In my early twenties upon moving to Birmingham, AL, I attended for three months a mega-church with an impressive growth rate. The pastor regularly boasted about the church’s increasing attendance in between opportunities to talk about the large…
In the past 10+ years of Christian ministry, I have been in churches where the expectation for youth ministry was nothing more than glorified baby sitting. There was actually one time I heard a parent talk about how…
Several years ago I walked around a shopping mall with a student who was weighing the cost of whether he would walk with Christ as a disciple or go the way of the world. He had a new,…
I remember one particularly galling Wednesday night several years ago. The previous days had brought a familiar mix of high-effort, low-response, excitement, frustration, and discouragement, all in one package. And when I walked away from a house that…
1. Please describe the context in which you minister (socio-economics, geography, race, etc.) New York City is, of course, a diverse community both socially and economically with hundreds of cultural pockets throughout the five boroughs. Primarily, our ministry…
Every now and then we take our regular worship service and change things up. I give our band a night off to thank them for their hard work and to create an environment that doesn’t become dependent on…
Christmas: Where rubber meets the road. Where God enters time and space. Where the kingdom of God intersects earth. I watched the movie ‘The Nativity Story’ several nights ago, and I had a really interesting experience of having…
1.) Please describe the context in which you minister (geographically, ethnically, socio-economically, etc.) I serve in the American South in a suburban context in Birmingham, AL. My students are almost entirely white and upper-middle class to affluent. Attending…
1.) Describe the context in which you minister (geographically, ethnically, socio-economically, etc.) I currently serve in the Mira Mesa community of San Diego. There are 80,000 people within a few miles of our church and many thousands more…
