Death's Serenade

Tonight I stood in the very spot where a kid who once attended Youth Church at Hilltop was gunned down.  It was on an asphalt pathway that winds through a park where no children were at play, and mammoth eucalyptus trees cast vast shadows even on this cloudy, cold, windy late afternoon.  It was the one year anniversary of his death...

"YOU Can't Loose" - Coffee with the Campus Guru

I had coffee with Jeff Devoll this morning at Peet's coffee in Fairfield. Apparently coffee is the catalyst for all things youth ministry related.  I think all of my meetings with other youth ministry "professionals" (if you wanna use that term) have been at a coffee shop. This guy has years of experience in the public school setting,...

Step One: Student-Delivered Legal Docs "Bible Clubs are Allowed"

The quest for justice begins at Pinole Valley High School, with the president of the SWAT hand-delivering legal documents containing the legal precedences below in their entirety.  What you'll read is only bits and pieces of the actual seven-page document.  Mergens, 496 U.S. at 244-45 (quoting Mergens v. Westside Community Schools, 876 F.2d 1076, 1078 (8th Cir. 1989) content courtesy of ACLJ.org "Schools may not discriminate...

Christian Club, SWAT, is kicked out of local high school

Today marked the beginning; and temporary end of my personal involvement - in the fourth month of the weekly S.W.A.T. (Students With A Testimony) club meetings at Pinole Valley High School.  The club, organized and run by students at the school is held in a classroom where all students are invited to hear a message based on the Christian Faith, coming from the MyCampus curriculum.  During the week, students post fliers...

New Leaders in the Church

The 20th century is the name of a train that quit running almost 10 years ago. But during that century, the "builder" generation (before the boomers) built strong ministries in the Christian faith. Many are now elderly and still in the ministry, but they have no successor. So the so-called "generational gap" is again at the forefront of the American Church's dialog... What are your stori...