remember counting every hour I worked my first two years in youth ministry to justify a raise. I don’t remember the exact number, but I went to the personnel committee averaging somewhere around 65 hours per week. How in the world did I average 65 hours? Well, I counted the 40-50 […]
Monday—7:00 a.m. It was a Monday morning like every other Monday morning. I was half awake and tired from a long day at church the day before. I was climbing into the shower wondering why my senior pastor thought Monday morning meetings were a good idea. Just when I was almost asleep in the shower, […]
One of my firm beliefs is that youth ministers have an important task on church staffs … making working at the church fun! Working at a church can be difficult especially when the staff does not have fun and celebrate. For whatever reason, these things do not come easy to churches. We help others worship […]
Does the church take itself to seriously? Yes. Do we take our jobs to seriously? Yes. Don’t get me wrong we are in the Kingdom business and our work is eternally important. Of course, we are God’s instruments and sometimes I think we play funny notes. When we do, we should laugh. This is the […]
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