Last March I explored the idea of developing a one-on-one mentorship program for those who have been in youth ministry for two years or fewer. The response was overwhelming! After sifting through over 200 applications, I choose two individuals and went through the one-on-one mentorship program with each of them. They were great guinea pigs because since then I’ve developed the program a bit further to create what I think is an incredible learning and growing experience for new youth workers.

The Mentor Team
The mentorship program is opening up once again starting right now! But this time I have a whole team of youth ministry veterans on board. I’m very excited about this Youth Ministry Mentor Team because most of them have been in youth ministry for over a decade and are passionate about teaching and training other youth workers like yourself. Their backgrounds range from volunteer to full-time paid youth pastors to even a sr. pastor.

Apply!
If you’ve been in youth ministry for 2 years or fewer and would like to have a FREE one-on-one youth ministry mentor for 10 weeks, read the official Youth Ministry Mentorship page. The link to the application is there. It’s open to anyone who serves in youth ministry in any capacity, whether that be on a volunteer basis or as a full-time youth pastor.

The application period is open for only 2 weeks. After Tuesday, September 9, no further applications will be accepted. Read an overview of the mentorship and apply there.

As you can understand, we have a limited number of mentors, so you may not be one of the 10 chosen this time around, but keep your eye on this site because we plan to make this an on-going program. The next round will be in January 2009 sometime. Subscribe to the RSS feed or by email to stay up-to-date.

The sponsor who makes this FREE!

Thanks to YouthBytes.org’s sponsorship, this program is offered free of charge to everyone who participates! They’re covering the cost of purchasing and shipping all the necessary books and resources you get as an accepted participant of the mentorship.

YouthBytes.org creates video curriculum for youth groups that contains some of the most outrageous stunts I’ve ever seen, all for the purpose of illustrating Biblical truth. Check out some of these crazy video clips to see what I mean.

Part of what I really enjoy doing through Life in Student Ministry is encouraging and resourcing youth workers in ways that other organizations aren’t. I have no desire to repeat the ideas that are successful for others — I want to do things that are unique and help you guys in ways no one else is. That’s why I offer weekly devotionals specifically for youth workers and why I don’t offer a youth ministry forum.

For a while now I’ve had the idea of developing a one-on-one mentorship program for new youth workers. Then I heard from some of you rookies asking for it, so I knew there was a need. I searched and couldn’t find anyone already doing it, which seemed kinda odd to me. Why don’t the people who are mentoring youth have mentors themselves? With all the Web 2.0 stuff that’s being developed, this should be easier now than ever before, especially over great distances.

I’ve talked with some people I know and have decided to put together a mentorship program for youth workers and offer it online. There’s a potential that some of the mentors who come on board will be youth ministry college and seminary professors along with some other life-long youth workers from a variety of backgrounds. I’m very excited about all the experience that will be on the mentorship team!

Right now I’m in the process of developing the program, which is very difficult since every mentoree will come with different needs, different values and different gifts in ministry. The trick is to make it flexible for each individual, yet still take each individual from goal A to goal B by whatever path is appropriate.

As I work on all this, I need two things from you all:

1. Leave your thoughts and ideas about a mentorship program for youth workers in the comments below. What would you like to see in this program? What outcomes would you expect from it? What specific issues should be addressed?
2. If you have been in youth ministry for two years or less, I’m looking for two people who would like to go through the mentorship program as “guinea pigs” to be mentored by me personally.