There’s only one problem with dissent: a lot of people don’t want to hear it.  All week long we are focusing our attention on what it means to be a dissenting voice for your team, and a discerning team with a powerful voice. It’s not an easy conversation, but a necessary practice for the ...
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It’s senior season and next month you should be celebrating your graduating seniors. But how? Last year was a mad-dash of just trying to come up with something, anything that we could do in light of being on lockdown. This year let’s take what we innovated last year, couple it with what we have ...
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It’s been a year. This month marks a year of revisiting everything that we knew about gathering in groups, working outside the home, and doing student ministry. It’s been hard.  And it often feels impossible to celebrate in really difficult seasons, but in some ways that makes it even ...
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"Is that the bad guy?" I love reading adventure stories with my boys who are five and three. We usually try to read at least two or three chapters on most school nights (after dance parties, Super Mario UNO, and Catan Jr.). During a recent reading session, my oldest got really excited to predict ...
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What would you do to capture someone’s attention for 15 seconds?  Talk?  Sing?  Shout?  Dance?  TikTok is the massively popular response to this age-old sales question, and Gen Z is showing up with answers.  If you are totally unsure what TikTok is, ...
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The most successful, healthy, and growing ministries depend on teams of high-quality volunteers.  I know that this may not be a shocking or new truth, but what’s hard to hear is that not all of your leaders/volunteers begin with or maintain high quality.  The goal is not just a ...
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 It’s okay to not be okay.  I wanted to say that first and then speak openly. This post is highly personal, because vulnerability only happens when it is invited. So I want to openly invite you, my youth minister friends, to consider your own well-being today. How are you? Tired? ...
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In light of last year's lockdown and finally learning our neighbors' names, it is time that we rediscover the neighborhood. We need to put some time into learning about the community that encircles where each of our churches serve. It is easy to imagine ourselves with global reach in a livestreaming ...
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Ministry Mileage: How can we get more out of what we keep putting in? I don’t know if you’ve bought a new car recently, but my wife and I have been out shopping and WOW. The sales teams at a few of these dealerships have been fierce. They are probably nice people, but they’ve offered lots of ...
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Dear friends in youth ministry,  We need to get back in the mix of our own evangelism. In the last few months of uncertainty, I have felt overly instructive and less participatory. The playbook for successful student ministry has changed, and reinvigorating evangelism has to start with our ...
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