Everything is Against Me
The electricity going out because of a thunderstorm only added to the drama. Two intense-looking men with badges and two translators came to question us. They wanted to know who we were, why we were there and w...
No Time for God: Personal Account of a Youth Ministry Worker
The world I had known had imploded. Uncertainty about my future, as well as my faith, abounded. Many youth ministry workers have reached this point: a place in the spiritual desert, consumed by the mental and ...
Youth Ministry Worker Wakes from American Dream
You have to do more, you have to succeed, and you have to be the best. This is the mantra of the American Dream, and I had accepted it wholeheartedly. I wanted to have an awesome walk with God, be the best you...
In Search of a Youth Ministry Community
When Aaron Boydston got sick— really sick—his network stepped up. Aaron is the youth ministry pastor at Ojai Valley Wesleyan Church in Ojai, Calif., a small city about an hour northwest of Los Ang...
Choosing Vulnerability with Each Other in Youth Ministry
I left college a passionate, bubbly, 22-year-old, ready to have an impact on youth ministry as a whole and ready to impact teens’ lives with God’s love and hope. Just one year into full-time ministr...
Change Your Church for Good: The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping
Thomas Nelson, 2007, 316 pp., $13.99 www.northridgeministries.com Brad Powell joins the herd of other church leaders creating a list of dos and don’ts on changing the culture of a church. What makes thi...
Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too
B & H Publishing, 2007, 226 pp., $17.99 www.broadmanholman.com Can the estimated 340,000 declining and/ or plateaued churches in America rebound from their malaise? Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson each have le...
Starving Jesus: Off the Pew, into the World
David C. Cook, 2007, 240 pp., $12.99 Craig Gross and J.R. Mahon are no strangers to controversy, being the founder and director, respectively, of xxxchurch.com. In Starving Jesus, they push the envelope ...
You Want ME to Lead Devotionals?!
Concordia, 111 pp., 2007, $14.99 www.cph.org This devotional volume’s lack of significant depth or required preparation makes it ideal as a “fly by the seat of your pants” resource...
Full of Doubt and Wonder
There are still nights when I cry myself to sleep. Sometimes, I am convinced the neighbors can hear me sobbing and will rush over to see if I am OK. In a way, I wish they would. Their concern would seem like pr...