Reflections on Challenge 2022

It’s been four years since I was able to bring our Youth Group to the EFCA’s national youth conference, Challenge. This year, nineteen of us flew from New Jersey to Kansas City a few days early to have an experience like no other. We heard amazing preaching, sung along with 3,000 other teenagers in worship,…

Thriving Youth Groups

Jeanne Mayo wrote Thriving Youth Groups to record her process for establishing a friendship culture in the various Youth Ministries she has run in her career. She believes that building a culture of friendship is the key to growing a youth ministry. Students will not come back to the Youth Group if they are not accepted…

In Defense of Youth Ministry

I never wanted to do youth ministry. I never had any experience doing youth ministry. Yet, I now find myself three years in with leading my church's youth ministry. While I was in seminary, much discussion centered on the need to "rethink" youth ministry. I got the sense that there was a lot of angst surrounding youth ministry.…