• Youth pastors can help bring positive change to the lives of students.teenager am meer image by Thomas St??ber from Fotolia.com
  
  Effective youth pastors have the ability to encourage the talents and abilities in the young people of the church, while challenging the students into paths of rewarding personal growth. Having a wide supply of resources can assist youth pastors in fostering fresh ideas and angles for curriculum and team building needs while pushing for positive change in the lives of his or her church youth members.
  
  

Bible Studies

• Bible studies can include topics on scripture itself, biblical geography or culture and life issues. Online commentaries, video libraries and stories about how today’s youth deal positively with life changes can assist the youth pastor in structuring the content and slant of the study. Websites such as “Youth Pastor,” Calvin College’s “Christian Classic Ethereal Library” and the “Institute for Creation Research” all contain a wide genre of information to add facts, depths or interesting angles to a bible study. For example, the “Youth Pastor” website breaks its categories down in alphabetical order by the name of the online resource it indexes. The youth pastor can search for things related to the bible with the keyword search function. The Institute for Creation Research offers scientific studies and findings.
  
  

Team Building

• Part of training young people is to teach them how to work in teams to achieve a common goal. Youth pastors have the students participate in team-building exercises to build confidence, help the youth enhance communication skills or to promote positive debate involving critical thinking. Games, historical re-enactments, exercises that involve chance and “what-if” elements, deadlines and memorization all encourage the development of these skills. Team-building exercises can involve props and take place in door or outdoors depending on the scenario.
  
  

Counseling

• A wise youth pastor will keep up to date on the current issues facing young people, especially the specific issues the youth in his or her classes are currently facing. Staying knowledgeable in spiritual counseling techniques can help the youth pastor address techniques the students can use to tackle issues they face outside the classroom. Resources come in the form of books like “Handbook on Counseling Youth,” “Sex has a Price Tag,” “Why Christian Kids Leave the Faith” and “Why True Love Waits: A Definitive Book on How to Help Your Youth Resist Sexual Pressure.” Online resources come in the from education and networking sources.