I had the privilege of coaching a few years of high school basketball and soccer. Having grown up playing many sports, I hated halftime, it just meant time away from the competition (though I did love the orange-wedges during soccer games). But as a coach, I LOVED halftime. Not only did it provide a breather for the athletes, it gave me the opportunity to encourage and make necessary adjustments to the game-plan if needed.

As a youth pastor, I LOVED Christmas break for similar reasons. During the two week break from regular programming, I took the time to individually encourage the team (leadership team, parents, students), but I also used the time to assess the game-plan and ask some key questions.

In this post I’d like to provide you five questions that perhaps you can ask yourself… be warned, if you take the questions seriously, you just may change your ministry (and this may not be a bad thing).

1. If were on medical leave for two months, what would happen to the ministry?
2. If the way I modeled peer outreach (how you reach out to the unchurched in your age bracket) were the only example students were following, what would your student ministry look like?
3. If you could not repeat a single camp, retreat, mission or event from 2012 what would we do differently in 2013?
4. If you could not use electronic/social media in 2013, how could your ministry improve?
5. If you were not allowed to publicly teach (preach, give the “talk,” etc.) or lead the Bible Study, but could disciple those students, leaders and parents who were, what would the ministry look like in 2013?

My prayer for 2013 is that “youth ministry” in the US gets more personal, more creative, more relational and that students, leaders and parents discover their gifts, talents and skills and are given the opportunity to exercise these attributes! Maybe 2013 needs to be a year of risk?

Get ready, the second half is about to begin!

Grace,

Brian