I’ve been reading a version of John Owen’s “Overcoming Sin and Temptation” recently and have been really amazed by it.  The following was posted on The Resurgence on the subject of the Puritans and putting sin to death. 1. SEE SIN FOR WHAT IT IS“If the thoughts of death, and the grave, and rottenness, are…

(This was posted on The Gospel Coalition Blog on June 17) Youth ministry can be an uphill battle. The congregation and church leadership often don’t fully understand the challenges that youth leaders face and don’t know how to support them. Yet many church leaders are still looking to start or develop a youth ministry.  In…

I noticed this article posted on Facebook by a guy who served as a youth pastor in Scotland for a few years. It challenges the idea of the short term mission trips that we in the USA are so fond of and yet understands that there is some good in them.  I liked the blend…

The common belief that the average youth ministry has failed to prepare students for their faith to survive in college has been challenged recently.  All the stats about the massive percentages of students who will leave the faith after high school… might not be due to the university experience but might be more about how…

This might seem a bit odd but something arrived in my inbox that I wanted to react to. It was advertising resources for churches to use that are based on the next summer blockbuster.  It was not even a “Christian film”. What happens when we base sermons on a Hollywood movie?  What about doing that…

I had the opportunity to preach at our cathedral church on the 5th of May.  They have posted the sermon online for listening HERE

The Gospel Coalition talks including the workshops are all available online now.  My workshop can be found at GCYM:Jesus Mission to the Next Generation and great messages by many excellent speakers can be found at TGC Conference Media. Enjoy!

In the workshop I suggested that Gospel Centered Youth Ministry: 1. Recognizes that how we do ministry impacts whether or not students will plug into the church in the future. 2. Teaches students how to be the body of Christ, the church. 3. Looks to scripture to inform how we make disciples. It is incredibly…

For years I thought I had an unchanging message to proclaim in a rapidly changing culture. I thought I had license to do ministry however I saw fit. This worked great with my innovator instinct as a youth pastor.  However, I have come to believe otherwise.  It’s time to explore the second reality I shared…

Several realities should shape our pursuit of Gospel Centered Youth Ministry.  Due to the brevity of this workshop, I only have time to dive into two.  They are both facts.  One is observable in experience and the other is observable in scripture. I’ll unpack the first one here and then the second one in a…