Do you ever feel like a discussion just got away from you? I do sometimes. I find times when I’m having a conversation with someone this feeling comes over me that we are simply two people having competing monologues. That is NOT a good thing. Sadly, most communication I witness happens that way. Granted, I…
When Ministry Causes Misery pt. 2
Time doesn’t always make things easier… as time passes, as camp is one day closer to the end, I’m just as heart-wrenched as yesterday. As much as I don’t like it, I’m counting this joy. As I said yesterday, this camp is better off without me at it and I thank God for that fact.…
When Ministry Causes Misery pt. 1
Tonight I sit here at my house with a heavy heart. My heart is heavy because I’m here and just 180 miles away something great is happening. Near Capitan, NM the first Joni & Friends Family Retreat in New Mexico is happening and I won’t be there. I want to be there so badly for so many…
Youth Ministry Sellout – pt. 2
In my last Youth Ministry Sellout Post I talked about my move out of youth ministry and some new perspectives I have since said sellout. In this post I’m going look back and talk about some successes and failures in youth ministry. To be clear, some of these are mine, some of these I witnessed…
Youth Ministry Sellout – pt. 1
About six months ago I experienced a big career change. For almost 15 years I worked with the same demographic, teens. I accepted my first job in youth ministry just before my 19th birthday at a small Southern Baptist church in Guymon, OK. It was the blind leading the blind. There weren’t many youth and…
Effective VS Efficient
Last week I preached about a topic called Subsidiarity. It really takes root in 1 Corinthians 12:12-26. I love the term but it can easily be confused with just trying to make things more efficient. It should not be looked at that way. Instead, it should be seen as a way to make a system…
Tragedies, Guns, and a Christian Response
There have been a number of terrible tragedies in the US. The latest one happened in our backyard, South Albuquerque. My heart mourns, it aches. I mourn with my brothers and sisters at Calvary Abq who lost a pastor and a great family. I can’t understand why these things happen. I don’t understand evil. I…
Pursuing Relationships with Your Kids (2 of 2)
In my first post I talked at length about ADD and how giving kids with ADD attention is exactly what they needed. This post is going to be a little different. I’m moving the focus off ADD and talking about parents and kids in general. My reason for this is two-fold. First, my experience as…
Joni & Friends Family Retreat – Youth STM interviews
This summer we went to Joni & Friends Family Retreat at Mission Springs. It was a great time. Almost 20 of us loaded up and headed to Santa Cruz to be STM’s (short-term missionaries) It was an incredible time. The audio is from our after-trip interviews with a number of the students. You will hear…
Ephesians pt 3
This is the third and final teaching on Ephesians from this summer. Click here if you would like to hear the first session, or click here if you want to hear the second session. http://media.blubrry.com/aarongiesler/p/www.website.com/path/to/media.mp3/aarongiesler.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Eph-pt-3.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed