Yesterday, worship was more crowded than usual. As a result, by the time I finished getting ready for Sunday school and then snuck into our sanctuary, my usual seat was taken, leaving me with no choice but to sit somewhere new.
Doing so meant...
Most in the youth ministry world are aware of both research and anecdotes suggesting millennials are leaving the church.
As a youth worker, this breaks my heart. I wholeheartedly believe you cannot be a solo Christian. The church is vital to our...
Two years ago, a young man named Jefferson Bethke released a spoken word video on YouTube called “Why I hate religion, but love Jesus.” Within a day, this video went viral. Person after person shared it, seeming to agree with Bethke's underlying...
A few weeks ago, I visited our new members class in order to talk about our congregation's youth ministry.
None of the people in this class have high school aged kids and yet I went anyway, believing it's important for everyone in our...
According to David Kinnaman in You Lost Me , 52 percent of youth group teens aspire to science-related careers but only one percent of youth workers have addressed issues of science in the past year.
Knowing this, I was excited when my student...
During our recent mission trip to the Quad Cities, our group attended the Backwater Gamblers waterskiing show. It was everything a small town show should be: Free, community-orientated, fun, and quirky.
My husband was enamored because some of...
I've done the 30 Hour Famine – an event where students fast for 30 hours in order to "taste" hunger and raise money and awareness to fight world hunger - ten times as a youth worker. Traditionally, it's been one of my favorite events but I've...
One of my favorite questions to ask people at the end of the school year is, “As you think about this year of ministry, what are you particularly thankful for?”
This year, I used this question with both my students and my colleagues. In the...
A few weeks ago, my high school ministry hosted a Parent's Night Out at our church in order to raise money for our summer trip to my denomination's youth gathering. Over the course of 3.5 hours, 17 high school students and four adults watched nine...