While attending a remembrance about the ongoing atrocities occurring in the Congo, my husband and I attended our friend, Emile's, Congolese church.
One of the things I vividly remember about that worship service was the young children. There were...
The other day, a teen walked into our youth room. Another student immediately grew excited and exclaimed, “Oh great! It's the funny kid!”
I'm pretty sure the funny kid didn't hear this other teen and for that I'm thankful. I responded by greeting...
In grad school, I took a class called Theology of the Church taught by Dave Rahn. During it, we talked often about the form and function of the church. Dave's point was that form should always follow function, not the other way around. In other...
My teens care deeply about issues that affect the marginalized in society. They long to make sense of what their faith says about such things and wrestle with how they can make a difference in regard to these issues. To that end, my student...
What the book's about: A year into my career in youth ministry, I interviewed at a church. During that interview, I was asked about my feelings about the whole "postmodern thing". It was the early 2000s and at the time, I knew little about...
Whenever we come into contact with other people, there’s a temptation to play the comparison game. This is true of theology as much as anything else.
Theological differences are often especially apparent during events like the 30 Hour Famine,...
You can't do youth ministry alone.
Perhaps you already know that. Maybe you even believe that.
Even so, knowing and believing that doesn't make adult leaders magically appear. You still have to work hard to recruit the right people to be leaders...
I blinked and suddenly it's fall, I'm back at work, and Hope is 4 months old. Where oh where did maternity leave and the summer go? Since I somehow missed doing several monthly recaps, we're going to take July - September in one fell swoop.
...If you look in Webster's dictionary, I'm pretty sure lock-in is defined as a youth worker's hell.
OK, maybe not... But let's be honest, they're certainly not our favorite events, or at least, they're not the easiest events.
Maybe they're also not...
Today, I'm linking up with Kate Motaung's Five Minute Friday. The rules: Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
This week's prompt: Doubt.
As a youth worker, Sundays are my favorite day of the week. It's the...