I had to change the title because initially it was “5 Resources to grow as a Student Ministry Leader” which can be a bit confusing.
When I speak of Leaders in Student Ministry I often mean one of two very different things. In person, I am usually talking about the incredible adults connected with our church who are giving of their time, energy, and sometimes even money, to partner with our student ministry as leaders.
But this post is more for Student Pastors, as these resources would be great for Leaders in your student ministry to read through, but not until you have gone through them yourself, first. I long to see the day when Youth Pastors act as and are treated as Leaders, seriously. I’m bothered that seemingly, anytime a Youth Pastor shows real leadership qualities, or preaching qualities, or organizational qualities, they start hearing something along the lines of “You’re wasting your talents in Student Ministry.” I long for the day when an active Youth Pastor (not a former Youth Pastor now Sr. Pastor/Author/Church Planter/etc. etc.) is viewed in such a way that he get’s to be a main stage speaker at a Pastor’s conference. From my memory, the closest we’ve had is Doug Fields at the Orange Conference. But I mean a Youth Pastor at a Catalyst, or Act Like Men, or Desiring God or Gospel Coalition, something that in the status quo makes almost no sense for a Youth Pastor to be a keynote at.
Also, as a preface, most of these come from Orange, and I am unashamed about that. There are plenty of other books out there that will also grow you as a Student Pastor, but the philosophies in these books are ones that I believe can have such profound impact on student ministries as they become more and more adopted.
1 | It’s Just a Phase so don’t miss it by Reggie Joiner & Kristen Ivy
The Orange conference this year was one of the best I’ve been to (been to 4), and it’s because the theme was so intertwined in everything, and the theme all pointed to the concept of this book. Now thats not saying that the entire conference was a commercial for this book, it’s saying if you missed the conference, get this book and you can understand the core concepts presented that were than expanded on at the conference. I was able to get a copy right when they brought them out from the press, and read the first few chapters to know I had to go get more copies for my Family Ministry team. This book brings in so much clarity and focus to what we can focus on in our Student Ministries to make amazing life change occur. You won’t find anything quite like the material in this book in any other book for student ministry, so get it. Today.
Check out It’s Just a Phase so don’t miss it’s website to buy the book
2 | Lasting Impact by Carey Nieuwhof
This book isn’t Student Ministry specific. In fact, it’s more geared for church leaders. But in my mind, that includes Student Pastors. I’m fortunate enough to be on the Pastoral Team and get to have a voice in Leadership meetings, so the 7 conversations Carey goes through in this book are great for that aspect. Aside from that, the conversations this book goes through do, in a way, directly relate to Student Ministry (and Family Ministry as a whole) in that they are helping Senior Leadership set mission/vision and evaluate the effectiveness of Student Ministries. This book will help grow you as a Leader to be thinking through these questions, and Carey has great hands on experience with the topics broached here.
This book is currently not even published yet, but get updates here.
3 | Logos Bible Software
This is a Youth Ministry resource that is sometimes hard to promote because not a lot of Youth Pastors have room in the budget for it. But Logos is such an invaluable resource, and with the base package, it can be had for about $30 a month. I personally love Logos, I use it daily for personal study as well as all of my sermon prep, and the cost I pay is completely an investment in the ministry. I know I held off on purchasing logos for a while, felt it couldn’t be justified. I was convicted when I compared the percentage of our youth budget that went into investing in games, theme nights, prizes, etc. compared to myself as a leader. Maybe some churches will see the value in spending $30 a month to help Youth Pastors feel confident to prepare their own sermons/small group studies as opposed to more than that to buy sermons and small group studies from other Youth Pastors.
4 | IFTTT – If this then that
This resource is a bit different, and I know we have talked about it before as have many other websites. It’s something that honestly, I use it more at times and less at others, but I’m always amazed at the improvements that come quite regularly. IFTTT is a web service (they do have several apps) that helps you set up any number of possible “recipes” that if _____ happens, it will automatically cause another thing to happen. So it’s great to set up that if a picture is shared on Instagram with the hashtag #BenReadisthecatsmeow it would automatically be saved to a designated dropbox folder for me to add to a website or presentation. This past week, I started using it again, quite heavily, to automatically save pictures with a certain tag to my evernote, and for that to then trigger the image be sent to my Admin Assistant, or to explain it differently, I can now take a picture of a receipt from taking a student to starbucks, and with one tap, it gets saved to my evernote and sent in to the person who collects receipts. Obnoxious, time consuming task is now done in one second.
Sign up for IFTTT to start getting stuff done.
5 | Creating a Lead Small Culture by Reggie Joiner, Kristen Ivy, and Elle Campbell
This is another book that I had to get multiple copies of while at the Orange conference recently. It’s another book that is primarily suited for ministry leaders, and one that will definitely grow you as a Student Pastor, grow your family ministry team, and help lead, I believe, to some incredible spiritual growth in your church. Honestly, this book is one to chew on, it took me weeks to be able to get out of the introduction, because one of the pages posed a question that I knew I couldn’t read any more until we had reconciled it. It’s going to challenge you as a leader, as a good book should.
Buy Creating a Lead Small Culture for yourself, today!
Those are 5 resources I am in love with right now. What tools are you using to grow yourself as a Student Pastor?
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