Every March, my youth group goes on a retreat. It’s a nice change of pace from New York City as well as a great way for us to learn about God, ourselves, and each other without distraction. This year, our lone senior had an event that weekend and was unable to make it to the retreat. He was missed, and I wished for a way to connect with him even though he wasn’t there. I don’t remember who came up... Read more
Paul McClure, a doctoral student in the sociology of religion at Baylor University, has recently published a study called “Faith and Facebook in a Pluralistic Age: The Effects of Social Networking Sites on the Religious Beliefs of Emerging Adults”—you can read about it here and here. Using data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, McClure notes that social media users are more likely to agree with the following statement: “Some people think that it is okay to pick and choose... Read more
I’ve been sitting here for the last hour debating about what I am going to write for my next blog post. There are currently many pressing issues in our world, and many of those issues affect the students and families we work with. There are sociocultural issues, ecclesial issues, gender identity issues, suicide, belief and unbelief, issues of violence and self harm, binge drinking, substance abuse, and a whole host of other issues that I could name. These are all... Read more
One day while I was on Facebook, I came across an article titled “Science Says Parents of Successful Kids Have These 13 Things in Common” posted on my friend’s timeline, and it caught my attention. Being a parent myself, I wanted to see if I was following a good formula. The article had the following thirteen things that parents of successful kids do: They make their kids do chores. They teach their kids social skills. They have high expectations. They... Read more
The first question of an interview for a youth ministry job is not typically about sex, so when it was I floundered. We were in the church conference room on a sunny Saturday morning sipping water from plastic cups when the pastor decided to get the interview underway by asking me how I teach sex and dating to teenagers. Pass? The truthful answer was not much. I’d done full time youth ministry in a church for over eight years, and... Read more
We are finishing the final details for our youth summer mission trip. This year we are headed off to Denver with DOOR Network. (They focus on social justice work, which is a big thing for our students.) As we were discussing this year’s rules, one of the students asked: “Are we going to be able to take our phones this year?” You see, last year, on our mission trip to Chicago, we decided that it would be better to be... Read more
I’m a little off on my lectionary reflections, because this one is actually about yesterday’s texts for Trinity Sunday. In particular, I am fascinated by the inclusion of Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 as a reading for the one Sunday of the year set apart to reflect on the mystery of the Trinity. What were the designers of the Revised Common Lectionary getting at by including this passage about wisdom personified as a woman on Trinity Sunday? First, let me say that my overall thinking... Read more
At PYM16 Morgan Schmidt led a workshop on her work with the Bend Youth Collective. Greg Bolt is one of the co-founders of BYC and has recently brought this idea to a small town in Nebraska. Perhaps this innovative youth ministry idea is something you can try in your own context. In the fall of 2010 a radical idea in youth ministry was born in Bend, Oregon. This fall youth in Bend will take a radical step out in faith. Members... Read more
In the beginning, God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male, female, and transgender God created them. There has been a lot of public debate recently about the trans and genderqueer community’s right (or lack thereof) to pee. These conversations are attacks on the transgender community based in myth, misinformation, and lies designed to marginalize and criminalize gender non-conforming individuals. And while there are no documented incidents of trans + individuals attacking others in... Read more
I’ve worked in a few different contexts where I saw churches change at the level of the child. What does that mean? Well, simply put, there was a gathering of people who attended a church. All of a sudden, children entered the picture in some sort of way (like through a church school, camp, or other outreach), and almost overnight, the very fabric of that particular body of church people dramatically changed! How did it happen? As these young people... Read more
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