Helping Young People Navigate Through “Church Hurt”
When the church enters a season of brokenness, we encourage students to turn to the One who hears their pain, but does not cause it.
When the church enters a season of brokenness, we encourage students to turn to the One who hears their pain, but does not cause it.
I thought I had taught a great lesson. I had brought scripture to life, provided thoughtful application points, and used some great illustrations from my own life. I, along with my youth volunteers, sat in small groups and…
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…
If you work in youth ministry, you know the opposition and even outrage that foundational Biblical doctrines and truth elicit from the world. In the western world, one encounters a great chasm between secular culture and that of…
In a recent meeting for our upcoming Summer mission trip, I found myself hesitant to announce that girls were required to wear a one-piece bathing suit, a rule which in the eyes of a teenage girl is essentially…
“We need to fire the youth pastor.” Those words, spoken to my boss, drew me into what became a negotiation process between church leaders and a young youth minister. It was one of many times I have been…
Jackie Hill Perry stated it plainly when she said, “The next generation, I imagine, will be one worth watching.” This was Perry’s opening line to her speech at the MLK50 Conference in Memphis, Tennessee this past April 3….
My Incredible Lack of Patience Early on in my ministry, about twelve years ago, I was doing student ministry in a small rural church. I had one student, we will call him Jim, who wanted to sing with…
In the last decade, youth ministry has seen a movement away from the historical focus on law and morality, toward the proclamation of the gospel: the Good News that God loves and redeems sinners through Christ. However,…