Most people know that the first night of camp is not the ideal time to pull pranks. It’s predictable so there’s little element of surprise or effect. Sean either didn’t know this or was just anxious to get the ball rolling. Whatever the case, that week of camp got off to what could have been [...]

Filed under: Dealing with Conflict | 1 Comment »

It happened again this week. A former student told me something to make me believe something that wasn’t entirely true. He wanted me to believe the information the way I heard it. However, he left out some details so I wouldn’t know what really happened. The crazy thing is there was no reason for him [...]

Filed under: For your newsletter, mentoring | 1 Comment »

This morning’s sermon opened with a list of things that don’t matter. The sermon was taken from verses in Ecclesiastes. Everything is meaningless. The point of the message was to point out what does have meaning. Tonight I’m reflecting on what I heard this morning. It occurred to me there are many things in my [...]

Filed under: Lesson Helpers | No Comments »

Group Publishing recently came out with this devotional book for guys written by Tim Shoemaker. It’s called Dangerous Devotions for Guys. I was asked to review this book for my blog. Anything for a free book, right? This is a great resource because: – It takes an imaginative approach to illustrating the point of each [...]

Filed under: Book/Movie Reviews, Resources | No Comments »

This morning I’m doing a phone interview with a church. They are considering hiring me as their youth pastor. While I’m not sure what they’ll be asking me, I came up with some questions for them. I’m posting them here because I know summer is a time when many youth workers will find themselves interviewing [...]

Filed under: Resources | No Comments »

Yelling at students is a rare event for me now that I’ve been in youth ministry for several years. I find that the more seasoned I get, the less I find a need to yell. I honestly don’t remember the last time I did that. Since last night I’ve been replaying the event in my [...]

Filed under: Dealing with Conflict | No Comments »

About 2 or 3 times a year parents ask me where they can send their troubled teenage children for a life intervention. I have a “been there done that” person I typically refer them to. Yesterday, however, I was talking to a parent who had great success sending her daughter to Christian Encounter Ranch. She [...]

Filed under: Resources | No Comments »

For the past 5 years I’ve been giving away prizes at our end-of-the-school-year party for our small group ministry. What I found out is students don’t really care what the prize is. The excitement of having prizes is actually the prize itself. I could give away a roll of toilet paper and I think they [...]

Filed under: For your newsletter, Freebies, Just for fun, Resources | No Comments »

My sister, Rhonda, is starting treatments today for pancreatic cancer. She’ll have chemo and radiation for 6 weeks in hopes of reducing the tumor small enough to be removed. My family and I would appreciate your prayers for her. This is a picture of Rhonda and my mom. I’m sure you could guess, but Rhonda [...]

Filed under: News | No Comments »

Friends of mine are adopting a child from Africa. They needed several forms notarized so they called me. Most of the notary work I do is in the mortgage industry. However, notarizing documents for an adoption is so life-affirming and contributive to an important cause compared to my typical work. I hope to get more [...]

Filed under: About The Author | No Comments »