Special Youth Ministry Giveaway!

There’s nothing like FREE stuff!

On Friday, October 19th I’ll be giving away a FREE copy of Darren Sutton‘s brand new book Everyone’s Called to Youth Ministry … They Just Don’t Know It.

Here’s how YOU can win …

I’m looking for great stories about the impact of volunteers in youth ministry.

  • Leave a comment with your best story about a volunteer investing in a student and how that impacted the student’s life in a positive way. (What did they do that was meaningful? How did they establish and build the relationship? etc.) 
  • Include your e-mail address to be contacted should you win.
  • Bonus entries for each Tweet and Facebook share of this contest link.

New Canvas Painting: New York City

Local Impact: Safe Families

Yesterday I had the privilege of leading a Local Impact team from Southwest Community Church to work with Safe Families. Our objective was to have fun with the children so that some of the host parents could enjoy a morning off. We had a lot of fun playing kickball, tag, football, and playing in the sprinklers with the kids. Safe Families is a wonderful organization that “[offers] sanctuary to thousands of children, minimizing the risk for abuse or neglect and giving parents the time and tools they need to help their families thrive. The ultimate goal is to strengthen and support parents so they can become Safe Families for their own children.” To learn more about Safe Families click here

New Canvas Painting: La Quinta, CA Mountains

Happy Birthday to the Coolest 11 Year Old Girl on the Planet!

Today my baby girl turns 11 years old. Wow! We are so proud of Natalia! She loves God and has a great passion for helping her friends know Christ. She is super funny, and an awesome softball player. This year so many of her friends from school and softball came to church and heard about Christ because she invested in relationships and invited them. She also tried her hand at softball, and in her first season made the All-Star team. Really neat!

2013 Simply Youth Ministry Conference

The 2013 Simply Youth Ministry Conference is right around the corner! Get in on the early-bird rate until October 31st. Register here.

Baptism Mania at Southwest!

This weekend at Southwest Community Church we had 35 people signed up to be baptized. I had met with 5 middle school girls during the week and was all ready to lead them in this great step of faith and obedience. Awesome! Pastor Gerald, however, asked us to be praying that 100 people would be baptized. He did a brief teaching on baptism then invited anyone who wanted to be baptized to make their way to the baptismals. I loved what he said next: “This is a no-excuses Sunday. You might say, ‘I didn’t come prepared.’ That’s OK. We came prepared for you! We’ve got t-shirts, shorts, towels, and even garbage bags for you to put on the seats in your cars.”

So, how many people got baptized? 299! That’s right … two-hundred-and-ninety-nine people! We ran out of t-shirts after 100 and there was a mad scramble for more towels. What an incredible day in the kingdom of God!

One back story … my daughter Claudia came up to me with tears in her eyes, excited because her friend Julia Lamper, whom she invited to church this past year had accepted Christ and was baptized today! Invest and invite! God will use you!

Pray with me that fruit will remain!