The Presidential election is approaching and I, an American citizen, feel as though I need to educate myself in order to cast an educated vote. I am trying to get my hands on any McCain and Obama literature. I just finished Obama’s book: The Audacity of Hope. I absolutely loved the chapter where Obama addresses [...]

As of late, I have been on a big family ministry kick. This past week I had the privilege to attend Catalyst West and I had the opportunity to participate in a lab with Alan & Debra Hirsch

What percentage of your families in your youth ministry are divorced families? Our youth ministries need to be more prepared and equipped to handle broken and divorced families. More importantly, we (as the youth pastor) shouldn't view these divorced families as the "special families." Unfortunately, it is becoming more common to have Christians who are divorcing.

Nothing drives me bonks then a youth ministry that tailors it's youth ministry to the "good", conventional, and super spiritual families. A conventional family is the family who is always happy, has a dog, 2 sons and 1 daughter, loves church, mom stays home, and never has any problems.

The article This Kid's A Text Maniac, in the New York Post and in the OC Register, demonstrates how one teenage gal received and sent 14,528 text messages in a month. The OC Register columnist states: "Texting is becoming more and more popular, and growing at a spectacular rate. Text-messaging is now hard-wired into our culture. It's in our DNA — particular among young people." Bottom line: Teenagers are the biggest demographic group that is text messaging and parents need to know and understand why teenagers are text messaging like crazy.