Recently, my senior pastor had our staff watch Simon Sinek’s TED Talk, How Great Leaders Inspire Action . The basic gist of Simon’s talk is that if you want people to follow you, you’ve got to tell them why you’re doing what you’re doing. You’ve...
I am a big believer in the power of experiential learning. To this end, instead of giving a talk about prayer, I'd much rather create a series of prayer stations designed to give students the opportunity to pray in a variety of ways.
Over the...
As he dipped his fingers into a bowl of rice and beans, one of my students whined, "Why do you always have to mess with our food?"
At the time he made this comment, this student, along with the rest of our mission team, was busy participating in a...
What the book's about: Thin Places by Jon Huckins explores six postures for creating and practicing missional community. Here, the word, "posture" is significant as it blends action with contemplative practices that teach dependence on the...
As I mentioned last week, one benefit of taking the summer off is that it gives leaders the time to invest in other things. One of the things I routinely invest in during the summer is our youth ministry’s space.
Roughly every other year, we hold...
During Holy Week, my congregation holds worship on each of The Great Three Days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
Though I grew up in a church that held a Good Friday worship service, the concept of worshipping on each of these...
For many years, my husband and I led a small group we affectionately called the Palatine misfits. The group earned it's name because of where we met and who we were. Our group could not easily be categorized as singles, couples, or families....
As my senior pastor says, "At our place, we do church. Especially this time of the year. Holy Week." I had the privilege of preaching on Isaiah 50:4-9a, Hebrews 12:1-3, and John 13:21-32 during Holy Wednesday worship. The reflection I shared...
Earlier this week, Josh posted a poll about taking the summer off saying, “I’m not talking about changing it up a bit in the summer, I’m talking about largely taking the summer off.”
My youth ministry definitely falls into the category of “largely...
Yesterday, I talked about how to use positive reinforcement to handle disruptive students. I wrote this post in response to a question posed on an online youth ministry forum I'm a part of: “How do you handle disruptive students during a lesson or...