Although I grew up in the church and was taught that Jesus sacrificed himself for my sins on the cross, I didn't really learn about self-sacrifice until twenty years ago when I was a summer staffer for YouthWorks Missions.
That summer, I was told...
As we stood at my mother-in-law’s casket, my nearly two-year-old nephew chased my four-year-old daughter around the empty funeral home room – something they could do since, thanks to the COVID-19 restrictions, the room was empty except for us.
...
In every church I’ve ever been on staff at, we've inevitably wrestled with the question, “Who belongs?”
Oh, we never say it like that.
Instead, we raise questions like, “Who is active here? Who worships here? Or who gives an offering here?”
We...
This morning, I recorded my children’s message for tomorrow’s virtual Easter service. I began it without thinking, by saying, “Happy Easter!”
As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I inwardly questioned them.
Will this really be a happy...
Yesterday, I stumbled onto this Facebook post:
In three short months, just like He did with the plagues of Egypt, God has taken away everything we worship. God said, "you want to worship athletes, I will shut down the stadiums. You want to...
Over the weekend, I had a pretty awful mental health day. I spent much of the weekend in tears. Since writing has always been how I've processed and made sense of the world, I decided to write about the experience. The simple act of writing did my...
I love to read. In fact, it’s one of the things I love most in the world. Because of how much I love and value reading, I want very much for my daughters to become avid readers.
I also, more importantly, want them to become committed followers of...
Dear Future Self –
I want you to remember this week ten years from now.
This is the week you made a controversial parenting decision. Oh, don’t get me wrong. It isn’t the first you’ve made. It won’t be the last. But this is the one I want you to...
I love geeking out on research. And when that research is related to youth ministry, it’s even better. For that reason, I was excited to read David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock’s Faith For Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in...
My research into what high school teens believe about Jesus (published in The Jesus Gap) has made me particularly aware of how important it is to help people understand that ALL of Scripture points to Jesus. Knowing how important this is, I’m...