I am a leader of a small youth ministry that is under-staffed and under-resourced in a small Lutheran church (LCMS). I work 45+ hours per week while being paid for 29, and I love every minute of it!
One might wonder what a leader of an unspectacular youth ministry would have to offer. Well, if you work in youth ministry in America, odds are you work in a ministry similar to mine. I find that most of the ministry blogs and youth ministry “help” sites are written by leaders of large ministries with a completely different list of issues than those that I face. Believe me, I know the grass is not greener, but working in small churches creates an entirely different list of challenges and rewards.
So…what is with the title? I have discovered that there are all kinds of youth ministry “playbooks” out there. There is the mega church playbook. There is the para-church playbook. There is the campus ministry playbook. And there is my playbook: small denominational youth ministry playbook. Real-life, missional, revolutionary ministry requires different thinking. This thinking is found in the margins of our playbooks. My goal with this blog is to share ideas from my margins. I also hope to hear your ideas so I can add them to mine.
