Author

About the Author
I am a Youth Ministry veteran of twenty four years, and currently serve as the Student Pastor at High Desert Church.  I help equip and encourage Youth Pastors through this blog and podcast The Longer Haul.  My passion is helping Youth Pastors create a ministry of longevity that they truly love.  I am the grateful husband of Sarah and the dad of Emma, Anna, Lizzy, and Jack.  I am a speaker, lover of vintage VW’s, and the owner of one 1972 VW Westfalia Bus.

Mission Accomplished? Maybe Not…

What if we’ve confused the mission?  What if we are treating the starting line as the finish line?  What is the mission after-all? I’m afraid we often do this.  Let me explain…

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TLH010: Teaching Theology in Youth Ministry

Should you focus on teaching doctrine and theology in Youth Ministry?  In this episode David Hanson, from TheYouthMinistryBlog.com, and I tackle why you should, how to go about it, and where to start.  You’ll also hear about David’s fascination with pulling teeth on mission trips and how God used a Chemistry class to call him…

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10 Youth Pastor Expectations for Churches on Day One

In the last post I gave you 20 expectations churches have from Youth Pastors on day one.  Today I’m looking at the other side.  You and I walk into a church with expectations of our own. To be transparent, most are a fairy tale at best, and would be nearly impossible to obtain even with the…

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TLH009: How To Market Your Youth Ministry To Students

While it may sound a little wrong, or even feel a little funny to say, there is a real need to market your Youth Ministry to students.  With so many options and so little time, how do you effectively market your ministry to students?  That’s what Amber Cassady from Simply Youth Ministry and Group Mission…

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20 Youth Pastor Expectations On Day 1

I believe that one of the reasons Youth Pastors struggle for longevity and tend to burn out so quickly are the expectations that are present from day one.  It has been my experience that most Youth Pastors are ill prepared to tackle all of the unsaid, assumed expectations of being a Youth Pastor. Most of…

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TLH008: What to do with busy teens

In this episode you’ll hear from Aaron Helman of SmarterYouthMinistry.com.  We talk about how students in our ministries are overworked, under-slept, and overstressed more than ever before.  We tackle the approach we normally take to addressing this issue, and how it is wrong, along with what we should be doing. Links mentioned: SmarterYouthMinistry.com The one-sentence…

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