Recently White Horse Inn and The Gospel Coalition ran a series of posts on youth ministry which are well worth your consideration:

Generation Me and Youth Ministry Today: Part One – White Horse Inn
And so it has become increasingly easy for one to go from the nursery to children’s church to youth group and on to college ministry without having actually belonged to the local church. Young people may still drive with their family to the church campus, but from the parking lot they scatter to their own target-marketed groups. For many, the church is more a cafeteria of ministry offerings than a communion of saints.

Generation Me and Youth Ministry Today: Part Two – White Horse Inn
What we believe, why believe it, and why it matters for our lives: these are always the coordinates that we have to keep in mind together especially as people enter emerging adulthood.

A Brief History of Youth Ministry – Dave Wright (via The Gospel Coalition)
To get an idea of where we have come from, let’s turn back the clock more than a half century. Space here only allows the broadest overview….

MTD: Not Just a Problem with Youth Ministry – Brian Cosby (via The Gospel Coalition)
That a youth ministry “teaches the Bible” does not necessarily mean it teaches the gospel. Many mistake the gospel with moralism—being a good person, reading your Bible, or opening the door for the elderly in order to earn God’s favor. But the gospel is altogether different.

Youth Ministry’s Tendency Toward Legalism – Cameron Cole (via The Gospel Coalition)
Based on my experience in youth ministry, if I had to identify the greatest theological problem in the field, it would be the absence of the gospel in teaching on sanctification.

Youth Need the Church, and the Church Needs Youth – Mark Howard (via The Gospel Coalition) My prayer is that as we minister to a generation starving for meaning, we won’t lose sight of the reality that what these youth need is Jesus, and that he is most fully offered within the community of the church, of which they are a vital part.

Why We Need Youth Ministry – Paul Martin (via The Gospel Coalition)
Jesus modeled one of the best practices for the church. His discipleship did not depend on the latest book, the newest game, or the best icebreaker. Instead, his model relied on the spiritual health of the leader, and his willingness to spend time investing himself, his love, and his truth in them.

Two-Dimensional Youth Ministry – Dave Wright (via The Gospel Coalition)
Several years ago, in trying to simplify my teaching on youth ministry, I boiled it down to two dimensions: content and context.