Youth Ministry Booster
Welcome to the Youth Ministry Booster podcast! The most honest and hilarious podcast in student ministry. Hosted by Zac Workun and Chad Higgins. We are the biggest fans of youth ministry leaders like you! We are here for you with the humor and the help to engage, entertain, equip, and encourage. Youth ministry is better together. Learn more @ http://www.youthministrybooster.com
Episodes
Youth ministry can feel like a holy adrenaline rush. Packed rooms. Camp. Baptisms. Students responding to the gospel. The next Wednesday night is always coming.
But what happens when you start needing the ministry as much as the ministry needs you?
Dane Leake joins Zac for an unusually honest conversation about burnout, mental health, identity, and the hidden cost of chasing the next ministry high.
Dane shares the stor...
“We’re good, just busy” might be the most common sentence in American family life, and it’s reshaping what people can realistically say yes to.
It's become the default answer for families, pastors, and church leaders. And when everyone feels stretched thin, youth ministry can easily respond by either adding more programming or blaming sports, school, and extracurricular activities for st...
Student ministry has always adapted to changing culture.
The message never changes.
Sometimes the methods need to.
In this episode, Zac Workun and Chad Higgins ask an important question:
Today's students aren't disengaged...they're simply communicating the way they've been formed to communicate.
From AIM away messages and Facebook walls to Snapchat, group chats, Twitch streams, and endless scrolling, every generation lea...
Time is limited. Your calling isn't.
Camp season leaves most youth pastors physically exhausted, emotionally stretched, and mentally staring at an already-full fall calendar. In this episode of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast, Zac and Chad begin with some hilarious camp memories before asking a much more important question:
Why do we always feel like we're running out of time?
This conversation isn't another p...
What if the biggest threat to your youth ministry isn't a lack of volunteers, budget, or attendance... but your own exhaustion?
In this episode of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast, Zac Workun sits down with Dr. Jody Dean (New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary) for an honest conversation about burnout, sustainability, and staying faithful for the long haul. Drawing from decades of ministry, mentoring, and leaders...
What if we've been measuring youth ministry by the wrong scoreboard?
Attendance matters. Camp decisions matter. Great programming matters. But Jesus didn't commission us to create busy ministries—He commissioned us to make disciples.
Recorded live at SBC 2026, Zac Workun sits down with Dr. Jason Engle to explore one of the most important conversations every youth pastor needs to have: What does spiritual maturit...
What if the greatest measure of success in youth ministry isn't getting students to graduation...
...it's what happens after they leave?
Every youth pastor has watched it happen. A student who was faithful all through high school slowly disappears during their first semester of college. Rarely is it one dramatic decision. More often it's loneliness, distraction, isolation, and never learning how to follow Jesus withou...
Teenagers are drowning in noise, and most of them don’t have the brain bandwidth or life experience to sort it all out yet. From the SBC 2026 exhibit hall, we talk with Dr. Kristen Kellen about what it looks like to counsel teens faithfully when anxiety, comparison, and overwhelm feel like the background music of adolescence.
If you've ever wondered:
"Am I doing enough for struggling students?"
"When shou...
Gen Alpha Is Here. Is Your Ministry Ready?
The students walking into your ministry today have never known life without smartphones, algorithms, or instant access to the world.
They're also asking bigger questions than many churches are prepared to answer.
In this episode Zac Workun sits down with Dr. Shelly Melia at SBC2026 to discuss what makes Generation Alpha unique,and why youth ministry may need to rethink some of...
This episode wraps up our three-part conversation with Dr. David Odom on Deconstructing Youth Ministry and offers a timely reminders for youth ministry friends.
The future of youth ministry doesn't hinge on doing more. It depends on becoming the kind of leader who can faithfully serve for longer.
🎙️ In this episode:
- Why working harder isn't the answer
- The hidden cost of ministry without margin
- Red flags that r...
Before we know it, youth ministry can become really good at running events—and not as effective at making disciples.
In Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. David Odom and Deconstructing Youth Ministry, we tackle one of the biggest questions facing churches today.
How do we build student ministries that produce lasting faith, not just busy calendars?
We explore why teenagers today are both different and surpri...
What actually makes a youth ministry fruitful? Bigger crowds? Flashier events? Viral moments? In this episode Zac sits down with JP Black to wrestle honestly with those questions: presence, not popularity.
From the moment you walk into JP’s student building—covered in photos, memories, and a “Trophy Wall of Awesome”—you can feel a culture of belonging. But the real transformation d...
Youth Ministry Deconstructed with David Odom | What If We've Been Doing Youth Ministry Wrong?
Have we built youth ministries that attract students… but struggle to form lasting faith?
In this first episode of a 3 part series of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast, Zac Workun sits down with Dr. David Odom from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and author of Youth Ministry Deconstructed, for a conv...
And we're back! Back in Nashville that is!
Zac and Chad sit down with Kyle Wilshire to talk about why youth ministry has to move past keeping students busy and doing and start forming students who go and live sent.
We unpack the Great Commission, what mission trips can and cannot do, and how to build everyday courage for gospel conversations in real life and online.
Pickup Kyle's book "GO" here
In a di...
When a student walked into the office during the pandemic asking whether his father would live long enough for a transplant, it exposed a gap many youth pastors feel but rarely name: we can teach Scripture and organize programs, but do we know how to shepherd teenagers when fear, grief, and uncertainty overwhelm them?
We sit down with Dr. Randy Jackson to talk about a gospel-shaped approach to soul care that equips p...
Which snack would you like to popsicle?
In this episode, Chad Daugherty joins Zac and the crew for a conversation that starts with dad-life fitness in the “llama lift lair” and ends with a practical blueprint for building a healthy, sustainable volunteer culture.
Let's talk about the wild world of Gen Alpha — deodorant before rec, ball pumps on standby, and a suspicious loyalty ...
What if your calendar didn’t own your ministry — but served it?
Welcome to the podcast garage Amanda Mejias! Lifeway Specialist for Girls' Ministry and Women in Youth Ministry. Check this pastoral note: We to need to make the move from submission (giving in after the fight) to surrender (choosing trust before the fight begins).
In this episode, Zac and Amanda unpack a simple, repeatable framework to audit ...
Trade the contemporary hype for a deep concern with holiness!
What if your youth ministry felt unmistakably sacred and still radically welcoming?
In this episode of Youth Ministry Booster, Zac Workun sits down with Ribbin Dorado to explore a youth ministry model built on formation over frenzy, one that helps teenagers love the church they’re actually growing into.
Together, we unpack a fresh durable, and re...
Well well look who just sledded into town! Hi Joseph Kellogg!
"Presence rises above parties every time."
Joseph traces how one ordinary moment in a youth ministry service became a lifetime of discipling teenagers—with humility, consistency, and deep trust in what God does when leaders simply show up.
We talk about Pre-iPhone youth ministry to the post-Christian reality: what’s actually changed (and wh...
New Year, New Episode.
Welcome special guest Wyatt Pennington everybody! A new father, emerging and awesome youth ministry leader Wyatt walks us through a practical reframe: treat parents as partners, not an inbox. He details quarterly parent nights that include worship, teaching for adults, prayer, and a genuine response, plus simple series-based resources that turn “What did you learn?” into real conver...
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