YMJen

On loving school

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 21:51:00 +0000

When Hope was 3, I walked into our living room and found her carefully cutting apart a Bible.

When we asked little Hope what she was doing, she calmly explained she was doing her cutting work, language leftover from the year she'd spent as a...

When heaven breaks in

Fri, 09 May 2025 15:57:00 +0000

Nobody likes memory care facilities.

They are, by their very nature, depressing places. There’s a certain smell to them. Many residents are either asleep or muttering nonsensical words. Tempers flare—in residents and their distraught, stressed...

The Message of Ash Wednesday

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 15:26:00 +0000

When Hope was a baby, she attended her first Ash Wednesday service.

At that point, I’d been distributing ashes for several years at the church where I worked. Every year, we were reminded: Everyone gets ashes; even the babies.

That directive had...

Jesus chooses you and so does the church

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Recently, I found myself in conversation with a fellow Christian. I walked away thinking, “I’m not sure we believe in the same God.”

We’re both church-goers.
We both have high views of the Bible.

And yet, we see God very differently.

It’s a...

Teaching kids to worship

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 19:48:00 +0000

Since beginning ministry in my current congregation, I've noticed how few high school and middle school students attend worship.

Part of the reason for that is that during the last decade, our congregation has prioritized age-specific...

This is 44

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:03:00 +0000

Today is my 44th birthday and I'm feeling reflective, taking stock of the last year and the people and things I'm particularly grateful for. At the risk of sounding trite, here are 44 things I'm thankful for today.

My favorite three: Doug,...

The gift of VBS

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 12:03:00 +0000

When the kids filled the space and I briefly wondered how we were going to make this year’s VBS work in a building under construction, I was shocked when the word that popped into my head was “gift.”

That word kept reverberating in my head all...

7 Reasons Why Group May Not Be the Easy VBS

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 20:53:00 +0000

One of the reasons we chose Group’s SCUBA VBS was because it’s marketed as the “easy VBS.” Maybe that’s because small group leaders do not have to do any prep (which, I’ll admit, is very appealing.) That said, having just finished our week of...

4 Things I Appreciated About Group’s SCUBA VBS

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 19:45:00 +0000

We just finished a week of VBS at our church. By every metric, it was a huge success. For several reasons, we opted to use Group’s SCUBA curriculum this year. While this curriculum certainly isn’t perfect, there were four things I appreciated...

Honey, I love you

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 02:09:00 +0000

The winter after Doug and I got engaged we went to his family’s house for his mom, Nancy’s, birthday, which was right before Christmas. While there, we visited Grandma Laura, who was still living in her apartment. Grandma fried chicken, which was...

12 Books You Should Read

Tue, 09 Jan 2024 16:26:00 +0000

In 2023, I read 140 books, not including most of the picture books I read to the girls. The vast majority were physical books, but I also listened to a fair amount of audiobooks (for the first year ever.) Doing so upped the volume of books I...

A blessing for youth leaders nurturing faith beyond youth group

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 23:52:00 +0000

This is for the teenagers in your community.
The ones whose families have been hurt by churches so much that they won’t (or can’t) go back.
The ones whose very identities make them afraid they'll be reduced to an “issue” that needs to be solved.
...

8 ways to help mission teams conclude more than “poor people are happy”

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 23:06:00 +0000

“But they're just so happy.”

I’ve lost track of how often I’ve heard someone—either a teenager or an adult—use this phrase to describe someone they served during a summer mission trip.

It doesn’t matter whether you go to a Native American...

The fantasy youth ministry candidate

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 03:01:00 +0000

Popular youth ministry author and speaker, Doug Franklin, who I greatly respect, recently posted this on social media:

I often get calls from churches seeking great youth ministry candidates for their open positions. They are all looking for the...

What students need most when they’re stuck spiritually

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 19:32:00 +0000

On the first day of swim lessons, the lifeguard asked my nearly four-year-old daughter, Kendall, to put her head underwater and much to my shock, she did. This immediately advanced her from Level 1 (for anyone who can’t put their head underwater)...

The tearing of the curtain

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 00:09:00 +0000

Several years ago during an overnight event at the church I served, my high school youth ministry filed into our sanctuary and participated in a prayer ritual around the altar that involved lit candles. Unbeknownst to me, the wax from the candles...

How do you not hate them?

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 15:02:00 +0000

I preached on March 5, when the lectionary text of the day was John 3:1-17. This passage includes the beloved (or despised, depending on who you are) John 3:16.

As part of my sermon, I talked about how while I was in college, my friends from the...

Messy Ashes

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 19:04:00 +0000

It’s Ash Wednesday. I was supposed to be serving at church today, imposing ashes on people for an hour this afternoon.

Strangely, I was looking forward to it. While Ash Wednesday is morbid, there’s also a sacredness to it that I appreciate.

...

What it means to be a Bradbury

Tue, 19 Apr 2022 02:40:00 +0000

I first met Grandpa Elmer when I was 19. After a summer apart from each other, my then boyfriend, Doug, invited me to join him for Perry Pioneer Days - a local festival that included a parade that he and his Grandpa always walked in.

As clowns.

...

The (false) unity of 9-12

Sun, 12 Sep 2021 01:57:00 +0000

As we've approached the twentieth anniversary of 9-11, I’ve seen this picture on social media a lot:

In some ways, I get the sentiment.

Our country is divided, certainly more than I’ve seen at any other point in my lifetime.

And yet, every time...

Notes from the pandemic: The plight of young (unvaccinated) children & their parents

Sat, 04 Sep 2021 20:09:00 +0000

Last Tuesday, exactly one week after the girls started school, we got the dreaded call that 6-year old Hope had been in close contact with someone at school who tested positive for COVID.

Because of the close contact, Hope had to quarantine for...

Jesus & justice

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 03:21:00 +0000

Is it easier to bring Jesus to the progressives or social justice to the evangelicals?

This is the question I’ve spent most of my professional life wondering, as I’ve alternated between evangelical and progressive settings, respecting both for...

Beautiful Hospitality

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 02:03:00 +0000

Surely there’s a church somewhere that practices the kind of hospitality Jesus did, right?

I wanted desperately to believe this after my family found itself unwelcome at church during the last several weeks. Since then, I’ve continued to wrestle...

On not being welcomed at church

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 01:55:00 +0000

Last Sunday during worship, I sat in the comfort room with my two-year old, Kendall, in tears.

To be clear, I was the one in tears, not her.

We’d gone into the cry room to nurse. When we returned to the sanctuary, she started chattering. A LOT...

On finding a new church home

Tue, 22 Jun 2021 21:49:00 +0000

“You guys are making me not even want to go to church anymore!” shouted Hope, my six-year old daughter, from the backseat of our van as we headed home from our first day of church shopping.

We began church shopping at a local church that’s part...

Church Shopping

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 18:02:00 +0000

The last time I went church shopping I was a freshman in college. My first Sunday on campus, I walked to the Methodist church that was a block from me. I’d grown up in the Methodist church and truly expected to find a church just like the one I...

10 QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE WHETHER TO STAY OR GO

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 20:46:00 +0000

Note: I wrote this piece a while ago, in connection with my new book, Called. In the days since when it live, however, I have accepted a new job with Fuller Youth Institute and so am now (ironically) in the process of transitioning out of my role...

The problem with Bible Bucks

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 22:04:00 +0000

I’ve seen several recent posts in various online youth ministry discussion forums about how we can get kids and tweens to read Scripture.

Several people have suggested instituting a “Bible Bucks” program. The idea is that when young people read ...

Notes from the Pandemic: Pandemic Babies

Tue, 23 Feb 2021 13:21:00 +0000

NBC news has recently been airing a series of reports about the mental health toll of the pandemic on young people. As a youth pastor, I’m well aware of these. I’ve seen the toll this pandemic has taken on the young people in my ministry. I’ve...

3 educational priorities

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 15:41:00 +0000

It’s school enrollment season and as the parent of a kindergartener, I’ve been thinking about education a lot.

A few weeks ago, I listened to a podcast by The Mom Hour in which they reflected on their school priorities. That got me thinking about...