Jackson, age 15, opened up with his youth ministry leader, Cora, about his same-sex sexuality. “I think I’m gay,” shared Jackson, diverting his eyes a little and waiting for a reply. Cora’s mind was r...

I’m not really a fan of the term self-care. Not only does it sound trendy, which is generally a bad omen for any idea, but trendy often describes something that is a passing fad, an idea or concept that som...

A long time ago, in a time period far, far away… I grew up reading X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Thor, and The Avengers comics. Hollywood has repopulated these stories for a new generation. In the imagination ...

People in your church are going to talk about the ministry. Give them something great to talk about.

Something said by media critic Marshall McLuhan may have initially fallen on deaf ears, but its truths scream loudly about the contemporary power of media, technology, and electronic tools. McLuhan once said, ...

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For a different spin on Valentine's Day for the group, I invited in a divorced single mom to lead them in an art project. Too often Valentine's Day has a focus on young love. I wanted to redirect that focus tow...

I was reading through Arnold van Gennep's 1909 classic, The Rites of Passage, which argued that separation, transition and incorporation were three stages that mark the passage from childhood to adulthood and ...

Recently while sitting at a round table discussion with several youth pastors, I was surprised when one of them declared, “I hate small groups, they never work, and so we don’t bother to have them anymore.�...

Erin was stumped. She'd never heard this kind of question from a parent before. Shortly after youth group, Marcos approached her with some questions about the upcoming mission trip to a Native American reserva...