One of my passions is helping parents understand youth culture and the things that are out there that can be harmful for their students. I realize that not all parents will agree and each family has their own guidelines for what is allowed and what is not. That is fine. However part of my role as a youth pastor is [...]
I came across an article recently on Katy Perry. As a music lover I try to keep up on current trends/ artists that are impacting youth culture as a whole. Katy Perry is no doubt one of the most popular (if not the most popular) music acts in the world right now…and quite possibly the most dangerous to youth culture. [...]
I love movies, music and other forms of media. I like it so much I used to write reviews, Bible Studies and discussion starters for a website that was geared towards Youth Pastors, leaders, parents and anyone else who cares about teens. I still have all of my old files. Movies and music are heavily influencing our culture today. I [...]
This summer has been crazy busy. Really everything since April has been on fast forward for me. In April dad had all of his complications from his first colon cancer surgery. He ended up being in the hospital over a month. That all went by so fast with all of the worrying and everything that came with that. Also in [...]
I like how this came out. I think I’ve cleared up the typos. If you are in student ministry and you use Photoshop Elements and would like to have the files I used to create this and use it within your ministry drop me your email or hit e up through Twitter or FB and I’ll get them to you.
When I was in high school I was the kid who had enough Christian t-shirts for each day of the week. I wore them all of the time. Even back in the early 90′s it was hard to find shirts that weren’t overly Christian but yet had enough imagery to let people know where I stood. I wasn’t one of [...]
Today I am heading down to Principal Park in Des Moines for the first round of the Iowa High School State Baseball Tournament. Storm Lake plays at 2pm and a couple of our guys play on the team. I am looking forward to spending the afternoon down there watching a great game of baseball and exercising the ministry of presence. [...]
Today was the first day of Iowa’s greatest bike ride ever – RAGBRAI. I have never been on RAGBRAI but after tonight I my have to give it a shot for a day or two next year. More on that in a minute. RAGBRAI is the Registers Great Bike Race Across Iowa. It is supported and promoted by the Des [...]
When I was in high school our youth group didn’t really have a sense of community. So often we were at odds with each other and there always seemed to be division or tension. I was friends with some of the guys and we got along pretty good but still it just never felt like a community. It felt more like some [...]
One June 17 we flew out of Omaha to begin our journey to Southern Brazil – Novo Hamburgo and Campo Bom to be exact. We went down to work with two missionaries Bethel supports that have a ministry there. While in Southern Brazil we did children’s ministry, American football clinics and American cultural interchanges in the public school in the neighborhood of [...]
