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16.💭's for Youth Pastors: An Evangelistic Activity. An evangelistic activity is to get lost young people to your church to hear the gospel. Have your teens invite lost friends. Teach them to be evangelistic. Preach the Gospel at the activity. Send visitors home with the Gospel.

17.💭's for Youth Pastors: An Outreach Activity. This activity introduces saved or lost teens to your church. Host it at the church. Teach your teens hospitality. Christian fellowship is the focus of the activity. Share an engaging devotional thought so they hear from the YP.

18.💭's for Youth Pastors: A Fellowship Activity. These are intended to strengthen the friendships within your youth group. They can be casual and low-key. The goal is not to get visitors. The goal is for your teen's best friends to be other believers in your church.

19.💭's for Youth Pastors: Your youth ministry is an extension of your pastor's pastoral ministry. Do not build a separate congregation with the young people. They need to hear from their pastor as much as from their youth pastor. More thoughts on this in the days to come.

20.💭's for Youth Pastors: Invest in families, not just teens. Talk regularly with their families. Include parents in activities. Ask parents to host activities. Let the parents know what you have been teaching their teens. Always stand with the parents and pastor, not the teen.

21.💭's for Youth Pastors: Find your pastor's vision for the Teen Ministry. Most Youth Pastors are an accident. What I mean is, when most churches hire a second man, it's almost by default that he becomes the YP. Intentionally develop a vision for your ministry with your pastor.

22.💭's for Youth Pastors: Talk to your pastor about new ideas for ministry. New ideas are exciting and vital. But you operate under your pastor's leadership and authority. Make sure your vision aligns with his. You want his support ahead of time, not his forgiveness later.

23.💭's for Youth Pastors: Balance the Teen Calendar and Church Calendar. Your teens are part of the church and should be at church events. Youth events are extra, but they are an extra burden on families. Don't crowd out families or the church calendar with your activities.

24.💭's for Youth Pastors: protect your church and teens. I recently talked to a church insurance agent, and he estimated that 50% plus of church claims were connected in some way to the youth pastor. Have some prudence in your behavior and activities.

25.💭's for Youth Pastors: Consider safety at your activities. I'm all for energetic activities, but YPs have dreamed up some incredibly dangerous events. I know when you are 20, you are bulletproof, but your kids and church building aren't. Don't play airsoft in the sanctuary!

It was a joy to have Church planter Don Whitecar with us for the morning service. He will be preaching a spring revival for us beginning tonight and going through Wednesday. youtube.com/live/a6xeHNEHq…

26.💭's for Youth Pastors: Consider safety on trips. Stay off your phone when you are driving. Let parents and pastor know where you are and when you get there. Make sure everyone is buckled before you get on the road. STAY OFF YOUR PHONE WHEN THERE ARE KIDS IN YOUR CAR!

27.💭's for Youth Pastors: Protect your teens from you. It is gut-wrenching to see how many young people have been harmed by youth pastors. This is a major reason why YPs have such a bad name. You have to proactively set in place guardrails to protect your kids and ministry.

28.💭's for Youth Pastors: Be the Youth Pastor, not another teenager. You don't have to be in every game, and you don't have to win every game. I stopped playing in most of our games the day I accidentally slapped a Jr High girl in the face while trying to block a basketball.

29.💭's for Youth Pastors: guard your thought life. I would guarantee that almost all inappropriate relationships between YPs and children under their care began with a pornography addiction. Evil thoughts lead to evil actions; you won't always be able to keep them separate.

30.💭's for Youth Pastors: Don't be friends with the teens. Be their pastor. Grow up in your language. Grow up in your hobbies. Keep in mind that you are the adult. They are minors, they are children, you are no longer one of them. This will help keep the relationship clear.

31.💭's for Youth Pastors: Don't ever be alone with a girl. It shouldn't need to be said. No private counseling, no private conversations, no private texts or social media messages, no private phone calls. Have your wife communicate with them or talk with their parents. Be wise.

32.💭's for Youth Pastors: Study to show thyself approved. Youth ministry should not be half-hearted ministry. If you call yourself a Youth PASTOR, you have a responsibility to feed the flock that has been put in your care. Teens can tell when you are not putting in any effort.

33.💭's for Youth Pastors: Love your Teens. Pray for your teens. Know their requests and life events. Talk to them about how they are doing. Be available for them outside of church. Go to their games, recitals, and competitions. Love them and Lead them.