This Post It note was attached to a Christmas gift I got in the mail today. There’s some back story to why this is such a big deal. This family has been through a lot this year. I’ve had the privilege of walking with them though it. To get this note today put words to [...]

Filed under: Trophy Case | No Comments »

This weekend I spoke at a youth retreat for students in Hayesville, Kansas. We had an amazing time laughing, learning and playing together. It was cool to do youth ministry with their volunteers and get to speak into the lives of their students. As is usually the case with camps, etc, I got connected with [...]

Filed under: Trophy Case | No Comments »

I had the privilege of being in the wedding of a former student. All of the guys in this picture graduated from my small group Bible study the same year. It’s so fun to see them grow up and stay connected. Kevin, the one on the far left, is even leading his own small group [...]

Filed under: About The Author, Trophy Case | No Comments »

I got this text from a student this morning. It’s one of those “pass the torch”, feel-good moments in youth ministry. When he was in my small group, we’d open the group by having each person sharing a chem (good thing from their week) and phlegm (something they wish had gone differently). This idea actually [...]

Filed under: Trophy Case, Try This | No Comments »

My friends over at GenToGenYM.com gave me a great shout out this week. What I love, and agree with, about their post is there challenge for volunteer youth workers to evaluate their commitment level to see if they can either give more time or be more effective with what time they have to give. Fortunately, [...]

Filed under: Generation to Generation, Trophy Case | No Comments »

Each summer at our high school camp, we offer an opportunity for students to get baptized. What I love about this picture is most of the boys are in my small group. Two of the guys wearing light blue shirts got baptized that day. That was a bonding red-letter day for us.

Filed under: Trophy Case | No Comments »

Baptism: Shane from HSM on Vimeo. This video is of one of my students, Shane, getting baptized. He surprised all of us by doing it that night. He graduated from high school just a few days later. Few things get me more excited than seeing my boys take spiritual steps in life. So great!

Filed under: Trophy Case | No Comments »

Summer Camp from HSM on Vimeo. I saw this video for the first time when they played it during a service. I had no idea what was in it. At the 1 minute and 21 second mark, one of my small group students being interviewed gives me a shout out as a reason for why [...]

Filed under: Trophy Case | No Comments »

Last Saturday I had the honor of being a groomsman for a former student. He was a sophomore when he started dating the girl he married. She was in a small group that met in the same house as ours, but they got to know each other through school. They both graduated college recently and [...]

Filed under: encouragement, News, Trophy Case | No Comments »

Brandon created a Where’s Dennis book. I thought this was kind of brilliant… especially considering he was asking me earlier in the day what he should bring. He was complaining that he wasn’t very creative. I thought this was great! When one of my boys shows up to church or small group, they come up [...]

Filed under: Just for fun, Trophy Case | No Comments »