I vividly remember what it was like to serve on a summer camp staff the summer after I was married. On a team of about 20 young adults, there were only two married couples. My wife and I had been married around six months when our summer started; the other couple was maybe three or four months further along their marital journey than we were. In all honesty, I didn’t mind the juxtaposition all that much. I loved my wife and looked forward to sharing my life with her, much more so than going to sleep every night in a room with a … [Read more...]
A Candle Wishes Birthday
One Christmas, Jenny Williams sponsored a child from the Angel Tree program. Like many of us, Jenny gathered gifts for her little girl and took them to the Salvation Army. After staring at the packages for all the children, Jenny thought beyond December. She worried how Angel Tree families made it the rest of the year. Specifically, Jenny wondered how disadvantaged children celebrated birthdays — a big deal to every child. “If the parents are financially struggling during Christmas, birthdays probably present hard times as … [Read more...]
Does Sunday School Work for Young Adults?
Dale Bynum, the associate pastor for adults at Oakwood Baptist Church in New Braunfels, Texas, asked me a very good question at a conference last week that you may be asking yourself: “Does Sunday School work for young adults?” In a word, yes, but there are plenty of issues you need to meet head on if your church is going to truly be successful in meeting the spiritual needs of 20- and 30-somethings through the use of Sunday School. Here are just a few: Are you willing to make your classes relational? An important … [Read more...]
Mentoring--It’s Just the Two of Us
The yard was entirely overgrown as I stood on the curb of an inner-city home with Charlotte, a woman I barely knew. We’d frantically exchanged e-mails the day before—tying up loose ends to a local mission project for our church’s community groups. Other than those e-mails, I knew little of her. But for the moment, our joint purpose was to keep a woman from being fined for violating metro codes. It wasn’t until the next morning at church that we had a real conversation. She piped in, “Listen, I’m … [Read more...]
STORY Event in Chicago--Get the DISCOUNT code!
The Threads team is very excited to be partnering with an upcoming event called STORY. STORY is a first-of-its-kind conference for communicators in ministry on Thursday, October 28-29, 2009, at the beautiful Paramount Theater near Chicago. Hundreds of church leaders, pastors, teachers, artists, and authors are coming to learn from some of the most effective communicators of the Gospel—the greatest story ever told. Featured speakers include: Donald Miller Nancy Beach Dave Gibbons Stacy Spencer Ed Young Mike Foster Chris … [Read more...]
International Justice Day
To coincide with International Justice Day, our friends at Mocha Club have released a powerful video that we wanted to pass along. Take a moment and watch. In addition, Mocha Club has just launched a brand new website. Check it out as well. … [Read more...]
Women’s Small Groups: Finding the Delicate Balance Between Head and Heart
It all began with a seemingly innocent question: “Does anyone have any prayer requests?” An hour later, the prayer requests were still going strong. For many women’s small groups, this is a common occurrence. Prayer requests and even Bible study time can often turn into long-running therapy sessions in which women unload the anxieties and worries of their weeks onto a sympathetic group of listening ears. While this is certainly a healthy function of a body of Christian believers, it becomes problematic when it … [Read more...]
Demographically Divided Small Groups
A popular question in young adult ministry is: Should I divide my Bible study groups into demographics? This is a valuable question, especially since most young adult ministries span the ages of 18-34 and may include college students, single adults, and young married couples with or without children. Like so many issues in the church, this one isn’t easily answered. The best way for you to answer this question is to specifically evaluate your ministry. In that process of evaluation, however, there are a few general principles … [Read more...]
BeachReach: Presenting A Worthy Offering
By request, I am posting my last message at Beach Reach 2009. I was teaching out of the book of Malachi. And while Blemished is a study of the book of Malachi, this message covers much of the material that didn’t make it into the book. It’s a bit long as it is a camp-like setting, but I hope you find it to be of encouragement and worth your time. … [Read more...]
Live More. Acquire a lot Less.
I play music for a living. I love listening to music—Travis, Keane, David Crowder—I love them all. Britney Spears? Not so much. Yesterday, I impulsively purchased a newspaper (large sheets of paper with the latest news inked on the surface, so 1980s). There on the front page was an article about how Britney spends her income. Is that really a front-page worthy story? But I admit, I couldn’t look away; I was captivated. Britney spends more than $16k on clothes. Over $100k is spent on entertainment and gifts. She … [Read more...]
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