Writing & Resources
Writing & Resources
Exploring teenagers, culture, faith, leadership, and the church. New writing alongside selected resources and stories from the YouthStory archive.
A New Kind of Fake Friend?
What happens when teenagers begin practicing relationship with something that can offer attention, advice, affirmation, and companionship without needing a relationship from them in return?
READ PART ONE →What I'm writing now.
New articles, ideas, ministry experiments, and reflections from the current season of YouthStory.
The Story Behind Youthstory.
YouthStory grew out of years spent with students, families, churches, leaders, businesses, ministry experiments, successes, failures, and a calling that has continued to take shape along the way.
If you're new here, this is probably the best place to understand where all of this came from.
READ MY STORY →Ideas, stories, and ministry reflections.
A Calling Lived Out
An early reflection on ministry, visibility, leadership, and learning that calling is bigger than being the person on the stage.
READ ARTICLE →Middle School Problems: Friendship
Friendship, sacrifice, forgiveness, boundaries, and helping teenagers understand what healthy relationships actually require.
READ ARTICLE →The Spirit of Nashville
A firsthand journal from five days of serving after the 2020 Middle Tennessee tornadoes.
READ ARTICLE →Fifteen years of YouthStory.
YouthStory began as a place to think publicly about student ministry. These selected pieces preserve some of that journey as it was happening.
To The Garden
Turning a youth room into a garden to help students experience the message, not simply hear it.
READ →Music To Their Eyes
An early reflection on influence, witness, and the idea that teenagers are watching the lives of the adults teaching them.
READ →Can You Spot the Kingdom?
A ski-trip message about finding the Kingdom and then discovering our place within it.
READ →Life with God
A ministry journal from the middle of a major transition in church, work, education, family life, and calling.
READ →SOCI@L
A three-message series built around the difference between simply “liking” Jesus and actually following Him.
READ →Message of the Day
More than programming. More than events. A short reflection on relational ministry and why every student matters.
READ →Built to be used.
NYC23 Student / Parent Devotional · Week 1
A family devotional exploring Eden, spiritual dryness, purpose, and what it means for God's life to overflow through us.
OPEN RESOURCE →NYC23 Student / Parent Devotional · Week 2
A family devotional connecting Jacob's well, Jesus and the Samaritan woman, living water, and calling.
OPEN RESOURCE →How to Build a Carpetball Table
The long-running YouthStory build guide for one of youth ministry's most unnecessarily large games.
VIEW INSTRUCTIONS →NYC through the years.
YouthStory includes stories, devotionals, resources, and reflections connected to Nazarene Youth Conference across multiple generations of the event. I'm continuing to organize that collection into one place.
More is coming.
YouthStory has been online for more than fifteen years. I'm continuing to bring the strongest writing and ministry resources forward while preserving the story behind them.