What the book's about: Cross-Cultural Connections by Duane Elmer is a book designed to prepare people for cross-cultural experiences, and more specifically, for cross-cultural mission trips. While the book is really oriented to long-term...
The country of Rwanda is known as the land of a thousand hills.
As it turns out, this nickname is no joke.
I experienced these hills on a recent high school mission trip to Rwanda. While there, we traveled from one side of the country to the...
I hate international mission trips.
Not all, but some.
More specifically, I hate international mission trips that plop teens down in an exotic location far from home and fail to make the connection between what goes on there and what goes on at...
All around me, students are headed back to school. As school looms before us, so, too, does the start of fall programming. In my context, fall programming for students begins the day after Labor Day. Fall programming for adult leaders begins two...
I just returned from a two-week mission trip to Rwanda with my high school youth ministry. Twice now we've been privileged to partner with International Teams Rwanda for the international leg of our three-year mission trip cycle.
The trip was, in...
Recently, I found myself in a Bible study in which the leader asked, “What is God telling you to do as a result of this passage?”
I had a moment of absolute panic in which I thought, “Nothing. Right this second, I honestly don’t hear God saying...
One finding that's stuck with me from Sticky Faith is, "More than any program or event, what made kids more likely to feel like a significant part of their local church was when adults made the effort to get to know them."
One of the best ways my...
Earlier this year, I had the privilege of speaking at The Progressive Youth Ministry conference.
I went, genuinely excited not only to be sharing my research about what high school teens believe about Jesus, but also eager to try a new youth...
On my youth ministry's recent mission trip to Milwaukee through Youth Works Missions, we spent an evening with Life Changers International – a ministry to former gang members in inner city Milwaukee.
During our time with Life Changers, a panel of...
Every ministry has a sacred cow.
Sometimes sacred cows need to die.
But how do you kill a program in a healthy way?
Here are the steps I follow in order to slaughter sacred cows:
1. Enter a time of prayer and discernment. Since people are, by...