Enough is enough!

I decided last August to read through the Bible in 90 days. It was a little trying at times but I accomplished that goal and surprisingly found myself deeply immersed in the Old Testament readings. I just couldn’t get enough of it, particularly the book of Daniel. The stories of God’s sovereignty and the faith of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego really captivated my attention.

Yesterday, I read through chapters 1 through 5 again. This time, however, I became particularly compelled with King Nebuchadnezzar and his end of the story….

Expressions in Vanity

I’m trying a new thing out with my youth that I wanted to run by everyone to see if you’ve done this before and if it worked well for you. I’m really excited about it. We are starting it this Sunday a new series i’m calling ‘expressions in vanity’. And going through the book of ecclesiastes. I’ve never done a series solely on an entire book of the bible but how I want to lay it out I think it’ll go over real well. The whole thing with Ecclesiastes is…

Making a good trade

When I was a kid, I collected a TON of sports cards. Seriously, I would save up everything I had to buy cards. Boxes upon boxes of them.

My favorite athlete was Joe Montana, the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. I had his jersey and had tons of posters of him and I sought to collect every card made that displayed his picture.

In card collecting and trading, it is pretty common for a player’s rookie card to be the most valuable one. This rookie card, which highlights a player’s first year as a pro athlete, can be hard to come by and that was definitely the case with Joe Montana’s rookie card….

Multi-Generational Power!

This week at youth group, I invited our senior pastor to come speak. Lately I’ve been hoping for, and praying for, an increase in passion for worshipping Jesus at youth group. Our group loves Jesus, and I love their corporate heart for God. But I’ve been feeling that God wants to release a greater passion into their hearts, a greater longing, and a greater sense of the “realness” of God…

More Than Sinners Saved By Grace

I just recently finished this amazing book by Bill Johnson, ‘When Heaven Invades Earth’. And through reading there were multiple times God gave me great revelation and deeper insight into His truth. So I’d like to just share an excerpt from that that I pray may initiate evaluating yourself and how you view your relationship and walk…

Power in small things

I am 5’6”. It used to bother me. I have two older brothers that are both bigger than me and almost all my friends are taller than me. Then, one day, I realized that size is not equated with power. Think about it: size is not equated with power. A huge car cannot retrieve power without spark plugs. Oak trees are birthed from small acorns. A small diamond can cost thousands of dollars. Size and power are very often not related….

From the National Conference

I just got back from the National Leadership Conference for the Vineyard. It is my first one, and honestly I didn’t know what to expect. I must say, that I was quite impressed, and excited about the direction our movement is headed. I want to share a couple brief insights from the conference that I think are encouraging particularly for us as youth ministers.

The First 3 Years

Hey my name is John and I’m the youth pastor at VCC in Virginia Beach , VA! This is such a great way to communicate to each other and build each other up. I wanted to talk about something that I am recently going thru. I was at another church and I actually left at the 3 year mark and so now I am coming to the 3 year mark here at vineyard, and I’m seeing some of the same problems. Maybe some of you have been in youth ministry longer and so you can speak into this which would be great in my opinion but maybe there’s some volunteers out there or youth pastors new at the job.

Project Timothy, August 8-15!

I’m excited to announce we have decided to go forward with Project Timothy – the Teen & Young Adult Leaders Bootcamp. The dates are August 8-15, and it will literally be a bootcamp.  We’ll be camping to bring down the costs!  I am planning on getting some really great speakers from around the region to visit the bootcamp and bring their expertise and training, plus we’ll have lots of fun. Read on to see who’s invited, and start praying about who you should go from your group!

Jesus: 100% human

One thing I’d like to introduce more into my youth group is the humanity of Jesus, a topic that I’ve been pondering in my heart a lot lately. Because if we (and our youth) do not fully understand or believe that Jesus was 100% human when he was here on the earth, what would any of the New Testament kingdom stuff mean to anyone? “Oh, yeah, of course Jesus could do that . . . he was God! And I am not!”