Youth Ministry Moment

“Hey, there’s Steve. He’ll do it!”
I heard a friend say this as I was passing his table at Annual Conference this past June. The matter before the body at the time was a series of resolutions on various social justice issues. We had been debating them for around 45 minutes, and, I must add, in [...]

Lead on, Oklahoma City?

73 years ago yesterday, July 16, 1935, the first parking meters anywhere went to work in OKC.
Perhaps one wouldn’t expect such a novel concept and excellent revenue stream to be born in Oklahoma City.
Malcolm Gladwell wrote an interesting piece for the New Yorker about big ideas and change. Apparently big, revolutionary ideas are not particualrly [...]

Worldview - Biblical or Not?

Adam Hamilton posted a couple weeks ago about a “Biblical Worldview.”  He cites Dave Kinnaman’s work in unChristian, which discusses the Barna Group’s research finding which “showed only 4% of adults have a biblical worldview as the basis of their decision-making.”
Barna defines a “Biblical Worldview” in this way:
For the purposes of the research, a biblical [...]

Youth Ministry link

Check out this title, courtesy of The Journal of Student Ministries:

Children not acquiring basic moral values as today’s adults poor role models

Unworthy?

“You are unworthy. I am unworthy. We are all unworthy.”
So spoke a “worship leader” at a worship service I attended recently.
I understand what (I think) he was trying to say. I couldn’t help but wonder, though, how beneficial it is to stand before a crowd of youth and tell them in an [...]

To Ministry

I am in Abilene, Texas through Friday for JYMO (Jurisdictional Youth Ministry Organization). McMurry University is our gracious host.
During this week, I’ll be leading a workshop on “Exploring the Call.” The purpose of this workshop is to help youth understand and interpret the calling God has placed and is placing on their lives. [...]

Fun with Words

Check out the word clouds of the books of the New Testament.
ht: ThinkChristian

Mission Trip Moment: Poll Preview

I read an article in the Waco Trib about the latest Pew Poll on Religion, and immediately thought I ought to blog on it. Then I found Ben Witherington has already posted on it, so I thought I better read his before wasting cyberspace with my own.
So, then, on the way there, let me share [...]

Old Thought, New Expression

One of those things I first thought at least a decade ago finds expression in the printed word:
The idea of God as  a being who is unchanging, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent and thus always right is more of a philosophical rendering than a biblical one. In metaphysical theology God is thought to be the perfect [...]

On being swept away

I had the great joy last Sunday of worshiping with Marvin United Methodist Church in Tyler, Texas.  They have four worship services each Sunday - 2 at 8:45 and 2 at 11:00.  At each time there is a contemporary and a traditional service.
In the contemporary service, one of the songs we sang, and one with [...]