Dear youth pastor,
I love students, I really do. I’ve been involved in youth ministry for six years now and I love hanging out with teens and trying to model a life with Jesus to them. But lately, things have become harder and it’s not that much fun anymore. I just wanted to explain to you why. Continue reading Dear Youth Pastor: a Letter from a Volunteer
Julia Bauman is nursing her four-week old son when I call her, so in between I hear adorable little sighs of a precious baby. It’s the perfect picture of her life as a youth pastor and a new mom—a life that turned out so much better than she could have ever dreamed, thanks to an unexpected call three years ago. “It was really a dream come true,” Julia says. Continue reading When God Makes a Youth Pastor’s Dream Come True
Ginny Scott has made a decision many of us can’t even imagine. And now that she’s done it, she knows it was a ‘God-thing’, completely Spirit-led. “I couldn’t make this up,” she says. “It’s not humanly possible.” What prompted her to make such a massive change in her life? Continue reading How One Youth Pastor Was Prompted to Make a Life-Changing Decision
I’m a fixer by nature. Give me a problem and I’ll solve it. And I honestly love helping people, so it’s not like I want the credit, or a big thank you. I just love to help, love fixing.
At least, I did. Continue reading Fixing vs Being
A recent study in the UK showed some interesting statistics (and boy, did they make me feel old!) about teens and writing letters. A third of the teens surveyed said they had never even (hand)written a letter and half of them had never written so much as a thank you note or letter. And get this: one in ten said they didn’t even own a pen.
Let that sink in for a bit. Handwriting, it seems, is a lost art. Gone are the handwritten love letters, the cheesy poems decorated with little red hearts, but also the Christmas cards, a thank you note for a special gift… Continue reading The Lost Art of Writing Letters
Last year, I did a short blog series on helicopter parenting and the effects this has on students. Recently, I came across an article in the Atlantic that suggested a strong link between helicopter parenting and the alcohol problem on college campuses. It was a really interesting read, not in the last place because the real conclusion the author comes to is much deeper than the somewhat sensationalist title suggests.
The article states several reasons and arguments for the conclusion that helicopter parenting leads to binge drinking in college: Continue reading Does Helicopter Parenting Cause Binge Drinking?
I loved my middle school youth ministry. My high school youth group, not so much. In fact, I left after a year and switched to the youth group of a different church, even though I kept attending my old church on Sunday’s. The reason? Bullying. Continue reading 5 Facts on Bullying Youth Leaders Need to Know
If you’re looking for a great illustration on the love of a father, check out this video.
I came across it on Facebook and it hit me deep. Here’s a dad who is doing everything he can to take care of his handicapped son. And he does it with a love and patience that’s overwhelming. Even when his son literally lashes out at him, he stays calm and keeps on loving him. Continue reading A Father’s Love
I’m skipping the intro here and getting straight to the point: you are not superman, or superwoman, or supergirl.
Have you ever noticed how many superheroes are doing it all alone? They’ve got superpowers, so they don’t need anything or anybody else. Also, they’re virtually indestructible, so they can keep going and going and going.
You’re not superman, or superwoman. You cannot do it all by yourself. Not in life, not in youth ministry, not in anything. Continue reading You Are Not Superman or Superwoman
When I was in college getting my teaching degree, we learned about teaching styles. You know, the differentiation in how people supposedly learn, for instance visual, auditory, kinesthetic, read/write, verbal, etc.
Turns out, the evidence for teaching styles isn’t all it’s claimed to be. That is, research suggests people do have preferences in their learning styles. But the bedrock of the learning styles approach is that teaching people in their preferred style improves the learning results and sadly there’s no evidence for that. Continue reading Moving Past Your Dominant Teaching Style
