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Blogging… with purpose

Last Updated February 2, 2006 by Matt Leave a Comment

This semester, I’m taking a class called “Capstone Seminar in Christian Life.” It’s pretty much the “capstone” course for every single person who graduates from JBU, reserved only for seniors. One of the main focuses in the class is to examine, study, practice, and hopefully cultivate spiritual disciplines in our own lives. Since my degree […]

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More on the Church and Race

Last Updated September 20, 2005 by Matt 2 Comments

In keeping with the theme of my last post, I found this quote from Anthony Smith, someone who has more authority to talk about racial issues in the church than I do: For instance, many Christians are influenced by a particular form of individualism that makes it extremely difficult to see how we are complicit […]

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A White Male’s Perspective on Katrina and Racism

Last Updated September 19, 2005 by Matt Leave a Comment

It’s a good thing no one actually reads my blog, because I might get in trouble with this next post. It’s not as timely as it could be, but I’ll write it nonetheless. It has to do with hurricane Katrina. I had been thinking about the racial implications of what was happening those first few […]

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Responding to My Pragmatism Post….

Last Updated September 8, 2005 by Matt Leave a Comment

I’ve been thinking about my pragmatism post lately. In it, I said that maybe the event wasn’t as successful as I thought, even though it had good “results.” I had read a post on pragmatism saying that we shouldn’t be happy with results and should instead focus on obedience, which I agreed. The problem I […]

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Modern Mission of the Church

Last Updated September 5, 2005 by Matt Leave a Comment

Steve Bush over at Generous Orthodoxy thinks “Resisting consumerism is surely one of the primary ecclesial tasks in the 21st century world.” Although his primary concern in the article isn’t with consumerism, but with the mis-labeling of all liturgical creativity as consumer-driven, this sentence nevertheless struck me. And I wholeheartedly agree. Way to go Steve. […]

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God working in Spite of Me… Or was He?

Last Updated August 29, 2005 by Matt 1 Comment

This past Saturday, an event took place at our church (where I am the youth pastor). It was an event that I really wasn’t excited about and didn’t want to be a part of. But, being the youth pastor, I was sort of forced into it. Let me explain. A few months ago, a lady […]

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On Being Post-________

Last Updated August 24, 2005 by Matt Leave a Comment

The next book I hope to read for my own personal pleasure and edification (read: not for class) is Stan Grenz’ Primer on Postmodernism. I was flipping through the pages today and noticed that in chapter 7, “The Gospel and the Postmodern Context,”Grenz has subtitles describing post-individualism, post-rationalism, post-dualism, and post-noeticentricism (is that a word?) […]

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Oh Miroslav

Last Updated August 20, 2005 by Matt Leave a Comment

So, it seems like I’ve been reading a lot about people’s praise for Miroslav Volf’s Exclusion and Embrace, so I decided to check it out for myself. I’m only about 65 pages into it, but so far it is, as Tony Jones calls it, “mind-bendingly good theology.” A few quotes that struck me: His explanation […]

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Blue Like Jazz

Last Updated August 16, 2005 by Matt Leave a Comment

I just finished reading Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. It was a refreshing read. I didn’t know what to expect and read it on a recommendation from Rusty, who said it was a good, and easy, read. He was right about it being an easy read. It’s one of those books where you read […]

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It’s a good day…

Last Updated August 9, 2005 by Matt Leave a Comment

I get to see Noah today. I’m in Siloam on “business” and so we’re meeting up for a bit. Should be exciting.

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Best Youth Ministry Books

These are the books that will completely change the way you think about youth ministry, for the better. Links are to my reviews of each book.

Teen 2.0 by Robert Epstein

A psychologist makes you question every assumption you have about adolescence.

Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry by Andrew Root

Why build relationships? Root’s answer will surprise you.

Best Youth Ministry Books: Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Ostreicher

Yesterday I finally read Youth Ministry 3.0 by Mark Ostreicher, and since I’m one of the latecomers to the conversation I won’t summarize the book too much. Marko has linked to tons of reviews on his blog if you are interested in more in-depth summaries. If you are fairly in-tune with a lot of the […]

Best Youth Ministry Books: Postmodern Youth Ministry

Postmodern Youth Ministry by Tony Jones is the book I would recommend to youth ministers if they could just read one youth ministry book. I first read the book in my Foundations and Practices of Youth Ministry class at John Brown University. After the preface to the book there is a page titled, “The Day […]

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