January is full of people looking for new starts, new ways of doing things and failing to keep new year’s resolutions. Alex Taylor investigates the impact a new year can have on our youth ministries?
What springs to mind when we look back at the year of youth work just gone? The difficulties can dominate our memories and mask the success. So, what good things happened in your ministry this year?
Alex Taylor loves Christmas but wonders whether the trappings of the season detract from a tremendous, life-changing story. He suggests some ways to see once more the power of the events of Christmas.
What does Advent mean to you? Not to the young people you work with, but to you. If you’re struggling to answer that, maybe it’s time you reconnected with this season of anticipation.
Everything’s gone wrong. You didn’t check the rota, your room is a mess and you have nothing prepared. There’s plenty you can do at short notice. Most of all, don’t beat yourself up about it.
A spell on stage playing the part of a dancer with a troubled past helped Alex Taylor to think through how he should help young people with similar heartbreaks and problems.
Don’t miss out on any of the fantastic children’s ministry stories and thinking. Here are a few of the highlights to get you started. And then, why not check out some of the other articles?
Sunday School is a long and distinguished tradition, but we don’t follow many of the same principles in our contemporary youth work. Is there anything we can still learn from this grand institution?
When numbers decline and don’t recover, difficult decisions need to be confronted. Alex Taylor recounts what is happening at his church and sees God at work in the closing and renewing of ministries.
In these days of smartphones, tablets and PS4s, what value is there in children’s fiction with a Christian element? Would children read it, or is it just too last century? Alex Taylor investigates.
