Tag: Pope

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2 mins

Look Again, for the First Time

How do you plan a new year for youth ministry? New challenges, new triumphs, new opportunities to reach students for Jesus? New goals? Where do you sense God’s leading in your ministry to youth… and how will you get there? Take a fresh and prayerful look at your ministry, and consider including these on your list of essential goals: Give students a fresh look at who God really is Teenagers who have never truly discovered God can’t worship him “with deepest awe” (Psalm 5:7).…

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2 mins

The Becoming

Life is a process of becoming. A caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. A maggot mutates into a fly. A teen morphs into adulthood. Creation is in a process of transforming, mutating, morphing—becoming. This becoming, however, is harder than it seems, especially for young leaders in the church.…

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1 min

Why I love Youth Ministry

In my teen years, I was the epitome of being a hearer only and not DOING what the Word said (James 1:22). I was a believer, but because I believed lies and had little accountability, I lived a double-life. I see compartmentalized teenage Christians everywhere, everyday.…

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2 mins

Jesus-Style Youth Ministry

Should the “youth” in our youth ministry be our primary focus? Wherever we go these days, we’re introduced as guys who really have a heart for today’s generation of young people. And of course we do. We love teenagers, are quick to defend them, and are passionate about understanding them.…

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2 mins

Any other football fans out there?

I know…I’ve got it bad. So bad, in fact, that I check the Broncos Web site almost daily. I like to keep up with the running pre-season stories and see which underdogs are going to make the team. Given that this is the last week of the pre-season, all of those “on the bubble” players are going to be cut.…

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10 mins

When and How to Refer Kids for Counseling

I can still remember the surprising question a senior pastor asked me during my first youth ministry job interview: “What will you do if one of the girls from the youth group tells you that she’s pregnant?” I didn’t see this one coming and had no idea how to respond.…

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4 mins

Come to the Quiet

About a month ago God performed a “celebrity smack-down” on me. He was the celebrity, I was the smack-ee. My overlapping responsibilities as editor of GROUP and creator of GROUP Magazine Live (www.group.com/reignite), combined with some chronic health problems in my family, had sucked the life out of me.…

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2 mins

Overpriced Lone Star Sodas

Had a bummer of an experience yesterday evening at Lone Star Steakhouse. We ordered up 3 big meals for the adults and there was plenty of food to share with the kids to save a few bucks and not buy kids meals, and just get them drinks.…

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2 mins

My Youth Group and Special Needs

This summer I got so tired of hearing and seeing the results of sin at our summer camp that I wanted to quit everything. One night I actually cried myself to sleep from a combination of tiredness and my hatred for sin.…

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6 mins

The Day My Friend Died

Mike Yaconelli died suddenly. He was one of my youth ministry heroes but more importantly, a personal friend. I went to the family funeral last week and it’s still difficult to believe that Mike is gone. My friendship with Mike started 17 years ago with a practical joke and ended with Mike praying for me a week before he died.…

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