- Helping a student work through his doubts and issues toward spiritual health
- The phone call from a student who trusts me enough to ask for help
- Getting an invitation to a student’s event when the paid youth staff don’t
- When a student who blew off my advice comes back in frustration and asks how I knew what [...]

Filed under: About The Author | No Comments »

Thanks to the growing readership of this blog, I’m starting to get requests to train volunteer youth workers. While it’s an enormous honor to be asked, it also means I need to write some training sessions. I’ve got 16 year’s worth of youth ministry experience and conferences up in my head, and tons of material [...]

Filed under: About The Author, Training | No Comments »

Because I blog, I…
1. Evaluate what I do for the sake of putting it into posts – This process of reflection causes me to see opportunities for improvement
2. Am more aware of the effort (or lack of effort) I put into my youth ministry work. When I run out of content, I know I’m slacking [...]

Filed under: About The Author, Ministry Lessons | No Comments »

UPDATE: Rick Warren says, “Prayer can do what God can do.” Tonight God’s helped my sister do much better. She was very low on blood (I don’t fully understand what that means or how that happens), but they were able to give her 4-5 units and she is much better. Thanks for praying!!!
— Original Post [...]

Filed under: About The Author | 1 Comment »

Today I’m heading back to the classroom… to teach. A group of 1st graders will have me as their substitute teacher today. I haven’t taught in public schools in a few years. The last group of 1st graders I taught graduated high school last year. This should be an interesting day. I’m guessing I should [...]

Filed under: About The Author | No Comments »

Today’s update:
Great news!
Here’s her message:
“Scans came back clean! Two more rounds of chemo to be sure it doesn’t come back: Jan. 25 and Feb. 15. What a victory to be cancer-free!! Thanks for everyone’s prayers!!”
___
Previous update:
My sister sent out an update on her health today. It’s great news, but would love your prayers that the [...]

Filed under: About The Author | No Comments »

My sister hasn’t raised her kids to be Christians. Her oldest daughter became a Christian a few years back. My other sister has been working on the other 3 kids from time to time.
Today when I took my nephew out to lunch, he mentioned going to church with my brother’s family yesterday. He said he [...]

Filed under: About The Author | No Comments »

Josh Griffin sent these pics to me today. He took them a couple of weeks ago when I led the high school services. It was an unusual weekend because we were in our Do Something series. Students were separated into groups and guided through a variety of experiences and service opportunities.

Filed under: About The Author | No Comments »

YMToday.com occasionally publishes material from VolunteerYouthMinistry.com on its web site. The latest article is posted here.
The article gives 3 lessons about speaking I learned when I compared 2 opportunities I had to share the same message. These tips will help me do better next time I speak.

Filed under: About The Author, News | No Comments »

I just got home from my trip to Texas. One of my favorite things about being gone for a few days is coming home to a Tivo full of shows I missed while I was gone. It’s good to have a TV marathon and catch up with Survivor, Biggest Loser and a few other shows.

Filed under: About The Author | No Comments »