Three Words I Want My Students to Claim

In Isaiah 61, we read three compelling words that can lead our hearts to respond in action, passion, and maybe even some fear – restore, rebuild, and renew. This is the calling that followers of Christ are given…

Clarifying The Call of God

As we sipped our coffees at a local café, a student asked, “How do I know if that’s what God is calling me to?” On another occasion, sitting in my office, a different student said, “I’m just not…

God is God; You are Not (and this is Good)

God is God; you are not, and this is a very good thing. This basic message, grounded in the comfort offered by Isaiah 40, was a regular refrain early on in my ministry to teenagers. Those three basic…

Youth Ministry as a Modern English Parish

In my family, we have a joke. Every time my wife makes anything with potatoes, I respond at the dinner table with my best nasally tone, “What excellent boiled potatoes – it has been many years since I…