Losing Your Life
Our natural tendency as human beings is to try to hold on to our lives. We don’t want to give up control of our lives to anything or anyone. Christ followers lose their lives to follow Jesus.
Peace on Earth
Peace on Earth, it seems like such an elusive concept. This was especially true during WWI; however, on Christmas Eve in 1914, Scottish soldiers witnessed strange lights in the German trenches across from them. They then began to hear what sounded like singing.
Camp: Three Reasons It Helps Your Student Ministry
I have a confession to make: I love youth camp. God began calling me to surrender my life to Christ at youth camp. As a youth pastor, I saw my students’ lives transformed while they attended camp.
Time Keeps Ticking Away: 8 Steps to Time Management in Youth Ministry
While deployed as an Army Chaplain on Operation Enduring Freedom in Europe, God taught me some lessons about time management. While my unit was not in a combat area, the deployment made me think about the brevity of my life and how I had spent my time up until that point. I grieved over time I wasted and committed that I would seek to try to make the most of each day, seeing each day as a stewardship God gave me with which to make Kingdom investments. I vowed that I would not waste my time.
Parents Engaging Gen Z
Youth pastors often complain that the biggest hindrance to raising the bar in youth ministry is parents. Many parents don’t think of the long-term implications of a youth ministry that’s based on silliness, yet it is the parents who cry the loudest when their children aren’t having “fun.” American youth have parents who grew up when being a parent too often meant being a “buddy” to children. The failure of parenting, and of marriages for that matter, has had a serious, negative impact on millions of youth. But if many of the problems facing youth begin with parents, the solution can begin there as well. And many children want their parents to make that change.
Killing Sin
One reason the Holy Spirit indwells us is to sanctify us. This is both a one time event and an ongoing process. When we come to Christ through repentance and faith, we are sanctified (set apart as holy) by the Holy Spirit.