Nine years ago, I was on the path to success in ministry, but I was in danger of losing my fiancé. I was gaining the knowledge needed to pastor through seminary, but I was ill equipped in the art of relationships and did not have the emotional health to fix it.…
When I visit the zoo my favorite area is the deep-sea aquarium. The vibrant colors and exotic fish fascinate me—and for thousands of years we had no idea any of this existed, because we had no way of exploring the bottom of the ocean.…
Today’s young people have always been virtually connected to the answers of the universe—or so they think. Kids are so used to having unlimited access to information that they see no excuse for not knowing something—even when it comes to their faith.…
As youth workers, we generally recognize that parents have the greatest influence on teenagers. Sometimes that’s simply a factor of time. We spend an hour or two with kids every other week (depending on homework and sports practice), while most moms and dads are with them nearly every day.…
A lot of times when we think of student leaders, we think of the students who are the elite of our ministry. And that is completely false. Student leaders are just students who are committed to serving a cause greater than themselves.…
Every year our junior high, high school and college teams sneak away for “Staff Camp”. We jam-pack the 36 hours away with training, dreaming, planning, laughing, playing and eating…lots of eating. It’s at Staff Camp that I introduce the area(s) of our ministry that I’d like us to give extra attention in the upcoming year.…
Mission trips can be very heavy on logistics. Where you go. Where you stay. Who you serve. How you serve them. What you eat. How you get there. And many more details… Ugh. In the mountain of all that info, it’s easy to miss planning and preparing for what may be the most important thing that will happen on your mission trip.…
So now that you’ve decided to take your group on a mission trip, the task of planning the trip and bringing everything together begins… There’s the travel to and from the location. The breaking down of your bigger group into smaller teams that will serve together.…
