Read Faith Abandonment: Part 1 here. While I tend to think the “statistics” (I put them in quotes because everybody knows that 75% of statistics are wrong 85% of the time.) citing how many students actually walk away from faith/church upon graduation are an overshot, I would have to have my head buried in the sand to pretend it’s an issue that those of us called to minister to teenagers can ignore.…
The various authors writing these (hopefully) helpful articles every day are entering a new season. Instead of an assigned topic for the week, we are each free to write about whatever we want. My articles appear every Wednesday. So I thought instead of everything I write being completely random, I’d pick a theme for each month and write four or five thoughts on that topic.…
Time to get highly pragmatic: Theology = What you believe about God. Practical Theology = How you put into practice what you believe about God. Concerning a theology of sexuality: I’ve discovered most youth pastors have one. Concerning a practical theology of sexuality: I’ve discovered that most youth pastors are wrestling with what a practical theology of sexuality should look like in their churches and the ministries they lead.…
Among most church-going teenagers, the Bible has a PR problem. Sure, they know where it is, and at which youth group programs they are expected to bring it along. But very few find it compelling enough to read on their own. …
Every Christian in your church loves teenagers. They have to, they’re Christians, and Christians love each other. In fact, you’ve probably heard them declare their love: “Oh, those crazy kids in the youth group…we love ‘em in the Lord!” Possible Translation: We don’t have a choice.…
First off, I realize this title may be the most obvious declaration in the history of column-writing. But I need constant reminding of this simple truth: [tweet_dis]Junior high ministry is about junior highers, not about me.[/tweet_dis] Let me paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, who said, “When I write a speech, I spend 75 percent of my time thinking about what the audience wants to hear and 25 percent thinking about what I want to say.”…
My 16-year-old son, Cole, recently attended a conference dedicated to helping teenagers develop leadership skills. Cole, like many guys his age, isn’t a big fan of debriefing his life learnings with Mom and Dad. So we were caught off guard with how eager he was to talk to us about the various things he’d experienced over his weekend away—which he did for the next 15 minutes (which may have been a personal record).…
This week we’re going to focus on some youth ministry best practices and hope that it generates some helpful conversation as you agree, disagree or have no opinion either way! We want you to know upfront, that we don’t believe that there is a PERFECT way to do youth ministry.…
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