Lesson #5: Always bring backup. We were heading to a big theme park outing one morning, when my co-leader showed up really sick. I told him, “You don’t need to come. Go home and get some rest.” I unwisely thought one adult could handle six middle schoolers alone. And...
When working with kids from the inner city, you have to celebrate the smallest wins. I’d work hard to find the one little thing a kid did right. They may have done 99 things wrong, but when their parent came to pick them up, I’d highlight the positive thing the kid...
After working in the middle school youth ministry for a time, I launched a high school group with the graduating middle school students. In this context, I decided on a new goal: I wanted them to be on time. To me that didn’t seem much to ask, but asking wasn’t...
One of the things I quickly noticed when running an inner city ministry for middle schoolers was that these kids have a long history of broken promises by significant adults in their lives. These kids were really insecure about trusting adults, because adults had...
When I was starting a middle school ministry at an inner city church, there was not a single student that came from a “normal” family. There’s no such thing as a normal family of course, but in this case I just mean one that has both a mother and a father at...
Early on in his ministry, Ray Bakke realized that if he was to be a true urban pastor he would have to live among those he ministered to. As a result he and his family have lived for many decades in rented apartments in inner city Chicago. John Hayes, who lives among...
