On a recent mission trip, I interacted with adult leaders from across the country.
One was permanently attached to her phone. She called her office every 10 minutes to see if a crisis had developed she alone could solve—from 800 miles away....
The most important element of a mission trip is not worship, fun or service. Instead, the most important part of a mission trip is processing or debriefing your day with your team in order to help students wrestle with what they see, hear and do....
These days, there are few leadership roles I'm not willing to give students.
This is a significant change from my early days in youth ministry, when there were few leadership roles I was willing to give students. In those days, my student leaders...
For about a year, I've been captivated by an image that for whatever reason, I have not been able to forget.
The image comes from the final day I spent serving at an Easter Seals camp for special needs kids and adults. For three days prior, I...
As the election approaches, I continue to wrestle with what it means to follow Jesus politically. Walk into an evangelical church and many people will suggest this means voting republican. Walk into a mainline church and you'll hear the opposite:...
As I said in this post, I love Jesus and the church.
As a youth worker who loves Jesus and the church, I believe that one of the most important things I can instill in my students is a love for the church. To do this, I encourage my students to...
I am, without a doubt, a church geek.
As a kid, church felt like my second home. As a tween, I remember being upset when I was asked to serve on the worship committee rather than the staff-parish committee. As a college student, I loved to go...
One of my favorite questions to ask people at the end of the school year is, “As you think about this year of ministry, what are you particularly thankful for?”
This year, I used this question with both my students and my colleagues. In the...
At my first youth ministry job interview, I was asked, "How do you plan on fundraising the thousands of dollars required for our summer mission trip?" As a 21 year old, I'm sure I looked like a deer caught in the headlights as I fumbled to answer...
Recently, I heard a well-known Christian speaker give a sermon called, “What happens when the dream dies?”
The funny thing is I heard this speaker give the exact same sermon five years ago.
At that time, I remember sitting in the convention...