Youth Ministry Maverick: Hosted by Jeff Harding

For Episode 100 and our Season 3 Finale, Jeff welcomes the innovative and solid youth ministry guru - Mark Matlock! Mark starts with describing the beginning of his ministry journey, and how both creativity and wisdom help us pave the way for relevant methods and maximum impact when it comes to investing in the next generations of the church. He also teases the intriguing book project he's working on in collaboration with Barna and the biggest study they have ever done.

Summer Camp is a thrilling and effective staple of youth ministry...but for many of us, our format for content delivery might be older than some of those cabin bunks. Promoting life change through Scripture and the Spirit, AND introducing habits and perspectives that help students maximize their daily walk with Jesus means we need to have two-pronged approach to what we present at camp. Listen in as Jeff discusses what it looks like to deliver both the spiritual and practical content elements without sacrificing clarity or purpose.

As we approach the end of Season 3 and the milestone of Episode 100, Jeff shares some exciting news about a special guest, a big giveaway, and the new format for the podcast starting with Season 4 this fall. Listen for details, and be sure to check our website and social media profiles to make sure you're ready for the future!

For this special Juneteenth episode, Jeff reflects back on Episode 6 when he was able to talk with Mikiala Tennie and Karli Loving about the then-recent killing of George Floyd and conversations of racial tension that were enveloping the national headlines. He shares some brief thoughts about what he has learned and observed in the last three years before revisiting that conversation.

How can we set up a healthy and consistent annual rhythm for our youth volunteers? You might prefer more frequent and shorter meetings, longer monthly meetings, a blend of the two, or something totally different. But there is a good structure that allows your volunteers to feel prepared, recognized, and cared for...and it's still one that affords flexibility depending on your ministry context and number of volunteers. Listen in as we discuss components and formats for establishing a solid rhythm for your youth volunteers!

How can you make this summer effective and beneficial for you and your students? Listen in as we discuss 3 ways to capitalize on this unique and wild season of youth ministry.

With hyper middle school students, and technology and social media affecting attention span and ability to impress all students, we need solid methods for connecting with our students during programming. These 5 methods should give you a good starting rotation that you can tweak and add to over time.

Youth ministry roles are always the most plentiful on church job boards, and ever since COVID, it seems more difficult to land a role and/or find the right person to fill a role. Once that massive hurdle is cleared, you have several smaller hurdles that combine into another massive one...the first year on the job. How long should you wait to implement change? What about the upperclassmen who probably aren't thrilled to have you hijack their last year or two? What happens when you fail at something? Take 14 minutes and listen in on these three ways to maximize your first year in a new spot.

Caesar Kalinowski joins Jeff for a "part two" discussion going off their conversation from Episode 91 about introducing a new perspective and model for youth ministry. No matter what your youth ministry structure is, these 6 rhythms are a fantastic method to improve how you cultivate relationships in a community of any size and shape for your betterment and the spreading of the gospel.

Check out Caesar's website and podcast, Everyday Disciple, here.

What if the way local churches did youth ministry was to pour most of their efforts into discipling parents so they can establish missional communities that youth workers can attend and support? Caesar Kalinowski joins Jeff to talk about an interesting approach that he has taught, trained, and replicated in cities across the country.

Check out Caesar's website, Everyday Disciple, here.

When it comes to our online world, we're usually just concerned about content. But what about habits, and how our students are mentally, emotionally, and physiologically affected or "trained" while just trying to grow up AND learn what it means to follow Jesus well? Dr. John Dyer joins Jeff to discuss a perspective of discernment and awareness we might not be actively pursuing when it comes to digital discipleship.

While this could easily be about Jeff's mistakes (of which there are plenty), Dan Istvanik from Youth Ministry Hub joined Jeff to graciously and honestly list his top 5 mistakes from almost 30 years of youth ministry. Listen in as they talk through each mistake, what was learned, and the importance of adapting that knowledge before repeating those mistakes in your own ministry.

Whether it's basic tenants of our faith like the divinity and resurrection of Jesus, creedal confessions like the Apostle's Creed, or more in-depth issues like pneumatology or ecclesiology...thinking about how you incorporate good theology into your youth ministry discipleship is important for students to flesh out their beliefs. Mike McGarry joins Jeff to discuss different approaches for implementing a theological rhythm, and why it should be a factor in anything we're teaching students.

Check out Mike's website, Youth Pastor Theologian, here.

We certainly want to have results and benchmarks that can be measured in our ministries, but we can't let those overshadow a healthy long-term approach to investing in our students. Mike Haynes joins Jeff to discuss how focusing too hard on results (especially in the short-term) can distort the necessary process-orientation youth ministries need for the long haul.

Talking with our students about finding their identity and purpose is good, but you can't talk about those things without talking about the practical approach to living out their faith. Kate Boyd returns to YMM to talk with Jeff about how to help students think about the process of who they're becoming, instead of only thinking about right belief and right practice. They also talk about Kate's new book, which you can preorder here.

We want our students to find their identity in Christ, and a critical step in determining what that means for their life is to help them discover their purpose as new creations in Christ. Brad Griffin, Senior Director of Content & Resources for the Fuller Youth Institute, joins Jeff to discuss how youth workers can help teenagers in this process using the Holy Spirit, Scripture, and community.

Click here to learn more about Brad and his work at Fuller Youth Institute.

Recruiting volunteers for your ministry? Important. Keeping their involvement and investment fresh, and retaining them long-term? Crucial! Charlie Conder joins Jeff to talk about how to make sure we have healthy and solid volunteers for front line ministry.

Check out Charlie's website here: https://www.charlieconder.com

We've heard about networking before, along with the general benefits. But where do you begin? What about different size groups/ministries? Is it realistic? Is it worth it? Jeff goes over 3 ways that networking can refresh your ministry, and explains how they're best taken in consecutive steps. Also, check out Episode 25 with Kevin Miles from NNYM, and Episode 66 with Olivia Williamson from Claim Your Campus for further insight and resources!

Whether it's attendance numbers or other short-term markers of success, too many things take priority over the long-term healthy elements of the ministry that matter. However, it's certainly easier said than done when you have pressure from supervisors or others about those short-term markers. How do you flip the script on healthy expectations? Veteran youth pastor Kyle Wassom talks with Jeff about the reasons and methods that go into that perspective.

Mission trips have been a staple in youth ministry programming for decades. But are they just well-intentioned placeholders? Is there strategy involved with why they're scheduled and where they're scheduled? Jeff talks with Tim Brokopp from the Amoveo Group about the importance of having strategic intentionality for both.

For this installment of MRR, Jeff was joined by the Director of High School Content for Orange Students - Shane Sanchez. They discuss Shane's new devotional book, How To See God: A Four Week Guide for Teenagers. The discussion covers the theme and approach of the book, what led to Shane and his team at Orange developing the book, and how to help students gain awareness on practical approaches to their everyday faith.

Buy the book now through this link!

Coming out of COVID, bringing in a new screen-saturated generation, and dealing with polarization at an all-time high has made the already tumultuous season of adolescence even more unstable for many. Also for many, a major element within that rocky season is trauma. Several of our students are walking through our church doors with it each week...do we notice and adapt our ministry approaches accordingly? Jane Lewis joins Jeff to talk about some signs we can look for, things to keep in mind, and methods to utilize as we minister to students living in the aftermath of trauma and/or tragedy.

Telling stories is a powerful way to teach and disciple students. Jesus told stories, after all! But whether it's getting caught up in stories or good points we want to make, youth workers can unintentionally remove Christ from the center of stories about Him. Matt Behr joins Jeff to talk about why it's crucial for youth workers to maintain discernment and self-awareness when it comes to presenting stories of Jesus.

Whether the source is a teacher, pastor, counselor, social researcher, story plot, or just plain personal experience...most of us realize that chronic difficulty and dysfunction growing up goes on to negatively affect us later in life. But can we leverage that dysfunction to actually (perhaps ironically) thrive? Moreover, can we teach our students how to do that? Dr. Ike Miller joins Jeff to discuss what that perspective looks like, and how to employ it from a general pastoral sense AND a youth ministry sense in the local church.

Talking about strengths and weaknesses in leadership is fairly common. However, what about the strengths and weaknesses of your youth ministry? They aren't always connected to your personal strengths and weaknesses, and there are many elements to consider. In this episode, Jeff provides 3 things to keep in mind before developing specific strategies to maintain your strengths and improve your weaknesses.

We want our students to grow and be discipled, but where does leadership come in? How foundational is student leadership development in your ministry vision and strategy? Brent Aiken from Student Ministry Conversations joins Jeff to discuss the importance of developing student leaders along with some methods to make it a part of your ministry.

A constant struggle in youth ministry is how to handle students who are unengaged, apathetic, and for whatever reason...not interested. In addition, there are some uncommon cultural and generational factors that compound the complexity of approaching apathetic students well. Zac Workun from LifeWay Students joins Jeff to talk about some evergreen methods along with methods that help us compensate for modern variables.

Follow Zac on Instagram here, and check out the link in his bio to access the latest content from LifeWay Students:

We have to be careful when we think about success, because success and good health don't always coincide. There are a number of factors to weigh when evaluating the health of your ministry. Which ones do you pick? How do you feel about the state of your ministry? Jeff chooses three factors to talk about in this first official episode of Season 3.

After a 10 month hiatus, Youth Ministry Maverick is back! Jeff gives an update on his life since the last episode dropped, and talks about the new format coming to the podcast. We're excited for more topics, more guests, more conversations, and more investment in the next generation of the church. Let's get it!

This special episode was unexpected, yet necessary to be included amidst the current conversations and reactions regarding the two reports that were just released: The State of Theology (Ligonier Ministries & LifeWay Research) and Modeling the Future of Religion in America (Pew Research Center). What's the bottom line? The country is steadily becoming less Christian, which isn't that surprising. What IS surprising AND disturbing is that almost half or more of U.S. evangelicals don't know or hold to our basic theological truths. How does this affect your students and ministry?

In this final episode of the semester, Ashley Bohinc from Orange joins Jeff to discuss what middle school ministry is about to look like with Gen Alpha - primarily with their decentralized connection and diverse family orientation. Don't miss this fascinating conversation about a new landscape of youth ministry!

Check out the latest from Orange Students here.

Connect with Ashley on Instagram here. 

Jeff gives a personal update about his life and ministry, and how it will affect the return date of the podcast in 2022.

Technology has caused the generational divides to become more akin to massive canyons, especially between the two ends of the generational spectrum. But it isn't just use of technology that has sparked the rise in tension and hostility...it's also the fruit of our discipleship efforts coming home to roost. As a pastor in a college town, Dr. Sharon Hodde Miller joins Jeff to discuss what she sees as signs and signals of where Christians are stepping up to encourage others, and how we should properly understand our contribution toward what we see today.

Visit her website to find out more about her ministry here. 

Visit her church's website here.

When we encourage our students to engage with others about Jesus, are we expecting them to simply persuade their friends that they need Christ...or are we also teaching them how to have healthy dialogue? If everyone is made in the image of God, whether or not they have trusted Christ, they are valuable people who deserve our love, care, and attention. Also, there are always deep-rooted reasons and experiences we don't have that have helped that person form their perspective; therefore, we always have much to learn from others. Corey Nathan joins Jeff to talk about his conversion story, and how he came to develop the open forum of dialogue known as the "Talkin' Politics & Religion Without Killin' Each Other" podcast.

Subscribe to the TP&R podcast here.

Access Corey's LinkedIn profile here.

In the second and final episode of our week focusing on deconstruction, Tim Whitaker joins Jeff to talk about this new community on the rise. They also discuss how to engage well with people going through deconstruction, his faith being bolstered in the midst of it, and some concepts he thinks need to be established in the evangelical church.

Click here to access TNE's Instagram.

Click here to listen and subscribe to TNE podcast.

This is the first of our two-episode focus on deconstruction, a term and concept that is vastly shaping how Christians will interact with and develop their faith for decades to come. Kate Boyd joins Jeff to talk about the root of deconstruction, where we see evidence of it in Scripture, and how many elements of it are actually helpful for our students and their faith.

Click here to watch it on YouTube.

Click here to access Kate's website.

Click here to listen and subscribe to Kate's podcast, Happy & Holy.

Whether you find yourself with a new class of students, at a new church, or in a new city, awareness and sociocultural context are key elements to having adaptable and sustainable ministry. Steve Cullum joins Jeff to talk about the varying ministry contexts and geographic locations where he has served, and why it's important to get ahead regarding preparation for the benefit of our students.

Click here to access Steve's website.

Click here to listen and subscribe to Steve's podcast, The Student Ministry Podcast.

Prayer. We want our students to appreciate it, engage in it, and consider it the best arrow in their Christian life quiver to depend on in good times and hard times. How can we help give our students structure for having a long-term prayer focus at the place they spend most of their waking time at...school? Olivia Williamson joins Jeff to talk about how Claim Your Campus has been making big waves on school campuses, and how we can guide students to join the movement.

Click here to access their website.

Click here to download their mobile app.

Click here to watch the video Olivia mentioned.

As youth pastors, we need to make sure our volunteer leaders are trained...but the most important parts in that "training" include being supported, encouraged, resourced, heard, and seen. Youth ministry veteran and podcaster, Kristen Lascola, joins Jeff to talk about some solid approaches and characteristics for building up our volunteers.

Click here to subscribe to Kristen's podcast, Ministry Coach.

Click here to follow Kristen on Instagram.

Click here to follow Kristen on Twitter.

Click here to e-mail Kristen.

Without being aware of specific stats, it's fair to say that a large amount of youth workers are single. A single youth worker, depending on their personal and church cultural expectations, could have one of many different perspectives on what being single means for the short-term and long-term. Angie Woods joins Jeff to discuss why single people are vital in their ministry, in the kingdom, and why they aren't "less than" without a spouse.

Click here to get Angie's free resource, "5 Mistakes Single Women Make and How To Avoid Them."

For our latest resource review, Jeff talks with youth pastor and author, Mike Haynes, about his G Shades curriculum and philosophy.

Check out his website to see more and get a free sample! https://www.gshades.org/

You can also follow him on Twitter and Instagram:

https://twitter.com/MikeEHaynes

https://www.instagram.com/mikeehaynes/

Making solid investment in future generations means that we need to make a solid investment in the leaders of those generations. What does that look like right now in the realms of high education? What should we be excited about, and what are important things to take note of regarding these young leaders? Jeff talks with Chris Talbot from Welch College about what he is seeing not only in the classroom, but also in the local church as a youth pastor.

Click here to buy his book, Remodeling Youth Ministry.

Click here to follow Chris on Twitter.

Click here to check out Welch College.

Jeff stated in the first episode (and in many that followed) how his underlying ministry philosophy is emphasizing the need to ask better questions, and not settle for easy answers. How can we use that inquisitive approach to develop and train our leaders? Jeff gives several examples that can immediately help your leadership and their investment.

How can we use our new COVID ministry landscape as leverage to reach and invest in the next generation? Jordan Biere from Alpha USA joins Jeff for the first episode of Season 2 to talk about some studies, some things to be aware of, and why we should be excited about Gen Z.

Click here to access Alpha USA's website.

Click here to access Alpha USA's Instagram.

Click here to access Jordan's Instagram.

Click here to watch this episode on YouTube.

After a 60-episode inaugural season...we're back for more! Check out the trailer for our second season, which includes a sneak peak at new YouTube elements we're adding. New guests, new topics, and new resources...all which will hopefully make for better investment in the next generation. We can't wait to get this train moving again. See you Tuesday!

For the 60th episode, and last one before a summer break, Jeff debuted YMM's first-ever video interview with his good buddy and returning guest, Jeremy Carlton (from Episode 21). Jeremy heads up Shepherd at Home, a non-profit organization with a goal of sharing practical tools for building stronger families. This was a joint episode for YMM and Shepherd at Home, so Jeff and Jeremy trade off questions about at-home dynamics and youth ministry.

Watch it here on YouTube!

Check out Jeremy's Youtube and Facebook for Shepherd at Home here.

No one would argue that teaching apologetics to our students isn't important. However, most youth workers teach students to approach apologetics solely from the standpoint of logical/rational argument. Moreover, they would probably ask, "what other way is there?" Jeff's brother, Ryan, an experienced youth worker and student of apologetics, talks with Jeff about apologetics through the lens of how we were created, remember things, and interact with history: narrative and story. The discussion is largely a review of Narrative Apologetics by British theologian, scholar, and apologist, Dr. Alister McGrath.

Click here to visit Ryan's blog.

Many of us associate humor and hilarity with youth ministry, but sadly, many do not associate those with ministry because of hurtful experiences. Scripture often links laughter with joy and celebration, and it can certainly be used as a ministry tool. Comedian Bob Smiley talks with Jeff about his journey in the comedy world, some bizarre things people have hired him to do, why it's good for us to poke fun at ourselves, and how we can use comedy to both lighten and enlighten others.

Click here to check out Bob's website.

When talking to our students about marriage, we tend to emphasize the concept of unity and the reality of living together as "one flesh." That is certainly needed and appropriate. However, during the season of engagement, the couple tends to be treated as if they are already united in that manner. The reality is that they are not, and the flood of emotions combined with the shock of multiple decisions needing to be made can not only be overwhelming...but lonely as well. Wedding planner consultant and educator, Amber Anderson, talks with Jeff about this overlooked season of relationships that can cause long-term detriment to mental and emotional health if it's handled poorly.

Click here to learn about Amber's business, workshops, podcast, and more.

 

Those who grow up in the church and go on to serve as youth workers will inevitably think about the discipleship experience they had as a teenager (or the lack thereof). Moreover, the number of youth workers without a church background, let alone seminary training, is steadily growing. How can we set youth workers up to provide a solid path of discipleship while emphasizing the relational connection with students? Local youth pastor, Cameron Sparks, joins Jeff to discuss how we can make that a reality.

 

Access Cameron's youth ministry Instagram here, and the sermons he has preached on his church website here.