Hi — I'm Dr. Hines. I've spent the better part of two decades in youth ministry, leading student groups that ranged from 20 students to 800. Sunday nights, summer camps, lock-ins, hospital visits, the text you send a kid who suddenly went quiet — I've lived all of it.
Why Stronghold exists
Here's what nobody warns you about: the bigger the ministry gets, the more of your week disappears into logistics. Rosters. Permission slips. Group texts. The mental math of who hasn't shown up in three weeks. I loved the students; I did not love drowning in spreadsheets to keep track of them.
I built Stronghold to fix the exact problems I kept running into — a place where your students, attendance, small groups, follow-up, and camps live together, with the system quietly flagging the kid who's slipping before they slip away for good. It's the tool I wish I'd had at 20 students, and the tool I needed at 800.
What I believe about youth ministry
- Relationships are the ministry. Software should protect your time for people, not steal it.
- No kid should fall through the cracks. If the system can catch it, a leader shouldn't have to remember it.
- Safety isn't optional. Background checks, secure check-in, and minor-safe data are the floor, not a feature.
- Youth pastors deserve real tools. Not a youth tab bolted onto church software built for someone else.
The free stuff
Even if you never sign up, I want this site to actually help you. That's why the Youth Ministry Toolkit (games, devotions, discussion questions, and a teen-slang decoder), the blog, and the guides are all free. Use them this week.