Back in January I wrote about a new youth ministry twist on YouTube for me and how my vlogging has opened up a flood of ministry opportunities I never anticipated. There are so many teens online who are craving for personal connection with someone they can trust who will give them advice about the issues they’re experiencing every day.

My YouTube inbox was filling up with teens asking questions and looking for help. Although I can write each one back personally, there’s probably many other teens out there going through the same issue who could benefit from the advice. Similarly to the way Ministry Questions got started, instead of locking my responses up in a private communication on YouTube, I decided to crowd-source it and open it up to the YouTube community at large in hopes of helping many more students.

Announcing Youth Questions

Thus came my new YouTube channel, Youth Questions. I’ll let the video below explain what it’s all about.

Thanks to several other youth workers I know who are active on YouTube, we were able to pull off our first video called, “Advice for feeling depressed,” in response to a student-submitted question.

How you can join us

But the five of us in that video can’t do it every week nor are we even experienced enough to share on the wide variety of questions that teenagers are asking. So I’m looking for other youth workers to join us in answering these questions.

Each week I’ll send out an email to the list of youth workers who want to participate. I’ll include the question we’ll be addressing in the next week’s video and you’ll have a couple days to shoot a response and send it to me.

What it takes

It doesn’t take much except knowing how to use a camera and a couple minutes of your time.

It takes…

• A heart that absolutely loves teens and is willing to risk vulnerability on YouTube.
• A video camera (a Flip or even your iPhone 4 will work fine).
• A minute or two to sit down and record yourself answering the question.
• Sending the video to me through a web form I provide (very simple to use).

What it looks like

This is our first video answering a teen’s question about feeling depressed. It’ll give you a sense of what the finished product of your video submission might look like.

Sign-up!

I don’t expect everyone to submit something every week, which is why I’d like to build a solid team of youth workers who are willing to jump in when the question is right up their alley or when they have the time to participate.

Just comment below saying you’d to be added to the list. Use whatever email address in the comment form that you want me to use on the list and I’ll get you signed up.

Youth Questions online

Youth Questions is on social media, of course. Connect with us here:

• Facebook.com/YouthQuestions
• Twitter.com/YouthQuestions
• YouTube.com/YouthQuestions

Spread the word!

We’d love to help as many teenagers as possible, so please help us spread the word about the Youth Questions YouTube channel at youtube.com/youthquestions! Thanks!

Posted on March 28, 2011