Churches today are struggling financially.

Oh, I know that's not true of ALL of them.

But I know it's true of a lot of them.

As a result, it's entirely possible for you to do the hard work of crafting a budget proposal only to be told, “We'd love...

I first heard Brenda Salter McNeil speak when I was the Youth Pastor at a multi-ethnic congregation in the suburbs. Knee-deep in the (often) painful reality of cross-cultural ministry, I found her words both challenging and inspiring.

Now, in a...

I'm thrilled to be guest posting today in Abby Norman's series, Sane for the Holidays. 

November has traditionally been a dangerous month for me.

It’s when people start blogging about their ideas for advent. In a single day, you can see...

At my very first youth ministry interview, I remember asking the committee if there was a youth ministry budget.

The committee said yes and I naively accepted it's answer at face value.

Shortly after accepting that job, I asked the senior pastor ...

Life is full right now... So much so that it's taken me a solid week to get this blog posted. It's better late than never, though, right? 

What I'm Reading:

Fiction:

I read 8 fiction books during the last two months. My favorites...

Once you've translated your dreams into numbers and figured out the various revenue streams you'll use to fund your ministry, the next step in the budget process is actually crafting your proposal.

Your budget proposal should contain two things:...

What the book's about: A Good and Perfect Gift by Amy Julia Becker is a book about her daughter, Penny, and in particular, Penny's Down Syndrome diagnosis. It's a book about parenting and above all, it's a book about grace.   

Why I...

At the conclusion of my junior year in college, I studied abroad in Moscow, Russia. Despite the fact that at the time, Russia was safe, to my parents – who came of age during the Cold War – Russia was a very scary place. The idea of their daughter...

Once you've translated your dreams into numbers, the next step in crafting your budget proposal is to determine where your ministry's budget will come from. Typically, youth ministries derive their budget from a combination of three sources:

-...

This fall, my high school teens and I have been discussing various “isms”. On the first week of this series, we wrestled with materialism, using the story of Jesus and the rich young ruler to do so. In this story, a rich young ruler asks Jesus...

After you've let your dreams percolate, the next step in crafting your budget proposal is to translate your dreams into actual numbers.

To do this, go back through your lists, paying particular attention to your answers to this question: What...

One of my early church memories is participating in my church's pony express giving campaign – a campaign in which a saddlebag was passed from home to home along with stories about our church's ministries and our pledge cards. Families were then...

Twice since returning from maternity leave, I've attended work conferences with my infant daughter, Hope. The first time, Hope was two months old; The second time, she was five months old. After the first go-round, I instagrammed the picture...

On a recent call with Alan Roxburgh, author of Structured for Mission, I heard Al say two really compelling things. First, people are no longer hardwired to go to church like they once were. Second, given this changing culture, those of us who...

While attending a remembrance about the ongoing atrocities occurring in the Congo, my husband and I attended our friend, Emile's, Congolese church.

One of the things I vividly remember about that worship service was the young children. There were...

The other day, a teen walked into our youth room. Another student immediately grew excited and exclaimed, “Oh great! It's the funny kid!”

I'm pretty sure the funny kid didn't hear this other teen and for that I'm thankful. I responded by greeting...

In grad school, I took a class called Theology of the Church taught by Dave Rahn. During it, we talked often about the form and function of the church. Dave's point was that form should always follow function, not the other way around. In other...

My teens care deeply about issues that affect the marginalized in society. They long to make sense of what their faith says about such things and wrestle with how they can make a difference in regard to these issues. To that end, my student...

What the book's about: A year into my career in youth ministry, I interviewed at a church. During that interview, I was asked about my feelings about the whole "postmodern thing". It was the early 2000s and at the time, I knew little about...

Whenever we come into contact with other people, there’s a temptation to play the comparison game. This is true of theology as much as anything else.

Theological differences are often especially apparent during events like the 30 Hour Famine,...