YouthWorks Blog

You may or may not have really paid attention to the flight attendant’s safety instructions last time you flew on a plane. If you did pay attention, do you remember the most counter-intuitive instruction they gave? It’s about that oxygen mask that will drop down from the ceiling in an emergency. If you’re flying with […]

Your students will have unforgettable experiences on your mission trip. Here are some really helpful ways you can capture their stories and use them to encourage others in your church. 

My trouble in the kitchen is that I sometimes burn things. I take the time to buy the ingredients, prep the food, season everything just right… and then, in the end, I get distracted. I move on to the next thing just before this thing is over! And the end product isn’t as good as […]

Parents have a HUGE role in the lives of students and their influence will typically far outweigh that of any youth worker. Even so, you don’t really want to take every parent on your next mission trip—which works out, because you probably don’t have enough van seats anyhow! So how do we as youth workers […]

You’ve probably never heard of Clifford Charlesworth, Gerald Griffin and Gene Kranz. And even after finding out who they were, you probably won’t remember their names. It’s because we shine a spotlight on the people who go! That’s why we know names like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin—because they went to the moon! And we […]

In high school, I used to compete in the mile. You wouldn’t know from looking at me then—a 210-pound lineman—but I did alright, twice even recording sub-five-minute miles! What I learned is this: The last 300 meters are the hardest and also the most important. The key is to push through and finish well at […]

It’s no secret that leaders are an important factor in your upcoming mission trip experience. Whether you’ve put together a dream team or begged for whatever adults would say yes, there are things you can do to walk alongside your leaders during the trip to help care for them. Here are three simple things you […]

“How many of you have been on one mission trip? Two mission trips? Five? Ten? Twenty?!” While leading workshops on best mission trip practices, I’ve asked that sequence of questions to roomfuls of youth workers and volunteers a bunch of times. My findings? Adults in youth ministries have a broad range of experiences when it […]

“We don’t need to do anything afterward because the mission trip was so life-changing on its own!” I had been asking other youth workers what they did after their mission trip to bring the experience home. Some shared about post-trip meetings, some told me about service projects and most everyone had said something about sharing […]

“How do we help students become leaders?” There are lots of great answers to that question, but near the top of my list every year is this: “Get them to go on the mission trip!” There are a lot of built-in aspects of service experiences that help students become leaders. But with intentionality, we as […]