Youth workers can feel frustrated by parents who only seem to show up when they want to complain. However, moms and dads have a much higher stake in kids' lives than we do, and parents are a more important spir...

Navigating today's youth culture can be challenging for even the best youth workers. Yet, no one can deny the impact that youth culture has on shaping youth, something that makes understanding it imperative for...

Amira (not her real name) began fearing for her family's life after her husband was kidnapped. That fear compelled her to leave everything—her family, friends and comfortable life in Baghdad—and flee to Jo...

For 25 years, YouthWorker Journal has promoted professionalism in youth ministry. To find out how things are progressing, we spoke with four pros.Mark DeVries is founder of Youth Ministry Architects, a consulti...

Youth spend far more time in school than church. Yet, most youth workers rarely set foot inside their local schools, leading some to argue that our schools are the church’s forgotten mission field.Because...

I first met Amber when she attended one of our ministry’s summer mission trips as a guest. Every night, when our mission team gathered to debrief, Amber rapidly would ask a series of questions. Wrestling ...

Though no is a short word, many people in ministry find it difficult to say. Saying no is an important aspect of dealing with stress and preventing burnout, as we see from this conversation with Greg Cootsona, ...

Youth workers are intimately acquainted with stress. After all, our jobs are about people; and people cause stress, especially when their problems and crises become ours. Though all of us live with constant str...

Susan (not her real name) is an eighth grader, full of life, energetic, outgoing and joyful. She can light up an entire room with her presence.Yet underneath this joyous facade lies a teenager battling a crippl...

“We must face the fact the church is still the most segregated major institution in America. At 11:00 on Sunday morning when we stand and sing, and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segrega...