So often, our passions and drives in ministry are the byproduct of an experience or story from our own adolescence. In this series, we asked student leaders what shaped and enlivened their faith as teenagers, and how that…
When I first got into youth ministry, I had a larger than life mentor, “Big Don,” who routinely dropped nuggets of wisdom on me. Big Don stood at 6’8 and rolled 290 pounds. He also happened to live…
The “Kingdom of God” (or “Kingdom of Heaven”) is one of the more prominent themes that occurs throughout the Gospels. Without burying ourselves in assorted opinions of what the Kingdom of God is or isn’t, let’s chalk it…
I completed the summer internship for my college degree in youth ministry at a large, seeker-sensitive church. I have since come to reject “attractional ministry,” but I learned many important lessons during that summer. One of the memories…
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…
On June 24, my wife Nicole and I welcomed our son Haddon into the world. Words cannot even begin to describe the beauty of seeing our son be born. Of course, the many stories of contractions, rushing to…
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…
I am not getting any younger. I am 35 years old, I have a wife, three children, and an emotionally needy cat. The gray hairs are starting to overpower the brown, which was once a golden blonde. I…
1 Peter 5 says, “So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd…
