3 Things
- Yes, yes, and yes to Mandy’s talk.
- Come to The Summit this year, November 8-9 in Atlanta, we’ve got 18 brand new speakers to blow your mind.
- All of the audio/video for the 2012 Summit is now available for purchase starting at $4.
Category: youth ministry
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Congregations Where Teenagers Have a Voice
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Those Risky Teenagers
The hypothesis of the study –– that adolescents make finer distinctions between levels of risk and reward than adults do –– contradicts much conventional knowledge about young people and risk taking, according to Reyna.
Those Risky Teenagers
“I’ve got a challenge for you. My theory is that those who are really dedicated to following Jesus, those who take some risks for their faith, will be rewarded. I can’t promise you what that reward will be, but I’ve learned that God will meet me there when I take a risk for Him.”
She heard her youth pastor say that. And she needed it to be true. What he didn’t know that night was just how on-the-fence she’d become about the whole “Jesus thing“– as her friends called it. Youth group had become a place to see her friends. But in this small town you see your friends at lunch just as much as you see them at youth group. Plus, the repetition of games and songs and a Bible teaching was getting on her nerves. She likes it all, sure, but it’s pretty much the same thing every Wednesday night for the past 4 years. She’s growing up and everything in her world is maturing, eating baby food while blind-folded just doesn’t feel as grown up as it did in seventh grade.
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The Cycle Can Stop
For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
The Apostle Paul and the Holy Spirit smashed some guys in my small group last night. It took my breath away.My co-leader and I spent an hour pushing through Romans 6 phrase-by-phrase, defining all the words and concepts, drawing out what that meant to first century readers, making principled comparisons to today. It was exhausting… and while the guys participated and were inquisitive I was concerned that it wasn’t sinking in. It felt more like an English class than a small group.
I asked…
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What is Good News for Teenage Guys?
“Knowing Jesus isn’t just about when things go good. He helps you know you’re not alone when it hits the fan.”
“I’ve never heard that phrase, ‘hit the fan.’ What does that mean?”
“You’ve never heard someone say, when the **** hits the fan?”
“Oh yeah, for sure. That’s my life right now. Just never heard that phrase without the word ****. And yeah, I need this stuff to be true. My life is a mess.”
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Marko is on the next Parentministry.net Webinar!
Sometimes my worlds converge in the most awesome way.
ParentMinistry.net is a project I started working on about a year ago for Jeremy Lee. Basically, Jeremy’s site helps your church staff better minister to parents of teenagers by providing the easy-to-use, timely, and just plain awesome content.
Well, February 26th Jeremy has booked my very own partner-in-crime, Marko, as the speaker for his next free monthly webinar.
It’s kind of like an episode of Love Connection. Two folks whom I love working with, coming together for an hour of discussion about the minds of teenagers. The best part? It’s totally free!
So do yourself a favor.
- Register for Marko’s webinar.
- Enjoy the best, most awkward episode of Love Connection you could possibly imagine.
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The Three I’s of Working with Teenagers
Sometimes you come across statements about teenagers that are just so over-the-top that you have to laugh.
Today the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) announced that the teen birth rate is at an all-time low. (More on that in a minute.) But in the press release there’s this hilarious statement from Dr. Jill Rabin, a OB/GYN from Hyde Park, NY:
“It’s important to remember the three I’s when you’re working with teens. They think they’re immortal, invincible and infertile. We have to convince them otherwise and dispel the myths, and the message needs repetition.”
Ah, generalizations. Aren’t they fun?
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Don’t Waste Your Recession
In February 2006, John Piper wrote a post called “Don’t Waste Your Cancer.” While I’ve never had cancer I resonated with his trying to make sense out of something which must have seemed to not make sense to him.
If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose.
Since God has sovereignty over the molecular things in our bodies we can agree that God also has sovereignty over bigger things, like macroeconomics.
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Open Boston and the Weekend That Was
Morgan Schmidt teaching at Open Boston Oh yeah, Open is really cool.
It’s crazy. Life comes at you a million miles per hour sometimes. With the holidays and my trip to Africa I didn’t have a lot of mental space to get excited for Open Boston. It was one of those things where I was pumped about it in a cognitive and strategic kind of way. But it wasn’t until Friday evening that the emotions of its awesomeness really started to hit me.
Here’s Five Emotional Polaroid’s I Took at Open Boston.
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4 Outside of the Box Program Ideas for Youth Ministry
Here’s 5 ideas that are outside of the norm for youth group. (Nothing wrong with traditional youth group, just sharing ideas.) My hope is that these ideas will spark you to create programs that your community actually needs as opposed to building your ministry purely on a combination of felt need & what you experienced as a teenager.
4 Outside of the Box Program Ideas for Youth Ministry
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5 Starting Points for Reprogramming Your Youth Ministry
Let’s hang some meat on yesterday’s post, Making Youth Ministry More Programmatic, Again. Before you start going through old clip art files and reprinting Run the Bases to post on the wall in your youth room, let’s get a quick rundown of things that’ll get you going the right direction. (That’s a Purpose-Driven Youth Ministry reference for readers under 30.)