Rural Home Missionary Association is having its annual Small Town Pastors Conference in Morton, IL this week. Brent Lacy from MinistryPlace.Net is going to be one of the seminar speakers presenting, speaking on Rural Youth Ministry. If you are attending the conference, look for Brent, and stop by and […]
Curriculum , Resources , Rural Ministry , Student Ministry
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Outsourcing in Youth Ministry
In “my other world” of IT and Business, there is a word that is used often that the church either uses in a negative connotation, or it is simply not spoken of. The word is outsourcing. The church has taken great pains over the years to do as much as […]
Christian Leadership , Ministry , Rural Ministry , Stories , Student Ministry
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When God calls, you have to listen
So, big news in my world: God has called me to be a senior pastor. Now before you throw tomatoes at me and swear I’ve turned to the dark side, I want to share my story. There may come a time when God will call you to a different ministry […]
Student Ministry
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Fundraising: Thinking outside the box
Guys I wanted to share something interesting with you. I recently made the jump into full time vocational youth ministry. It has been an awesome transition and I plan on doing a series of posts on how to transition smoothly and set both churches up to win. When I arrived […]
Family Stuff , Ministry , Stories
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Don’t Blog Angry…
Don’t blog hurt. These sound like great snippets of advice. In principle, they are great to try and hold to. These also should apply to social media as well. We all have one small problem with actually executing this advice. We are human and imperfect. We all carry hurts, slights, […]
Ministry , Ministry Tech , Missions , Redneck Tech , Rural Ministry , Stories , Technology
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Small Church, Small Church Plants
One of the featured missionaries in the missions module of LifeWay’s VBS this year is a Church planter in Canada that plants house churches in unreached neighborhoods and small towns throughout Canada. Some of their methods were interesting. It got me to thinking that there are some pieces of what […]
Ministry , Rural Ministry , Stories , Student Ministry
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The Grass Isn’t Always Greener
A youth ministry friend of mine once gave me great advice: the next church’s grass isn’t always greener. He spoke from experience. Having been in youth ministry for several years in a bi-vocational status, he finally landed a full-time position. He loved the idea of working just one job, but […]
Family Stuff , Featured , Ministry , Missions
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WorldVision, controversy, and a look in the mirror….
My friend John over at “The Cost and The Joy” wrote an excellent post about the controversy surrounding WorldVision’s change to their HR policies regarding marriage. It is worth the time to read it. If we name the name of Christ, we all need to take a long hard look […]
Ministry , Rural Ministry , Student Ministry
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Reputations Are Magnified in Rural Settings
This week, I’m publishing my first novel, Sheep Among Wolves (You can purchase it here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IRTQ1FE ). I co-wrote it with my friend Tony Harmon. It has literally been a labor of love. However, this week, it becomes more than that. As I place it on sale, I want people […]
Christian Leadership , Family Stuff , Ministry , Rural Ministry , Stories
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NCAA March Madness, BYU, and the Youth Group???….
In all the buildup to last night’s NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament, I heard an interesting point in on one of the local sports radio stations. They told the story of the “BYU Rule”, where BYU has made a school policy to not play on Sunday for any reason. The NCAA […]
Guest Posts , User Submitted Resources
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THROWRUNFIX!!!
1 Corinthians 9:24 (New International Version) Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. I cannot stand running. However, I am very proud of the one in our family that […]
Conferences , Featured , SYMC
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Heard at #SYMC 14: Growing Theologically Minded Students with @chapclark
I had the opportunity this morning to sit in on Session 3 of Chap Clark’s track called “Growing Theologically Minded Students. It was an excellent session with a lot of great research included and a lot of thought provoking statements. Below are a few of those great nuggets of wisdom: […]