Join Rick for the 8th episode of the new series PRESENT CONCERNS—we’ll explore the challenges that darken our soul’s landscape and discover how Jesus works our ugly into beauty. In this episode we’ll explore… “Exhaustion.” Exhaustion can make us cowards; and exhaustion can lead us to the courage we need most.…
Join Rick and Becky for the 3rd 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 dive into—“The Future.”…
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.”…
During our Pandemic Apocalypse, we’ve competed in the “decathlon” of emotional workouts. Uncertainty, fear, and disorientation are powerful, and a steady stream of bad news is like getting emotionally water-boarded. We feel more needy than ever, and therefore more vulnerable than ever… Jesus wants us to find Home in Him, a relationship that invites our vulnerability, and gives us a safe place to be needy… Join Rick as he launches a new series called IN HIS IMAGE—together, explore why Jesus loved neediness so much, and how and why He made Himself vulnerable to need… LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE NOW Have you joined the Pigs?…
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). …
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.…
In youth ministry we often settle for small wins (ANY wins) when Jesus said his followers will do “even greater things” than he did (John 14:12). Can I be honest? In some ministry settings, if I didn’t celebrate the small wins, I wouldn’t have any wins to celebrate.…
Youth ministry has been around awhile—we have decades of paradigm shifts in the books. What started as a way to get illiterate kids off the street and into a new-and-improved morality morphed into a ticket to a pizza party and a gospel presentation.…
Before I launch into my confession-vomit, a few qualifiers… I love my church… I’d attend even if I didn’t work there (I know not every church staff member can say that with a straight face). I love and respect my pastor and my boss—my bullet-point confessions are not a veiled critique.…
The American church faces an upset like never before. The insidious coronavirus has slammed shut church doors–locking out the faithful from gathered worship. The effects may be long-lasting. For smaller churches already dealing with offering plate malnutrition, existing week to week to make payroll, this crisis may be their economic tipping point.…
