Category: youth ministry
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Lie to me, baby
Maybe we are just a little too authentic in youth group? Last night, our high school ministry night met. We were down a couple of adults and up a few students. Actually, the night felt right at that balance between “out-of-control” and “in control” that is some of the secret sauce of youth ministry. As…
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The other 90%
I think some people are writing me off as a deconstructionist. As if I’m a leftover from a bygone fad when it was hip to rip on the church. Part of me says, “Call me what you want, who am I to tell people what to think?” But I think that’s an incorrect label. My…
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One hundred seventy-seven
It was really cool to find out that my blog was indexed and currently ranks as #177 of the top #200 church blogs. Always nice to be recognized- thanks Kent. Based on how he measures, there are two things you can do to help me move up on that list. First, subscribe to my blog…
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New ideas wanted
The numbers are staggering. 5%-10% of the population are actively engaged in church in our country. (With some geographical variations) The United States population continues to grow, the U.S. Census bureau estimates that we’ll have 392 million by 2050. (Currently 307 million) There seems to be an deepening inverse relationship between the amount of money…
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Over-communicate with your leaders
Want to avoid confusion with your team? Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. I define a leader as someone who takes people somewhere they would otherwise not go on their own. All-too-often, as I look back on my life in leadership, my tendency is always to get a mile ahead of my team because I have under-communicated the…
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Slides: Doing youth ministry on the move
This is a presentation I made last month at the East County Youth Workers Network meeting. Maybe it’ll be helpful to you. Here’s some of the content that goes with it. Slide 1: With the rapid adoption of smart phones, iPad, and hundreds of thousands of cheap/flexible apps being developed, I am quickly seeing youth…
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5 Ways to Build Intrinsic Motivation in Students
“Fear is a short term motivator.” That was the first lesson in my first class on managing people. As a 21 year old manager of a staff at a health insurance company in Chicago, this was a valuable lesson for me. Most of my subordinates had either been with the company 25+ years or were…
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Hope reigns over youth ministry
Hope makes humanity unique. No matter how bad things may look, you can always choose hope. Hope is the reason a widow can smile at her spouses funeral. And hope is the reason a woman living in a tent can shock you with a smile and call out to God with thanksgiving when she is…
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Is Purity the Right Word?
I didn’t grow up in church. As a result, I am still learning Christianese. You know, the weird language Christians use when talking to each other. Sanctification = I’m less a jerk today than I was yesterday. But it’s a blessing = I’m really disappointed by what happened to me, but I’m trying to make…
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You aren’t going to change
On Evolution, Biology Teachers Stray From Lesson Plan Researchers found that only 28 percent of biology teachers consistently follow the recommendations of the National Research Council to describe straightforwardly the evidence for evolution and explain the ways in which it is a unifying theme in all of biology. At the other extreme, 13 percent explicitly…