I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder about school.   Teachers were usually monotone and uninteresting. The classroom venue was built for efficiency, but didn’t hold my attention. Most of the time, it bored me to tears.    Too often in our churches we model our discipleship and our services off of our failed model of schooling.   Discipleship is caught more than it’s taught.   If you lead a youth group or a Sunday school and the big culmination of your time is a sermon or some talking head, then maybe it’s time to get a new paradigm,...

In the following video, youth pastor Bobby Gatlin how short-term missions has not only impacted his youth group, but the church as a whole.

In America, everything seems to have a half-life of a McDonald’s hamburger.  Marriages are swallowed alive by the pace and pressure of modern life.  Today’s beloved Christmas toy is tomorrow’s landfill.  TV’s herky-jerky treatment of even the most serious subjects renders us numb (“God and existential neurosis, what can be known?  More in a moment…Having trouble with irregularity?  Occasional discomfort is normal…”) Thus it is when we bump up against someone or something which doesn’t reek of superficiality,...

I’ve been doing missions for 30 years now.   My dream is that churches would be seized by a passion to raise up world changers from their midst. I’ve committed myself to the vision of raising up radically committed disciples.   I used to get more excited by people praying the prayer of salvation. But I’ve seen that absent a plan for long-term discipleship, not much really changes. I’ve seen that unless God is given the opportunity to interrupt our human conversation, we not He, remain Lord of our lives.   Discipleship is tough, it requires lots...

A coworker once told me that he taught his kids to swim by throwing them into the deep end of the pool.   A youth worker once told me that was how he’d like to disciple his students.   “But…” we say. [Insert any number of fear-based excuses here.]   “But what about the risks?” “What about safety concerns?” “But what will the parents say when they hear…?” “We could never do that…”   We forget that we were first attracted to Christianity because of the necessary risk it required of...

I think many youth ministry workers would agree that there is a double standard when it comes to the attention paid to mission trips as opposed to the amount (or lack thereof) of time, effort, and resources that go into local mission projects.   And yes, we should not wait for spring break or a summer trip so we can go somewhere and do missions. We can do missions anywhere, especially at home. However, in an attempt to keep ourselves honest, I think lately, a lot of youth workers have been downplaying the importance of mission trips as opposed to doing local missions projects. ...