archives
Archive for March, 2010
A Window to Our Students’ Souls
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Most youth pastors view technology as a tool to help us communicate our messages, connect with our kids, and create our programmatic elements. But what if we dug deeper, looking beyond what technology can do and tried to understand why we create the technology we do?
A bit of cultural exegesis of technology’s deeper layers could give us some insight into our students’ lives, their worlds, and the best responses and approaches for applying the teachings of Christ in order to foster their spiritual formation.
Living in Post-Easter Mode
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Easter has come and gone, and we who celebrated Christ’s resurrection move back into the predictable rhythms of daily life. We’ve finished with our Lenten practices, we’ve marked the events of Holy week—waving palms, washing feet, partaking in Last Suppers, attending the beautiful services that mark the final hours of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The holiest time in the Christian calendar has come and gone for another year.
Paul Harvey, whose radio broadcasts made him a household name for many years, had a sequence titled “The Rest of the Story.” Each story came with a punchline of some kind,….
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Tags: Inner Life
Posted in Archive
Leading Past Your Liabilities
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Tim is the youth pastor at a mid-sized church in southern California. Like many church staff, Tim was struggling to get more adults involved in his youth ministry. After years of announcements, invitations, clever recruitment videos in church services, bribes, begging and pleading for help in the youth ministry, Tim was not only frustrated; he was angry. He knew something had to change. During our conversations, Tim used phrases like, “Our church is unique, Mark!” “They just don’t get it!” “It’s easy to find volunteers for children’s ministry, but youth ministry is a different game.” “No one wants to work….
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Tags: Consulting
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Engaging Parents
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
When I started in youth ministry, I believed parents were the enemy. I would say, “If these parents would just get out of the way, I could minister to these kids.” I couldn’t have been more off base in my philosophy of ministry. Years later and now a parent myself, I realize how much I let families down by dismissing the importance of the entire family in the discipleship journey.
Tags: Parents Ministry
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A Sharpened Focus
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Each youth ministry is unique. Whether you serve in Canada, the USA, Mexico, Africa or in another ministry context abroad, we share many similarities while celebrating uniqueness. One thing we have in common is the desire for growth in our ministries and health in our students.
We know that junior high ministry is unique, that it reaches students at a critical time in their faith development. Parents leave their kids with us, hoping that when they pick them up, they’ll be less monster-like, more firmly rooted in their faith and more passionately in love with God.
Tags: Jr. High Ministry
Posted in Archive