Tim Schmoyer serves as the Pastor of Student Ministries at Alexandria Covenant Church in Alexandria, MN. His passion is to take teens Deep and Wide and in helping other adults to be effective in their spiritually intentional relationships with teenagers. He has been in youth ministry for 11 years. He is also the founder and author of Life In Student Ministry.

Tim blogs at:  www.studentministry.org

Tim Schmoyer what is one thing (only one thing) you want to tell the youth pastor population?

Pray. You spend so much time planning, preparing and coordinating. You get so busy doing ministry that you begin to think that it’s your ministry, something that depends on you. You know that’s not true, but for all intents and purposes, you act like it is. Remember that you’re serving God more than your Pastor, your church board or even your teens. Does your prayer life reflect it? The best thing you can do for “your ministry” is pray often, long and hard as if your teens’ souls depend on it. Only He can change their lives, not you, so pray for them desperately.

© 2010, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.

Lars has spent more time making wrong decisions in youth ministry than most people.  He tends to learn the hard way.  But this is an area that he has always done pretty well.   Lars is the Lead Youth Minister at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas.  He writes a bunch and speaks too but generally doesn’t take himself too seriously.  Check out his blog at www.larsrood.com or follow him on twitter www.twitter.com/larsrood or www.facebook.com/larsrood

Lars Rood what is one thing (only one thing) you want to tell the youth pastor population?

If I had the opportunity to tell the Youth Ministry world one thing I would want to tell them that the most important thing they need to establish is solid boundaries.    This is crucial to your longevity and health as a  youth ministry leader.  Boundaries shift and change based on your needs and life too.  You may have different boundaries when you are single, married, with kids, in seminary etc.  I advise you to talk it over with someone who’s done it for a while and come up with what works for you.  Give yourself a check up by asking these questions.  1. How many hours/days did you work this week? 2. How productive were you? 3. When was the last time you took a vacation?  4. When do you get uninterrupted time alone with God? 5. How important do you think you are to your youth ministry?

© 2010, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.

Mike is in his 35th year in youth ministry and serves as President/CEO of Youthfront. Youthfront is a community committed to creating holistic, missional environments for Christian formation. Youthfront works to bring youth into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by creating environments where spiritual transformation occurs, by working with those who are involved in the spiritual formation of youth and by providing church-assisting events. Youthfront provides programs, services, resources and training. Mike also serves as the Executive Editor of Immerse: A Journal of Faith, Life and Youth Ministry, is an Elder in his church, serves on several boards and is an adjunct Professor at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City.  His current book is Presence Centered Youth Ministry: Guiding Students into Spiritual Formation (InterVarsity Press).  Mike and his wife, Vicki, live in Blue Springs, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. They have two sons, a daughter, a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law and a granddaughter.

Website// www.Youthfront.com

Blog//www.king.typepad.com

Twitter//MDKing

Mike King what is one thing (only one thing) you want to tell the youth pastor population?

The most important thing for youth workers is to be women and men of God who love Jesus Christ with all of their heart, soul, strength and mind.

© 2010, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.

Dan Haugh is the Pastor of Student Ministries at Bedford Community Church in New York where he as served for the past eight years.  He is also an adjunct professor of youth ministry at Nyack College and is a contributor for the new Immerse Journal and writer and trainer for Barefoot Ministries.  Though living in NY and married to a Yankee fan, he is still an avid Red Sox fan and named his dog Brady after the Patriots quarterback.

Dan writes at www.emergingyouth.wordpress.com

Dan Haugh what is one thing (only one thing) you want to tell the youth pastor population?

In my ten years of youth ministry, the one thing I have discovered is to be yourself.  This may sound simple conceptually, but in actuality is a very challenging feat.

Here’s why.

If youth pastors constantly feel the need and strain to please everyone, you quickly get discouraged and find yourself frustrated.  Sometimes the expectations come from within.

We are often the ones raising these unrealistic (and often legalistic) bars that weigh ourselves and others down.

Too often youth pastors succumb to the pressures of the masses and conform to their expectations of 1) what we should teach 2) how we should live 3) what movies we should watch 4) who we should spend our time with 5) how we should spend our time 6) what we should or should not eat or drink…..you get my point.

The list can go on and on if we let it.  Living and ministering like this will ultimately drain the joy from who you are and what you do (and quite often disconnect you from your students, passion, and sense of a calling to a point where you start looking for a different environment).

The key is living authentically.

Transparency and authenticity are the keys to effective  life-long ministry.

Be authentic first and ministry will follow.

So let me ask you, when you get up (or sit down) to teach your students, who is actually standing up?  The real you, the “pastor” version of you, or the “cool” version of you that you think they want to see?

Youth pastors, ask yourselves this question: Am I ministering out of who I really am or the type of youth pastor I think I need to be?

I think that only when we can be confident and comfortable with who we are and how God made us, can we truly minister from within.

© 2010, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.

Cameron Cole serves as the youth director at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, AL. Cameron is the chairman of Rooted: A Theology Conference for Student Ministry, which focuses on Christ-centered ministry. He attended Wake Forest University for both undergrad and graduate school and now is pursuing a masters in religion. Cameron went twenty-four years without missing a televised Alabama football game.

Make sure to check out www.rootedconference.com

Cameron Cole what is one thing (only one thing) you want to tell the youth pastor population?

Play for the long-term by telling the full truth of the Gospel. The full truth of the Gospel is that we are deeply sinful but we are completely loved and freed by God’s grace through the Cross. Telling the full truth of the Gospel is a scary thing because it wreaks of freedom. Yes, Jesus has done everything you need for salvation through the Cross and you cannot improve or tarnish it. Telling the truth involves focusing on the foundation of a student’s belief system, which does not bear immediate fruit but will make the difference on whether they are walking with Jesus when they are twenty-eight.

The fear many youth workers have in talking about grace is that while telling the truth is a part of ministry, we also need to hammer rules and provide inspiration to get the kids to follow the rules. If we tell kids that Christ’s death sets them free without also making moral threats, they’ll all go off and get pregnant in the midst of cooking meth. Sadly, the rules and pep-talks are impotent and useless for long-term discipleship and obedience. Knowing God’s grace yields fruit in the long run.

Simultaneously, while it’s a seemingly repellent thing, tell the truth about the depth of our sin, too. The Bible describes man as deceitful, wicked, evil, and an enemy of God. Accepting the reality of our nature sets kids free. Deep down, we all know we have issues. To quote one of my fifteen year old students, “Accepting my sinfulness freed me. I don’t have to live up to something that’s impossible to achieve. It makes me grateful for Jesus and less self-centered because I’m not always proving myself.”

Tell the truth. Focus on the long term. Send ‘em off. Trust the Lord.

© 2010, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.