The Center for Youth and Leadership

I had the honor of hosting my Mom and Dad at our house this weekend, mom's cooking and hugs are priceless! They were here to see our boys play football and show our family that they love us (& my brother David's family too!)...

I have observed a phenomenon in the last week that I'm wondering whether or not would play out in other areas of our lives. What is it? In the last week co-workers, friends, family and even the man in the mirror have watched their sports teams succeed and fail on the athletic field...

I woke this morning to hear that one of the heroes of my youth had died, Roosevelt Hunter. I have vivid memories of driving with our youth ministry to Revival Tabernacle in Detroit and working on the church plant he and Tim Delena were starting in inner-city Detroit...

I'm speaking at a church this weekend and the pastor asked me to specifically cover the Biblical account of Noah. Its a fascinating story that I remember from my childhood and have already passed on to my boys...

No, this isn't a post about the dangers of guns in our society. I'm neither part of the NRA or PETA. What I'd like to talk about is a comment that my boss made this morning in a meeting...

While planning for an upcoming conference with 2 top-notch youth leaders, the question came up: If you had an hour and could pick the brain of anyone in youth ministry, who would it be? We came up with a couple of people, some you may know...

I coach for a 7th Grade Basketball team and we experienced two losses today that I'm having a difficulty getting over. I'm not sure if losing hurts because I'm not used to it, or if its a part of humanity and DNA but I feel it nonetheless...

The following are my notes from the workshop I did at the Orange Conference. One of the most difficult issues facing youth ministry is trying to evaluate success. We need to rethink the way we do student ministry and revolutionize the scoring system if we hope to truly impact this ge [...]

The announcement on the news this morning telling us that GM was eliminating the entire Pontiac brand of automobile made me think. My boys are going to grow up and not remember Pontiac as one of the main choices we have when we buy cars...

I heard a great message in church today, Palm Sunday, by JJ Slagg-the senior associate at our church. The concept is that God is still looking to use whatever we own (time, influence, possessions, etc.) just like he "used" the donkey that Jesus rode on for the original "Palm Sunday"...

I just spent 24 hrs with 5 guys who are committed to campus ministry by working with Youth Alive in multiple states. These guys lead the charge in mobilizing students to impact their schools and friends by using tools such as training, facilitating Assembly programs ins schools, etc...

I just came across an article in YOUTH TODAY, the February '09 issue of thisjournal for youth work, that analyzed the impact of the George W. Bush legacy on youth work. Remember that the world of "youth work," involves community, government, education, and faith-based initiatives...

I'm sitting in a coffee shop and trying to get some work done (part of which is posting my blog for the week) and I am getting more and more annoyed by some people on the other side of Caribou. Two white, middle aged guys are meeting and discussing a particular passage of scripture LOUDLY...

So for the last four days my e-mail inbox has been hit with close to 200 personal messages at my last count (these are non-spam related messages - those other thousand I delete immediately), plus another40 Facebook direct messages...