When our teenagers graduate from high school, our “shepherd” calling means they don’t graduate from our lives. Most churches offer very little for college-age students—that means your voice and presence in their lives is still primary. We care and connect with our kids, no matter how old they get!…
By my calculations, I’ve stolen around 14 minutes of face time with Pastor Bill Hybels. That number adds up to the time I attended Willow Creek Community Church as a teenager, interned there as a young adult, considered a key ministry role with them a decade ago, and randomly spoke with Bill at conferences.…
In all of my years working with teenagers, I’ve never met a more impressive group than those I’ve met at Hope House of Colorado. These determined young women have overcome generational poverty, pushed through impossible situations, and inspired entire communities to be better and do better.…
How much of your last year of high school do you really remember? My clearest memory is the beach party I had with friends the morning after my graduation. We’d spent the evening and early morning hours having clean fun all night in Chicago, somehow ending up on Lake Michigan at sunrise. …
We were at a red light when my life changed forever. I was on my way to Walmart with my youth pastor—he’d invited me to tag along on a shopping trip for an upcoming lock-in. We needed to buy chips and Hula-Hoops.…
The promise of a new year is also, always, the promise of a “new you.” In my life, the promise of a “new you” translates to a deep desire to be a better youth worker. I look out on the sea of perfectionistic, entrepreneurial, social-media-tethered teenagers and ask myself: How can I help them boldly live for Jesus?…
Truth be told, many of us are discipling our teenagers with unsharpened axes. We’re dull inside, because we’ve refused to take a break and invest in our long-term relationship with Jesus. We just keep swinging, through season after season in ministry, surprised that our work seems harder and harder.…
Max’s four years in our ministry haven’t been pain-free. He often causes trouble around church and has been sent home from several camps. Max has tried to “be better,” but it never really sticks. We’ve tried everything. I’d love to tell of Max’s life transformation, but right now that isn’t the reality.…
In this week’s Whiteboard Wednesday experiment, we recognize the reality of our context in youth ministry: We are key players in a “spiritual war” that’s focused on young people. We can, and must, play a strategic role in fighting for the true identity that Jesus sees in them (and in us).…
Of course, January is synonymous with New Year’s resolutions. At our church, this resolution mindset is driving us to make and clarify goals for a new season of ministry. What I’m about to share with you is not a list of personal resolutions that I can let slide.…
