Our collection of youth ministry blog posts will encourage and equip you as you navigate the challenges of life and ministry. Because we know ministry life can be difficult on a heart level, many of our blog posts are aimed to help you see through a gospel lens. Sure, the X’s and O’s of youth ministry are important. But, at G Shades, our primary goal is to equip you for gospel centered youth ministry. Oftentimes, that requires more than just tips and tricks.
This time of year four years ago, we were just beginning to discover that what we initially thought would be a few weeks of the world shutting down was actually going to drag on for much, much longer. None of us had ever experienced anything like COVID, and the rate
We’ve all been there in youth ministry where a student asks a question or poses a doubt to Christianity that we’re not totally prepared to answer off the top of the dome. That’s a hard place to be because, let’s face it, none of us likes to look stumped in
If you’ve been doing occupational youth ministry for longer than five minutes, you understand that we have no shot at doing this well without a team of amazing volunteers. It’s just too much. It involves too many details. It’s too many students—even for those of us with ministries that don’t
Before we jump into fostering authentic faith in teenagers, let me share why this topic is top of mind for me. My wife and I recently went from parenting three kids to parenting five. No, we didn’t have twin babies! We brought in two teenage siblings we already knew and
If it wasn’t the new normal before, COVID ensured it had to be: Digital Youth Ministry. With technology continuing to rapidly progress and shift the world we live in, it becomes even more important that we have a lens for navigating youth ministry in the digital world. To that end,
I want to share for a minute about how life is long, but first: can we just be honest and admit something really quick? As youth workers, we love all of our students equally, but we love some more than others. It’s okay. No one’s looking. You can just admit
I Prompted AI On Using ChatGPT For Ministry “Write a blog post on the following idea: Using ChatGPT for ministry will elevate the efficiency with which people complete tasks and create content, but new tools aren’t new, and AI will demonstrate itself to be a poor substitute for the Holy
When college students come back, we get the scary privilege of checking in with them as youth pastors. If you haven’t had this experience yet, you will. Sometimes we discover that our former students have fallen off a bit faith wise as they’ve begun their official transition toward adulthood. Disillusionment.
If you’re reading this blog post the day it comes out, and your Christmas tree is already up in your living room, I want you to know that you are/live with an insane person. It’s way too early! But in the same breath, thank goodness we’re knocking on the door
Up until recently, I had worked with the same person side-by-side in full time youth ministry for the past five years. She and I developed a vision for our youth ministry, a framework, and a culture. We decided together what aspects of youth ministry we were going to pay most
This post revolves around the mantra “no more excuses” and was originally shared during the COVID era. I caught COVID. I finally caught it on July 29, 2022, and in true youth pastor fashion, I got it at summer camp. As you know, COVID-19’s effect on people or families ranges
It’s fall. Fall is busy. It’s crazy. Fall is when you put in the work. Because fall is when you’ve got events and curriculum and leader trainings, and this fall will be the season where you figure out how to finally win the war against sports. And in the midst
We’d love to partner with you to equip the youth ministry community with gospel-centered ministry posts. The youth ministry community benefits when new voices speak into the areas of ministry and life that we all find challenging.
If you’re interested in guest writing for G Shades, reach out using the Contact Us page. Alternatively, you can use the link below to schedule a Zoom call.
