Strength in the Strain

“God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome. The strain is the strength. If there is no strain, there is no strength. Are you asking God to give you life and liberty and joy? He cannot, unless you will accept the strain. Immediately you face the strain, you will …

Christianity and Excuses

If you have been in youth ministry longer than a month then you have had the fortunate blessing of hearing a teenager come up with an excuse as to why the could not go to _____________________ (insert activity).  I imagine I have heard every sort of excuse as to why a teenager (sometimes even a …

Letting Go and Letting Love

  No one said parenting was an easy task and today was one of those difficult days in Heather and I's parenting career.  Our oldest son Kaleb attended pre-k at Krisle Elementary today and it was one of the most difficult things I have had to do as a parent.  Kaleb has been such a …

Silencing the Haters

Last night the youth group and I had an excellent period of worship at our monthly teen devotional.  I directed our thoughts from Philippians 1:27-30 and it seemed to be a good grounding point for the challenging next few weeks for the teenagers.  The Philippian church was not without her faults as apparently there were …

Slipping through the Cracks

I will not post as much and I fear that a lot of what I love doing on a daily basis will not happen for the next few weeks.  I missed this past week's Teen Scene and I thought about all of the people who probably waited for me to get on when I did …

Weird Wednesday Night

Last night was probably one of the weirdest experiences of my 5 year career at Main Street.  In the summer we have what is called the Summer Series (most congregations do).  There was a storm going on but we did not think much about it because everything seemed to be going well.  About 15 minutes …

Nervousness

I was in10thgrade at Boyd-Buchanan School in Chattanooga, TN and I had to give a speech for English class and I remember that I gave it over the fact that I was tired of girls breaking up with me.  What I said was not what I remember most but it was the feeling I got …