Being a small group leader is great and scary at the same time. I took a group of guys from freshman year to senior year. It was great, but there were some things I had to learn to be okay with throughout the four years that I wish I knew at the beginning.…
Join Rick for the 2nd episode of the new series PRESENT CONCERNS—we’ll be exploring the issues and challenges we’re facing in this strangest of seasons, connecting them directly to how Jesus dealt with similar issues. In this episode, we’ll explore—“Fear.” It’s our everyday fears, not the spectacular supernatural fears of Halloween or horror movies, that are most compelling and most relevant to our relationship with Jesus.…
Join Rick for the 1st episode of the new series PRESENT CONCERNS—we’ll be exploring the issues and challenges that make up the wallpaper of our life today, connecting them directly back to how Jesus dealt with similar issues. In this kickoff episode we’ll explore—“Division.”…
From the last porch light of Halloween through the last light of the Christmas tree, our holiday schedules are packed! Cramming their way into our margins are school Christmas parties, staff get-togethers, and family dinners—and we haven’t even touched decorating, cooking, shopping, and wrapping.…
Put 20 youth pastors in a room and tell them they can’t come out until the agree on a definition of discipleship and it’s possible their friends and families will never see them again! And IF they can agree, the odds of them implementing that definition in their youth ministries are about the same odds as me slam-dunking on a 10-foot rim (zero, in case you’re wondering).…
Join Rick for the 12th and final episode of the series IN HIS IMAGE. The tough, marginal, and challenging conditions that produce rare wine from stressed vines also produce martyrs and saints and “beautiful messes” like you and me. Paul tells us we are “struck down, but not destroyed… so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”…
Join Rick for the 11th episode of the series IN HIS IMAGE. When you hear the cares and concerns of others, do you enter into their reality, or do you keep your distance (however subtly)? When a conniving Pharisee asks Jesus about the “most important” commandment, Jesus tells him what he already knows—“Love the Lord your God with all your heart…”—but then adds a second “equally important” commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”…
Looking for a COVID-friendly subsitution for your youth all-nighter? Try pulling off an online lock-in! I’ve never been a huge fan of all-nighter’s, except for when I was a teenager. This Online Lock-In is more of a check-in than an all-nighter and, frankly, it’s one of the best things we’ve done to connect with our middle school students during the pandemic.…
Use these 5 digital tools to help disciple youth in your ministry. In his day, Jesus used one of the most powerful communication tools known to man—it’s called “the parable.” He was a master storyteller. And so, we read in Matthew 13, when he has gathered a large crowd, he leverages the moment by telling five parables in a row.…
Join Rick for the 10th episode of the series IN HIS IMAGE. We all long to be noticed and enjoyed and appreciated for who we really are—to be pursued by a Lover who will sacrifice to be with us. Today we explore the way Jesus moves toward us in our life, captured best by the word “Pursuit.”…
