Youth Ministry “Holiday Photo/ Video Contest”- Win $100

  Enter UYWI’s “Holiday Photo/ Video Contest” and WIN BIG! The holiday season is approaching fast! Share this exciting experience with your youth ministry / group! Show us how you celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years together. Whether it’s a time to gather for games & activities or a community service project, we want to…

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Beautiful Calling

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder… This simply means that people find different things beautiful.  For instance, take a Pablo Picasso painting.  One person may think it is the most beautiful piece of art they have ever seen.  Another person may look at it and think looks like a mistake, way too confusing…

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Reproducing Reproducers

There is an old saying that goes, “You can’t see the forest for the trees.”  What this simply means is that when you are so deeply engrossed in something, so completely lost within the trees, it is impossible to get a clear view of the bigger picture.  Simply put – you miss what is going…

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Money, Love, Money

Chip, stash, bank roll, Benjamins, C-Notes. Whatever you call it, teenagers love to get & spend money— on concerts, clothes, shoes, food, and of course, music. But when it comes to giving money, the love affair dwindles. Teenage giving should be a priority, not to have money in your budget, rather to teach young people to…

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The Help: Part Two

This is Part 2 of a series by Lee Wilson on recruiting a great ministry leadership team.   You can read Part 1  here. In the movie, The Help, one of the main characters, Skeeter decides to write a book from the perspective of the African-American maids in her community.  In order to do this,…

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The Help: Part One

Recently, I went to minister in Kenya, Africa. While taking the longest, most grueling flight from Syracuse, NY to Bungoma, Kenya, I decided to do something I rarely get to do – watch a movie.  And I am so glad that I did.  I ended up watching the award winning film, “The Help.” This movie…

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First Things First

by Pastor Lee Wilson I thought I would take a break from the norm and blog about one of the most important things in youth ministry. It has nothing to do with programs or budgets.  It doesn’t involve camps or big events. I’m talking about marriage. And here’s why. As I reflect on the success…

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31 Flavors

Ice cream is by far one of my favorite desserts.  There are such a wide variety of toppings and flavors, that each person can literally create their own confectionary masterpiece.  Years ago when I discovered Baskin Robbins, I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  Here was a store that specialized in inventing dozens…

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Think Small

Many of you might look at the title of this article and say, “Think small? Don’t you mean think big?” In our culture today, even in the culture of the church, it is more common to think big than to think small. Many times when people hear the word small, they cast it in a…

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Going Global – Part 2

In Part 1, we learned that the mission of every youth ministry must have a global perspective.  We must create opportunities for the students to get their hands dirty, so to speak, and get involved in meeting the needs of the world around them. I am the youth pastor for Velocity, the youth ministry program…

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