Category: . . . Youth Ministry
What if You Were Preston’s Teacher?
His Sunday school teacher just might have driven him to crime. When seven-year-old Preston Scarbrough woke up early one Sunday morning in July 2009, he just didn’t want to go to church. He slipped out of the house while his family slept, got in the car...
The Theology of Coloring
I learned how to teach Sunday school from the women who taught me as a child. We’d go to class, sing a few songs, repeat a memory verse, listen to a Bible story with a moralistic application and then get out the big box of broken,...
Vacation Bible School: Do’s and Don’ts
Months of planning precede it. A line item in the church’s budget often funds it. Most churches hosting it see these few days every year as a prime opportunity to evangelize children. For some, it’s the most tiring event of the year. Of course, I’m talking...
Vacation Bible School and the Doctrine of Hell
Vacation Bible School (VBS) was nearly upon us, and the children’s ministry workers had gathered for a final preparatory meeting. Anticipation filled the room as we eagerly awaited the opportunity to minister to the precious little souls that the Lord would send our way. Thankfully, we...
Scoffer, Slacker, Seeker, or Saint? – A Spiritual Census for Teens
Every ten years in America a survey called a census is taken to determine the current number of U.S. residents. Other information is also obtained and used to paint an up-to-date economic, political, and religious portrait of our society. What if a census were taken in...
How to Become a Christian: A Letter to Teenagers in Good Churches
To teenagers in good churches, I want to tell you how to become a Christian. Like you, I grew up in churches. Not just churches, but good churches. There was real Bible study, real community, real thoughtfulness. I also grew up in a Christian family. Not...
Methodical Love
They loved her. The rest of the world remembers Frances Ridley Havergal for writing such great hymns as “Take my Life and Let it Be,” “Like a River Glorious” and “Count Your Many Blessings,” but to her fourteen students, she was just Miss Havergal, the dear...
Seriousness In Children and Teens
It is increasingly obvious that children and young people in many evangelical churches are anything but serious about Christ. There are notable exceptions, but in many churches a cursory look at the behavioral signals put out by the young people reveal a profound disinterest. On the...
