I always considered myself a gospel-centered youth pastor. There was a period when I even created a blog entitled “Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry.” But looking back, the irony is striking. The gospel has always been present in everything I…
In the world we live in today the church needs a gospel-centered approach to every area of life among the upcoming generation. Dr. Carl F. H. Henry once said, “Teenagers by the droves ask whether life holds any…
John Piper, Matt Chandler, and R.C. Sproul were at my youth group last night (or so I preached like they were). If I’m totally honest, I have to admit that on more than one occasion I have aimed…
Hindsight is surely 20/20. I wish that I had approached the stress of my kids’ exams with more Gospel and less me. Now that they are grown, I see my mistakes more clearly. The “truth” of a standard…
Comedian Nick Thune believes he could get hired as the youth pastor at just about every church in America. And he might be right. In a recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Thune gave a…
The battle for the hearts of our students is not a new one. The world has always been vying for our students’ faith – attempting to offer them something more quickly gratifying to place their faith in. However,…
I remember asking students in the first Bible study group I graduated, “What is the gospel?” After two years of investment, all I received were blank stares. Crushing. Now I ask my students to define the gospel at…
Simply put, many youth ministry leaders promote grace saturated youth ministry because it works.
Student Pastors are tired creatures, often fiddling with knobs – like attendance numbers, testimonies, sermon-prep, who got prayed for, who raised their hand, or who asked us for advice – all in effort to work the machine of…
