We kicked off our fall programming this year by wrestling with the question, “Does God exist?”, a question prompted – at least in part – by the fact that some of our freshmen are adamant about their belief that God does not exist.
Part of the...
In response to last week's post, “What's the Catch?”, Kyle asked a great question:
I love the catch-free scenarios that we can come up with. The only thing I struggle with is making that connection of a kickball game attender to something else...
I majored in Electrical Engineering in college – a major that seemed logical for me since I was good at math and science and knew engineering could lead to a lucrative job.
The only problem was that engineering was definitely not the career God...
Over the weekend, I saw the movie McFarland, USA.
In so many ways, this is a youth ministry movie – a powerful example of the impact adults can have in the lives of teens.
In the movie, Mr. White – a teacher who's been laid off by several...
What the book's about: Creating a Lead Small Culture is about creating and maintaining healthy small groups that will help kids and teens find a place within the church to belong.
Why I read this book: As a youth pastor, I want teens to...
The premise of Jon Weece's Jesus Prom is, I think, really good. According to Jon, “Jesus loved verbs. Verbs like love, come, rest, learn, hear, die, give, and go. So wouldn't it make sense that the people who claim to follow Jesus would love the...
On Sunday mornings, we utilize small group discussions as part of our large group teaching in our high school ministry.
Currently, we're in the midst of a series called “Jesus' Family Tree”. It's our way of talking about the characters in the...
Small groups are only as good as the questions asked in them. If that's the case, then what exactly constitutes a good question?
Good questions...
1. Are open-ended. They cannot be answered with yes or no. This is important because when given the...
As a youth worker, I've attended and led my fair share of small group Bible studies. Some have been really good and others have simply tanked. More often than not, the ones that have tanked are the ones in which the leader fails to ask...
Over the past four weeks, my youth ministry has been experimenting with student led small groups.
Truth be told, this experiment was birthed out of a shortage of adult leaders. In an effort to keep the size of our small groups small, I invited...