As some of you may know, the television network Freeform, offers what they call “Harry Potter Weekend.” They actually do this on a regular basis. You can spend all weekend watching 7 of the 8 Harry Potter movies (for some reason or another they do not seem to own the rights to the Order of the Phoenix and as such never
» Read more
Excuses If you have ever spent any time with teenagers in general, you know that they are able to come up with an excuse for everything. This seems to be particularly true when it comes to youth group. Sometimes teenagers have a good excuse for why they cannot attend a youth function or event, other times the excuse is shallow
» Read more
Youth Conventions Being a youth pastor and having a passion for teenagers and developing an eternal faith in them, I have a particular interest in youth conventions. I am sure that there are many more than five reasons that youth conventions are important. However, I would like to provide people with five reasons why I personally think they are one
» Read more
Man About a month ago I got the chance to go to a youth convention with a couple of teenagers from my youth group. It was in Houghton, New York. There were plenty of things to remember, and a number of them to forget. Memories were made and I am hoping that there is at least some significant impact of
» Read more
There is a single part of my ministerial retreat that sticks out in my mind above all else. You could say that it had the greatest impact on me. It came from the very first session from Mike Hilson. It was an acronym that ended up spelling out the word IMPACT. I think it was supposed to be a general
» Read more
This past week I presented my youth group with a devotional from the book of Luke. My overall goal was to present them with a teaching on kindness. We all know that the Bible is all about kindness and showing people love. Most of us even know that the “Golden Rule” is found in the Bible in a couple of
» Read more
In case you haven’t noticed, the Bible is absolutely crazy. It is filled with bizarre and crazy Bible stories. Some of these crazy Bible stories we might have actually heard in Sunday School class or in church or perhaps through some kind of children’s video series. After all, everyone knows the story of Samson’s strength or David’s slaying of Goliath,
» Read more
All in all the concepts behind being a “world changer” is not a bad aspiration to have in life. However, despite my Alma Matter’s desire to graduate all students as “world changers” this aspiration might be at best unrealistic, and at worst, completely misleading and disappointing. Perhaps the true argument is one of semantics, but I do not think this
» Read more
I just finished reading Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris. For the most part, I would have to say that I enjoyed the book. While it was at this point a number of years ago that it was first recommended to me as something I should read, I was too busy with school and other assignments to actually big
» Read more