Is the author of Ecclesiastes suggesting our work in student ministry is not worth it when he opens with the following remarks? “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2) I’ve been sitting with…
Tempting as it is to revel in last year’s glory, we want to plan for success the second time around, and that means getting our expectations in the right place.
Dear Parent, I know how you must be feeling… You’re a failure. I know shame is whispering that lie as you wonder who your child has talked to and whether or not they’ve told; you’re desperately hoping the…
I’m often guilty of viewing the prominence of smartphones and tablets as a purely negative development in the fabric of our society. Tim Keller wisely brings me back to the center. “Every culture is a mixed bag of…
Just as Jesus instructed his disciples to follow him, or as Paul took Timothy with him on his missionary journeys, we too must bring our students alongside us as we remain faithful to the cultural narrative.
Late last week, I was wrestling with content for a teaching time at our church when my phone pinged and vibrated with alerts from #SXSW (the darling arts/music/film/tech festival in Austin, TX). Each of these alerts communicated a sure and…
God could have let what was lost stay lost, but instead He emptied Himself, and taking the form of a servant was born in the likeness of men in order to come after us. In His love and grace for us we find true rest for our restless hearts, manna each day for our hungry souls.
So often, our passions and drives in ministry are the byproduct of an experience or story from our own adolescence. In this series, we asked student leaders what shaped and enlivened their faith as teenagers, and how that…
In Richard Kim’s fantastic talk from our 2016 conference in San Diego, he addressed the three largest temptations with which ministers are faced (deeply related to Satan’s three temptations of Jesus in the wilderness): we are what we…
