For many years I’ve trained youth ministers and leaders about the importance and impact of their ministry.

But now, as a parent of teenagers of my own, the significance of youth ministers on the teenagers has arrived very close to home.

Read my tribute called ‘Thank you, youth leaders’, in today’s sydneyanglicans.net.

This is very exciting and rewarding. God has made beautiful young women out of our lovely little girls.

But the process of development is something that Mandy and I still try to come to terms with on a regular basis.

With this in mind, I wrote this article Who’s that adult in my car for the Growing Faith website.

After all, if we who write for Fervr can connect with that specific demographic, then we’ll be more likely to connect with the wider youth audience… or so we imagine.

With that in mind, I’ve written an article about cute cats.

This article focuses on the reality of human conflict. I noticed that our cats had conflict, yet still appeared to remain as friends… and realised that the same was also true for humans.

It tries to encourage children to not freak out when their parents fight… and for them to realise that just because they have conflict with a friend that it doesn’t mean the end of the relationship.

Hopefully there’s something helpful in the article for all of us… whether we are 13 and love cats, or 40 and prefer dogs.

Here’s the article http://fervr.net/teen-life/lets-agree-its-ok-to-disagree

Sometimes we seem to have too many new ones. Sometimes there are too many old ones.

So, here’s a guide to choosing the right mix of oldies and newies… using the same formula as the radio stations.

Read the article here at sydneyanglicans.net.

I’ve written an article for the Fervr.net website that challenges us all to consider if we are Christians to the core, or whether it’s just on the outside.

Read my full article here: http://fervr.net/bible/are-you-a-real-apple

The aim was to help youth think about how they use their time and money.

It would be great to share it  with any teenagers you might know (or just ‘Like’ it on Facebook), as you help them think through these big issues.

Regardless of what you think about it, you can be assured that our young people know about it and are trying to work out what they should think and do about it.

To help them and to help us grownups, I’ve written two articles.

The first I wrote for sydneyanglicans.net called ‘Talking to kids about Kony’.

In this, I offer seven things that adults should think about as they talk to youth and children about this topic.

The second I wrote for Fervr.net called ‘Should you help make Kony famous?’.

This attempts to apply the advice I’ve given in the earlier piece so that my seven ideas can be modeled to anyone trying to work out just how to put these thoughts into words.

You might also refer the youth in your church, whether believers or unbelievers, to this Fervr.net article.

Let’s pray that our youth are wise in responding to Kony, but far more importantly, wise for salvation.

More than ever before it seemed the message was that first aid was about helping the casualty stay alive so that the ambulance could take over. Nothing more.

Funnily enough, because I need to know less it means I feel more equipped for first aid than before.

This got me thinking about the way we do our evangelistic training.

Perhaps we need to be providing the everyday evangelists in our congregation with a few super-simple things to say that will help keep the enquiry ‘alive’ until they can get ‘professional’ help.

Read all my thoughts and join in the discussion at today’s post on www.sydneyanglicans.net

Since people can download podcasts from great Bible teachers, and since people can access great libraries of theological books and articles at their digital fingertips, it is more important than ever that our small groups enable people to connect with each other as a context for enjoying and understanding their connection with God.

People need people more than ever.

Find out my solution by reading today’s blog here at sydneyanglicans.net

For this reason, I want to TWIST the arm of the congregational leaders in our churches. I want to TWIST the arm of the rectors, assistant ministers, wardens, and anyone who has a key role in our churches.

I want to TWIST your arm to encourage your church musicians to be a part of one of the TWIST (‘The Word in Song Together’) music events this year run by Emu Music and Youthworks.

To read the full sydneyanglicans.net article, click here.

For more details about TWIST, click here!