A male youth worker recently bemoaned the fact that he could think of only two female youth workers to invite to speak at an upcoming event. He told me how he believed it was important to have a female youth worker on stage for all the female...
Recently, my high school teens and I discussed God's gender.
During this discussion, small groups made a list of God's characteristics and classified them as masculine, feminine, or gender neutral. As we did this, my husband and I, who were...
This year, my adult leaders and I are reading and discussing Sticky Faith together. At our first meeting, we wrestled with the chapter on the Sticky Gospel. As part of this, I asked leaders to share their reaction to how teens defined what it...
As a woman in youth ministry, I face some unique challenges.
I wish that wasn't true, but it is.
Most of the time, these unique challenges no longer bother me. I'm confident in my call. I wholeheartedly believe that I'm fully using each and...
In a recent blog post, Andy Blanks offers 20 ways to spruce up your Bible study. His suggestions are good and well worth a read.
That said, I struggled with one of them.
“Let students teach--Adapt your lesson so students are teaching each other,...
I'm a strong believer that belonging precedes belief. This means that if we want teens to take ownership of their faith, we have to first help them belong.
To be clear, belonging doesn't happen accidentally. Helping teens belong takes time,...
We were on the way back from a junior high retreat when it happened.
We began complaining about everything we disliked about our church.
Of course, our view was unique.
We were, after all, only in 6th - 8th grade; I was an...
My first year in ministry, I was haunted by a girl I never met.
Her name was Laura and she never attended anything.
She didn't come to our weekly youth ministry gatherings.
She didn't come to our special events – regardless of whether they were ...
Over the weekend, I watched an episode of one of my favorite TV shows, The West Wing. In it, two Native Americans show up at the White House and refuse to leave until they get an answer on an application their tribe submitted… fifteen years ago.
...
A few weeks ago, I sat down next to an eighth grade boy. Wanting to engage him in conversation, I asked, “How's school?”
I got a typical junior high boy answer: “Good.”
So I asked him a follow-up question. “What's been good about it?”
To which...
