Over the last couple weeks I’ve been soft launching McNutt Ministry Resources, my new resource hub. What is it and why am I doing this?
Basically, I love youth ministry and I love writing and creating resources for youth ministry. Over the last couple decades I’ve written for a number of companies; Youth Specialties, Simply Youth Ministry, Youth Worker Journal, the Journal of Student Ministry, the Youth Cartel, Download Youth Ministry … you get the idea. It brings me energy and I love seeing resources I create for our students be used elsewhere. If you’ve ever visited my Youth Ministry Resources page, you’ll find hundreds of resources that have been published that I’ve created, primarily on Download Youth Ministry.
But I’ve also created resources that don’t really fit in some of those companies’ molds … but I’d still love for them to be available to people to use. I felt like it was overlapping on my personal … I want to use this space to blog, to record family memories, my own thoughts and all of that … I don’t want it to just be a commercial for something else. So McNutt Ministry Resources was born!
It can now be the home for resources, coaching, speaking, physical media … ministry resources built on decades of experience and proven in the field. I hope it’s helpful for others!
What’s with the logo? I’m glad you asked. It’s an open door. I’ve always said my goal in youth ministry was to graduate fully equipped disciples able to feed themselves spiritually. It’s a textbook answer but it’s also very real. Our church’s mission is very similar; introduce people to Jesus Christ and help them follow Him. A few years ago, though, I had a realization: I have a second goal or mission in student ministry, to keep the door open to relationships with young people no matter what. I want a kid to feel like they can still come to me no matter what mistakes they make, I want them to know there is nothing they can do that will close the door to us caring about them, wanting to connect with them, wanting to hear from them. I don’t ever want to lose the opportunity of having a voice in someone’s life because I was too harsh, too judgmental, too legalistic. Sometimes it means I err too far on the side of grace, but I would far rather be accused of that than of closing the door on a relationship with a young person. As one of my core values as a youth pastor, that open door symbol just made sense for the logo. It feels right.
So there you have it. If you’re interested in the youth ministry side of things, you can follow McNutt Ministry Resources on Facebook and Instagram. And if you want to keep up with my book reviews, family news, and nerdy thoughts on Star Trek … keep coming back to this blog.