If it hasn’t happened already, it’ll happen soon enough: the late night phone call from a student or parent dropping a bombshell. “Tim, my dad just beat me up. What should I do?” “Tasha, my mom just left my dad, and I don’t know where I should go now.”…
Easter will be here before you know it! One of the most difficult things about ministry is the very few number of days between Sundays. Wouldn’t life be easier if we had a 10-day workweek? I think I would teach better lessons, lead better worship, and play more fun games.…
A student’s suicide can be emotionally devastating. Using and modeling healthy coping strategies — such as seeking support — will help you and others on the journey to healing and acceptance. When a student dies, your grief may be heart wrenching.…
Are you raising money for you next youth event? Or are you going on a mission trip experience this summer and need some help getting the last of the funds together? Easter is a great time to host a fundraiser for your youth group, and we have a silly Easter-themed idea especially for you!…
When it comes to students living out their faith in Christ, we can be super influential in how they go about it. I would say in an attempt to help students see the seriousness of living for Christ, I believe sometimes we use our influence and scare the crap out of them.…
It’s easy to see teenagers like caterpillars that are wrestling free from the numbing rhythms of their everyday life and into their butterfly life—where they figure out who they really are and what they really have to give to the world.…
“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” I’m not sure who first coined that infamous saying, but it is somehow simultaneously genius and defeatist. Pragmatically speaking, it makes sense. Why fight against the inevitable? But few things seem as depressing as giving up and giving in when we know there’s a better way!…
Being approachable to students seems almost impossible when you’re an adult. There are so many logical barriers like age, different cultures, and different experiences. Those are the things that make a connection between a student and adult almost impossible. It’s hard to trust someone you don’t feel can relate to you.…
An upset parent corners you in the fellowship hall. The Senior Pastor pins you down in a staff meeting and demands an immediate answer. A volunteer pulls you aside at an event and throws you a curveball. A church elder sends you an email that she says demands your immediate attention.…
Ned Nederlander. Franck. Jiminy Glick. These popular fictional characters were given life through the creative mind and talent of Martin Short. And then there’s Ed Grimley… Martin Short’s first breakthrough character. You may not know the backstory of how this greasy-hair-cowlicked-vertically-in-the-air, teeth-baring hyperactive manchild came to be… let alone how it all relates to the nerves and presumptions we all wrestle with in struggling to say something profound. …
