Right about now I tend to run a parallel calendar in my mind with the events of Easter. It usually starts during the Passion Week with its daily, play-by-play account of events. It’s then easy to keep that calendar momentum rolling through, and even beyond, the Easter season since events are so well keyed into timeframes in the … [Read more...]
Leaning Into the Doubts of Teens
If you haven’t seen the recent article in the Wall Street Journal on teen spirituality (The Teenage Spiritual Crisis, WSJ, June 14, 2017), let me give you a little recap (or you can read it here). Writer Claire Ansberry chronicled the journey of Thomas Rainey, an 18-year old who grew up in the church. His was a typical church … [Read more...]
State of The Bible in Youth Ministry
At recent National Youth Workers Conventions by Youth Specialties, InWord has posed a question about obstacles to good Bible study in youth ministry. As a Bible ministry we are obsessed with minimizing obstacles and creating helpful access points into God’s Word. It helps to hear from a variety of youth workers about the … [Read more...]
InWord’s Bracket Bible Challenge
For us sports minded youth workers, it’s about this time of the year, after the NCAA football championship, the Super Bowl, and the beginning of March Madness, that some students remind us that not everybody is into sports. Other activities such as music, band, theatre, brain clubs, etc., do exist and are just as valid. These … [Read more...]
REVIEW: Slaying Biblical Illiteracy
The ministry of teen Bible engagement is a complex matrix of considerations: over-churched vs. under-churched, middle school vs. high school, spiritually engaged vs. spiritually apathetic, and the list goes on. It’s a ministry that can use all the tools it can get. The small book by Matt Andrews, Slaying Biblical Illiteracy … [Read more...]
Pentecost: Coupling the Old with the New
To delve into the biblical feasts online is to delve into a world of un-designed websites and long webpages with Courier typewriter-type fonts. It looks like a fringe subject. Should it be that way? Years ago when Bible publishers produced and marketed just the New Testament, they effectively decoupled the Old and … [Read more...]