Youth Ministry – thetravellingtheologian

Calling All Youth Pastors: Stop Wasting Food in the Name of Fun!

Last night I picked up a random book I had gotten a year or so ago. It was a book of youth ministry fails that had been collected from a Facebook group I’m a member of for youth workers. For the most part, it’s hilarious. You name it, it’s happened. And so many of the…

leader < follower < leader < follower…

This past weekend T and I were driving to the airport as we passed a billboard that read, “Be a leader, not a follower.” “There’s nothing wrong with being a follower. Sometimes being a good leader means following others and their ideas when they are better. Why does being a follower have to be this…

call me by my name.

What’s in a name? A lot. I’ve often times told a story of a pastor who, years ago, could never remember my name. This pastor called me the wrong name for years; and it wasn’t just that I was called the wrong name, it was that it was really similar to my name, just not…

Let’s hear it for the vans.

“These are nice vans,” my adult volunteer said to me from the passenger seat. “I know. They are so much better that the ones I’ve had to drive in the past. It’s like God is rewarding me for all those years of driving crappy church vans that didn’t work or shouldn’t have even been on…

Use your words.

About 6 months ago, I got asked to write for my first published book. Well, it’s not MY book, but a book with other authors, I’m just one of them. It’s on ministering to LGBTQ youth. I was hesitant because it’s not the normal theological circle I run in. But I thought, “what the heck?”…

No. 1 Who are you?

I recently joined a youth ministry co-hort through the Youth Cartel. One of my homework assignments is to take Seth Godin’s Freelancer course from Udemy.com. For this series of videos, he has these sort of “worksheets” to do. This is my attempt to do them and have some honest transparency about them. And to keep…

I’m not that youth pastor.

Today, one of my professors from seminary posted about a comedian named Nick Thune. He has a comedy routine about being a youth pastor that goes something like this: I had to laugh as I watched this at my desk. Laugh at the fact that this guy is pretty funny, but also about the fact…

I want to be part of an authentic church.

Today, on my day off, in between car washes, trips to the store, the mechanic, and multiple loads of laundry, I read two things: First, I read a piece from the Washington Post by Rachel held Evans that one of my youth leaders sent me this morning from April of 2015 called, Want millennials back…

proactive: (adjective) controlling a situation by making things happen or by preparing for future problems; origin: 1993

Tonight, I’m starting a new practice. I’m practicing being proactive. Long gone are the days of being much younger when things fell into my lap. Competition is getting stiffer. And younger. Seriously, younger than me. And I’m not old. I’m just older than a lot of other people looking for first calls! I spend atleast 20…

space: (noun) the amount of area, room, surface, etc., that is available for use; origin: middle english, first known use 14th century

I got stood up this morning. Now, I got a lovely, quiet breakfast to myself with my favorite strawberry jam, but I still got stood up. It’s a strange occurrence that emotionally takes you back to high school for a minute or two. I get stood up more than most in my line of work….

progressive: (adjective) moving forward; happening or developing gradually over a period of time; using or interested in new modern ideas; origin: first known use of progressive: circa 1612

For the last three days I have been attending the Progressive Youth Ministry Conference held at Fourth Presbyterian Church in downtown Chicago, IL. As the inaugural event there were highs and lows. First off, let me be clear, no conference is perfect. What is important about a conference is that it helps bring about change…