I ran across this post on the Youth Ministry 360 site (which I don’t think I have ever seen before) and the author was reflecting on a video he watched where a math teacher was explaining 5 signs that he sees that suggest that the approach they are taking to teach is ineffective.  Very creatively…

I’m not sure how many of us in youth ministry have considered how we are impacted by the prosperity gospel.  Most folks I know are quick to dismiss it as bogus – which they rightly should.   Yet the prosperity preachers sell more books I think than the best evangelicals.   (I am basing this…

Doug actually posted this about the time I started running with this series and I thought his insights were great on an aspect I did not really touch on… namely how to fire a volunteer.  Having been on the receiving end of it, I must say that learning to remove leaders well is important and…

Author and speaker Ken Davis gave a message at a conference with three points that I will never forget.  He suggested that we can live life with nothing too hide, nothing to lose, and nothing to prove.  The parallels between his talk and the opening verse of Jude are amazing. Nothing to hide Too often…

A look at leadership for those who are or want to be… Your major youth event is soon to get underway.  Months of dreaming, planning, and hard work have brought you this far and now everything seems to be falling to bits.  Technical issues, delays in the set up, key people missing, and now tension…

Build on vision… Before we begin to build teams, we need to have a vision for the work that we intend to accomplish.  A vision is a picture of a preferred future.  Remember Nehemiah?  God gave him a clear vision to rebuild the city of Jerusalem.  He not only pictured it in his mind, he…

Where do we find leaders? Good leaders are often hard to find.  If you are in a church or community where people are very career driven and busy, the challenge is even greater.  In the average church, finding people to work with youth is often done by an announcement in worship.  However, many of the…

When I was 14 years old, my church had the most amazing youth pastor!  Large numbers of young people came to youth groups and spent time with Gary whenever they could.  His home bustled with teenagers coming and going.  They wanted to be around Gary as much as possible.  When I was 15, everything had…

Links here to the main speakers talks at Rooted.  Worth taking the time to listen to! Click on the title of the talk to listen (once you go to the pages below) 2012 Rooted Conference Recordings: Mary Willson 2012 Rooted Conference Recordings: Ray Ortlund 2012 Rooted Conference Recordings: Timothy George

Its been far too long since I updated the blog here, I thought I would do a series of articles on a subject. This time it will be on the matter of volunteer leaders. Some of what I will post over the next few weeks will be from a series of articles that were originally…