Here are just a few interesting finds this week from around the Youth Min Multiverse:

😂 From Our Online Community

Last week, we asked our Instagram followers and Facebook Group members to tell help us come up with a list of youth ministry’s “unwritten rules.” They did NOT disappoint. Here are just a few of our favorites:

  • There is the deadline you set, then the deadline you’re working with for the “Is it too late to sign up?” crowd.

  • The Youth Pastor gets to keep all the points when the bus stops at McDonalds, Chick-Fil-A, Taco Bell, or Chipotle. There is no wiggle room here.

  • Whatever time you actually need to leave, tell everyone you’re leaving 30 minutes earlier.

  • When you’re at camp with a few hundred middle schoolers and we pass out grape juice boxes for communion, you are NOT allowed to poke the hole in the top and SHOT GUN your juice box.

  • On the way to camp, when we stop at a gas station for a bathroom break you are NOT allowed to buy 2, 2-liters of orange soda and try to drink them on the bus, even if they were on sale for $2.

  • It would also be in your best interest if you also knew first aid, how to edit videos, broadcast online, run a soundboard, drive a bus, fix a vehicle on the side of the road, work a snack shop, lead worship, know everything there is to sound systems, live on 3 hours of sleep, be well versed n the law, this and many other things in the “other duties” section 😂. I feel very well-rounded now, though.

  • The students are where you lead them, if you are dissatisfied with where they are lead differently.

  • An eating contest is a pre-show for a vomit contest.

  • Hear me out: NO GLITTER OF ANY KIND… EVER…

  • Do not hand cash to the youth minister on Sunday. Give it to a mom in an envelope.

  • Don’t grow the kids ministry from the youth ministry.

  • The same number of people that leave on the trip come back on the trip. No more no less.

  • Don’t post negative comments about anyone in your church thinking they’ll certainly never see it and infer it’s about them.

  • Don’t take a life. Don’t make a life.

  • When you cross the border, NO ONE SAYS A WORD. For example, when the border agent asks. “Do you have any weapons to declare?” A student should not say, “just these guns,” as he tries to make muscles.

  • The person before you in the job had way more kids show up.

  • No licking your boyfriend’s face.

If you didn’t get a chance to contribute, don’t worry! We post a new discussion topic every Friday. You can find them on our Instagram feed and in our Facebook Group.

If you’ve ever had any questions about how to run the best Nerf War… Joe definitely has you covered.

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Ever wanted to do a Cereal Bracket for March Madness? Then check out what Skylar made!

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👀 Wild Youth Ministry Story of the Week

Identity kept anonymous because… JUST KIDDING IT WAS MICHELLE ANDERSON.

During a winter camp one year, it stormed like crazy. 5 feet of snow overnight! Our big white 15-passenger van (a youth ministry staple) was totally stuck.

“Grab something and start shoveling, we have to get this unstuck!”

We started using anything we could find: garbage lids, dustpans, etc. Well, a student took this to heart, and without me knowing, he climbed UNDER the front of the van and started using a dustpan to clear the wheels. (NOT SMART FYI) The other youth pastor had me get in the van to see if we could get some traction, and THANKFULLY, the student was in between the front wheels because I got traction and started rocking back and forth. The students jumped up from under the van, and it totally hit him and knocked him over and down the side of a hill.

We never saw him again…

J.K., he was fine. The moral of the story? Um..check under your van if you ask kids to help clear away snow. That seems extremely specific, but YOU NEVER KNOW.