As we've approached the twentieth anniversary of 9-11, I’ve seen this picture on social media a lot:
In some ways, I get the sentiment.
Our country is divided, certainly more than I’ve seen at any other point in my lifetime.
And yet, every time...
Dear Future Self –
I want you to remember this week ten years from now.
This is the week you made a controversial parenting decision. Oh, don’t get me wrong. It isn’t the first you’ve made. It won’t be the last. But this is the one I want you to...
The man from Food for the Hungry walked onto the stage.
“Do you believe in hope?” he yelled.
The crowd of Christian concert goers replied with raucous cheers.
That’s when he said it - The line that made me sink down in my seat and cringe.
“...
My new book, A Mission That Matters: How To Do Short-Term Missions Without Long-Term Harm, is out! As a youth worker, I wholeheartedly believe that mission trips have the ability to impact teens in an incredibly transformative way. However,...
In high school, one of my favorite history teachers, Mr. Mazzullla, was a Vietnam Vet. As a result, for the first time in my academic history, we actually spent time talking about the Vietnam War. Hearing Mr. Mazzulla's first-hand accounts of the...
I care deeply about justice, as does the congregation I'm a part of. For this reason, I was excited to dig into J. Paul Nyquist's Is Justice Possible: The Elusive Pursuit of What is Right.
This book was a mixed bag for me. I loved that...
My new book, Unleashing the Hidden Potential of Your Student Leaders, is out! I'm convinced that when done well, student leadership has the ability to transform your youth ministry. With that in mind, over the next few weeks, we're going to be...
The night my high school youth ministry discussed refugees, one of our final questions was, “How else can we show mercy to refugees?”
After wrestling with this question for a while, one student quietly and courageously asked, “Everything...
As part of our youth ministry's recent conversation about refugees, students worked in small groups to write a modern-day version of the Good Samaritan. Here's one group's version:
An empty-handed Syrian refugee was traveling from...
What I'm Reading:
Fiction:
Best chick lit: Forever, Interrupted by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I devoured this book in just a couple days. It's fast, entertaining, and would make a great beach read.
Book I'm still thinking about: ...