What is the most powerful form of communicating the Gospel? Preaching? Teaching? Studying scripture? While all of those are adequate, I believe that the most powerful form is testifying and witnessing to God’s work in our lives, because testimony gives life to those words. Testimony is the electricity that passes the current of faith from […]
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from It Happens: True Tales from the Trenches of Youth Ministry, edited by Will Penner. by Hank Hilliard It was a fragile situation that was teetering on the verge of chaos. More than 100 young people had descended upon the church gymnasium preparing to depart on our annual youth […]
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from It Happens: True Tales from the Trenches of Youth Ministry, edited by Will Penner. by Sara Bailey When I was at my second youth ministry job, I thought I knew it all. Here I was, this southern gal who moved to the great, white northeast where on my […]
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from It Happens: True Tales from the Trenches of Youth Ministry, edited by Will Penner. by Mark Montgomery I pick up the phone, glad to hear that it’s John, a pastor friend of mine from one of the local churches I support. After the usual catch up about family […]
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from It Happens: True Tales from the Trenches of Youth Ministry, edited by Will Penner. by Sally Chambers You don’t do it the way it’s always been done. You don’t do it the way other churches do it. You’re stealing the teenagers away from everyone else. Our teenagers don’t […]
In the Power of Testimony, I shared that I believe testimony and witness are the most powerful ways to share the Gospel because they make God come alive in the world. We also explored the National Study of Youth and Religion‘s (NSYR) findings that youth are incredibly inarticulate about their faith and that God makes very little […]
I’ve heard similar stories from many young youth ministers: “The youth just won’t come. Their parents won’t bring them back for youth group. They are so busy with soccer, band, and the play.” Young youth ministers can feel real or imagined pressure from church leadership to grow their youth ministries. Some begin to even wonder […]
by Hank Hilliard I was having a great conversation with two parents whose kids had come to a youth event the previous night. I was enjoying seeing how energized these parents were about their kids’ involvement in the ministry. Suddenly, another parent stepped into the group with her arms crossed and her foot tapping angrily. […]
Note: This is a sample of the Parents Guide in Hollow Faith: How Andy Griffith, Facebook, and the American Dream neutered the Gospel (Un)Becoming the Center of the Universe Observation It is a commonly held belief that teenagers think they are the center of the universe. It is a common practice that teenagers act like […]
by Travis Garner I have a love/hate relationship with technology. I absolutely LOVE new gadgets, new apps, and anything shiny with a great marketing campaign. I’ll admit that I bought my first Macbook because I thought it would look cooler than my Dell while I sat at coffee shops and worked. (It also seemed like […]
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