I participated in mission trips as a kid and then worked for a mission trip organization in college. Both ends of the spectrum had a profound impact on my faith. Neither equipped me to plan a trip from start t...

The most important element of a mission trip is not worship, fun or service. Instead, the most important part of a mission trip is processing or debriefing your day with your team in order to help students wres...

At my first youth ministry job interview, I was asked, "How do you plan on fundraising the thousands of dollars required for our summer mission trip?" As a 21 year old, I'm sure I looked like a deer caught in t...

Mission trips can have an incredible impact on youth, their families, youth ministries and churches. Mission trips long have been a part of many youth ministry programs and have varied greatly in form and impor...

Most youth workers do not get excited about fundraising. Whether it is for the ministry budget, the youth trips or to help fund something else, it is not in most youth workers' nature to enjoy fundraising. Some...

Somewhere along the way, our culture and youth ministries lost their passion and practice of traditions and rites of passage. In our rejection of a traditional approach and focus for worship, we may have lost ...

There are countess articles, books and sermons discussing relational youth ministry. Relational youth ministry has become more than a buzz word as church and para-church youth workers have emphasized and practi...

A few years ago, I met Steve, a high school kid and professed atheist. He and I spent a week together on a mission trip, visiting old people and leading a Vacation Bible School for kids. Without meaning to, in ...

Uncertain of how best to prepare your church or ministry for an effective missions program? Have you been planning trips for years but there always seems to be issues that arise? You are not alone. According t...

Even as I write this article, I admit the great irony that exists in its title. How can one be passionate about fundraising? Shouldn't our passion in youth ministry be directed elsewhere? It would seem difficul...