Instead of New Year's resolutions let's talk about a youth ministry revolution.

Year's ago I devoured Mark Senter's classic book, The Coming Revolution in Youth Ministry. In it he predicted a transformation of the way youth ministry is done. He predicted a massive re-ordering of youth ministry back to the ways of the early church.

This outstanding book was written in 1992 but, sadly, we're all still waiting for the revolution to come. If anything youth ministry seems like it has become more and more institutionalized over the last 27 years or so since Senter's book was written.

It's that time of year where Alice Cooper weeps (school is no longer out for the summer), parents rejoice and teenagers have to start getting up early again.

Back to school is back with a vengeance and everyone, especially youth leaders, have been scrambling! Programs are being perfected! Curriculum is being purchased! Adults are being recruited!

But, even in the midst of all the Fall kickoff mayhem, back-to-school can be a great time to get back to the basics of youth ministry. These basics are rooted in Scripture and absolutely necessary for true spiritual transformation.

With this as a backdrop, here are 5 surprisingly simple ways to make a gigantic spiritual impact on your teens this school year:

Basic #1:  Cover them in prayer.

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,  for which I am an ambassadorin chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should."  Ephesians 6:18-20

1-2 Punch Combo: "A combination of two blows delivered in rapid succession in boxing, especially a left lead followed by a right cross"...or..."An especially forceful or effective combination or sequence of two things."

"When Sanballat heard that we were building the wall of Jerusalem, he was very angry and upset. He started making fun of the Jews.  Sanballat talked with his friends and the army at Samaria and said, 'What are these weak Jews doing? Do they think we will leave them alone? Do they think they will offer sacrifices? Maybe they think they can finish building in only one day. They cannot bring stones back to life from these piles of trash and dirt. These are just piles of ashes and dirt!'” Nehemiah 4:1,2

When Nehemiah began to rebuild the broken down walls around Jerusalem a few naysaysers began to say "nay!" They yelled "nay!" to Nehemiah's vision of restoring Jerusalem to it's former glory, "nay!" to bringing the scattered Jews back to Jerusalem and "nay!" to helping this city on a hill shine the glory of God to the nations like it once did.

There is a lot of confusion in this culture today over gender and sexual identity issues. There is a lot of head scratching in the church, as well. But God’s Word brings clarity where the world and religion often brings a fog.

We're only six days into the New Year and, so far, I'm loving the Read Scripture app. To be honest, I had never heard of it before. But a good friend, Doug Holliday, recommended it to me a few weeks ago. I downloaded it and, on January 1st, started using it.

I've been hearing it more and more as I talk to youth leaders across the nation.

Many youth leaders are struggling with "youth group drama." A hyper-sensitive clique of girls is mad at a insensitive clique of sarcastic boys (or vice-verse or mix-n-match.) Sides are taken. Words are spoken. Words are hurled. Feelings are hurt.

Those of us involved in reaching and discipling teenagers have inherited a box labeled "Youth Ministry." There's a lot of great stuff in the box that's been left to us by our youth ministry forefathers.

We've all read the scary statistics of teenagers who evacuate their Christian faith after they graduate from high school. I've read statistics as high as 85% and some as low as 50%. But regardless of the actual number all of us can agree that any is too many! We want as many of our teenagers' faith as possible to, not just survive, but to thrive long after they leave high school!

I love youth leaders. And, although I get to train thousands of them all across the nation every year, one of my favorite things is learning from them. Many youth leaders have great and effective strategies that they're implementing to create the most impacting youth group programs possible. 

With this as a backdrop, here are 7 simple ideas youth leaders from across the nation have shared with me that will help improve your youth ministry program: