I’m pretty excited about attending the “Youth Ministry UnConference” in December at Irving Bible Church. The goal of the un-conference is to: “come together to pray for the youth of the world, and dream about how God might use us to help them know Him more deeply.” It is being hosted by a number of…
Reality vs. Perception
The saying goes “perception is reality.” While there is truth to that statement, it is not absolutely true. The truth is, as simple as it may sound, reality is reality. The way we interpret reality can be really misleading. The Bible tells us “the heart is deceitful” and not admitting that is denying a greater…
What Will Your Summer Look Like
I’m hoping my summer involves going to Slovakia to teach English… How about yours? Josiah Venture is all over Europe to bring the Gospel to places where it is scarce…
Review of: Becoming Adult by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
I recently read Becoming Adult: How Teenagers Prepare for the World of Work by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I was interested in this book because I was curious about what it had to say about how teens prepare for adulthood. Being in the business of helping teens make the transition into adulthood, this was an interesting study.…
The Interpretation of Luke 2:49 and the Significance of the Temple in the Gospel of Luke
I’ve been doing a series on the life of Jesus for the youth. I was looking through some old seminary papers and came across this one. I wrote it for Dr. Bock at DTS in a class on the Gospel of Luke. I got an A on it! It reminded me of the important part…
What is a Tweet or “Like” Worth?
I will be the first to admit I’m NO internet marketing genius. Shocker, huh? I have a friend who is though, and I’ve recently stayed at a Holiday Inn Express… jk on that last one. I have no real idea how to market well or establish an online presence. Social media, to me, is being…
Going Green the “Old School” Way
I have been lucky enough to be a part of some green building over the last year. We doubled Grace Church in size last year and did so without significantly raising our heating/cooling bills. We recycled all of the cardboard from our construction instead of throwing it away, which would have been easier. Currently we…
My New Counseling Technique
Ministry has been trying lately. Lots of people with lots of need plus other work to be done equals a very tired me. I love what I do but at times it can be hard. It can be, at times, very frustrating too. I get frustrated the most when people deal poorly with decisions in…
Creativity & Field
In a recent post I talked about reading “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The book is all making sense of the mysterious, and sometimes magical creative process. Looking at over 90 highly creative people and gathering as much information as possible Csikszentmihalyi finds the thread of commonality they…
Auto Tune and Weird Al and Mr. T.
In case you didn’t know, I love Mr. T. In fact, I pity the fo’ who does love Mr. T. He is such a cool guy and we can all agree he has a pretty rad haircut. He even makes World of Warcraft seem cooler. (As impossible as that is…) He did a couple of…