I hate it when people talk about teams. I find it cringe. At my school, the classrooms used to have posters that said stuff like, “Teamwork. Teamwork. Team work. Teams work.” Or “Teamwork makes the dreamwork.” So so lame.In youth and kids’ ministry, we’re aiming to help youth and kids become like Jesus to the glory of God. This means helping them grow in their faith as we read the Bible and pray, being focussed on mission and inviting people to know Jesus, creating a welcoming atmosphere, and being active in serving.

When someone thinks of youth ministry, their mind usually goes first to Friday night. And fair enough. That’s where the bulk of the action is. But, we do a disservice to youth ministry if we restrict it just to Friday night. Friday night is kind of like the cake. But the way we use the rest of the week can be a bit like icing. There’s extra stuff we can do that makes our ministry even more effective. Some of this is stuff we should probably be doing anyway, stuff like prayer and prep. This is part of the cake. But there’s other stuff that, if we have the time, capacity and energy, can take our ministry to the next level. Here’s some stuff that I’d encourage every youth leader to think about when it comes to during-the-week-ministry.

As a youth leader, the 30-40 minutes you spend in discussion groups could well be the most important thing you do each week. For a short period of time, you get to disciple a bunch of youth as you press into the most important things they will ever discuss with another person.

By “session”, I mean that part of youth group where all of the youth seated, and at some point, the talk happens. Here are some thoughts on how to do this well.

For many youth, whether or not they feel welcome determines whether or not they keep coming to Friday Youth. If they keep coming, they will keep hearing the gospel of Jesus, the gospel that has the power of salvation! If they don’t come back, they may not hear about Jesus. Therefore, it’s heaps important that we think through how we go about welcoming. Here are some tips to help us think through how we go about welcoming.

In youth and children's ministry, leaders pour their hearts into their work, sacrificing time on Friday nights, Sunday mornings, and various points throughout the week. The sacrifices are worth it. But after a long week/term/year, it’s easy to forget what we’re on about, why we’re on about it, and how we go about it.