Good Ol’ Marty Luther

At Concordia University Chicago (or River Forest to us old-timers), we used to sing this silly little rhyme about Luther:
Good ol’ Marty Luther,
Good ol’ Marty Luther,
I think the Reformation’s grand!
With his five and ninety theses,
He tore the Pope to pieces,
And made me who I am! LCMS!
In looking for the lyrics online, I found a different [...]

Two Clicks Forward, One Click Back

Google recently announced that they were rolling out some upgrades to their popular Gmail service.  I always enjoy seeing the “What’s New” link appear in my Google services as it usually means something exciting is being added.  Some of the fun upgrades included:

 The Forward and Back button now work like they do on every other [...]

CHAT With God

There are many ways we can pray to God.  One that we teach around here is the ACTS model of prayer:

Adoration: Tell God how great He is.
Confession: Tell God how awful we are.
Thanksgiving: Give God thanks for the blessings He gives us, including forgiveness for stuff in “C” above.
Supplication: Ask God for ___.

Darcy called me [...]

Buying Pumpkins = Angels’ Wings

I saw the following message on a church sign yesterday:
Every time you buy a pumpkin, an angel get its wings.
Seriously?  You have an opportunity to share a message with the world and you choose that?  Not only is it bad theology, it’s just plain silly.  Sue talked about our new sign recently on her blog.  [...]

It’s All Relative, Right?

There are no absolutely truths in this world. Truth is what you make it. Well, just because it’s true for you doesn’t mean it’s true for me. Yea, that was true back then, but this is 2007! Sound familiar?
This is what the world teaches. I’m amazed at the way [...]

Moses, David, Peter, Paul … Me?

With Pastor Chuck out of town in Haiti, I’ve been asked to do the sermon again.  We’ll be looking at the topic of “Great Faith.”  I often wonder what it would be like to have lived with King David or follow Paul around on his missionary journeys.  Such giants of the faith are held up [...]

Love Out Loud

Each year, our Crossroads Youth participate in a summer trip.  In 2007, and every three years, we participate in the National Youth Gathering for the LCMS.  On the other two years, we participate in Group Workcamps.  Workcamps are an opportunity for students to put their faith into practice as they serve residents in towns all [...]

A Little Bit Goes A Long Way

We talk about Spiritual Disciplines a lot in Student Ministry.  That’s because we believe it’s essential that youth develop habits that they will take with them when they leave our ministry for college or whatever reason.  Programming is good–and certainly beneficial–but habits are better.   It’s why we use the One Minute Bible For Students in [...]

Things I Love About Our Youth

ALCS Game 4 — My Thoughts