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Category Archives: Youth Group Management

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Are You Ready? Taking the Plunge Into the New School Year

Where did the summer go? For some, summer is already history and the teens are back in school. For others, the final weeks of summer are here and the new school year is just around the corner. But for all of us, it is time to ask yourself key questions to make sure that both you and your ministry are prepared for the fall. Are you ready? What do you need to get your ministry equipped?

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Americanadapedia: Translating American Youth Ministry for Canadians

After running Life Teen for 8 years in a small rural parish in northern – but not too northern – Canada, I finally worked up the courage to ask a brother youth minister from Florida to help me understand American Youth Ministry terminology. If you’re from a Canadian – or perhaps any other international – parish, you can find yourself running into short forms or terms that frankly just don’t show up in our typical ministerial environments. So for all you Canadian youth ministers or Core Members surfing catholicyouthministry.com, below are some definitions I’m affectionately referring to as my Americanadapedia.

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10 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Youth Minister

I recently posed a question on my Twitter and Facebook pages to a variety of youth ministers asking, “What things do you wish someone told you before you became a youth minister?” After receiving a variety of responses, it was evident that there were many recurring themes. For those of you who are thinking of becoming youth ministers, and even for some of you grizzly veterans who have seen one too many high school productions of “Grease,” here are 10 things I wish someone told me before I became a youth minister (with a little help from my friends).

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3 Tips for Better Viral Youth Ministry Fundraising

We’ve all been a part of the viral video phenomenon in recent years. Justin Bieber started his career because millions of people got excited about his videos and started sharing them with their friends. It can be easy for us to get excited about online videos…but maybe not as easy to get pumped up about [...]

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Don’t Forget the Fun!

Comprehensive Youth Ministry is indeed universal.  It is not a program, an event, or personality based.  It is a vision, a framework that guides and directs how we do what we do.  It is more than a grid, a calendar, or a group of people.  It guides and directs ministry towards the whole of the [...]

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Youth Ministers: You’re Worth More than What You do Behind a Computer

In order for this blog to be typed, I sat in front of (or is it behind?) a computer screen. In order for you to read this blog you are sitting sit in front of a computer screen. And in this “twitter-me-this” or “Facebook-me-that” culture, we find that teenagers are more connected to their social [...]

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Catholic-friendly Alternatives to Popular Charities

As youth ministry workers, we are inundated with causes and charities trying to gain access to teens.  From the parish picnic committee looking for teens to run kids’ games to the local food pantry asking our teens to run a Thanksgiving frozen turkey drive to the daily flyer in the mail from some national charitable [...]

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T

After a recent Life Night, a Core Member and I were talking about the lack of respect that a particular teen had for the speaker that evening. That general lack of respect seems an overarching theme of our youth today. I commented to him that we have to earn their respect; there is none given [...]

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Icebreakers 101

If you don’t know the wonders of using icebreakers in Edge and Life Nights, then let me be the first to tell you! Icebreakers are games intended to relieve mutual shyness or ease tension or formality. In youth ministry, icebreakers are typically used to break open a night’s activities. Icebreakers can be very simple, such as riddle games, requiring no extra materials. They can also be complex, requiring instruction and materials in order to complete the given task.

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Four Tips for Remembering Teens’ Names

God calls us by name. Our names, whatever the reason our parents chose, are important. Knowing our teens and calling them by name is an important part of youth ministry.