We all know that a cockroach is hard to kill… After the atomic-bomb blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, the military reported that the only living things to survive the blast zone were these disgusting little pests.… The post Killing the Cockroach appeared first on YouthMinistry.com ..read more

If you are you have been in youth ministry for more than a few years, you’re likely familiar with the term “Moralistic, Therapeutic, Deism” (MTD)—a descriptor invented by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist-Denton in their groundbreaking report on the National Study of Youth and Religion (Soul Searching).… The post In Defense of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism appeared first on YouthMinistry.com ..read more

At Springtide™ Research Institute we’ve spent the past year researching the consequences of epidemic loneliness among young people. Loneliness The findings are astonishing, heartbreaking, and hopeful… Our newest report, Belonging: Reconnecting America’s Loneliest Generation, documents these findings and offers a research-based pathway forward.… The post The Loneliness Epidemic appeared first on YouthMinistry.com ..read more

(EDITOR’S NOTE: I led this conversation with Jeffrey Wallace and Brent Crowe  several years ago, but it’s more pertinent now than ever. Racial tensions, like embers in a forest, have been whipped into a flames by controversial (and deadly) confrontations between white police officers and young black men.… The post How to Facilitate Racial Reconciliation appeared first on YouthMinistry.com ..read more

Not long ago I got off the phone with a “profoundly unhappy” mom whose daughter is a regular in our youth ministry.  She launched into a long, emotional tirade about our ministry’s openness to “those kids”—teenagers who don’t yet love or follow Jesus. … The post Bi-Believer Ministry appeared first on YouthMinistry.com ..read more

Almost 50 million people attempt to diet every year—as we all know, most never reach their goal. The reason has less to do with willpower and more to do with our brain’s stubborn dictatorship. Neuroscientist and author Sandra Aamodt says: “Whenever your weight changes too much, your brain will intervene to push it back to what it thinks is the correct weight for you.… The post Changes That Heal appeared first on YouthMinistry.com ..read more

How often is a “reinvention” really, well, something new? I mean, Apple upgrades the battery life (supposedly) and takes away the headphone jack and suddenly we have an “all-new” iPhone. Mostly, “new” really means a relatively unimportant gimmick is added as a feature, forcing us to upgrade. … The post Listening to the Natives appeared first on YouthMinistry.com ..read more

I’m just imagining the first followers of Jesus taking a “discipleship assessment” just after his death and resurrection. Would a single one of them make the grade as a “fully formed disciple” by today’s youth ministry standards? If the model Jesus himself used produced the kind of results that would get most of us a poor performance review, maybe there’s a problem with the way we think about discipleship.… The post In Praise of Unfinished Discipleship appeared first on YouthMinistry.com ..read more

I’m just imagining the first followers of Jesus taking a “discipleship assessment” just after his death and resurrection. Would a single one of them make the grade as a “fully formed disciple” by today’s youth ministry standards? If the model Jesus himself used produced the kind of results that would get most of us a poor performance review, maybe there’s a problem with the way we think about discipleship.… The post In Praise of Unfinished Discipleship appeared first on YouthMinistry.com ..read more

GETTING PAST THE PAST 1. Yellow Passport—(You’ll need a TV, a VCR, a video copy of 1998’s Les Miserables, water-soluble markers, and white blindfolds.) Start by showing a clip from Les Miserables, beginning at 3:20 when the woman says, “Knock on that door” and ending at 6:16 when Valjean sits up (00:00:00 studio logo appears).… The post Do You Trust God With the Past, Present and Future? appeared first on YouthMinistry.com ..read more