The Young and the Traditional

Facebook, the online home of gazillions of young people, recently made a number of changes to its website and interactive features.  Thousands upon thousands of these picture-posting, online-chatting, status-updating, Piece-of-Flair-sending, TMI-sharing youngin's have protested like there is no tomorrow. Over 1,700,000 have joined the group 1,000,000 Against the New Facebook Layout (perhaps they need a

Faithfulness and Church Decline

From an ELCA press release entitled ELCA Council Hears Presiding Bishop’s Call to Moral Deliberation: Referencing a loss of nearly 80,000 baptized ELCA members in 2005 and some 275,000 members since he became presiding bishop in 2001, [ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark] Hanson said he wonders if the church has become ambivalent or suspicious about numerical

Martin Loser

This weekend at a junior high youth gathering in my synod I impersonated Martin Loser, the socially-awkward childhood playmate of Martin Luther.  I was initially asked to be Martin Luther, but I felt uncomfortable stepping into the shoes and persona of a historical figure about whom so much is known.  I opted instead for the

My First Time (at MySpace.com)

I’ve been surfing around on http://www.myspace.com in preparation for a discussion I’m facilitating this weekend on Youth, Ministry, and the Internet (thank you to all who posted your insights!).  I had never been to MySpace until this week.  A few thoughts: It’s an amazingly unregulated website.  The quality of pages varies greatly, and I seem

Youth, Ministry, and the Internet

On Saturday I’ll be facilitating a conversation with youth leaders about youth, ministry, and the internet, and I’d love to get some insight from my six faithful readers. I’ve got some questions below, but don’t limit yourself to these five questions. Also, please forward this to anyone who works with kids in the church. Thanks!