Summer usually is a high-water mark in youth ministries — a time of long hours but tremendous growth. Summer allows youth ministers to spend more time with students, going on lunch outings or to the movies, and traveling for hours…
Survey says: When parents reduce church attendance, so do their teens
Most American teens share the religious identity of their parents, and many attend services as often as the adults in their lives, according to a new survey. The Pew Research Center study reported that 81% of Catholic teens adhere to…
My journey through purity culture and Christian worship music
The year was 1993. I was a sweaty junior high kid who had recently gotten my first stick of deodorant and had begun experiencing sensations in my body that felt both good and confusing. But one night, as my brothers…
So you think you want to start a special needs ministry?
Huge strides have been made in the past few decades for people with disabilities, especially in the areas of building accessibility and access to education, jobs and health care. One area of opportunity remains involvement and inclusion in church. Consider:…
At this church, ‘special needs’ are nothing out of the ordinary
For many families, the most challenging aspect of going to church on Sunday morning is getting out the door: making sure everyone is dressed, fed and in the car on time and in one piece. For families who have children…
Listen to the teenagers: Things are not right
I work in public education, but I’m not a teacher, administrator, custodian, social worker or a member of the cafeteria staff. I’m something far stranger, or, according to at least one student I met during the course of my work…
Moderate ministers and churches: Want to kill Church in America? Just keep doing what you’re doing
There will either be Church to embrace our LGBTQ brothers and sisters As They Are – and to embrace them completely, unreservedly, joyfully – or they will find community elsewhere. It’s that simple.
Teens say social media deepens friendships. Some aren’t buying it.
If I have 1,100 people I am friends with on Facebook, how many of those friends do I really have relationships with?
TV news career prepared pastor for hectic ministry life
The directors of television newscasts lead intense, even frantic professional lives. They work long, caffeinated hours weaving together the up-to-the-minute contributions of producers, photographers and anchors into — they hope — coherent broadcasts. It’s much the same as shepherding a congregation, says Erica Van Brakle, a veteran of TV news production-turned-American Baptist pastor.