Our team is hiring! Be NextGen with me.

May 20, 2015 by Chris Parker 1 Comment

Our NextGen team at Gateway Church in Austin, TX is searching for a Preschool Ninja! There are no silos here within our NextGen team, you alongside myself (student pastor) and the rest of the team work closely together strategizing to offer the best for our church families and those seeking a church home. I firmly believe that when preschool wins so does student ministry.

We hired an amazing Preschool Ninja about 18 months ago, but she had to go fall in love with someone who swept her off her feet and is taking her away from Austin (insert violin music here). We are officially looking for her replacement and I’m really excited to see who this new preschool ninja might be. Is it you or someone you think would be a great fit? (Send them this link)

We believe in this position so much that we created a website around it. Check out preschoolninja.com to help us find the right person. Go ahead, check it out! [Read more…]

The Sunday backup plan.

April 25, 2015 by Chris Parker Leave a Comment

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As I browse youth pastor forums it is pretty common to come across the guy or gal asking for last minute help on a Saturday night. We have all been in this situation where we just know that we simply can’t make tomorrow happen. Whether it be the flu, a death in the family, or ~~you procrastinated all week,~~ the truth remains the same: you have no idea how Sunday is going to work in your absence (or mental absence if you decided to wait until the last minute to plan). [Read more…]

I wrote the email, but they will never know.

April 17, 2015 by Chris Parker 3 Comments

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This week my inbox continues to receive a handful of the same looking emails… and they are all from my small group leaders. It could be surprising, but it’s not, I planned for this to happen.

Partnering with parents can sometimes feel unreachable, but it’s just like anything else we do, if it seems unreachable perhaps we haven’t reached for it yet. I focus my small group strategy by always training with a weekly WIN for my small group leaders. When they walk in the door for the leaders meeting they see the WIN on the board and the WIN was emailed to them earlier in the week. I make sure my WIN(s) revolve around the subjects found in the book Lead Small. This ensures I don’t forget anything that could reinforce our strategy when training and equipping leaders.

This year the bulk of my WINs will revolve around partnering with parents. If you don’t know why that’s important or how critical it can be, perhaps I can convince you. A mom of high school student recently said to me, [Read more…]

6 “must visit” youth ministry websites

March 19, 2015 by Chris Parker 2 Comments

We youth pastors can be guilty of spending too much time on the internet all with good intent… browsing, spiraling, ending up watching too many videos of cats. Your intentions are good and you are just trying to find a game for this coming weekend or hit a writer’s block so you hopped on facebook. When it comes to youth ministry related topics wether it be games, curriculum, or ideas, these are a few of my favorites [Read more…]

Best Bible Memory Apps

March 17, 2015 by Chris Parker 8 Comments

We live in a day and age where technology can work both for and against us. I spent my last airline flight playing a game, listening to a podcast, memorizing a bible verse and falling asleep to some classical music. All of these things were done on my phone.

While in high school I dedicated the book of Philippians to memory. This was done through long and tedious hours of writing out each verse by hand. I made note cards and [Read more…]

5 reasons you should leave your church and go to another one.

January 28, 2015 by Chris Parker Leave a Comment

Ever wonder what meetings are like on the other side? At a different church? How have they already solved the problems you are currently having in your church? Take a closer look at the churches around you. What appears the same on the outside could be very different on the inside. [Read more…]

Get more time with your leaders.

December 17, 2014 by Chris Parker Leave a Comment

It was 9:28AM on a fall morning last year, right before my middle school large group program was about to begin. The morning was going pretty smooth, everything seemed ready for the program and students were beginning to show up, signing in and getting their name tags. As I watched the second hand tic-toc on the clock I began to get overwhelmed with anxiety, “Where are our leaders?” I blurted out loud. The one leader that was always on time gave a knowing smile to remind me that this was an every week occasion. I knew in that moment something had to change. It was no longer an accountability factor, we needed a change in our leadership culture.

After talking with some other youth pastors and some of my staff I laid down the ultimatum. I announced the shift from what was normal and asked them to trust me and give it a try. The shift being, instead of asking leaders to show up 15 minutes prior to program and arrive where the students arrive, we would meet 30 minutes before program in the staff office space. This locker room mentality before the big game would allow us all to really dial in each week, look at our content, how we will engage the students and have time for Q&A.

The shift did not come without a cost. Yes, it’s one more thing the youth pastor has to prepare for, but it’s totally worth it! When you get 30 minutes to lead your leaders every week you would be amazed at how much closer your feel to them, the pulse you have on their leadership and the trust that is continually established.

Here’s the coolest thing, it creates community for your leaders. When you create a space for them that doesn’t involve the common denominator that which is students, they have to connect with each other. We throw in free coffee with the signature creamers and some snack food to show them we do appreciate them giving us additional time. I have stopped asking leaders to show up on time because I don’t have to any more, they want to show up early and hang with their friends! 90% of my 50-60 leaders show up 30 minutes prior to one of our three student services every week, they are rarely tardy.

When your leaders are getting more time with you and each other they are better equipped for ministry.

The time with my leaders include:

A conversation starter, giving them 5 minutes to connect with each other.
The WIN for the week.
An overview of the message and small group questions.
Push any events outside of regular programming.
Prayer.

How do you spend time with your leaders?

Gift yourself – free book for first commenter.

December 1, 2014 by Chris Parker 1 Comment

Your a student pastor, perhaps a dad, a coach, a part-timer at Starbucks, or just someone looking to dive deeper into the student ministry realm. For those that want to be a better youth pastor…yes that’s all of us, then you need to gift yourself this book. Whether it’s with your church budget (they will thank you for reading this book) or your own money (you will thank yourself for reading this book) you must read Make Believe. Once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down, this book builds a strong case for why the larger nation wide student ministry could be suffering and how you can be part of reversing that statistic by building a ministry that outlasts you. I tell you what, I believe in this book so much that I want to give one away for FREE, I want to buy you a copy. The first student pastor/director to leave a comment that doesn’t have this book, I will ship you a copy.

In this book you will find that Ben and Kevin (both leading very successful student ministries) hit the nail on the head. Once again, I think this could be the best book out there for student pastors right now…other than the Bible of course 🙂

A different perspective.

November 6, 2014 by Chris Parker Leave a Comment

I know it’s bad writing to give it all away in the first few sentences, but I care this much for you, so I’m going to give you the nitty gritty up front. You need to look at things differently. We are all guilty of a biased view of most situations and that is ok, God gave you a perception and the free will to feel and observe differently than those around you. You as a student pastor may be feeling opposition, lack of support or feel like your entire staff or volunteers just aren’t seeing what you see. Take moment to look at your situation or problem from their point of view. Look at it through the lens of your senior pastor, your boss, your students, your volunteers, your parents, etc. This can greatly impact the way you lead through something or react to others during confrontation.

One of my jobs while being in college was wedding photographer on the weekends. Bumping up against other photographers I realized quickly that the art is totally subjective. A great angle to take a photo for one photographer, may be seen differently by another photographer. Art is subjective, one artist may love this style while another artist doesn’t care for it or think it can be done better. The way we run our programs, retreats, use of budgets, recruiting and developing of leaders is not too different. There are 200 different ways to do programs, 300 ways to develop leaders and a million ways you can shift your budget to fit your ministry goals and desired outcomes.

When someone critiques what you are doing or you are feeling big opposition, do yourself and the other party a favor. Look at things from their perspective. This should help give you a broader perspective so that you can make a better decision for yourself and your ministry.

Does failure define a leader?

October 21, 2014 by Chris Parker Leave a Comment

A leader should be measured not only by successes but also by how quickly he or she can recover from failure. Great leaders are born out of failure. They’ve messed up, made a wrong decision, or perhaps tanked an entire industry. The defining moment will come 5 minutes after the realization of that failure. Will they sit and sulk? No. A leader will admit the fault, attack the problem and come out on the other side with a solution and move on to encounter another day of leading.

I’ve seen a variety of professional and personal failures that end up defining a leader for the worst, making them sound like “they were a leader once upon a time.” On the contrary, I’ve seen dozens of amazing leaders share their professional and personal failures and how they bounced back from them with the support of God, family and friends.

Don’t let the failure define you, overcome it with this truth from God’s word:

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

Life of a youth pastor .

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