What’s wrong with young people today? We’ve all heard about the symptomatic things that may characterize today’s teenagers, such as lower church attendance. But what’s underneath these trends? For many young people, it’s a suffocating sense of loneliness and isolation. A Generation Defined By Loneliness “This is the most lonely generation,” said Josh Packard, sociologist and author of Church Refugees.…
Join Rick for the 8th episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. We are magnetically drawn to stories of hope and perseverance. That’s because perseverance is both heart-breaking and inspiring. It’s almost impossible to ignore. So, what are the common threads in all our stories of perseverance?…
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.…
Join Rick for the 7th episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. Rick often uses a favorite phrase to describe the mission of Jesus: He came to make beauty out of ugly. Not “pretty”… Beauty. In a very real, practical, visceral way, beauty-making and beauty-revealing is exactly what Jesus is doing in the world, and in your life, right now… We need “beauty-fighters” in this season of ugly… And it’s always been a season of ugly in the world.…
Join Rick for the 6th episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, whose life we celebrate this week, led during a time of great division and racial tension and disillusionment in the country—like our time today.…
“I still tell people about how great and accepting our youth group was,” a 30-year-old recently shared with me. When I was his youth pastor years ago, “Mike” never took the big step of becoming a Christian. Back then he described himself as an atheist-meets-Wiccan.…
Join Rick for the 5th episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus launches His ministry by doing something He’ll never do again—simply “talking at” a large crowd of people for a long time. Why does He do this?…
“I don’t really look at numbers; I’m more interested in spiritual growth.” “You’re so numbers-focused—do you even know anyone’s names?” “Numbers aren’t the only way to gauge ministry success.” I work in a pretty large church. I’ve heard all of these “numbers” criticisms, and then some.…
Join Rick for the 4th episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. When we live inside the culture of the Kingdom of God—the way of living that Jesus came to plant, like a seed, in our broken reality—we are very aware of the influence of evil all around us, but we are not impressed by it.…
Join Rick for the 3rd episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. In the Kingdom of God, storytelling is not only the highest form of art, it defines the mission and passion of Jesus. Jesus came to tell a new story in our life, and to invite us to do the same with others.…
