5 Best-practices for communicating the crucial details for your summer-trip adventures. There’s one sure-fire way to frustrate and alienate the parents in your ministry—do such a poor job of communicating the details of your summer trips that they feel disconnected, uninformed, and nervous.…
Join Rick for the 9th episode of the new series KINGDOM COME. Miracles are startling because they are supposed to be impossible, right? And in this episode, Rick tells a personal story that certainly qualifies as a miracle on every level.…
Well, you’re not going to brag about it, but things are going great in your ministry. Your fall kick-off went better than expected, and you’re finally seeing breakthroughs in teenagers who’ve left the sidelines to get in the game with Jesus.…
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.…
In addition to all the extra tasks and events during the Christmas season, it’s also one of the busiest times in ministry. There are Advent services, volunteer opportunities, meetings, social events, and parties. Plus it’s almost January, so we’re making sure summer camps and mission trips are booked.…
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.…
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.”…
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.”…
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.”…
The other day a youth pastor friend asked me a question that pinpoints a major shift that’s changing his ministry landscape: “How do I get my kids to care about worship? Nothing seems to be working.” My friend isn’t alone. The “worship problem” is quickly spreading, and deepening, in youth ministry.…
