In this week’s Whiteboard Wednesday experiment, Rick explores five crucial practices that make it possible to “go into the cave” on behalf of students or their parents—five things that give us the foundation to offer real help in times of great trauma, tragedy, or challenge.…
Like a scene from The Lord of the Rings, I was on a quest. At times, my adventure felt dangerous. The stress was intense, and my frailties surfaced. Sometimes my hope was rekindled, and I continued my journey in earnest. And sometimes the prize seemed almost within reach, only to be snatched away at the last moment.…
Season 2, Episode 16: What Jesus Says About Your Body We’re wrapping up our month-long theme on identity, be sure you go back and listen to all four episodes in the series. We couldn’t finish a series on identity without talking about body image.…
Season 2, Episode 014: Freedom with Sarah Bessey What is Jesus hoping to set you free from? If you’ve grown up in Christianity, you probably know all about conviction and sin. But what if there’s more to the story? If Jesus came to set captives free, what does that really look like in our life?…
Season 2, Episode 013: When Jesus Names You Who does Jesus say I am? When I first met Rick, he talked a lot about this question. He said it was the second most important question in life. That question scared me, because I’ve been raised in a world of broken mirrors.…
Season 2, Episode 012: Are We Heading Toward a “Bibleless” Christianity? When you picture someone who has devoted his entire life to the passion of getting people to read the Bible, you might think of a person who’s a bit rigid and judgmental.…
Our primary authority for living a Jesus-Centered life is the Bible, a long book written in two languages thousands of years ago by dozens of people throughout hundreds of year. Good luck making sense of all that! But if we want to deepen our trust in Jesus and our understanding of God, ourselves, and humanity, there’s no greater resource.…
Medical malpractice is decided by a jury of peers, and in this series of posts I’ve acted as a jury of…one. I’m biased, of course, in my perspective—because I’ve been immersed in the youth ministry world for 30 years. So I have a “seasoned bias.”…
As a youth worker, you know it’s important to communicate well with parents. You may have learned that lesson via the School of Hard Knocks, maybe from a frustrated parent, or from 14 billion phone calls regarding something you should’ve conveyed with a quick text or email.…
The note my middle-school daughter brought home from her Sunday school class asked parents to help out with a fund-raiser for the poor. They wanted a $20 donation along with two pairs of gloves for needy children living overseas, the focus of the ministry’s Christmas outreach program.…
