Year in Review

Today marks my first anniversary as the associate pastor with student emphasis at the church where I serve.  I came here with a few years of student ministry under my belt but also with the understanding that this situation was going to be unlike previous experiences.  For one, my responsibilities now include college ministry, an [...]

Read Full Post »

The Gap Year

I heard a piece on NPR yesterday about the number of students taking a year off between high school and college.  Students are using this “gap year” to explore the world around them.  You can read the story for yourself, but what piqued my interest were the possible implications for student ministry.  Should we be [...]

Read Full Post »

Worst Youth Event Give-Away Ever

I’ve heard of giving away things like iPods and video game systems to attract youth to church events, but a semiautomatic assault rifle?!?  Seriously?

Read Full Post »

Teens or Students?

Marko recently shared some notes from a summit for junior high youth pastors led by sociologist Christian Smith.  I found the following quote interesting.
• If you could change one thing about youth ministry, what would it be?
CS: If I could change one thing about youth ministers is I would have YM stop calling teens “students”, [...]

Read Full Post »

Another Quote from Palmer

Just four pages after reading the previous quote in Parker Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak, I found another quote that I thought really relates well to student ministry.
“My gift as a teacher is the ability to ‘dance’ with my students, to teach them and learn with them through dialogue and interaction.  When my students are [...]

Read Full Post »

A Dilemma

A quote from Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer:
“Here is another example of violating one’s nature in the name of nobility, an example that shows the larger dangers of false love.  Years ago, I heard Dorothy Day speak.  Founder of the Catholic Worker movement, her long-term commitment to living among the poor on New [...]

Read Full Post »

Teen Girls and STDs

Almost every student ministry blog I read has made reference to the Associated Press article that appeared last week claiming that one out of every four teenage girls (over 3 million girls) has a sexually transmitted disease.  I think more than anything, we’re in a collective state of disbelief wondering where our sex ed programs [...]

Read Full Post »

Youth Sunday Cometh

This Sunday our church will be observing Youth Sunday for the first time in several years.  The church’s youth leadership has been in a period of transition for a couple of years, so most of our students haven’t participated in this type of service before.  They’re a little anxious about what to expect, but I [...]

Read Full Post »

More from the Grab Bag

Sometimes others simply do a better job of saying the things that are on my mind, as is the case with these two posts.  I don’t think it’s any secret that understanding your context is the key to success in any ministry endeavor, but some contexts present more challenges than others.  I’m in a position [...]

Read Full Post »

Interfaith Dialogue

My wife and I have been watching The West Wing on DVD lately.  Season 2 ended with the possibility of President Jed Bartlet announcing his intentions to seek re-election in dramatic fashion.  It was a cliff-hanger ending leaving us eager to see what happened at the beginning of the next season.  When we put Disc 1 of [...]

Read Full Post »