Too Much Change
Up until recently, I had worked with the same person side-by-side in full time youth ministry for the past five years. She and I developed a vision for our youth ministry, a framework, and a culture. We decided together what aspects of youth ministry we were going to pay most attention to, and what aspects […]
No More Excuses
I caught COVID. It took until July 29, 2022 for me to actually catch it, and in true youth pastor fashion, I caught it from being at summer camp. As you’re probably very aware, the effect COVID-19 has on any given person or family ranges from medically devastating to mildly inconvenient, and I’m grateful to […]
Why Being Better Isn’t Better
Do you believe the Word of God? Seems like a simple, straight forward question with a predictable response in return – coming from people who are giving their lives to the proclamation of scripture. But, let’s be honest. Culture is subtly yet constantly filling our ears with the messages of: do better. try harder. be […]
Immanueling: Your New Favorite Verb
Like most youth workers, the season of COVID youth ministry was a weird one for me. In some ways, I found myself growing as a youth pastor as I learned new ways to innovate in an attempt to keep students connected. But in other ways, I spent that core 15-month period putting work on the […]
How Politics Helps Youth Pastors Be Better
During the 2020 presidential election campaign, there was a new face that managed to achieve relative prominence in the world of politics almost out of nowhere. Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur, burst onto the scene as a (super) long shot to win the Democratic nomination. He even managed to make it onto the debate stage on […]
The Gospel For The Exhausted In Ministry
Recently, my 32 year old husband woke me up before the dawn one morning, informing me that he needed to go to the hospital. My solid and steady man was uncharacteristically shaky and unstable as he fought to express that he wasn’t well, and that he had endured almost 10 minutes of an episode with […]
You Need A Gospel Lens Too!
August 9, 2021 — If you’re anything like me, you’ve been a Christian for a fairly long time. I mean…you don’t want to sound like a know-it-all…but you’ve been around the Jesus block a few times. Heck, apparently you’re so good at following Jesus, somebody decided to put you in charge of helping teenagers follow Jesus too!