For many years, one method of student ministry has been to compile a list of outcomes that should be present in a teenager’s life when they graduate high school and then work backwards organizing the student ministry to achieve those outcomes. Organizing this way gives you, other leaders, and your ...
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Putting Away The Junior Holy Spirit Badge
We are in the middle of a two part series on counseling on the LifeWay Student Ministry Podcast. (You can find episodes posted here and on iTunes weekly.) Jason Gibson is the Director of the Babb Center for Counseling here in the Nashville area and has been our guest for this series. He was such a ...
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A Call to Ministry is Not a Call to Loneliness
I’ve experienced loneliness as a leader. People told me this would happen when I first started in student ministry twenty years ago, and I’ve heard it said more than once since. I’ve even told others to expect it, as the reality of “the lonely leader” became true in my own life. Based on ...
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Why Leaders Must Embrace the Next Generation
School is right around the corner. For many students this truth is met with rolling eyes and audible sighs, but for the student pastor it is a welcome sight. School brings routine and consistency, but more than that, school brings ministry opportunities. For many students, the campus of their ...
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How To: Keeping Track of Students in the Summer
When I was a kid I was fascinated by ants. I always wanted to get an ant farm, and if I’m honest, I’m still tempted by them when I see them in a catalog or one of those science stores with my kids. There’s just something about watching them work to build the rooms and tunnels of their home that I ...
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Authentic Discipleship (Part 1)
How do you measure discipleship? My guess is that you've asked yourself this question before. It's a tough question, but one we should frequently wrestle with. Making disciples is what student ministry is about, yet the path to this goal seems so ambiguous. This leaves many student ministries ...
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Healthy Student Ministries are Culture Shaping
Take a moment and think about the students in your ministry. Now, focus in on the most squirrely, off-the-wall student you have. I know exactly which student it would be for me. In thirteen years of student ministry and three different churches one student rises above all the others in this ...
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Healthy Student Ministries are Character Transforming
I spent the first three years of college in the business school at the University of Arkansas where the focus of my degree was transportation and logistics. Many of our discussions focused on Walmart, which isn’t surprising considering Walmart headquarters is nearby, and the business school is named ...
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Healthy Student Ministries are Kingdom Expanding
I’ve noticed throughout the years that student pastors have developed adverse feelings to following words: evangelist, evangelistic, numbers, and invitation. At the same time churches in the Southern Baptist Convention have declined in youth baptisms at an alarming rate. In 2013 60% of the 46,125 ...
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Building a Winning Team
A student pastor is a leader of teams. This is true in every context and in every church size. Sure, there are some “Lone Ranger” type student pastors out there that want to do everything on their own but they usually don’t last long and they aren’t doing true biblical ministry. Just as the ...
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