LEARNING MY LINES . . .

. . . discovering what it means to follow Jesus, seeing my story swept up into his . . .

God's Story artwork

Six Things Our Kids Need to Know About Marriage

There are a couple of reasons why I’m thinking about marriage today. First, my mom reminded me yesterday that today, December 5th, is the 70th Anniversary of my parents’ wedding. Before my dad went to be with Christ, they had…
Read More

Youth Workers – You Are Invited! . . .

Did you ever hear what John Calvin said to churches considering sending their young leaders to Geneva for pastoral education? “Send us your wood and we will send back arrows.” That captures the heart of what we’ve curated with the…
Read More

Guiding Kids In Their Search For Identity

In the quest to discover and adopt an identity, the teenagers you know and love are looking for answers to questions such as: Am I worthwhile? What makes me worthwhile? How am I unique from others? Are those uniqueness’ good…
Read More

Training Up Biblical Carnivores. . .

Over the course of the last few years. . . for way too long in fact. . . the scuttlebutt in the world I inhabit has been increasingly filled with questions that start with the simple word “Why?” Youth workers,…
Read More

No-Woe Youth Ministry. . .

We’ve got a problem where I live. Actually, we have more than one problem, but there’s only one I want to mention here. The curtain is pulled back on the problem, it seems, at least once a month, maybe more.…
Read More

Prisoners To Our Phones?

It’s a common scene in film and TV that we’ve all seen dozens if not hundreds of times. Someone doing time has an attorney, family member, or friend arrive at the prison for a visit. The visitor sits waiting patiently…
Read More

Entrusting Our Children To God

Editor’s Note: This post appears in the Ligonier Ministries Tabletalk Magazine, October 2023. My fourteen-year-old self had gone to bed at my usual 9pm time. Two hours later, I woke up to use the bathroom. While walking undetected past my…
Read More

When It’s All About Me, Me, Me. . .

Boxer Muhammed Ali used to dance around the ring proclaiming to anyone within earshot, “I am the greatest!” It was funny because Ali had become a caricature of himself who was at heart an entertainer. But Ali’s show has morphed…
Read More

Andy Stanley, The Church, Our Kids, and LGBTQ. . .

After almost fifty years of life in our youth ministry world, I’ve become more and more convinced that it’s vitally important to lead our conversations about God’s good design for sex and gender by celebrating and communicating what God is…
Read More