This past week at the Simply Youth Ministry Conference I had the privilege of attending Doug Franklin and Mark Riddle‘s pre-conference seminar, “The Disconnect: Bridging the gap between youth pastor and senior pastor relationships,” titled after Doug’s new book. It was very helpful for me in many ways and I really appreciated the insights Doug and Mark had to share.

I talked with Doug about his book and asked him some questions regarding the topic:

• What common things separate youth and senior pastors?
• How closely aligned do values need to be?
• How can a youth pastor earn trust and respect?
• What does a good relationship look like?

Watch our conversation

This video is my conversation with Doug Franklin about the questions above and several other things that came up while we talked. When you get 6 minutes to watch it, I definitely encourage you to do so.

What you should do with the book

I encourage you to pick up two copies of the book: one for you and one for your senior pastor. Each of you read through your respective chapters and meet once a week to go through the included exercises together. Whether your relationship is currently solid or not, you will definitely learn a lot about each other, about working together, and how to serve the body of Christ better together than you ever have before. (And no, this is not a sponsored review!)

Get it here:

The Disconnect: Bridging the Gap Between Youth Pastor and Senior Pastor Relationships

Win a copy!

I have a copy of Doug’s book to give away to a random person who comments below. Just share what you think commonly leads to a disconnect between youth pastors and senior pastors. Be sure to comment with your real email address so I can get in touch with you if you win. I’ll select a random winner next week on Wednesday, March 16, 2011.

Posted on March 9, 2011