Over the summer, we assigned a book for the new members of youth commission to read.  We spent some time discussing it at our training day in September and I was impressed to see how much they comprehended.  My thinking is that all teens need to read this book.  It is short, moves very quickly…

In light of all saints day… when many make much of the reformers to whom we are greatly indebted…  I thought this was an interesting blog post… 3 Ways to Make the Reformers Proud

Sitting at the AYME Conference (Association of Youth Ministry Educators), I was eager to reflect on the chosen theme of incarnation and wrestle with it a bit.  Wrestling is a good thing in my mind.  We have to get our heads engaged sometimes and challenge those ideas or viewpoints that don’t always make sense to…

When I posted the link to Greg Stier’s review of the film “Divided” my motivation was the characterization of Jesus as a youth minister.  His basis?  Evidence in scripture that most of the disciples were under 20 years old.  For 25 years (the ones I have been in full time youth ministry) I have been…

Greg Stier weighs in on the film that I posted reviews of previously.  Like anyone, he jumps on the whole D6 thing with both feet but then disagrees with the premises of the film with a very different perspective than others whose reviews I have read.  I’d love to think he is right in his…

For years I had a subscription to a magazine of sorts called “The Briefing”.  It came out of Sydney, published by Matthias Media and gave me lots of interesting things to think about and I learned much from it.  The Briefing is now fully online and totally free!  Bookmark it and take a little time…

Ted Kluck, co-author of “Why We’re Not Emergent” (an excellent book in which Ted writes the amusing observations while his co-author writes the biblical analysis), shares his amusing and thoughtful observations in a blog post that I thoroughly enjoyed.  Here is a snippet: I have been told, in all earnestness, by a 19-year-old security guard…

A comment by a friend recently got me thinking about an attitude that I held for a great many years.  The comment reflected a dislike for the word ‘religion’.  When I heard that, I had a mixed reaction.  I can relate to the dislike for a word that in a sense does not convey the…