I remember after the closing rally of a youth retreat, the line of teens was stacked deep. It was filled with teens waiting to see me. Patiently they stood there for a long time just to tell me something. They just wanted to express their heartfelt “Thanks” for putting together such a great life changing event… *end dream sequence* Who am I kidding?…
What’s your big dream for your youth ministry this year? And can you sum it up on a T-shirt? Leadership guru Peter Drucker made the “T-shirt” challenge famous—his argument was that big goals should be so easy to understand that they fit on a T-shirt.…
What if my little youth ministry ship was permanently stuck in a swirling vortex? Here are three “diagnostic” questions that I vowed to use as filters. Even though I had a decade of ministry under my belt, I was exhausted after months of trying to build a new youth ministry from the ground up.…
Trials, pain, and sadness are very real things in this world, often rearing their ugly head during the advent season. As we face the issues brought about by these ‘challenges,’ Jesus makes us a vaguely positive promise that he has ‘overcome the world.’…
The trip was doomed from the start, and it was my fault. Mike and Matt were twins who barely got along. Ryan was an introvert who wanted to play it safe all week. Lena was home-schooled, and this was her first overnighter trip away.…
Years ago, I made amazing youth ministry calendars. Jealous? Between finding the right fonts and Photoshopping students into clever clip-art, each calendar took about 10 hours to create. My hope was that if one of our students accidentally dropped the calendar at school (because what student wouldn’t carry around such an amazing calendar?),…
I’m a sucker for inspirational speeches in movies… Mikey speaking up at the bottom of the well in The Goonies. Aragorn telling an army that courage can fail, but “not this day” in Return of the King. Woody explaining to Buzz that there’s nothing like being a toy in Toy Story.…
Ten years ago my wife and I made the biggest transition in the history of our lives together. We moved from Michigan to California. My first thought when we started discussing it was, “You don’t move away from family.” And my reasoning was, “It’s just something you don’t do.”…
Confession: I don’t enjoy structure for the sake of structure. Thankfully, others came along and shared how the structure that helps some people grow spiritually doesn’t always work for others. One person explained, “Don’t let anyone impose their habits on you.…
What if finding Christ in Christmas doesn’t have to be an uphill battle? I saw something recently via a friend of a friend that you’ll now be able to see in our church building. It’s called a “CROSS-mas Tree.” When I saw it, I thought, “That’s awesome… one more way to remind us what Christmas is all about.…
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