Yesterday we talked about our attachment to hurts and, like material objects, we have a tough time getting rid of them. Hurts, wounds, and offenses keep some people alive. If it were not for hurts, wounds, and offenses, some people would have nothing to talk about or blog about. A former pastor of mine use…
Yesterday I shared some thoughts on staying emotionally healthy in ministry and today I want to share where most of my emotional upheaval comes from in one word: Expectations Ministry and the church, unlike a corporation, comes with some non-negotiable values built into it that you expect people to embrace. Corporations do not ask you…
When I prepare a message, most of the time, I usually know where I’m going with it and I have an outline in my head. There are times though when I leave the prepared path and go muddin’ (as they say in the south). In preacher talk we call them rabbit trails. Talking and preaching…
Pic Source I don’t know how spiritually ready you were last night to execute your youth meeting or small group, but I was spiritually slacking. I have a lot going on in my life right now. I have trying to get my High School senior son graduated, I have a basement being remodeled, and…
Pic source Last night I got on a it of rant on Twitter. Part of it was reflection of my own status in life and part of it was my distaste for mediocrity in general. Here is my rant from Twitter: @paulturnertoo We should stop giving out attendance awards in elementary school because in…
It’s Thursday and maybe you had some drama in your youth program last night. Did I say maybe? There’s always something going, sometimes it’s big, sometimes it’s small, and sometimes it’s nuclear, like an angry parent. I have had my share of conversations with parents who were not happy with me because of a…
Have you ever had a conversation with a teen that went nowhere? Yep, me too. My go to question for a struggling conversation is “Do you like monkeys?”. That elicits some laughter, which breaks the awkward tension, but it does not take us to much deeper on the topics of monkeys, and that’s a good…
Every youth ministry, not matter the size, denomination, or ethnicity, has a narrative. One year into serving at my current church, a tornado came a stole our church. We spent the next year rebuilding. Our youth ministry remembers that year. We met in other church youth rooms, we met in tiny tiny, restrictive room,…
Yes, teenagers should go to church, be in a community of faith, but sitting home and playing video games or doing homework sounds like a more practical idea. If our only answer to the question, “Why should I come?” is “You’ll have fun” there are a dozen other ways that kid can have fun.…
Our youth ministry recently sponsored a 5k run/walk for missions. We asked out local police to help out with the run by blocking off the roads as the runners ran. We did not have a huge contingency of runners, about 30. We had a few slower walkers in the back and the police blocked off…
