Everyone loves Top 10 lists so here is a list of some of my favorite practical tools and strategies to help you get started or improve (or start) your prayer life (in no particular order).
From scrubbing dirty dishes to refilling cups of lemonade at least a hundred times during dinner, it was God’s grace alone that proved to be far greater than any glory or attention I thought I needed from my peers.
When we stand up to communicate to a group of teenagers (or anyone, for that matter), we need to understand two things: context and content. The context is the state of the audience receiving the message.
Today, I’m a living testament to God’s sense of humor. You can’t tell me that God doesn’t have a sense of humor by taking me, one of the most reluctant teenagers, and calling me to become a Youth Minister.
You can learn a lot about people by stalking their social media or asking their friends about them, but you can’t actually get to know someone until you spend time with him or her. The saints are no different — they’re not people to be observed from afar, but holy pals we can actually have a relationship with.
I thought about what a youth night or small group looks like in many parishes. I recalled conversations with youth ministers about how hard it was to recruit male core members and encourage male teenagers to participate in youth ministry. Most of our youth groups don't look like that picture of the 90s grunge scene in Seattle, but they could. We just need to adjust our thinking about how we reach young men.
