FLY
Today, I'm linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker‘s Five Minute Friday. The rules: Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
This week's prompt: Fly.
The first youth ministry I served was called FLY – an...
The church isn't perfect, but it matters
Two years ago, a young man named Jefferson Bethke released a spoken word video on YouTube called “Why I hate religion, but love Jesus.” Within a day, this video went viral. Person after person shared it, seeming to agree with Bethke's underlying...
Affirmation as Parent Ministry
When The Five Love Languages was all the rage, I bought a copy, thinking it would be a great book for my husband and I to read together.
True confession: We never did.
A decade later I can tell you – even without ever having read the book – that...
What we care about
In the last two weeks, an important conversation has been happening in the virtual world about women in the church.
The conversation erupted when popular evangelical blogger Rachel Held Evans tweeted:
More than 100 speakers and only...
Bill
A few weeks ago, I visited our new members class in order to talk about our congregation's youth ministry.
None of the people in this class have high school aged kids and yet I went anyway, believing it's important for everyone in our...
Stuff You Can Use: Help! I'm a Student Leader Ch. 7 Discussion Questions
Last summer, my student leaders & I read and discussed the book, Help! I'm a Student Leader by Doug Fields. Using the questions below, we had some incredibly powerful discussions about leadership and faith.
Questions about Ch. 7 of Help! I'm a...
Review: When We Were on Fire by Addie Zierman
Last week, I sat on a plane and wept (Think ugly cry) as I finished Addie Zierman's When We Were on Fire . I'm sure my poor seat mate thought I was crazy but it couldn't be helped. Addie's words moved me deeply.
Having followed her blog for quite...
What's on my bookshelves
One of the greatest gifts my Mom gave me is a love of reading. I grew up in a house that was loaded with books and I loved reading, even as a small child.
Today, my house is the same way. We have books everywhere: Three dedicated shelves as...
Identity vs. Application
In his recent blog post, Application vs. Information , Chris Wesley suggests when they go to church, teens wonder, “What does this have to do with my life?” According to him, “The tendency is to fill their head with doctrine, church history and...
Follow footsteps, not doctrine
There's a story in the Gospel of Matthew about a woman who hemorrhaged for twelve years.
It's not typically one we pay much attention to.
Why would we? In it's entirety, this woman's story comprises three verses. As with so many of her female...