Youth Ministry Sherpas | Helping Youth Workers To Keep Going
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Youth Ministry Sherpas | Helping Youth Workers To Keep Going
2y ago
PLEASE LEAVE US A ***** FIVE STAR REVIEW ***** ON I-TUNES!
It’s Thanksgiving Week, and before Mathew overdoses on carbs and Steve spends 20 hours in the car, we thought it would be good to show our gratitude. I mean, who isn’t thankful for free t-shirts, Fabreeze, and youth group leftovers? But in all seriousness, we are thankful for many things, both youth ministry and personal. We are even thankful for each other. And Taylor Swift.
Episode 108 is a good reminder that we get to live the best life!
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! We are thankful for YOU!
Thanks
Steve spent hours updating o ..read more
Youth Ministry Sherpas | Helping Youth Workers To Keep Going
2y ago
PLEASE LEAVE US A ***** FIVE STAR REVIEW ***** ON I-TUNES!
It’s Sunday night, and you are riding the spiritual high from all the great ministry that took place at the retreat this weekend. All your planning, effort, and prayer came together in an amazing weekend. Lives were changed. The Spirit was there! You were fulfilled. Life is great!
Until Monday. The Day After.
Or for some of us, Tuesday. The Day After the Day After.
Because the crash is coming. It always does. Just ask Moses. Or Elijah. Or any youth worker ever.
On today’s episode, Mathew puts Steve on the therapist’s couch followi ..read more
Youth Ministry Sherpas | Helping Youth Workers To Keep Going
2y ago
PLEASE LEAVE US A ***** FIVE STAR REVIEW ***** ON I-TUNES!
Kids are going to mess up. That’s a fact.
Blame it on their undeveloped frontal lobe. Blame it on their non-Christian friends. Blame it on yourself. Whatever the case, teenagers are going to mess up. They are going to disappoint us, embarrass us, and leave us wishing we could send them to timeout.
In fact, both of us have done that before. And we are starting to regret it.
While we want the best for our students, have high expectations for them, and want them to lean into the life God has for them, what if our response when they fa ..read more
Youth Ministry Sherpas | Helping Youth Workers To Keep Going
2y ago
PLEASE LEAVE US A ***** FIVE STAR REVIEW ***** ON I-TUNES!
An interview with Brad Griffin!
So much of youth ministry is built on programming, hype, and fun. But under the surface of all of that great stuff lies the existential workings of the teenage mind. That’s where we need to go, and where we go in today’s episode.
What are teenagers really thinking about? What are the deeper questions they are wrestling with? A new book from Fuller Youth Institute digs deeply into this subject and supplies us with a simple framework from which to have better conversations with the students we love.
ht ..read more
Youth Ministry Sherpas | Helping Youth Workers To Keep Going
2y ago
PLEASE LEAVE US A ***** FIVE STAR REVIEW ***** ON I-TUNES!
Youth ministry is all about the teaching, right?
“You killed that message!”
“That was a homerun!”
“You were on fire!”
Yeah, maybe. But the truth is, for most of us, teaching is a bit of a grind, a grind which is not enhanced by the pressure we put on ourselves. Sometimes we might be really good; other times not so much. We are not called to be great all the time. We are called to faithfully talk to our students about Jesus and help them grow spiritually. Nothing more, nothing less.
We are called to be--in the terminology of today ..read more
Youth Ministry Sherpas | Helping Youth Workers To Keep Going
2y ago
PLEASE LEAVE US A ***** FIVE STAR REVIEW ***** ON I-TUNES!
Youth ministry is all about the teaching, right?
“You killed that message!”
“That was a homerun!”
“You were on fire!”
Yeah, maybe. But the truth is, for most of us, teaching is a bit of a grind, a grind which is not enhanced by the pressure we put on ourselves. Sometimes we might be really good; other times not so much. We are not called to be great all the time. We are called to faithfully talk to our students about Jesus and help them grow spiritually. Nothing more, nothing less.
We are called to be--in the terminology of today ..read more
Youth Ministry Sherpas | Helping Youth Workers To Keep Going
2y ago
PLEASE LEAVE US A ***** FIVE STAR REVIEW ***** ON I-TUNES!
As much as we love what we do as youth pastors, we’ve come to realize that there’s more to building the Kingdom of God than building our youth group. We want to impact students beyond the walls of our church. But how?
Today’s conversation takes a different tone. We aren’t as interested in providing answers as we are asking the right questions. How do we fulfill our responsibilities to the church that hired us, but also think beyond it? How do we send students out but not feel like we’re losing them? How do we partner with para-church ..read more
Youth Ministry Sherpas | Helping Youth Workers To Keep Going
2y ago
PLEASE LEAVE US A ***** FIVE STAR REVIEW ***** ON I-TUNES!
Who doesn’t love retreats? They are part of every youth ministry, as essential as pizza and Axe body spray. But how do we go about planning a great retreat? What factors should we consider as we take students away for the weekend?
In this episode, we talk about retreats in terms of “spaces.” We need space for relationships, for spiritual growth, for fun, and for disconnection. It’s hard to do all that in one weekend, but it’s possible. After 60 years in youth ministry and hundreds of weekends away, we are still learning how to do it ..read more
Youth Ministry Sherpas | Helping Youth Workers To Keep Going
2y ago
PLEASE LEAVE US A ***** FIVE STAR REVIEW ***** ON I-TUNES!
When Steve and Mathew first got this idea, back in 2017, to create a podcast to encourage youth workers to keep going, it seemed like a fun, somewhat daunting, pie-in-the-sky concept. It also seemed like overkill. I mean, who needs another podcast? Who would listen? And who do we think we are?
Until we got the most brilliant idea in the history of podcasting--use llamas in the branding. With that, the Youth Ministry Sherpas were born.
Since then, it’s been all uphill. Episode #00 launched on January 16, 2018. Now, nearly four years ..read more
Youth Ministry Sherpas | Helping Youth Workers To Keep Going
3y ago
Holy Llama Lips, it’s the Fourth Season of Sherpa ShortsI
This June, for 22 straight days, we are choosing a memorable song and then riffing about how it relates to youth ministry. This year we decided to go decade by decade, choosing 2 songs each, starting with the 70s and progressing to 2021.
What’s the best decade for music? Steve says it’s the 80s. I mean, it’s hard to top Springsteen, the Police, Tom Petty, REO Speedwagon, and Michael Jackson, right? Mathew says the 80s has too much keyboard and polyester. He says it’s the 90s. Whatever – young people have so much to learn.
Anyway, we ..read more