Don’t Hurry the Hurt

Ping. I looked over to my phone alerting of me a new text. In an instant, the peace of sitting alone at the table after a long day was disrupted once again. The message was from the same child I had already sat…

Confessions of a Struggling Youth Minister

“How are you doing?” I don’t know about you, but in my Bible Belt ministry context, this combination of words poses as a friendly greeting at best, and at worst represents a question that one rarely answers truthfully….

Confessions of a Small Town Student Pastor

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…

Jesus Always Dealt With the Heart – Why Shouldn’t We?

As we wrap up our Theology of Sex series, we welcome new blog contributor Ryan Viner, the Sr. High Youth Pastor at Independent Presbyterian in Memphis, TN. The following letter is written by Ryan to a person who…

127 Hours and Sovereignty, Part 1: Questions

Our next piece in the series, Tough Stuff, comes to us from our newest contributor, Dan Wolf, youth director at Anglican congregation, Church of the Apostles, in Columbia, SC. Dan takes a look at three critical questions and issues…

A Battle Within: Proverbs 24:1

There is an interesting proverb that aptly fits many students in our ministry; I would almost say it could be their theme verse. Proverbs 24.1 “Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them.” I…