Like many ministries, our high school youth ministry held it's winter retreat over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. This year, our theme was Naked and Afraid: Vulnerability in Relationships. Throughout the weekend, the book of Ruth served as our...
What the book's about: An Altar in the World is, quite simply, about discovering God beyond the walls of the church.
Why I read this book: After hearing people talk about the wisdom and beauty of Barbara Brown Taylor's writing for the...
It's January. That means that once again, it's time for K-Love's 30-Day Challenge – something I have some concerns about. In response to my concerns, today I'm continuing to critically evaluate some of the songs that K-Love...
My church does not own vans. This means that with the exception of our summer trips (when we rent them), we depend on the goodwill of parents to drive us to and from various events, including our winter retreat.
Often, this means that teens are...
Over the past four weeks, my youth ministry has been experimenting with student led small groups.
Truth be told, this experiment was birthed out of a shortage of adult leaders. In an effort to keep the size of our small groups small, I invited...
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 ...
Last spring, we saw a preview for Mom's Night Out . The preview had a few funny clips in it, so last night we rented it.
I'll admit, I was also curious as to why K-Love kept promoting this movie. To me, it looked far too mainstream (as in, it...
Having attended a Lutheran grade school, a Catholic high school, and a Methodist church, I grew up with very ecumenical influences. Even so, as an 18-year-old heading off to college, I considered myself to be Methodist. So upon going to college, I...
Last week an article on Leadership Journal entitled From Youth Minister to Felon made it's rounds in the Christian blogosphere.
The article was written by a youth pastor now behind bars for statutory rape. Like others, I was horrified by...