A few years ago, another church in my town brought in a new youth pastor. From the moment he arrived, he was committed to drawing other youth pastors and leaders in the community together. After about two years of meeting together regularly for fellowship, prayer, and occasional training, all of us felt like there was something new going on.…
Ever get frustrated with your senior pastor? Okay, if you don’t want to agree verbally, you can shout “yes” in your head. People can be frustrating—it’s a fact of life, and ministry is no different. The difficulty of working in ministry can force some youth workers to feel like they are on an island, especially when it comes to communicating and dealing with their senior pastors.…
Diane, after six months in her youth ministry role, asked, “What can I do when my vision for youth ministry is so different from my church’s vision?” I gave her three choices: Change your vision Change your church Change your church Option 1: Change Your Vision.…
Three mistakes some retail stores make: They clean the floors while the store is still busy. They place new merchandise pallets in the aisles, making it hard to get around. They do not have enough registers open. I experienced all three of these mistakes one night while shopping with my family, which made it harder for me to buy what I wanted.…
I am discontent. Not because the Steelers lost on Sunday (to the Eagles, of all teams), or because the business of the church isn’t running smoothly. I am discontent because I am comfortable. Being good and quiet are two of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in the last few months.…
Last week, I had one of those “epiphany moments” on my way to my weekly Bible study with my guys in the Monroe County Jail. I was driving, thinking, and praying on my way, when one of my favorite songs from Audio Adrenaline came on the car stereo.…
It has been a crazy week of ministry, I am sure you can relate. It was a week with both an extreme failure and an extreme victory; then sprinkled with a little bit of everything in between. As I reflect back over this week I can’t help but ask myself why I am in the position I am in.…
Ever find yourself living the life you always condemned? Where it was so easy to point the finger and find fault in men and women who lived “like that” and now you are the living “like that”? You are now the example–the bad example–of how not to be.…
I’ve always wanted to play quarterback. Last flag-football season, I finally got my chance. This, I determined, would be my opportunity to prove to the world or, at least, to a few friends from high school that I was always meant to be the star quarterback.…
I’ll never forget my first Boy Scout campout. With every patrol responsible for building its own fire, our beloved Rat Patrol was short one key member: Our patrol leader, 13-year old David Henry. Now absentee Dave was a scout’s scout, the first scout to have ever earned his Eagle before his 13th birthday.…
