Youth Leader as a Coach
The apostle Paul makes in clear in Ephesians 4:11 that the ministry gifts were given to the church to prepare people for ministry. Whether I call myself a pastor, prophet, apostle or evangelist does not matter. My job is to prepare people for ministry. I understand that parallel illustrations are ...
Postmodern preaching
I received one of my weekly email ministry newsletters today and once again was told that preaching to a postmodern audience is different than preaching a generation ago. Basically I was told that the postmodern audience does not accept something as true simply because it comes from the Word of ...
The Work of the Spirit in Salvation
There are times that in our zeal to see people come to Christ, we have a tendency to forget that salvation is still a work of the Spirit of God in the heart of someone who puts in their faith in the message of the gospel. We are always looking ...
Proper Focus
When my youngest daughter was 12 she went with me to a regional Teen Talent (now Fine Arts Festival) and Bible Quiz competition. There were several hundred students at the same motel, so she wanted to stay and swim while I went to eat with the other District Youth Directors. ...
Students Reaching Students
Every week anywhere from 70 to 120 students sign up to be missionaries to their middle school, junior high school or high school. These students make a 5-fold commitment to Pray, Live, Tell, Serve and Give. In my opinion those are commitments that any Christian should make as part of their ...
Why Pass Out Bibles?
Those involved in ministry have probably asked themselves the question more than once, "Why am I doing this?" So here is my question, "Why am I involved in a minstry that is basically involved in passing out portions of the Bible to students? Does it do any good?" Rather than respond with ...
Double Standards?
The bulk of our democratic system is based upon the premise that adolescents are not mature enough to make some decisions. Consider that adolescents cannot vote, they cannot legally purchase alcohol and they cannot drive until they reach a certain age. Many states have laws that keep adolescents under 18 from ...
Thirsty?
A few days ago I was in a meeting of our district presbyters. For the devotion the Superintendent had invited a Baptist pastor to share how he had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. This pastor's testimony was extremely refreshing. He simply related how he was hungry and thirsty for God. ...
The youth camp went great. The very first night, I told the campers I was an old man and gave them my age. I felt like it would be better to address the issue than to keep them guessing. We had incredible services and great interaction with the campers. One ...
Youth Camp
I am privileged to be speaking at a youth camp this week. It is exciting to see that students are hungry for God. Did I practice what I "preached" on my last comments? Yes! Core beliefs will be demonstrated by actions. So basically this week, I will be preaching the ...
