There Is A Flow
Pastor Matt's Youth-Focused Blog
Parents? At Youth Group?
We had a great turnout last evening for Parent’s Night at Youth Group. It was great to see parents hanging out with parents, teens talking to adults that aren’t their parents, and most of all – looking at scripture together. We talked about two extremes within the evangelical world when it comes to church. The ...
The Blog is Mightier…
English author and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton coined the phrase “The pen is mightier than the sword” in the early seventeenth century. And remember, that was in a era when people actually dueled as a means of settling arguments. What we write or type has a weight that can not be quantified. In a day ...
The Swing of Things
Summer wasn’t a good thing for this blog. In fact, there hasn’t been any new content for the last few months. So, the change of seasons and the return to a normal schedule seems like a good opportunity to get back to posting. Fall is usually when we start to do that in our lives. ...
Pioneering Vision
Reading the great commission in Matthew 28 is pretty commonplace for most evangelical churches; often being the main passage of at least a few sermons a year. Most Christians walk away with a picture of God’s heart for the world, but primarily focus on their immediate circle of influence. This week at Pioneers, teens from ...
Attention, please
Comedian, producer, and perpetual sound-byte machine Woody Allen once told an interviewer that after taking a speed reading course he was able to finish “War and Peace” in five minutes. When asked about how much he remembered, Allen responded, “the Russian revolution, and that’s about it.” Even if we haven’t taken a speed reading course, ...
Unraptured, but Untaught
Saturday afternoon outside of Fenway Park, many vendors were utilizing the same sales strategy: “Don’t get raptured without an official Red Sox program!” “T-shirts! Wear a Sox t-shirt at the end of the world!” Clever marketing, I suppose. However, May 21st came and went, and those who shelled out five bucks for a program just ...
Break it down
On Sunday, Pastor Tyler talked about how important rest is. Exodus 20:8 records God’s commandment to “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” For many teens in the area, this week should be a great opportunity to think about rest: Spring break. Sleeping in until noon, flipping through the lackluster daytime programming, and complaining ...
Just for fun
After church this Sunday, Amanda and I are going with a group of teens to Boston. We’re not doing street evangelism, or going to play in an ultimate frisbee tournament in the common, or even having a Bible study on the T. We’re just going to spend time together on a (hopefully) nice spring day. ...
A Fresh Start
The 2011 season of Major League Baseball started this afternoon, with Atlanta Braves veteran Chipper Jones skipping across home plate for the first score of the year. I like baseball. I grew up in Chicago, and I root for the Cubs. Knowing that, you surely see that I really must like baseball. The Cubs, along ...
“Sheep” in Sheep’s Clothing
?This past Sunday at NEBC, our guest speaker mentioned that the gospel is under attack. We all know that – the New Testament is filled with Jesus and His followers dodging and taking blows for the good news. We also see protests and legislation that attempt to remove the gospel from all public (and some ...