Today, I have COVID. This will be one of my shorter blogs.

1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." This verse is part of a larger discussion by Paul about Christian freedom and responsibility. Particularly regarding eating food that has been offered to idols. It’s also just a great memory verse.

When a church member does something, perhaps something we ask them to do, perhaps something we didn’t ask them to do, but it was super helpful: should we thank them?

I’ve just done some calculations and determined that over the past 20 years, I have sung around 7,300 songs in church, heard over 2000 sermons, and had … some … conversations about transgenderism.

Today, I’ve convoyed with the Hope Staff team (those without COVID) to Erina on the Central Coast for the Reach Australia Conference. If you look at their website, you’ll see that “Reach Australia is a church network of over 260+ churches and church plants working together to see Australia reached with the gospel.“ After day one, I’m pretty pooped, physically and intellectually. But here are some highlights.

Sometimes, when I’m reading a book of the Bible, I don’t necessarily want a full commentary detailing every thing that could be known about that book. Sometimes, I just want some basic pointers. Especially for me personal Bible reading. The big idea. The main points. The main application. That kind of stuff.

When I started as Hope Anglican Church, part of my job was to get our junior leaders (we call them “Leaders in Training” or “LiTs”) up to date with their safe ministry training (aka safegarding training). Safe Ministry training is so, so important. In Mark 10:14, Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

On Tuesday 6th May 2003, everything changed. I was sitting in a year 8 maths class. We were learning how to balance equations. One of the office administrators came to the door, requesting I come to the front office. I thought this seemed a bit odd. Not entirely sure why this was necessary. But I willingly obliged.

Have you every noticed what Paul says about the frequency with which he prays? Check out Romans 1:9–10: “God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.”

I’ve recently just joined a Bible study group with a team of legend senior high youths. On Sunday, one of these said legends asked, “How old will I be in heaven?” I decided that instead of answer the question then and there, I’d answer it in an article.

Sometimes you’ll have a day when you are just feeling weak. Mentally. Physically. Spiritually. Something-ally. Here is a list of Bible verses that you will find comforting. The more you read these verses in context, the richer they are, and the more you will find them encouraging. But even in isolation without context, you will find them helpful and encouraging. Take comfort.

I hate it when people talk about teams. I find it cringe. At my school, the classrooms used to have posters that said stuff like, “Teamwork. Teamwork. Team work. Teams work.” Or “Teamwork makes the dreamwork.” So so lame.In youth and kids’ ministry, we’re aiming to help youth and kids become like Jesus to the glory of God. This means helping them grow in their faith as we read the Bible and pray, being focussed on mission and inviting people to know Jesus, creating a welcoming atmosphere, and being active in serving.

When someone thinks of youth ministry, their mind usually goes first to Friday night. And fair enough. That’s where the bulk of the action is. But, we do a disservice to youth ministry if we restrict it just to Friday night. Friday night is kind of like the cake. But the way we use the rest of the week can be a bit like icing. There’s extra stuff we can do that makes our ministry even more effective. Some of this is stuff we should probably be doing anyway, stuff like prayer and prep. This is part of the cake. But there’s other stuff that, if we have the time, capacity and energy, can take our ministry to the next level. Here’s some stuff that I’d encourage every youth leader to think about when it comes to during-the-week-ministry.

As a youth leader, the 30-40 minutes you spend in discussion groups could well be the most important thing you do each week. For a short period of time, you get to disciple a bunch of youth as you press into the most important things they will ever discuss with another person.

By “session”, I mean that part of youth group where all of the youth seated, and at some point, the talk happens. Here are some thoughts on how to do this well.

At Youth, we are primarily on about making disciples. That’s our emphasis. That’s the point of what we’re on about. But youth are youth. They have a lot of energy and an appetite for fun. This isn’t a bad thing. This is a good thing. Done well, games are a great way to foster community and friendship, create good vibes, and burn energy. Done badly, games can create chaos, confusion, frustration, exclusion, punch-ups, and even lawsuits (no joke—this once happened at a church I was at!).

For many youth, whether or not they feel welcome determines whether or not they keep coming to Friday Youth. If they keep coming, they will keep hearing the gospel of Jesus, the gospel that has the power of salvation! If they don’t come back, they may not hear about Jesus. Therefore, it’s heaps important that we think through how we go about welcoming. Here are some tips to help us think through how we go about welcoming.

Many Kids’ Church teams are blessed with teenage leaders. At Hope Church, we have a team of junior leaders that we call “LiTs”. They are a great blessing to our teams. However, given that they are younger and have less life experience than the adult leaders on their teams, they will require specific support as we grow them into godly, competent leaders and teachers of God’s Word. Here are a few thoughts on how we can support them.

If I’m honest, discipline is one of the things I find hardest about leading at Kids’ Church. I want to disciple these kids and share Jesus with them. I don’t want to discipline them. But we have to. It’s really hard. Strike the right balance between “fun” and “firm” is tough. It gets particularly tricky when you have a child (or multiple children) with special needs. If we get discipline right, it makes discipling much easier and way more effective.

At one level, MCing at Kids’ Church is one of the easiest jobs to do. If you have a good system going, you can prepare it in 10 minutes. But it’s also one of the hardest jobs to do as it involves a lot of up-the-front stuff.