In my new youth ministry position I’m finding that I can know more about my students simply by using Facebook.

Matter of fact, I’m now using Facebook to connect with adults and students…

Why are youth pastors blamed for every bad thing any young person ever does in church?
And why do some parents put so much pressure on youth pastors to disciple their students, while taking little responsibility for their own kids’ spiritual lives?
These questions will probably continue to haunt us for a while, but it’s interesting to see study after study demonstrate just how influential parents can be (like this one and this one).
Here’s the kicker. In spite of the incredible influence parents have on teens, they don’t use it. Parents are …

I was searching all over the internet for this because I wanted a way to figure out how to use my blog or other social sites to send out text messages to better stay in touch with people for a cheap price. That’s when I found Chat to Text. It’s up to you if you want to do the referral part. I just love the idea!
Chat to Text is a new service which allows anyone who visits any web site set up with Chat to Text the ability to chat …

88% of children raised in Christian families leave church at the age of 18, never to return. 64% of decisions for Christ are made before the age of 18, and 77% are made before the age of 21. We can’t sit back and watch this generation be stolen out of our own churches and homes. By God’s grace, we must take action, and we must do it now.

Apparently there’s a “greater” debate out there between whether today’s teens are the smartest or the dumbest generation America has ever seen.
I’m not going to lie: There are a lot of things to worry about. To put it plainly, this is the most ADD generation we’ve probably ever seen. Attention spans range from 3-5 seconds, and if they’re not entertained, they’ll leave you in an instant.
How should that affect our youth group meetings? Many times we scramble to keep teens’ attention and draw them into the message or Bible lesson …

It’s an interesting question because I had a great conversation today with a friend in Aberdeen, SD (im on vacation) don’t ask why I didn’t go somewhere warm.
But seriously – where do you have youth ministry taking place in the Bible?
There is a good argument that Jesus’s disciples where actually very young making them a youth group of sorts, but still Jesus was probably around 30 because that was a proper age for a teacher of the law back then.
I have opened myself up again to the discussion of what …

I was speaking with a Jr. high student this after youth group and he came up with a cool youth ministry idea. He started explaining to me that it would be cool if we could start putting together some modern day parables with video.
I thought – wow- I’m going to post this on my blog.
I have not yet done any of these modern day parables, but found an example that fits pretty close (the ending is a little weird but you will get the idea of being creative):

Again the ending …