Sermon 10/27/2013 - Navigating Social Media

How should Jesus impact our use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, SnapChat, Vine or any other social media? Here are four questions to consider how your own usage.

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Your Family vs. Your Boss

So there you are: You’re trying to balance youth ministry with marriage and family life. You’re striving toward healthy goals and implementing new changes so that both your job and family will benefit. It’s hard work, but you know it’s worth it.

And then in walks the senior pastor. He asks to have a little chat and your stomach drops. He’s concerned that you aren’t putting in enough hours at the office, he’s not happy that your family didn’t show up at the church spaghetti supper last weekend, and he thinks your youth group numbers might be lacking.

What do you do? You’re trying to maintain a healthy, balanced life, but your boss doesn’t see balance in the same way.

There isn’t a simple answer to this dilemma, and frankly, most youth pastors will encounter this problem at some point during their ministry. Church life is demanding, healthy boundaries can be sketchy and hard to define, and ministry to teens and their families can be never-ending. So here are some thoughts on navigating balance while striving to respect authority:

Keep reading at http://www.morethandodgeball.com/simply-insider/authority-your-family-vs-your-boss/#sthash.LxGihG9E.dpuf

Sermon 10/13/13 - Interview With a Former Muslim

This past Sunday, I had the chance to interview a friend of mine for the GYG who grew up in Iran as a Muslim and recently decided to begin a relationship with Jesus. He talks about what growing up was like, what his early impressions of Jesus were and what things he began to question in concern to the Muslim faith.

For safety reasons, the voice has been changed, his face has been blurred and names and identifying reference have been cut out.

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Sermon 10/9/2013 - Jesus > Religion

What is the big difference between Jesus and Buddha, Muhammad, Joseph Smith or other religious leaders? Was Jesus' goal to come to earth to create another religion for us to follow or did He have something much bigger in mind?

Spoken word via Jefferson Bethke:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDG...
Order Bethke's book, inspired by the spoken word:http://ow.ly/jNA68

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4 Tips to Win Every Fight

All couples fight.
They might do so in different ways and at different levels of intensity, but no matter what, fighting can bring out the worst in two people. Many couples, including us, get stuck having the same ones over and over, which is exhausting and discouraging. Fighting is a way for spouses to resolve conflict and attempt to connect.

In many ways, fighting is vital to the health of a marriage.

But when a fight becomes nasty, hurtful, degrading, and a desperate attempt to manipulate or “win,” it sinks into unhealthy territory and breaks down a marriage instead of building it up.

But it’s really hard to have a “good” fight! It feels so wonderful in the moment to give into hurt or anger, hit below the belt, and win the augment. Fights like this happen to even the best marriages. Yes, even for pastors and their spouses.

Though many ministry couples feel the need to present themselves as perfectly in accord, a sign of a healthy relationship is not the absence of conflict, but how a couple handles the conflicts that will inevitably arise.

Here are a handful of things that we know it takes to have a good fight (but honestly continue to struggle with ourselves):

- See more at: http://www.morethandodgeball.com/simply-insider/fighting-above-the-belt/#sthash.CsLLnlt2.dpuf