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 […]
by Deech Kirk Duffy Robbins has been a great gift to my life, not because we have a relationship (we’ve only met twice), but because he has given his life to the profession of youth ministry. He is a standard-bearer for youth ministry. He is not quite there yet, but he will be one of […]
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 chapter from Hollow Faith: How Andy Griffith, Facebook, and the American Dream neutered the Gospel All Eyes On Me “Someone has to tell teenagers that to study hard in order to get into the right school so you can land the right job so you can afford the right spouse […]
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 […]
“My dad always said, ‘99% of I can’t is I don’t want to!‘” said Bishop Jonathan Holston during his jurisdictional conference interviews. As a side note, he quoted his dad three times in a 20 minute interview; clearly his dad was a significant influence on his life. I wrote this quote down immediately recognizing the truth in this […]
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