Summer Is a Liar
In a ministry context, summer is a serial liar. Summer is NOT a slower time for youth ministry, and it’s NOT chock-full of margin as it might claim. We won’t have a more relaxed schedule, and we won’t have time to catch our breath.…
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How To “Up” Your Summer
Summer is a great season for youth workers. For some, things slow down a bit and you finally get some breathing room while for others, it’s packed with tons of extra events and activities. So whether you are swinging in a hammock a little more often this summer or staying late getting ready for tomorrow’s youth event, there are a few things you can do that will “Up” your summer.…
Summer Ministry’s C+ Temptation
Youth ministry in the summer has always been a struggle for me. Ministry momentum slows way down because my teenagers refocus their time on summer jobs, family vacations, camps, and trips to grandma’s house. Attendance is frustratingly inconsistent: Without warning, we can go from 24 kids to 87 kids any given week.…
Challenging Digital Dependency
#ScreenFreeWeek There was one time I was sitting at a coffee shop enjoying a café Americano with one of my favorite friends. We were catching up, being stupid, making each other laugh, and absolutely we were people watching, when all of the sudden she hit me over the head with this doozy: “My school is doing screen-free week,” she said with ease.…
Misguided Ambition Kills Your Mission
“Do you know who I am? I don’t know how to put this, but…I’m kind of a big deal. People know me, I’m very important.” This declaration from Will Ferrell’s character Ron Burgundy cracks me up every time I hear it.…
Teaching Our Students to Pray
Once, I had the awesome opportunity to offer some training and speaking in a dear friend’s small town in Kansas. After five days away, I sat on the plane ready for home. Plugging into music, a favorite worship song came on just as the plane engines started to roar.…
(PODCAST) The Shocking Kindness of Jesus… In Our Shame
Paying Ridiculous Attention To Jesus · Season 10 Episode 3 – The Shocking Kindness of Jesus… In Our Shame Rick and the Becky-nator are back with the second episode in our new series “The Shocking Kindness of Jesus.” It’s the theme of a new book Rick is working on: Snakes & Stones: The Shocking Kindness of Jesus.…
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6 No-Fail Ways to Grow Closer Community
Play a game with me… Imagine you weren’t allowed to have small groups of any kind in your youth ministry. How would you build community? We all know that creating relationship-rich spaces to grow community is important, but what if our go-to greenhouse for friendship-building wasn’t an option?…
Questions That Help Teenagers Learn to Follow Jesus
Are the kids in your youth group the first to grow up in a “post-Christian” world? The research says they are… Post-Christian describes a cultural dynamic marked by the absence of Christianity as the foundation—or hub—of the broader society. One writer also refers to this time in history as the “post-truth” era. …
Swing for the Fences!
It’s time to start swinging for the fences! Settling… Attainable… Reasonable… These are all innocent word, but they are also all wolves in sheep’s clothing. Twenty pounds when I have 50 to lose? Well, the 20 is attainable. And I end up losing six and applaud the effort.…
