52 Devotions for Youth Leaders
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About this ebook
Be challenged and encouraged by 52 devotions created specifically for youth leaders. Whether you lead a youth group or a youth Sunday School class, these devotions will help keep you on track with your purpose in working with students. Each devotion includes a story, verses to reflect on and challenges to remember.
These devotions are also a good resource for stories and information with which you can challenge your students as well.
Kolby & Mary Beth King
God changed their lives… With that being said, Kolby is the children's minister at First Baptist Church in Owasso, Oklahoma, where he and Mary Beth, his wife, minister to 150 elementary students each week. They are also the founders of three-thirty ministries, a resource network for the purpose of providing affordable resources to churches and families around the world. Kolby is a ventriloquist (which basically means he likes to talk to himself) and Mary Beth eats fire as a way of sharing the Gospel. During their years in evangelism and student ministry, they picked up other interesting ministry tools including stunts with six-foot balloons, balloon sculptures, fire-juggling (which one should never do on a windy day!), and a variety of other unique activities for the purpose of sharing Jesus with others. Learn more about events or training conference they can bring to your church or organization at http://www.threethirtyministries.org/kolby-king. "Jesus must become greater; I must become less." John 3:30
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52 Devotions for Youth Leaders - Kolby & Mary Beth King
52 Devotions for Youth Leaders
How to Swim in Shark Infested Waters
Kolby & Mary Beth King
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2012
Smashwords Edition, License Notes.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Scripture verses used in this book are cited from the World English Version, a public domain version of the Bible. Learn more at http://www.worldenglishbible.org
Check out more books by Kolby and Mary Beth King at Smashwords.com.
Some people invest in fame in fortune. This book is dedicated to those who seek to invest their lives in others.
Table of Contents
Introduction-Learning to Swim
Devotions
Week 1—Evangelism
Week 2—God’s Love in Fellowship
Week 3—An In-Love Relationship
Week 4—Relying on God
Week 5—Yes, Lord
Week 6—Just One More
Week 7—If I Believed What You Say...
Week 8—A Call From Below
Week 9—Knock Again
Week 10—Do You Care?
Week 11—Thank You
Week 12—The Hitchhiker
Week 13—The Difference One Moment Can Make
Week 14—How Much Do You Care?
Week 15—A Call from Within
Week 16—All My Desire...
Week 17—The Power of a Student Ministry Volunteer
Week 18—The Priority of a Student Ministry Leader
Week 19—Our Purpose
Week 20—Share Jesus
Week 21—Fellowship
Week 22—You Can Only Give What You Have
Week 23—Counting the Cost
Week 24—Kisses to God
Week 25—Protection
Week 26—Taking Risks
Week 27—Encouragement
Week 28—Creativity
Week 29—Trusting
Week 30—Investing
Week 31—Coaching
Week 32—Empowering
Week 33—Love for the Unlovely
Week 34—Caught Not Taught
Week 35—Modeling
Week 36—Understanding
Week 37—Sharpening
Week 38—Prepared
Week 39—Opportunities
Week 40—Teamwork
Week 41—Accountability
Week 42—Optimism
Week 43—Like Christ
Week 44—Forgiveness
Week 45—Not of the World
Week 46—Giving
Week 47—Confession
Week 48—Self-Examination
Week 49—Godliness
Week 50—Pause
Week 51—Encouragement
Week 52—Thankfulness
Appendix
About the Authors
Find a year’s worth of student ministry curriculum and a great way to train your students how to share Christ in other books by Kolby and Mary Beth King found at Smashwords.com.
Other Books by Kolby & Mary Beth King:
Creative Bible Lessons for Children
30 Children's Worship Lessons
52 Bible Lessons for Students
Overflow Evangelism Training
Character-Teaching Bedtime Stories for Kids
52 Devotions for Youth Leaders
How to Lead a Child to Christ
Every Man's Inferno
Introduction
Swimming in Shark Infested Waters
_______________________
In 1994 I stepped into a small closet on the bottom floor of the cabin I was staying in, but this was no cabin in the woods. This was no peaceful retreat or some great get-a-away from life. This was youth camp and I was a guest speaker for a church, leading their evening devotions. The closet was cluttered with cleaning items and I remember the mop and bucket next to me as I knelt down on both knees. The smell of wet mop filled the air and mixed gently with a hint of mold.
Dear God,
I began…
I had come to pray for the students. Although I had only met them three days earlier, I knew now that they were a wild bunch. Several had already been caught breaking into unoccupied cabins. Others were cold me to and I had seen, though I wanted to forget, the emotionally scarring massacre of the boy’s bathroom directly above me.
Oh, God,
I began again, then paused for a deep breath. At last in the quiet of that closet, my heart poured out… Dear God, please deliver me from these savages!
Little did I know that the church I was with would offer me the position of being their youth minister and I would tell them no twice before God would finally convince me that such is place is where I belonged. For years I watched those savages
grow and become an incredible group that led many to Christ and shared him boldly. I watched them pray. I watched them grow. I watched them cry. I watched them struggle. Some fell but others grew to be pillars in the church. I watched them lead friends to Christ and minister to children and when all was said and done, I praised God that He did not answer my prayer for deliverance.
Sometimes leading a youth group or a youth Sunday School class might feel like swimming through shark-infested waters. After all, who would choose to swim there? Youth ministry can be full of land mines and ticking time bombs, just waiting to go off. Who would choose to walk there? It’s not always easy. It’s not always convenient and neither are most of the things in life that are worth doing. An effective ministry takes time. It takes effort. It takes commitment. It takes passion. And it takes relationship. A leader will never be effective by seeing his students once each week on Sunday morning. When you lead students, you become a part of their lives with all the bumps and bruises that come with it.
So, again, who would choose to swim in shark-infested waters? Someone who jumps in to save a life. Someone who swims there with a purpose. Who would walk into a minefield? Someone who walks there to show another the way out. Likewise, you are not without purpose in your ministry. So jump in…jump in all the way. Invest your life and your relationship with Christ in others and watch God do what only God can do.
May these devotions remind you of the great purpose to which God has called you. May they help, strengthen and encourage you as lead others in knowing Christ and making Him known.
Week 1
Evangelism
_______________________
READ
When Gypsy Smith was converted as a boy, he became interested in his Uncle Rodney’s salvation and began to pray for him. In those days it was not considered proper for a child to speak to his elders unless he was spoken to, especially about spiritual matters. So the boy prayed and waited for his opportunity.
One day the uncle asked, Laddie, why are your trousers almost worn out at the knees?
The boy answered, Uncle Rodney, they have been worn out through praying for you. I want so much for God to make you a Christian.
The uncle put his arms around the boy, and a few minutes later fell upon his knees and cried out to God for salvation. ¹
REFLECT
Read Ezekiel 22:30-31 from your Bible.
RESPOND
Gypsy Smith was burdened for the salvation of his uncle. For whose salvation are you burdened? For whom do you find yourself praying, longing that God will move in their life? A student in your class? A friend or a neighbor? A work associate? Or does this burden and passion for lost souls seem to be absent from your life? Many believers lack a passion for the salvation of