Waking up at 6 am getting ready to meet students at Chick Fil A for our Monday morning Bible study does not happen by accident. Instead, because of love for students and Student Ministry, Youth Pastors wake up to disciple and do life with their students.

In June 2019 I will begin my 16th year in Student Ministry. I started this journey because of my love for God, but I have stayed in because of my love for Youth Ministry. Yes, there are parts of the job that I may not like all the time, but I love sharing God’s Word with teenagers daily. Someone asked me a few years ago this question, “What is your favorite thing about Student Ministry?”

In the Winter of 2017, I got connected with Youth Specialties along with 15 other people when I started writing for their blog as an author. Means I put out a blog or two every month, but I got to meet weekly with 10-15 Youth Pastor’s in America to talk ministry. Those meetings changed my life and me as a minister.

Every year I get excited about Christmas and what it means for the world. Christians around the globe celebrate salvation and the birth of our Savior who came into the world to die on the cross for our sins. I always share with our student ministry that Easter and Christmas go together. We celebrate the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

10. Doing an Emoji Christmas Story Night. Emoji’s have become an official language in the United States recently. Every student in your ministry I could guarantee writes and speaks to their friends in Emoji’s. Take one night in December to write out the Christmas story with your students in Emoji’s and have them send it out to their friends.

Last week we started looking at having an Offensive Coordinator in ministry. I know that having a coordinator sounds funny in some ways. Still, hopefully, over the last few days, you have been able to target or think about someone who would be a strong asset to your ministry in the Offensive Coordinator role.

Throughout my time in student ministry, I have had some fantastic people who have served beside me through paid positions, interns, or as adult volunteers. Looking back over different ministry settings, I do not think our ministry would have ever had an impact on student’s lives without the incredible people who came beside me and bought into our vision. Today we are going to look at a position called the Offensive Coordinator. It sounds weird to have an Offensive Coordinator in ministry, right? Well, because of the volunteers in ministry and the vision you have for taking the ministry to the next level, you need to have someone serving in different coordinator positions. 

A great Head Coach, a Student Pastor, builds a program that lasts long after their tenure. We look at college football programs, and we judge the team skills, developments, and record off of the progress the Head Coach has made in their football program. I believe that Student Pastors must look at their position from that of a Head Coach and not a stepping stone of a Coordinators' perspective. When we get hired at a church, we should plan for our tenure to be long term and building a winning culture. 

I have come to churches where they had a winning culture and foundation, but I have come to churches where the culture was a rebuilding program. No matter what position you find yourself in at your church, please approach it with a long tenure in mind.  

Today we move to our second week of an 8-part series on developing a game plan for your Student Ministry. We move into talking about having a successful defense within our ministries. Last week was about having an offense that leads to winning, but it is not enough for us just to read about forming an offense or a defense. We must begin to implement successful game plans within our ministries weekly. 

Your Defense

In ministry, our defense can sometimes be overlooked or possibly joined together with other areas in ministry. Over the last few months, I have been studying defense and looking at the importance of building your ministry equally centered on offense and defense. 

What is your defense? Throughout the rest of today’s article, I will define three strategic areas of your defense. Still, I also want you to examine the health of your ministry to see what areas of your defense can shut down unwanted items from entering your ministry. Let me share that your defense should exist because you are protecting your students from wandering away from the faith or being caught up into buying into the lies of this world. 

Today starts the first week of an 8-part series on developing a game plan for your Student Ministry. Do you love football? I get excited every year during football season and watching football under the lights. With football season just starting, I have been thinking over the last few weeks about how a Student Ministry’s game plan is in some ways very similar to a Football Team’s weekly/season game plan.

Serving in the role of a Student Pastor in a local church brings excitement to me. Every time I walk up to the pulpit to preach or the table in the youth building to proclaim God’s word, joy runs through my body. I am thankful that at the age of 15 years old I was called into ministry and that God has blessed me with amazing churches where I have served. However, if I was, to be honest with you, the reason I can do ministry, doing the calling God has laid on my life, and impact lives with God’s word is because of my wife, Leigh.

Summer time has gone by very fast, and the school year has started for schools across the country. Student Ministries now have a game plan for the upcoming school year and excited to implement the plan. Every summer I go away with my wife and family to the beach before the craziness of Summer begins with camps, mission trips, and planning out the year. I personally love the beach, but not just because of the waves and sand surrounding me. I enjoy the beach because it is a place where I read and get away to plan some time to just listen to God.

Youth Pastors and Youth Workers work hard daily in local student ministries to impact teenagers lives. If you work with teenagers, you know that your job is thankless, but let me encourage you with these words: You are impacting the students in your ministry daily.

Youth ministry has obviously changed in America over the last 50 years, and especially over the last 10 years. Those changes have deeply impacted many things, but especially how we utilize technology within our youth ministries.