Beyond the Youth Room

Beyond the Youth Room
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to the Beyond the Youth Room Podcast, where we help equip student ministry leaders and volunteers to train students to take the Gospel to their schools, communities, and peers!

  1. 13h ago

    What 325 Salvations Taught Us About Growing New Believers

    ⚡Take the Evangelism Challenge 🔥 Join Our CommunityWhat do you do after a student trusts Christ? Over the last few years, we’ve seen more than 325 students profess faith in Jesus—and it exposed some major gaps in how we were doing new believer follow-up.In this episode of Beyond the Youth Room, we share five lessons we’ve learned about youth ministry discipleship, new believer follow-up, discipling students, helping new Christians read the Bible, and creating clear next steps after salvation.We talk about what happens when students come to Christ faster than your youth ministry is prepared to disciple them, why you can’t assume new believers know the basics of Christianity, and why simply telling a student to “read your Bible and keep coming to youth group” isn’t enough.We also walk through some of the practical things we now use with new believers, including study Bibles, a New Believer Guide, a Bible reading plan, follow-up conversations, and a system for tracking spiritual milestones.Plus, we talk about what to do when students fall away, the Parable of the Sower, and why youth pastors should measure both the number of disciples they’re making and the kind of disciples they’re becoming.If your youth ministry is serious about evangelism, you also need a plan for what comes next.00:00 325+ Students Trusted Christ06:52 5 Lessons About New Believers11:26 Disciples Are Handmade, Not Mass Produced14:55 New Believers Need Clear Next Steps21:16 What About Students Who Fall Away?25:03 Measure Quantity AND Quality26:54 Building Evangelism Into Your Youth Ministry

  2. 5d ago

    5 Things We Don't Do in Our Youth Ministry

    ⚡Take the Evangelism Challenge🔥 Join Our CommunityThere are a lot of youth ministry “best practices” that youth pastors are simply expected to follow. But are they actually helping us make disciples?Over the years, we’ve stopped doing several things that are extremely common in youth ministry and student ministry. Some of these were practices we used to believe in ourselves. In this video, I’m breaking down five things we do differently in our youth ministry, why we changed our approach, and what we’ve learned along the way.If you’re a youth pastor, student pastor, or youth ministry leader thinking through discipleship, student leadership, outreach, youth ministry events, evangelism, and how to structure your student ministry, I hope this challenges you to think beyond simply doing something because “that’s how youth ministry is done.”The goal isn’t to copy our ministry. It’s to ask a better question: Why are we doing what we’re doing?00:00 5 Things We Do Differently00:23 We Don't Give Prizes for Spiritual Things03:29 We Don't Have a Student Leadership Team07:55 We Don't Design Around Convenience10:37 We Don't Use Events for Outreach13:36 We Don't Ask Students What They Want

  3. Sep 29

    How to Actually Share the Gospel as a Youth Pastor

    ⚡Take the Evangelism Challenge 🔥 Join Our Community Sermon: https://youtu.be/kSSCEqwsuJU?is=Ne7bitCkVKubjVHf How do you actually share the gospel as a youth pastor? And how do you create a culture of evangelism in your youth ministry where students are regularly hearing and sharing the gospel?In this episode of Beyond the Youth Room, we talk about youth ministry evangelism, gospel conversations, how to share the gospel with students, training students to evangelize, and how we give gospel invitations at youth group. Whether you’re a youth pastor trying to get better at personal evangelism or looking for practical ways to make evangelism part of your student ministry, this episode gives you a simple framework you can actually use.Using Acts 26 and Paul’s conversation with King Agrippa, we break down the ABCs of evangelism:A — Assume people are interestedB — Build bridges, not wallsC — Convert a first downWe also talk about how we share the gospel with first-time students, how we give an invitation every week, and why every youth pastor needs to personally practice the evangelism we’re asking our students to do.If you want to build a more evangelistic youth ministry, start by making gospel conversations normal—for you and your students. 00:00 Sharing the Gospel as a Youth Pastor 03:01 The ABCs of Evangelism 05:06 A — Assume People Are Interested 11:58 B — Build Bridges, Not Walls 16:51 C — Convert a First Down 20:29 Building Evangelism Into Your Youth Ministry 25:01 How We Give Gospel Invitations

  4. Sep 24

    How I Prepare a Youth Sermon From Start to Finish.

    ⚡Take Our FREE Evangelism Challenge 🔥 Join Our Community Filled with FREE ResourcesHow do you write a youth sermon that is biblical, engaging, and actually connects with teenagers? Sermon writing and sermon preparation can be one of the hardest parts of youth ministry, especially when you’re preaching every week.In this video, I’m taking you behind the scenes of my youth sermon prep process and showing you how I prepare a message for our students each week. We’ll talk about studying Scripture, sermon structure, preaching to teenagers, keeping students engaged, sermon illustrations, application, small group questions, and even how AI can fit into sermon preparation.Whether you’re a youth pastor, student pastor, or youth ministry leader, this is a practical look at how I approach writing and preparing youth sermons week after week.If you’re looking for practical youth ministry ideas, resources, and conversations to help you become a better youth pastor, subscribe to Beyond the Youth Room.00:00 How I Write a Youth Sermon03:16 Study the Passage in Logos05:06 Build the Sermon Outline09:10 Write the Sermon12:33 Build the Slides15:50 Write Discussion Questions17:03 Prep the Small Group Leaders

  5. Sep 22

    We Planned Our Entire Youth Ministry Year. Here’s What We’re Doing

    ⚡Take the Evangelism Challenge 🔥 Join Our CommunityWhat should you actually do in your youth ministry this year? We just finished planning our full youth ministry calendar, and we’re sharing all of it: youth group events, sermon series ideas, summer camp, winter camp, outreach events, discipleship, evangelism, middle school ministry, high school ministry, and more.If you’re a youth pastor looking for youth ministry ideas or trying to plan your youth group calendar, take whatever is helpful and use it. We’ll walk through the events we’re doing, what we’re teaching on Wednesday nights, how we choose youth ministry sermon series, and a few things we’re changing from previous years.We talk Silent Disco, Friendsgiving, Christmas parties, Middle School Summit, Spring Chickens, Color Wars, summer camp, mission trips, apologetics, Proverbs, relationships, parables, and more.We also get into why we don’t want to become an event-driven youth ministry, how we decide what our students need to be taught, and how evangelism and discipleship shape the calendar.Take what works for your students and your church!00:00 Our Entire Youth Ministry Year03:08 Events Without Becoming Event-Driven06:10 Our Events for the Year21:26 Our Sermon Series for the Year33:06 How We Decide What to Teach35:14 Free Youth Ministry Resources

  6. Sep 17 ·  Bonus

    I Surveyed My Students About Their Faith. Here’s What I Learned.

    ⚡Take the Evangelism Challenge 👉 https://www.generationunashamed.org/kits🔥 Join Our Community: https://www.skool.com/beyondtheyouthroom/aboutHow do you know if your youth ministry is actually making disciples? We surveyed more than 130 students in our student ministry about their spiritual growth, Bible reading, Scripture memorization, prayer, church attendance, discipleship, evangelism, and Gospel sharing—and the results challenged how we think about youth ministry.In this episode of Beyond the Youth Room, we share five lessons from our student faith survey that every youth pastor and student ministry leader should consider. We talk about measuring spiritual growth in youth ministry, building an effective student discipleship strategy, training teenagers in spiritual disciplines, developing student leaders, creating a culture of evangelism, and helping students become disciples who make disciples.The survey didn’t just show us where our students were spiritually—it exposed areas of our youth ministry strategy that needed to change.We discuss why you are what you measure, the difference between teaching students and training them, why our Sunday morning strategy is working, what evangelism data taught us about investing in students who are ready to go, and why we realized we weren’t calling our students to enough.If you’re a youth pastor, student pastor, youth ministry leader, or volunteer who wants to develop spiritually mature students and build a stronger discipleship culture, this episode will give you practical questions to ask about your own ministry.00:00 We Surveyed Our Students About Their Faith00:33 What Is an A.L.I.V.E. Disciple?02:10 Zero Students Met the Benchmark03:49 #1: You Are What You Measure07:26 #2: We Were Teaching Too Much, Training Too Little12:02 #3: Our Sunday Morning Strategy Is Working16:01 #4: The Parables Are Still True19:25 #5: We Weren’t Calling Students to Enough

  7. Sep 15

    How to Build a Youth Ministry in a Church Plant | ft. Brandon Hembree

    ⚡Take the Evangelism Challenge 👉 https://www.generationunashamed.org/kits🔥 Join Our Community: https://www.skool.com/beyondtheyouthroom/aboutHow do you build a youth ministry from scratch—especially in a church plant? In this episode of Beyond the Youth Room, church planter and former youth pastor Brandon Hembree joins us to talk about youth ministry, church planting, discipleship, evangelism, student ministry, leadership development, and building a healthy youth ministry without relying on programs, buildings, or big budgets.Brandon spent 10 years in youth ministry before becoming a church planter, giving him a unique perspective on how much the two worlds have in common. He explains why church planting doesn’t begin with a worship service—it begins with sharing the Gospel, making disciples, developing leaders, and multiplying those disciples.That same mindset can reshape the way we think about student ministry. Instead of starting with events, programs, or everything a “normal” youth ministry is supposed to have, what if we started by asking how we can make disciples of teenagers?We also talk about the challenges of doing youth ministry in a church plant, including limited space, smaller budgets, fewer resources, and the pressure to recreate the programs of larger churches. Brandon explains why those challenges don’t have to be limitations—and how starting small can actually force you to focus on what matters most.Finally, we talk about why youth pastors can make great church planters, how to know if God may be calling you toward church planting, and what youth ministry leaders can begin doing now to prepare for whatever God calls them to next.If you’re a youth pastor, student pastor, church planter, next-gen leader, or youth ministry volunteer, this conversation will challenge you to think beyond programs and build your ministry around the Great Commission, Gospel evangelism, disciple-making, multiplication, and developing leaders.CHAPTERS0:00 Starting a Youth Ministry From Scratch3:02 Meet Brandon Hembree8:22 Why Church Planting?15:00 What Youth Ministry Can Learn From Church Planting18:05 Building Youth Ministry From Scratch28:15 Should Youth Pastors Consider Church Planting?35:36 Prioritizing Youth Ministry in a Church Plant41:19 Encouragement When Your Ministry Is Small

  8. Sep 8

    Gen Alpha Isn’t Gen Z. Here’s Why That Matters | Shane Pruitt & Dr. Shelly Melia

    ⚡Take the Evangelism Challenge 👉 https://www.generationunashamed.org/kits🔥 Join Our Community: https://www.skool.com/beyondtheyouthroom/aboutGen Alpha isn’t Gen Z—and youth pastors need to understand what makes this generation different. In this episode of Beyond the Youth Room, Shane Pruitt and Dr. Shelly Melia, authors of Reaching Generation Alpha, join us to talk about Gen Alpha, youth ministry, student discipleship, evangelism, technology, social media, and what it looks like to reach the next generation with the Gospel.Gen Alpha is growing up in a world where algorithms, social media, AI, and technology are shaping how they think about truth, relationships, identity, and even God. Shane and Shelly explain why this makes Generation Alpha distinct from Gen Z and what youth pastors and student ministry leaders need to understand about the students they’re discipling.We also talk about why every student is already being discipled by something, the need for “less monologue and more dialogue” in youth ministry, and how leaders can help students develop a biblical worldview rather than simply absorbing what they see online.The conversation also gets practical about partnering with parents, creating space for students to ask hard questions, teaching theology, encouraging evangelism, and helping teenagers actually live out their faith.If you’re a youth pastor, student pastor, next-gen leader, children’s ministry leader, or parent, this episode will help you better understand Gen Alpha and think intentionally about discipleship in a rapidly changing culture.CHAPTERS 0:00 Gen Alpha Isn’t Gen Z4:42 Who Is Generation Alpha?6:26 What Makes Gen Alpha Different?12:42 How Technology Is Shaping Gen Alpha23:18 Less Monologue, More Dialogue29:35 Gen Alpha & Screen Time32:40 Equipping Parents to Disciple Gen Alpha38:52 What About Generation Beta?42:25 Are We Seeing a Spiritual Awakening?44:21 What Gen Alpha Needs From the Church

See All (185)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Welcome to the Beyond the Youth Room Podcast, where we help equip student ministry leaders and volunteers to train students to take the Gospel to their schools, communities, and peers!

Information

  • Creator
    Beyond the Youth Room
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    185
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Beyond the Youth Room
  • Show Website
    Beyond the Youth Room

You Might Also Like