Last Tuesday, exactly one week after the girls started school, we got the dreaded call that 6-year old Hope had been in close contact with someone at school who tested positive for COVID.
Because of the close contact, Hope had to quarantine for...
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Is it easier to bring Jesus to the progressives or social justice to the evangelicals?
This is the question I’ve spent most of my professional life wondering, as I’ve alternated between evangelical and progressive settings, respecting both for...
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Surely there’s a church somewhere that practices the kind of hospitality Jesus did, right?
I wanted desperately to believe this after my family found itself unwelcome at church during the last several weeks. Since then, I’ve continued to wrestle...
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Last Sunday during worship, I sat in the comfort room with my two-year old, Kendall, in tears.
To be clear, I was the one in tears, not her.
We’d gone into the cry room to nurse. When we returned to the sanctuary, she started chattering. A LOT...
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“You guys are making me not even want to go to church anymore!” shouted Hope, my six-year old daughter, from the backseat of our van as we headed home from our first day of church shopping.
We began church shopping at a local church that’s part...
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The last time I went church shopping I was a freshman in college. My first Sunday on campus, I walked to the Methodist church that was a block from me. I’d grown up in the Methodist church and truly expected to find a church just like the one I...
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Note: I wrote this piece a while ago, in connection with my new book, Called. In the days since when it live, however, I have accepted a new job with Fuller Youth Institute and so am now (ironically) in the process of transitioning out of my role...
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I’ve seen several recent posts in various online youth ministry discussion forums about how we can get kids and tweens to read Scripture.
Several people have suggested instituting a “Bible Bucks” program. The idea is that when young people read ...
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NBC news has recently been airing a series of reports about the mental health toll of the pandemic on young people. As a youth pastor, I’m well aware of these. I’ve seen the toll this pandemic has taken on the young people in my ministry. I’ve...
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It’s school enrollment season and as the parent of a kindergartener, I’ve been thinking about education a lot.
A few weeks ago, I listened to a podcast by The Mom Hour in which they reflected on their school priorities. That got me thinking about...
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