You will face criticism for the things that you do. You will create something that people don’t like. You will be forced to make a difficult decision that upsets a family. Somebody won’t like the music choices you make for weekend services. Criticism is inevitable in ministry because it is impossible for you to keep everyone happy. When you are faced with criticism, how do you respond?
When Elijah was born things changed. Certainly there were the typical changes to our lives that everyone would expect, like new sleep patterns and priorities in our lives. But there were also several new things that were previously unacceptable for a grown man, but now were completely acceptable because I have a young child.
10. Playing with toys.
9. Choosing a children’s movie over an action movie.
8. Saturday morning cartoons.
7. Reading children’s books.
6. Hanging out at Toys ‘R Us.
This past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity of preaching during our confirmation service. The following are my notes from the sermon:
Have you ever experienced something so delicious that you had to eat more? Maybe you’ve opened a bag of Doritos and minutes later discovered that you’ve eaten almost the whole bag. Or maybe you’ve experienced the feeling of walking into a kitchen with fresh baked brownies; the aroma fills the room and you can’t help but eat several. One of the best snacks that I’ve ever experienced is my mom’s chocolate chip cookies. My mom makes the best chocolate cookies in the world. There is nothing better than a tall glass of milk and a chocolate chip cookie that has been warmed up in the microwave.
[This post is a part of the Technology in Youth Ministry series]
If you are leading a youth ministry, you are likely also utilizing some form of web technologies as a way to communicate with parents and students about your ministry. Oftentimes student ministries choose to have their own websites apart from the main church website, which allows for some extra flexibility and freedom when it comes to posting new information, sharing media, and making it “youth friendly.” Building a website can be a daunting task; from working with FTP servers, writing html code, and all kinds of other tasks that will hurt your brain. There are countless services and options that are available to make this easier for you; the following describes one option that we use when we build our websites.
Hosting. In order for your website to exist on the internet you have to have somebody that is willing to host it. Or more accurately, you have to pay someone to be your host. Often when you register for your domain nomain, you will do this through a company that also offers some kind of hosting. My favorite option for youth ministry hosting is Dreamhost; dreamhost actually offers free hosting for non-profits.
This is a video of our confirmation students affirming their faith using the words of the Apostles’ Creed.
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If you have ever considered a career in youth ministry, there are certain things that are absolutely necessary if that is going to happen for you. This post is not about specifically the hiring process, but more importantly about some of the specific things that are needed if you hope to get your name in the hat when a church is going through the hiring process. When I was in college I was fortunate enough to be a part of a student ministry that gave me incredible opportunities that shaped me as I tried to figure out the whole youth ministry thing. By the time I was done with college, I was “ready” to dive into full-time ministry. If you want to do youth ministry as a career, you will have to make some intentional choices about what you are doing and how you are going to gain experience, skills, and knowledge relevant to student ministry.
[This post is a part of the Technology in Youth Ministry series]
As tablet devices get more and more popular, there are also more people looking for ways to specifically utilize them for their ministry. Perhaps you are trying to justify buying the new iPad as a ministry expense or simply trying to find ways to use the device that you already own within your ministry. As the iPad continues to grow in popularity, the library of applications that are available continues to improve and therefore the amount of quality apps for ministry also continue to grow.
If you’re an e-mail subscriber to this blog, you might notice a couple of changes to your daily e-mails. This past week I spent some time working to improve the options that I offer to people who subscribe to the blog. I love the fact that some of you choose to get my posts sent straight to your inbox every day so I wanted to put some time into making it the best possible experience for you and any future e-mail subscribers.
*note: if you didn’t know that you could subscribe to blogs, learn about some of the options you have for receiving updates.
Starting last weekend and throughout this month, our middle school is working through a sermon series called “Grow Up.” This series is a part of XP3 Students produced by Orange. If you’ve been wondering why you havne’t seen teaching notes, I haven’t been posting them because several main ideas from the series is a part of the curriculum. There are times throughout the year that using produced curriculum is highly beneficial. As we are preparing for the summer season, I wanted to have a series that I could use that would also allow me some freedom creatively to begin thinking about summer events and retreat themes.
Every super hero has a weakness. Superman has kryptonite. The Hulk can destroy and be destroyed by his anger. Batman can’t save Gotham City until he gets over his fear. Iron man’s heart is what makes the suit work and is also killing Tony Stark. Every super hero has their own weaknesses and their enemies attack them where they are vulnerable. Lex Luthor attacks Superman with kryptonite, he doesn’t try to make him afraid. Tony Stark’s life isn’t at risk because his archnemesis shows up with some Kryptonite.
These are my random thoughts on life, ministry, technology or whatever else I can't help but post about. The posts on this site are my own personal opinions. They do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Faith Lutheran Church.
