A Sower's Life

longevity in Youth Ministry

2012-01-19T10:42:00.002-06:00

A classmate of mine from JBU and fellow youth ministry major Brit Windel wrote this article on longevity in youth ministry for youthministry.com. He has some real good words of wisdom and as one who has been in ministry for 12 years now I highly recommend this article to anyone. Whether you are just starting out in ministry or have been around a while we can all learn something from this

Book Review: Are You Waiting for "The One"? by Margaret & Dwight Peterson

2012-01-12T06:30:00.000-06:00

Are You Waiting for "The One"? Cultivating Realistic, Positive Expectation for Christian Marriage by Margaret Kim Peterson and Dwight N. Peterson Published by InterVarsity Press, 2011 ISBN 978-0-8308-3310-8 Are You Waiting for "The One"? is the best book on the subject of marriage that I have read in my 12 years of ministry and 8 years of marriage. The Peterson's take an honest approach to

New Church Resources

2012-01-07T18:09:00.001-06:00

Yesterday my seminary Asbury Theological launched a brand new resource and publishing leg of the seminary called Seedbed. You can check it out at www.asburyseedbed.com. This site and the materials they have to offer are great and this new publishing platform looks very promising. I expect to see great things come from seedbed in the future.

Dec. 25th Christ Worship or Your Birthday?

2011-12-23T17:13:00.001-06:00

As Christmas draws near and everyone rushes to the store for those last minute gifts and final trimmings for the holiday dinner I am stopping to reflect on Christmas, the meaning of the season, and the faults I find with our traditional celebrations. This Christmas more than ever before I have found myself becoming more of a scrooge as some might call me. I'm more fed up with the shoppers,

More Frequent Communion

2011-11-22T09:06:00.001-06:00

This past weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving in our youth ministry with a Thanksgiving Feast/Worship service. As a part of this time of worship we shared in the Eucharist (or Holy Communion) and my family was present. During our communion time my 3 year old Riley came forward and took communion then he proceeded to announce to everyone that he wanted another one. Yes, this was very cute and

Thanksgiving Meal and Worship

2011-11-15T13:56:00.001-06:00

Are you looking for a way to turn a youth ministry or any other groups thanksgiving meal into a more worshipful time? Then check out this order of worship below, which will be in the resource section of this blog as well once I redo it and convert it to a more usable format. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your break it is good for the balance of Sabbath and work. Thanksgiving Meal and

Christmas and Consumerism

2011-10-12T09:27:00.000-05:00

Here is a great article on Christmas and consumerism by the Lewis Center. I really think that in our present economic state the church is ripe for teaching about this topic. Lewis Center Leading Ideas: Christmas Giving for Christ

The Sunday Lunch Table: 8/7/11 Walking on Water

2011-08-07T11:31:00.002-05:00

The Sunday Lunch Table is an attempt to continue the conversation and dig deeper into the sermon topic each week. As you may be aware I'm the Associate Pastor for Youth Ministries at St. Paul UMC in Fort Smith, AR and this forum will hopefully turn into another way that we can use the sermon message as a way to grow in our faith and dialogue with one another. While this is primarily intended

Rural Worship

2011-07-10T22:17:00.001-05:00

Today as part of my seminary course (Rural Community and Moral Concerns) I attended worship at what I would call my first real rural church. I worshiped with the people of Mt. Zion UMC in Mercer County, KY. This church was built in 1839 and has no running water just an outhouse behind the church. The membership is small around 20-25 people, however the worship attendance can be large during

Idol Worship

2011-06-07T22:24:00.002-05:00

Ouch...this really hurts and hits home. So, what is your idol?

Book Review: The Adolescent Journey by Amy E. Jacober

2011-06-01T12:15:00.001-05:00

The Adolescent Journey an Interdisciplinary Approach to Practical Youth Ministry by Amy Jacober (Intervarsity Press, 2011) offers its readers a look at youth ministry from the point of view of practical theology. Jacober is a graduate of Fuller Theological Seminary and is associate professor of practical theology and youth ministry at Truett Theological Seminary she has written numerous articles

The death of Osama bin Laden and the Christian Response

2011-05-03T16:01:00.005-05:00

Sunday night U.S. forces raided Osama bin Laden's compound and in the middle of a fire fight bin Laden was killed. Shortly after the news broke many people across America began to celebrate waving American flags, shouting USA, etc. When I first heard the news on Monday morning my initial reaction and first thought was that's good we got our number one enemy and we should be celebrating.

Kate Middleton's Confirmation

2011-04-13T23:10:00.000-05:00

Kate Middleton the future princess of Great Britain was recently confirmed into the Church of England. Which is a smart move as her future husband will one day be the chief governing officer of the state church. I'm not mentioning this to question motives or whether this was proper or not. I mention this because it got me thinking about confirmation and membership. In the early church

New Ministry Resource Site

2011-04-13T22:54:00.000-05:00

A new ministry resource site called Ministry Matters has launched with lots of great resources for sermon prep, lesson prep, worship prep, and much more. Check it out at www.ministrymatters.com

Wordle of A Sower's Life Blog

2011-04-08T11:28:00.002-05:00

Social Networking and The Church

2011-04-06T17:29:00.000-05:00

Great blog here on social networking and the church by Henry Neufeld. I really think he is on to something. I especially like the end about the under use of church buildings and property. I really don't think God is happy with our stewardship when comes to the use of our buildings. We need to use these great facilities to bring people to the throne of grace instead of keeping them to

Scribd

2011-04-05T23:35:00.002-05:00

I'm on Scribd that's right Scribed and my book Youth Ministry Forms 101 can be purchased there for $6.00 as an electronic format. I plan to migrate the resources section of the blog from Google sites to Scribd. Check out my scribed page here.

Of Storks and the Canaries by Schmidt

2011-04-05T10:17:00.000-05:00

Fredrick Schmidt just posted a new blog titled "Of Storks and the Canaries: Youth Ministry, New Vocations, and the Future of the Church" This is a great post on how youth and campus ministry should be taken more seriously and considered an actual landing spot for someones career instead of a stepping stone to Sr. Pastor. You can read the post here.

A Ministry of Modeling

2011-03-17T08:30:00.001-05:00

There is a huge misconception among some that youth ministers and college ministers must act like youth or college students in order to be able to relate to them. This simply is not true and I believe it is accepted by churches and ministry leaders to the point that we are depriving students of the best of what they need. How many times have you witnessed youth and or college pastors getting

Update and New Resource

2011-03-15T14:06:00.001-05:00

I know I haven't blogged much recently but life has been busy with the transition into a new ministry and I'm taking Hebrew this semester in seminary plus all the other joys of life with two boys under the age of 5. Life has been a little busy to say the least. However, I have many ideas for great posts and one will be coming soon about ministry as modeling by example. Until then I ran across

All Things Must Come To An End

2011-02-24T00:30:00.004-06:00

By now I believe that most everyone knows that my time at First UMC of Fort Smith has come to an end. So, I write this blog to get the rest of you in the know. A week ago this past Tuesday I was informed that my position as the Minister of Lay Involvement and Young Adults was being eliminated due to budget cuts. This was a complete shock to me and I think I am just now beginning to breath

Advice from N.T. Wright

2011-02-23T22:18:00.000-06:00

Some great advice from N.T. Wright for seminarians and pastors.

Methodists in Congress

2011-01-19T16:21:00.001-06:00

Apparently there are a lot of Methodists in Congress. Check out this post by the UM Reporter http://umportal.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/01/methodists-in-congress.html

Is this really what ministry is like?

2010-12-27T09:00:00.001-06:00

Two weeks ago I attended the Refresh Conference for Methodist campus ministers. At one of the workshops I was reminded of the principle of modeling and this got me thinking about ministry and how we model self care and maintaining the proper balance of work, family, leisure time, etc. If I want my students in my campus ministry or the parishioners at my church to have balanced lives in the

Digital Nativity

2010-12-23T16:05:00.001-06:00

There are a couple of videos that tell the story of Christmas digitally with a modern twist going around the internet this year. I thought you might like to see them so the links are below one is serious the other a little funnier. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1573735336164&oid=160636703764&comments http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA