​* THIS POST CONTAINS BOTH AFFILIATE AND PRODUCT LINKS,
​ALONG WITH LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES MENTIONED IN THE POST.*

Welcome to the reimagine, The Youth Worker Daily. Wow, this site has transformed over the years. From a simple blog where I shared my youth ministry musings, to what has become a fully functioning resource site for youth workers. In 2020, during the Covid Pandemic, what was known as the Student Ministry Today blog became The Youth Worker Daily.  It was part of a rebranding to include a podcast, while expanding the resources.

Since 2020, The Youth Worker Daily has been a hit or miss. As a full-time youth worker, I had to balance my ministry with the site and, quite frankly, ministry came first. But things have changed. My roll in full-time ministry is different, and now I have time to really work the site as I've always hoped.

New content. I'm looking forward to sharing new thoughts and ideas, while sharing more of my experience and expertise. The youth culture is rapidly changing and with it, the world of youth ministry. As youth workers we need to be up to speed and aware of the needs our students. 

With the new content, I will be revisiting past posts. I will be sharing the more popular and helpful post that have been sitting in the archives, along with posting articles that have been in my drafts folder.

There are so many great resources available for youth workers. Game ideas, curriculum, videos, books, movies, podcasts, and so much more. Each week we will have a highlighted resource that I have used and found helpful.

The podcast, Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers, will return for a new season! The Conversations podcast sits with "in-the-trenches" youth workers who are doing incredible ministry with their students. It's a chance to share stories, get a glimpse of neighboring ministries, and talk about student ministry. 

The Youth Worker Daily Vlog fires up again on later this year! This 10-15 minute vlog is the heart of the site. It's where you'll get your tools, tips, and more. The vlog will post every Monday, so you will want to be sure to subscribe and follow along here on the site or on our YouTube channel: YouTube.com/@theyouthworkerdaily.

It all gets started right here in October. Then look forward to new blog content on Tuesday mornings. Wednesday will welcome our Resource of the Week. Thursday's will play host to the Conversations With Every Day Youth Workers podcast (returning in mid January 2024). And, Flashback Friday's bring the week to a close as we share something from the archives! And if that's not enough, coming in January 2024, TYWD hopes to help youth workers with strategic ministry planning, and speaking opportunities.

It's going to be a great adventure, and we can't wait to get started with you!

​- TYWD

Welcome to our weekly Ministry Recap for the week of January 25th, 2022. Each week I hope to share what happened at our weekly student ministry gathering. From the games to our message to our worship and fun, I want to share what we're doing with our students. I hope this encourages you, and who know, maybe you'll get a idea or two out of this!

Our student ministry meets every Tuesday evening during the school year. Ministry recaps will post every Thursday of the same week.

Here are the highlights from this weeks student gathering...

• Schools were closed for a snow day which meant we were closed.
• We moved from in-person to Zoom.
• We had a great showing of students and leaders.

Because we were on Zoom, we decided to forego our usual worship.

We started a new series called, SHINE. Based on Matthew 4:16, we are looking at what it looks like to let our light shine before others. The series starts as we talk about darkness and how the Bible often connect darkness with sin. Our intent is to start our journey recognizing that we are in darkness because of our sin, but with Jesus, we can step into the light.

We looked at Romans 1:18-25, and Paul's words about mans rejection of God and how in that rejection man stumbles through the darkness (Proverbs 4:14-19)

Our hope is that next week, we will be able to be in-person and can better connect our students with the truth of God's grace and the freedom that comes from know Jesus.

I recently spend a couple hours sitting in the service department of a car dealership as one of our vehicles received some work for our annual state inspection. I took the time as an opportunity to go over my calendar, do a little planning, and to schedule out some appointments. We were already one busy week into the new year, so before the whole month spun out of control with the unexpected, I chose to take control of my weekly schedule.

I started by included time for my goals and plans for self-health. These would be things like personal quiet times, work out times, person study and development, and times for family nights and date nights with my wife. I also blocked out the weekends that my wife and I are setting aside for family adventures. Then I started filling in the regular appointments such as worship, staff meetings, monthly directors meeting with one of our pastors, weekly bible studies, youth group gatherings; the things that happen weekly or monthly. Then I went back and filled in time for planning, message study and prep, brainstorm sessions and trainings with our adult leaders, and meetings with some of my team coordinators. Next I block in time to plan and get ready for events and gatherings that are not regular student gatherings.

In about 45 minutes I had filled about 60% of my calendar. I looked at what I had just completed, noting how much the calendar had been filled. As I looked at my calendar, I thought to myself, 'there's not much time left for being with people.' I said to myself, "this is a problem."

Being organized and planning out your calendar, weekly and monthly, is good. I've been doing it for years. I've blogged and vlogged about it. I'm a huge fan of blocking out your calendar, setting aside time to in office work, study and prep work, and contact work. Like I said, I've been doing it for years. One of the reason I plan out my schedule like this is that it helps me to see how and where I am spending my time. I use different color pens and highlights to help create a visual record of my plans. When I see too much of one color, it causes me to look at that part of my ministry and ask, 'is there normal, is it a unique season requiring more time, or am I really unbalanced?' If there is too little of a color, I need to ask, 'what's happening in this area of my ministry.'

But as I looked at my January projections, I didn't like that I had set aside 60% of my time to "work in the office" and only 40% to be with my students or with people. Now, let me also note that part of the 60% does include time I am setting aside for me as I work to keep myself healthy, both physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And yes, some of the 60% is reserved for family time. But even in that, together those two things might equal about 15%, leaving 45% of my time for work.

Instead of spending the majority of my time sitting at my desk, I want to make sure that I am spending time connecting with my students, leaders, parents, and people from our community. That will require me flipping how I build out my weekly and monthly calendars. 

So, starting next month, I'll begin the scheduling by blocking out time to be with people; students, leaders, parents, and people from the church and community. I want to re-establish the habit of putting people first. I want to make sure I am taking time to be available to my students and leaders. And I want to make sure relationships are a priority.

This is all the more important as we get back to ministry post-covid. Having spent the last 20-something months, mostly disconnected, working from home or from the office has becoming the norm. It's easy to fill up your schedule with busy work when you can't be with people. No doubt, covid has left us with some bad habits. But after two years of not always being able to meet up with students and leader, I want to make sure this years a year of connected with people.

How about you? How are you planning to reconnect with your students, leaders, parents, and the people from your church and community? What priority are you placing on the idea of spending time, one-on-one time with the people around you? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below!

​- jay

Welcome to 2022! And welcome to The Youth Worker Daily!

I started The Youth Worker Daily in 2019. It was my hope to bring youth workers daily tools, tips, resources and helps so that you, as a youth worker, might thrive in your ministry. Through a mix of blog posts and video-based tips, I wanted to encourage youth workers with simple but practical helps that might aid in their work.

So far I've created almost 100 videos and countless blog posts that date back to 2015 when I was writing under my personal domain name of www.JayHigham.com. Along the way I wrote articles for Youth Specialties, Youth Ministry 360 (YM360), Group, and Called to Youth Ministry. For a little while, I oversaw the blog management at Controlled Chaos, a blog and podcast for Middle School Ministry. Then in the middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic, I launched a podcast called, Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers, a podcast that invited youth workers to share their story of youth ministry. During that time, most of the conversations were about how we were surviving ministry while in a historic season of shut downs and stay-at-home orders.

Then 2021 came. Promises of a covid vaccine and hopes of returning to "normal" brought little rays of excitement and anticipation. It was also an opportunity to get back to doing student ministry. It was still touch and go at first, but slowly, we managed to eek out a series of student gatherings; first as small groups, then finally in large group gatherings. During this time, I set aside my extracurricular activities of blogging, vlogging and podcasting to focus on the work at hand; rebuilding our student ministry, our kids ministry, and our college ministry.

But now 2022 is here. And as I get ready to launch our second semester of student ministry, I think we're ready to bring back regular activity to The Youth Worker Daily! God has been super active in our ministry and with our students. While the season of Covid shutdowns and virtual everything was difficult, it brought about the opportunity for us to take a good look at what we were doing in the way of ministry. It was a time to refocus, reinvent, and reenergize. I was reminded of the importance of relationships over programs, personal connections over blast texts and bulk emails, and the power of a conversation versus great social media posts. We learned a lot. I've learned a lot. And now it's time to get back to work.

2022 is going to be an exciting year. Covid aside, I believe we are poised to see God do something amazing. The Youth Worker Daily is back, and with it, more tools, tips, resources and help so you thrive in your ministry! New content, weekly ministry recaps, games and resources, and a look inside what we as a student ministry are doing with our leaders and our students.

I am also looking forward to bringing the podcast back. That's right, Conversations with Every Day Youth Workers will return in February 2022. I love talking with youth workers; listening as they share their stories and what God is doing with their students and within their ministries! But along with these conversations there will also be more interviews and sharing of what's happening within the realm of student ministry. It's going to be great!

So who's ready to see 2022 become a year of growth?

Welcome back to, THE YOUTH WORKER DAILY! We're so glad you're here!

- ythworkerdaily

Before I get into what I learned, you need to know that I had my up's and downs during this time. I felt the weight of failure. I struggled with the feelings of loss. I was frustrated with not being able to be with students. And at times I was envious of other youth workers/ministries whenever I saw pictures on social media of their youth gatherings. I say all of this, because this last year of ministry has been a tough year. However, throughout the year, I forced myself to see beyond my emotions, frustration, and struggles to look for the things that God was trying to show or teach me in this season.

This new series of blogs comes from what I think God was teaching, or at least, reminding me of when it comes to student ministry. I share this with the hope of encouraging you to look beyond whatever hurdles you might have faced, or are continuing to face as you navigate this season of ministry.

I've decided to break these "lessons" into a series of posts to allow space to share clearly. I'll do my best to keep their short and to the point. ​

I know I have talked with a number of youth workers, many of whom shared that this season has been a bit of a challenge, forcing them to evaluate, adjust, and grow in new areas. If that's true of you, I'd love to chat with you! I'd love to hear what you've been learning or experiencing. In the meantime, these posts will post one after the other, starting today. There will be at least 6 in total.

I look forward to hearing from you!

- the youth worker daily