I previously set out to describe the experience of a recent visit to a nearby church that had me immediately reflecting on the link between the ultra contemporary church and youth ministry of recent decades.  I tried to simply describe my impressions as they related to how I believe youth ministry has impacted the church. …

It’s been documented already that what we have done in youth ministry has impacted the church.  Pete Ward in his book “Growing Up Evangelical” is all about that reality and he asserts that what we do in church today is what we did in youth groups previously.  So, we set out to visit a church…

The following thoughts are more or less observations from my years and engagement with people who are teaching, training, etc in youth ministry. I was reflecting on this during the conference because so much has changed over the years. When I started out in youth ministry full time, Youth Specialties offered two types of training…

Dr. Gretchen Tanis presented a paper titled “The History and Influence of the Young Life Organization on Youth Ministry in the United States”. Gretchen, like me, is something of a product of Young Life. In fact she served as a volunteer in the same town as I did in college (at a different time). She…

I have been at a conference of The IASYM which is an International organization advancing the study of youth ministry. It’s participants fall into three categories. Some are professors of youth ministry (or related fields) at a college or seminary. Others are doing research in youth ministry related areas and most of those are PhD…

I previously suggested that a leaders approach (and effectiveness) are influenced by those who lead us. Simply put, if we are being led well, we are more able to lead to our full potential and if we are not led well our effectiveness is hindered. There is another side to the matter though, another angle…

This was the 8th most viewed YouTube video of 2012.  I thought it is beautiful in so many ways!

You may have noticed some of the rhetoric in the media about a war on Christmas.  The debated notion seems to be whether or not there is a concerted effort to remove the meaning of the holy day and make it more secular.  It certainly fits in the big picture of moving society towards a…

On our fall Encounter events, we ran a video as one of our seminar options. The 50 minute video was a huge hit with students, even getting mentioned often on evaluation cards. The consistent remarks were that it really challenged them, made them think, and answered questions that the students had never thought of. Our…

by Ken Moser Friday is my favorite day of the week, I have no classes and nothing but time to mark papers and catch up. However, as I write this I can feel my batteries start to wind down and I’m looking forward to Saturday – my day off. Saturday is my day. I do…