My Experience As...

I am blessed to have the Senior Pastor I have. I feel it is very important to fall under the authority of your Senior Pastor as a Youth Pastor. I made sure to ask mine some questions during the interview to make sure that I would be able to serve under him. I wanted to know his vision for the church and expectations for me. His answers were exactly what I needed to hear because they lined up very well with what I felt God was calling me to. We have been able to work very well together. I work to keep him in the loop on what I am doing and to stay under the protection of his authority in … [Read more...]

Numbers aren't everything but they sure do help. That is the problem with numbers. When you have a bunch of people come to your service you feel great but when the numbers drop you feel terrible. Your self-worth gets attached to these numbers. That is probably why ministers play the number game. You know, when 15 people show up but you go ahead and round that to 20. 40 people might as well be 50 and 75 is as good as a hundred. Pretty soon you are rounding 600 to an even thousand.When you round like that it is much easier to ignore the dropping numbers unless they drop below the next … [Read more...]

So I'm going through our music selection the other day and it occurs to me that all the music we have, every last song, was great back in the 90s. Oh we might have a song or two from the turn of the millennium, but not much and those are pretty slow.I am now in the hunt for good worship music for my Youth group. Stuff that we don't sing in "big church." Right now our worship is exactly what we do up top and the youth just aren't into it. I have been able to make a few changes with what we are doing that seems to be working but I can't seem to find music that has the driving beat but is … [Read more...]

I actually enjoy history. I keep this bit of information secret because then people might wonder why I hate learning history so much. If you asked what my least favorite class was in school it was history. The problem is learning dates. My brain just isn't wired for dates. I honestly have trouble with the most basic of information like my birthday. It isn't that I can't remember numbers. I can remember certain kinds of numbers like no bodies business. I can tell you my phone number from when I was 14 years old. I know IP addresses for servers I setup years ago. I just can't remember … [Read more...]

So I was driving home and ended up behind and SUV at a light. I saw 3 kids in the back seat. I thought they were pretty young but I think it might be my age.Well they weren't as young as I thought I guess. The girl in the middle started kissing on the guy behind the driver. It was a bit embarrassing to watch considering how involved they were. At one point I'm pretty certain an entire face got swallowed. The worst part was the poor third kid in the back with them. This kid had to deal with presumably a sibling and a friend sucking face right next to him. I'm not sure how long this was … [Read more...]

So I came into this position early in the year and I made the mistake of assuming the calendar that was already in place. The problem is this calendar isn't exactly on paper. As things "we've always done" come up I am asked what my plans are for the event, as if every church in the world does this and so I should already have plans. It turns out "what we've always done" is insidious because it doesn't just block you from new things it surprises you with things you never thought you would be doing. I can say now that I should have put together a calendar for the year as soon as possible. I … [Read more...]

It's football season. I know this has nothing to do with Youth Band but bear with me it will make sense I promise. I really love High School and NCAA football. I'm not a big fan of the NFL, or other professional sports for that matter. I don't dislike them I just don't follow any teams. There is too much money involved and to be honest they are just too good. It is less likely to have the underdog win. Of course, that means if I pick a team that is doing well and stick with them I'll be rewarded by seeing them win a lot.College football is different. The underdog win is a huge part of … [Read more...]

So I've been dealing with a situation since I took this church. There is a person in the church trying to take over. This person had many positions in the church and even asked for my position when it opened up. This would have given the person every major office in the church except the Senior Pastor. That was the next step really. This person was heavily involved with a division of the Youth when I came and I let things ride. Even when I started having conflict with getting information and getting this person on board with my vision I let it ride hoping things would smooth out. I knew … [Read more...]

I have several posts I want to do, I've had to wait for myself to calm down before I could share what was done to one of my Youth.Right now I'm pretty sure that irony is hell. I preached on Healing last night as part of a series I am doing. Then I got very sick last night. I was up all night vomiting. I'm still running a fever but at least he nausea is subsiding. I'm going to sleep some more. … [Read more...]