Kevin's Blogs

Sometimes youth ministry can feel like an endless cycle.

Wednesday is coming. The lesson needs to be ready. Someone needs to buy the food. A volunteer just texted that they can’t make it. There’s an event next month that still isn’t completely planned. Parents need information. Students need attention. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, we’re supposed to actually disciple teenagers.

It’s easy to become so busy doing youth ministry that we rarely have time to stop and ask a simple question:

Is this the kind of ministry Jesus would build?

That’s the question behind Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry.

When we look through the Gospels, we don’t see Jesus running a program. We see Jesus living in intimate relationship with His Father. We see Him praying. We see Him intentionally investing in a small group of people. We see Him walking with those disciples until they were prepared to minister themselves. And we see Jesus continually moving toward people who needed Him.

Jesus didn’t simply gather a crowd. He developed people who could carry His mission forward.

That changes the way we think about youth ministry.

The goal isn’t simply to have more students show up Wednesday night. It isn’t to create the biggest event, find the perfect curriculum, or build a ministry that looks like the successful youth ministry across town.

The goal is to make Jesus the focus.

That’s why Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry begins somewhere we sometimes overlook: with us.

Before we ask how to get students closer to Jesus, we have to ask how closely we are walking with Him. Before we develop another ministry strategy, we need to pray. Before we complain that we don’t have enough volunteers, perhaps we need to ask whether we’re intentionally developing leaders. Before we wonder why students aren’t reaching their friends, we need to consider whether we’ve actually discipled and equipped them to do it.

And before we expect teenagers to come to us, maybe we need to go where they are.

JFYM brings those ideas together in a simple strategy: Pray. Equip. Evangelize.

We pursue Jesus. We multiply leaders. We reach people.

That sounds simple. Living it out in a real youth ministry is where the challenge begins.

What does it look like to develop a leadership team instead of simply recruiting enough adults to supervise Wednesday night? How do we move students from attending Bible study to actually becoming disciples who influence their friends? How do we build meaningful relationships with schools and enter student culture as servants? How do we create outreach opportunities that aren’t simply another church event but actually help students introduce their friends to Jesus?

Those are the kinds of questions worth wrestling with.

And you don’t have to wrestle with them alone.

That’s one reason we’ve created JFYM Online Cohorts. The cohort isn’t simply about watching training and checking another item off your ministry-development list. It’s an opportunity to walk through the full Jesus-Focused Youth Ministry process alongside other youth leaders and begin applying it to the ministry God has entrusted to you.

Because the goal isn’t for your youth ministry to look like ours.

In fact, it shouldn’t.

The goal is for you to look closely at Jesus, evaluate what you’re doing, listen to what He is saying, and discover what a Jesus-focused ministry can look like in your church, your community, and among your students.

Maybe what your youth ministry needs next isn’t another program.

Maybe it simply needs a fresh look at Jesus.

I’d love for you to join us in an upcoming JFYM Online Cohort and take that journey with us.

It is early in the morning. Students are beginning to arrive at school. Backpacks are hanging over shoulders, cars are pulling into the parking lot, and somewhere near the front of the campus a handful of teenagers begin walking toward the flagpole.

One student is nervous because she knows she is supposed to pray. Another invited three friends and has no idea whether any of them will actually show up. Someone has a Bible in his backpack and a passage he wants to read.

And standing somewhere nearby is a youth leader thinking, Maybe I should help them get this started.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but…

Don’t.

Let the students lead.

We spend all year telling students that God can use them, that their school is a mission field, and that they can make a difference for Jesus. See You at the Pole is our opportunity to show them we actually believe it.

Help them prepare. Pray with them. Encourage them. Give them resources. But when that morning comes, step back.

If there’s an awkward silence, let it be awkward. If someone stumbles through a prayer, that’s okay. If five students show up instead of fifty, let those five pray.

Maybe this is the morning a teenager discovers, I can lead. I can pray. God can use me right here at my school.

Youth leaders, we’ve been equipping students for moments like this.

Now let them rise up and lead.

Learn more about See You at the Pole at

Mention the word discipleship in a church and it doesn't take long before someone starts talking about a class.

And I understand why. For years, many of us experienced discipleship that way. We signed up for a study, bought a workbook, showed up each week, completed the lessons, and eventually finished the course.

Those experiences were valuable. I have benefited from many of them myself.

But somewhere along the way, I think we may have confused a tool for discipleship with discipleship itself.

Jesus didn't invite twelve men to enroll in a class. He invited them to follow Him.

They walked with Him. Ate with Him. Listened to Him teach. Watched Him interact with hurting people. Saw Him pray. Asked questions. Made mistakes. Eventually, Jesus began giving them opportunities to do the ministry they had watched Him do.

And then He sent them out to make disciples themselves.

That's a very different picture.

It makes me wonder what might happen if we stopped thinking of discipleship primarily as something our church offers and started thinking of it as the way our church lives.

Someone begins by connecting with Jesus and His church. As they follow Him, they grow. As they grow, they discover that God has gifted them to serve. Soon they begin seeing their neighborhood, workplace, school, and community differently. They realize God has placed them there for a purpose.

They begin to go.

And eventually something wonderful happens.

They look around and see someone else who needs what someone once gave them.

So they begin investing in that person.

They multiply - and it becomes contagious!

Connect. Grow. Serve. Go. Multiply.

That isn't necessarily a five-step program someone completes. It is a picture of what can happen in the life of someone who continues following Jesus.

And maybe that's one of the questions worth asking about our churches.

Not simply, How many people are attending our Bible studies?

Not, How many people completed our discipleship course?

But:

Are the people we are discipling beginning to disciple someone else?

Because ultimately, the goal isn't to produce people who have completed discipleship.

The goal is to produce disciples who make disciples.