In this Youth Leader's Coach I am hitting on the number one defining characteristic of a youth ministry that makes deep impact in students' lives. This is the characteristic of "David-Jonathan Youth Ministry." People ask me all the time for the "how-tos" of running a successful youth ministry. But the bottom line of youth ministry, far beyond the "how-tos," is what I'm sharing with you today. Relational discipleship takes the hard work and creative ideas in your youth ministry to a whole new level. Without it, youth ministry really can become hollow.

Let me share three prayers taken from the story of David and Jonathan that have set the focus of my own youth ministry. This focus is not on all the bells and whistles, though they are cool and often essential, but rather on building relational bridges to the hearts of the students that we then simply let Jesus walk across. I often like to say "inch by inch youth ministry's a cinch; yard by yard youth ministry's hard." Together we will take one inch at a time towards a youth ministry defined by the spirit of David and Jonathan.

Doing youth ministry one inch at a time,