It’s one thing to agree that leading yourself is important for ministry, but it’s a different thing to know how to live it out in your own life. The Youth Cartel has created a practical guide for you to assess what you need and identify how to get started.

Even if we love recruiting mentors, it can sometimes be challenging to find suitable adults for our team. Our friends at Ministry Architects offer a proven six-step model for recruiting mentors that can help you recruit a team of adults who love young people and point them to Jesus. We know you want to see faith matter more to young people.

You can use your gifts to equip your mentors. But it’s likely there are also areas where you are not an expert. Thankfully, you don’t have to be! You can access other resources to get your team the training you all need. Our partner Download Youth Ministry (DYM) exists to help you develop the team that you and your young people need.

Our partner, the Asian American Christian Collaborative (AACC), seeks to see Asian American Christians established in their spiritual and cultural heritage. AACC is committed to amplifying the voices, issues, and histories of Asian Americans in the church and larger society.

We’ve talked about how to cultivate belonging in our ministries, but there’s so much more to say! This video from the Fuller Youth Institute offers you all sorts of practical ideas to point young people to Jesus’ best answers to their biggest questions about belonging.

Our partner, EQSaints, exists to “equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12). Through helpful resources, hands-on training, and inspiring events, they provide you with tools and knowledge for the evangelization of your teens and for walking with them into discipleship.

We’ve talked about how service and justice help young people discover their purpose. But our partners at the Urban Outreach Foundation (UOF) have much more to share about how essential purpose is for a young person’s faith formation. In this video, UOF reminds us that young people are shaped not so much by what we say to them, but more by what they do with us and what we empower them to do themselves.

Communication is key to any relationship. We don’t just need to know parents, they need to know about us and our youth ministries. In the next video, our partners at Axis talk about simple steps you can take to better communicate and to support the families in your ministry to connect about faith. At Axis, we translate pop culture to help parents and caring adults understand and disciple their teenagers.

The culture of a church has everything to do with whether an innovation can take root. Enjoy the gift of a short, helpful assessment provided by our partners at the Ministry Leadership Center (formerly the Center for Youth Ministry Training) to help you champion change.

Based on your results from the valuable Cultural Assets for Innovation handout, think about these questions: Which of the nine indicators are strongest in your setting? Which seem like they need additional attention? How can you work with others in your faith community to provide that additional attention and make more progress toward your ministry purpose statement?