“And at once I knew I was not magnificent.” This line from Bon Iver’s song Holocene is one of the most poignant verses sung on arguably the most brilliant album of 2011.[1] With these words, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver’s frontman) articulates…
Sometimes I get sensory whiplash before seven in the morning… It’s any Monday morning in Matagalpa, Nicaragua. I walk out my front door and am assaulted by the smells and sights of a third world city waking up to…
6 Ways to Increase Your Knowledge of Youth Culture In Part 1 of this series, I stressed the importance of engaging with youth culture as we seek to translate biblical truth and communicate that truth effectively to the…
There is an overlooked principle that needs to be considered in the church as we think about youth ministry. It is rather simple and yet I would consider it a game changer. When missed, the results can be…
3 Steps to Effectively Engage Youth Culture I view my role as a youth pastor as being a translator. My job is to take biblical truth and communicate that truth effectively to the youth with whom I work in…
What I Learned from an NA Meeting Last week, I attended a Narcotics Anonymous meeting as a part of an Addictions class I am taking for my counseling degree. On my way there the skies had opened up with…
The book of Esther resonates with our experiences. The spiritual vista of Esther feels very familiar to our own lives, yet it is into this context that God is powerfully demonstrated.
One of the privileges of ministering amongst young people is helping them understand what the local church is and how God intends it to function, for his glory, in his world. The apostle Paul compares the local church…
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. –Ecclesiastes 1:9 Relationship. Relationship is what we as humans are fundamentally designed for, and relationship is what…
