Join Rick for the ninth episode of the series IN HIS IMAGE. Today author Jeff White is on the podcast to talk about “Authenticity.” His new “story Bible for adults” called Eyewitness is just out—Jeff’s challenge was to tell the stories of the Bible from a raw, first-person perspective.…
At Springtide™ Research Institute we’ve spent the past year researching the consequences of epidemic loneliness among young people. Loneliness The findings are astonishing, heartbreaking, and hopeful… Our newest report, Belonging: Reconnecting America’s Loneliest Generation, documents these findings and offers a research-based pathway forward.…
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders. We are prophets of a future not our own. (Cardinal Dearden, 1979) We had pulled together a handful of youth workers from our city for a little mutual encouragement (and pizza). …
Now that we’re approaching four months into the pandemic apocalypse, we know the shaping impact of this crisis goes deep and broad. But to understand exactly how these extraordinary challenges are impacting teenagers today, we must dig a little. And that’s what our contributor Maina Mwara—a youth ministry veteran, writer, and journalist—has done.…
To win in a game of Simon Says, we have to radically obey what we’re told. And we’re living in one big challenging game of Simon Says in our culture right now… The tension that exists as we’re “opening up” is real and widespread, because our obedience to “Simon”—government leaders and scientists—is in tension with our determination to choose what we think is right and good.…
More than three decades ago I showed up for my first day of work at Group Publishing, a 26-year-old amateur theologian and journalist trained in investigative reporting, about to mount the lowest rung on my career ladder. Six months later Thom Schultz, founder and CEO of Group, asked to meet with me… I remember the nervous, intimidated feeling I had as I walked the hallway to his office.…
Ever had a friend recommend something, so you try it, and then you realized… you hate it? How can something be “truly good” if not everyone agrees that it is truly good? John Krasinski’s online pandemic show Some Good News brought us a weekly dose of “good”—but how does his good compare to the way Jesus defines good? …
Like many of you, I’ve got ministry friends all over. When the rumblings of a quarantine first started, I reached out to a few of my closest friends to mine their perspective on what might happen. When reality set in, I reached back out to see what student ministry would look like inside our new reality.…
(EDITOR’S NOTE: I led this conversation with Jeffrey Wallace and Brent Crowe several years ago, but it’s more pertinent now than ever. Racial tensions, like embers in a forest, have been whipped into a flames by controversial (and deadly) confrontations between white police officers and young black men.…
We’re washed over by waves of grief, fear, and uncertainty in our world right now. As followers of Jesus, we know that racism is contrary in every way to the heart of Jesus. And yet, it persists like the “weeds scattered in secret by the thief” in Jesus’ Parable of the Wheat and Weeds. …
 Foundations: Jesus the Disobedient){kind=link}
 Foundations: Some Good News){kind=link}
 Jesus and Racism){kind=link}