This Youth Leader's Coach deals with one of your most crucial roles in youth ministry, but probably one we haven't given a great deal of thought to. I've entitled it, "Questions To Ask Before They Buy The Ring." It's my way to help you avoid a high percentage of engagement disasters.

In all honesty, most people put more reasoned thought into the choice of a car or a home than they do into their choice of a lifelong mate. So I share with you, ten simple questions that you can ask your seriously dating single adults before they "pop the big question." Feel free to make several copies of this Youth Leader's Coach and hand them out to students early in the game when serious relationships are beginning to emerge. These simple ten questions will give invaluable specifics to help cut through the fantasy world of a "Cinderella romance."

Happy listening! This Youth Leader's Coach may someday save one of your students from a tragic mistake. So please take it seriously.

Remembering that "Puppy love...leads to a dog's life!"

Do a youth service on anything connected to romance or love, and suddenly you have the whole room captive to your words! Maybe it's because romance and love are presented to this culture in such ethereal and unrealistic ways. After all, the movies and music of today's youth culture rarely focus on "The Unlovely Side Of Love."

But in this Source, I attempt to share with my gang a more biblical and realistic look at true love. It's a love that 1 Corinthians 13 reminds us "does not demand its own way." It's a love that flies in the face of this generation's "me-centered" version. And most of all, it's a love that makes the Author of Love smile. So grab a cup of coffee and join me at a youth service. I'm really glad you showed up!

Yours for a REALISTIC look at love,

In this Youth Leader's Coach I get to deal with one of my favorite topics, "Cultivating A Healthy Marriage While Doing Youth Ministry." Not a glamorous title, but unfortunately a topic so strategic that it's taken a whole lot of great people out of ministry.

Success for me is that "Those who know me best, love me most," and at the top of the list is my amazing husband and sons. But so often the relationships in your life that are the most precious, with the passing of time, become the most familiar. So in this Youth Leader's Coach I share 10 things that I have learned to keep my marriage a healthy and fulfilling one while in the youth ministry trenches. Even if you're not married, listening to this will help you understand the priorities of your leaders who are and help to prepare you for the day that you too may share your life and ministry with a spouse.

Lovingly,

In life most of us deal with or have dealt with what I call "the compulsion for completion." We tell ourselves, "When I find the right person, I'll be complete." However, truth be told, our emptiness is not so much a case of a missing person, but a missing purpose.

What's the solution? It lies in choosing to follow the specific three step process God set in motion long ago with Adam and Eve. Following it can keep us from sliding into the abyss of continually trying to complete ourselves in others when completion can only be found in Him and Him alone.

Curious as to what the three step process is? I hope so. Grab a cup of coffee and jump back in time to "In the beginning..." Through a shocking news clipping, funny drama, great video and a story that could make a grown man cry, we'll challenge students "not to awaken love before it's time."

Lovingly,

The sad tragedy is that no one ever teaches you how to be a parent until it's almost too late and you have kids. No one teaches you how to handle finances until you get in a big mess. Perhaps more importantly, no one ever teaches you how to affair-proof your marriage until long after you've said "I do" and someone has crossed a line. Unfortunately, I think sometimes we plan more carefully for birthday parties and Christmas celebrations than we do our future marriage. Statistics tells us that 2/3 of married men and 1/2 of married women in America will have at least one affair in their marriage. How heart wrenching!

In this Source, "Affair-Proofing Your Future Marriage," we repeatedly remind students that "dating is just dress rehearsal for marriage." And, if we step into infidelity traps while dating, there is a high probability we will in marriage as well. So, using a fun video, a memorable story and God's Word, we take the opportunity on this night to teach students how to "affair-proof" themselves, their lifestyle, and their future spouses. Equipping our kids now has the potential to save a whole lot of dating and marriage heartache later.

Lovingly,