As the Church Council President adjourned our congregation’s annual meeting, the high school teens swarmed me.
“How can it just end like that?”
“We still have questions about the budget!”
They quickly rattled them off, rapid firing one after...
I'm a big believer in the power of experiential learning. To this end, instead of giving a talk about prayer, I'd much rather create a series of prayer stations designed to give students the opportunity to pray in a variety of ways.
Over the next...
Less than 24-hours into our Peacemaking Trip, a student told me, “We've met ONE immigrant and I'm already changing my mind about this issue!”
Before our trip began, this student was in favor of Trump's campaign promise to build a bigger wall....
“Lots of balloons popping will give me a panic attack,” cried my student as she walked into our prayer station room in tears.
Moments before, I’d given students directions about how to complete our prayer stations, urging them to take them...
I'm a big believer in the power of experiential learning. To this end, instead of giving a talk about prayer, I'd much rather create a series of prayer stations designed to give students the opportunity to pray in a variety of ways.
Over the next...
Whenever I ask teens what they want to talk about in my youth ministry, they respond with enthusiasm, “SEX!”
As a youth pastor, I've lost track of how many times I've taught on sex or done a Valentine's Day sex series in my high school youth...
I took most of the week off between Christmas and New Years, as did most of my colleagues. During that time, my family vacationed in San Antonio. We explored, rested, and had fun. We shut our laptops and distanced ourselves from our jobs.
When I...
I'm a big believer in the power of experiential learning. To this end, instead of giving a talk about prayer, I'd much rather create a series of prayer stations designed to give students the opportunity to pray in a variety of ways.
Over the next...
Our youth ministry had its annual Christmas party last week.
That, by itself, isn’t all that remarkable.
What’s remarkable is the fact that I wasn’t there. Nor were any of our ministry’s other adult leaders. We were at adult leader’s training....
“You’re in ministry. How do you avoid the insanity of this Christmas season?” my friend recently asked. “I’ve got three kids and between all the church and school programs, we’re always busy!”
There was a time when I added to the Christmas chaos,...