Let me preface this post by saying I’ve been at my church for under a year. I understand that you have to jettison a senior class or two within a youth ministry to expunge former philosophies and practices and to import new ones that will grow over time. This fact does not make Senior Sunday…
Convoy of Hope and Samaritan’s Purse are just a few of the amazing ministries that have converged on Pleasant Grove and all over Alabama to help out. They supply much needed with relief with food, water, and meals. As with all relief ministries, they commit about 2-3 weeks to an area and then move on…
When a shift happens in someone’s life, we think, that’s too bad, until it happens to us. When chaos is the current reality of someone’s life, we think, that’s too bad, until it happens to us. Well, it’s happened to me. The stories I once saw on the news of churches being wiped out…
I spent two days with my son at a camp recently. Spending time with and being a counselor for 100 5th graders was an experience in itself. Something that impressed me, but also irked me were the meal times. The food was good but the process of clean up was so tedious…
I have a love-hate relationship with Thursdays. It’s the day after our youth meeting and I am usually wiped. I spend most of my day fiddling around with things that don’t mean much. The time I do carve out of the day is filled with reflection. My motto: If the unexamined life is not worth…
I examined my week and I decided I was spending too much time with kids. Is that possible? I think it is. I saw kids on Sunday and Wednesday, I had a student leadership meeting on Monday, I was taking homeschool kids to lunch, Facbooking, and on and on. I don’t think kids need us…
I recently had to postpone 2 events in the past two months because the sign up was not good. These were traditional events. a lock-in and a D-Now (Disciple Now). Students had helped plan both, but did not sign up. It makes a youth worker shake his head and question everything. Don’t. It’s the…
The old deodorant commercial says, “Never let them see you sweat” , but they didn’t work with teenagers. If the makers of that commercial knew how little time our kids spent practicing the basic disciplines of the Christian faith; they would know it was the youth workers who were sweating . Pew Research say that Millennial’s…
I hate it when a kid leaves our group. When a kid leaves, depending on the kid, several bad things can happen: We lose momentum We lose other kids We lose leadership We lose workers We lose a friend We lose our job, if it’s a bunch of kids Kids can leave for any…
I am a news junkie. I like to know what is going on. News organizations have started ramping up 2012 Presidential hopefuls for the Republican party. A phrase I keep hearing is “a purity code”. The various parties, both conservative, liberal, and tea, all have a code. They are asking “are they____________ enough to…