A few years after Jesus’ ministry on earth, the apostle Paul helped a handful of people plant a church in a city called Philippi. Ten years later, Paul wrote a letter to strengthen this growing church. This letter became the book of Philippians in our Bibles. Tucked inside this encouraging book is one of the greatest challenges … [Read more...]
Bible Study According to Peanuts
Maybe you saw this Peanuts comic strip last week. Or, if you’re a seasoned youth ministry vet, maybe you saw this Peanuts comic strip when it originally ran in 1969. I was around, but I wasn’t yet reading Peanuts. Peanuts’ creator, Charles Schulz, passed away in 2000. Had he still been with us, he might have revised the strip … [Read more...]
Making Sense of Suffering
The disciples asked the question for us: Why did this happen? It’s a question we ask in one form or another when confronted with unjust suffering: Why did this happen? Innocents are killed by a madman with a gun. An earthquake kills hundreds in a few seconds. Children contract cancer. Why? Digging In Read John … [Read more...]
In Prep for National Doughnut Day!
You’ve probably observed that nearly all days in the calendar are designated as some kind of “national” day. In fact, today is National Cherry Cobbler Day, National Pack Rat Day, and National Walnut Day. One day coming up, however, June 3, is a day your teens will not want to miss: National Doughnut Day. As youth … [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...]
Teens and Bible Habits
The American Bible Society and the Barna Group recently teamed up to put a finger on the pulse of the relationship between teens and their Bibles. The good news: we have a pulse. And to mix our metaphors, we have lots of low hanging fruit. The stats are fascinating. The percentages noted are of Protestant teens who … [Read more...]