Purpose: To pour into youth pastors from under-resourced inner-city churches providing accountability, support, training, and resources.

Description: One-on-one, life-on-life with our local church youth ministers… one of our seasoned youth ministry veterans meets weekly with a local church youth minister to provide...

• Training on the formulation of vision, mission, strategy, and tactics (programming) for youth ministry
• Teaching on time management, balance, goals setting, and planning & prepare.
• Teaching on how to recruit, train, equip, and encourage adults within their churches and communities to get involved with youth
• Training on how to effectively execute ministry and build essential relationships within the public school system (See GRIP the School)
• Resources, tools, video, curriculum, etc. from within GRIP as well as amongst other sources
• One-on-one relationships of accountability and transparency for spiritual growth.

WHY YOUTH PASTOR CARE? - Unfortunately, most local urban church youth programs and youth pastors are severely under-resourced. In many instances, the local church cannot afford to have a youth pastor on its payroll. As a result, youth pastors are often working a day job to support their families and then give whatever time they have left over to their youth ministries. Balancing their time with the Lord, their wives, their own kids, their jobs, and then their youth ministries can be extremely taxing, and all too often the end result is burn-out.

Tactically, inner-city youth pastors are also often overburdened. From planning and preparing to executing all of their curriculum, teachings, Bible studies, mentorship, in-home visits, and out-reach activities, many youth pastors, typically, end up doing “everything” themselves. The “lone ranger” approach again often results in the premature burn-out of good youth ministers. The end result is that our at-risk youth--whom so often depend on their youth pastor as their father-figure--continue to fall through the cracks.