The first retreat I ever led was about authentic relationships. I spent HOURS prepping every aspect of this retreat – including hours on a retreat booklet for participants. The retreat booklet contained cartoons, quotes, the Bible passages we were...
What the book's about: As it's subtitle suggests, Damaged Goods is about new perspectives on Christian purity. Using her own story as well as stories from interviews she conducted, Dianna explores some of the damage Christian purity...
This weekend is my youth ministry's annual winter retreat. During it, my high school students and I are exploring the book of Revelation.
After learning what our topic is, I've lost track of how many times someone has asked me, rather...
Sarah Bessey is a writer's writer. Her words are beautiful; Her language, poetry. She's someone I read when I need inspiration.
Needless to say, my expectations about her second book, Out of Sorts, were incredibly high, so much so that I...
Churches today are struggling financially.
Oh, I know that's not true of ALL of them.
But I know it's true of a lot of them.
As a result, it's entirely possible for you to do the hard work of crafting a budget proposal only to be told, “We'd love...
I first heard Brenda Salter McNeil speak when I was the Youth Pastor at a multi-ethnic congregation in the suburbs. Knee-deep in the (often) painful reality of cross-cultural ministry, I found her words both challenging and inspiring.
Now, in a...
I'm thrilled to be guest posting today in Abby Norman's series, Sane for the Holidays.
November has traditionally been a dangerous month for me.
It’s when people start blogging about their ideas for advent. In a single day, you can see...
At my very first youth ministry interview, I remember asking the committee if there was a youth ministry budget.
The committee said yes and I naively accepted it's answer at face value.
Shortly after accepting that job, I asked the senior pastor ...
Life is full right now... So much so that it's taken me a solid week to get this blog posted. It's better late than never, though, right?
What I'm Reading:
Fiction:
I read 8 fiction books during the last two months. My favorites...
Once you've translated your dreams into numbers and figured out the various revenue streams you'll use to fund your ministry, the next step in the budget process is actually crafting your proposal.
Your budget proposal should contain two things:...