Can I encourage you into this next year? It actually involves sharing how I was caught off guard this past month. There I was, sitting in a dark room by myself while weeping hot tears. A couple from our church had stopped by only moments earlier to surprise my family with an end-of-the-year gift.…
Ministry is so, so busy. Your life likely is, too. The last thing you need is another meeting, right? So why in the world would you want to take part in a local youth ministry network? (Don’t worry – since you’re in ministry, you’re one of my heroes and I’m going to do my best to talk you out of networking…but then I’ll try to talk you into it, because you’re one of my heroes.)…
Be encouraged – God is working in the next generation. Despite negative future-of-the-church chatter or speculative doomsday statistics, Jesus will build His church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Case in point, consider Bethel College in Mishawaka, Indiana.…
I’ve had the same love-hate relationship with service projects that you have over the years. On one hand, we love how a single day of selflessness can wake students up to Jesus-centered priorities that their normal routine stifles. On the other hand, we hate how easy it is for youth to get a circumstantial high off the event and stop just short of tuning into Jesus through the event.…
Ministry is rooted in relationships. Your best days serving God are directly impacted by the people you work with and for – not to mention the people under your own roof. That’s why in this first installment of “Ask a Senior Pastor” we’re addressing two common tensions within our closest connections.…
The camp had bugs in the beds. Was it the worst camp ever? I’m not sure. Perhaps your story has mine beat. Still, there were insects of all shapes and sizes crawling on the mattresses our students and leaders were to sleep on.…
Tight budgets are commonplace in ministry. That means that decisions about spending money are equally as common. Someone in our church recently asked me, “Why can’t the church do ‘x’ when it’s only thirty bucks a month?” “It’s a great idea,” I affirmed, “but there are so many other great ‘thirty dollar’ ideas people have proposed.…
Ned Nederlander. Franck. Jiminy Glick. These popular fictional characters were given life through the creative mind and talent of Martin Short. And then there’s Ed Grimley… Martin Short’s first breakthrough character. You may not know the backstory of how this greasy-hair-cowlicked-vertically-in-the-air, teeth-baring hyperactive manchild came to be… let alone how it all relates to the nerves and presumptions we all wrestle with in struggling to say something profound. …
I can’t believe how many opportunities I’ve wasted taking students on mission trips. I know I’m not the only one. Mission trips are an amazing idea…but what we tend to do with them (or not do with them) is the real issue.…
Once upon a time, I thought it would be a great idea to fill a hot tub full of milk, sardines and pigs feet. Who hasn’t, right? It was one of those crazy youth ministry program nights where our leadership team thought up absurd things we thought we could get students to do.…
