I got off the phone not long ago with an "unhappy" (code language for "ticked") mom who comes to our church. She went on a long, emotional banter about how our youth ministry "shouldn't be letting "THOSE KIDS" in...after all, her daughter was a pretty model teenager until she met a certain young man at the youth group!" Long sigh in my heart.

It's the repeating dilemma that youth leaders face often. How do you create a youth service that both disciples and motivates your "already Jesus followers" at the same time you are also reaching teenagers who are far from being anything close to being a Christ-follower? That's the challenge I tried to unpack for the mom who was calling me to "verbalize her strong disappointment in my approach."

Lovingly,