Years ago I used the 3D guide produced by CPYU with groups and found it to be very helpful in getting students to think through the media that they absorb. CPYU has updated the resource and added a valuable section to it. You can download the leaders guide for free here which allows you to…

What do we do with the stats that tell us that Christian kids don’t live any differently (morally) than their non believing counterparts? How do we make sense of it? John Piper has some thoughts on equipping the young saints… Pray for sure. And work our heinies off teaching and preaching and modeling the Truth.…

Educating others… Recently one of the newer folks in the diocese asked an older youth minister what I actually do in my job. It is a fair question of course and reminded me of a simple truth we all need to keep in mind. Part of our job in ministry is educating people about what…

Missing a beat… I blew it! The best laid plans and all that… The only thing I can say is “I am sorry” and seek forgiveness. What am I talking about? For our recent Fusion meeting, I was convicted that we really needed to spend more time in prayer for each other, for ministries we…

It’s an odd question, using an old image (unless you are a tetherball player) but John Piper has a great piece on the Desiring God website that Jonathan B tipped me off to. Here is a sample… The Bible tethers us to reality. We are not free to think and speak whatever might enter our…

With Halloween a mere five weeks away, I am reminded of a trend in some churches to create a Hell House sort of haunted house experience for the sake of evangelism. Honestly, I personally find this sort of approach frightening. It seems on the one extreme we see Christians watering down the gospel and trying…

Many years ago, as a young youth pastor, God impressed something on me about how I viewed my work. In looking at a long list of church kids we were not reaching and then thinking about the massive number of unreached students at local schools, the temptation was to go after the unchurched. In some…

Total ChurchTim Chester & Steve Timmis I have been hearing (and reading just a little bit) about the concept of missional church for some time. It strikes me as both refreshing and obvious. I suspect I have been influenced by people who think this way without even being aware of it. Anyway, I mentioned this…

One of the highlights of my sabbatical was the opportunity to serve on the youth team at Keswick Convention. Jane and I volunteered when we realized that serving was the only way we were going to be able to find a bed in the town for the convention. Keswick Convention has a very long history…