Have you ever received an email that, at first sight, completely sent your brain into a revolt? Funny. Regardless of the message or your affection for the sender, your brain just wants to immediately hit “delete”! Why? Perhaps some basic things made the email appear to be a huge mental hurdle—long lines, huge paragraphs, and [...]
WARNING: Failure to communicate frequently and effectively will bring distrust, tension, and grief in any valuable relationship. A large percentage of our problems in work, family, and ministry could be attributed to communication failures—either miscommunication or a lack of communication. Everybody has people in their lives with whom they should work at communicating more effectively [...]
Throughout the year, our ministry to College and Career and Singles brings us into counseling, retreats, and venues where young Christian singles are airing really good questions. I have previously shared the details behind our Q&A times (both for teens as well as singles) and also the top 15 questions that teens ask. Here’s the [...]
Media will eat your family alive unless you tell it not to! In part one we uncovered five challenges that modern media brings into our lives and homes. To beat the challenges, tame this monster, and prepare your children to have discernment and wisdom, may I make the following suggestions: 1. Build healthy relationships committed [...]
Media will eat your family alive, unless you tell it not to! I have a deep inner aversion to living things that crawl, creep, fly, or slither around and find their way into places they don’t belong. They bother me. They creep me out. I just want them dead as quickly as I can make [...]
Isn’t it amazing how often people venture into major life-changing decisions without getting any outside, biblical advice. Why do we do this to ourselves? Sometimes we fear that a counselor will have a private agenda and won’t counsel us honestly. At other times, we presume to know what our counselors will say, and rationalize it [...]
One of my primary goals in maintaining this blog is to share two types of resources—those that I found helpful personally, and those that we are laboring to provide for others through our ministry. This is one of the latter, so at the risk of sounding like a commercial, I hope you will use and [...]
Quick post—the top ten ways to completely bore and disconnect with those you teach: 1. Say something not worth hearing—This is basic, but if you want people to listen, start by saying something worth hearing. The number one reason we lose the attention of those we teach is that we’re not convincing them that what [...]
Seems like kids are getting cell phones younger and younger these days! This post is one I’m only doing because of requests. Several years ago, as our boys became teens, we decided to get cell phones for them—primarily so we could get a hold of them in relation to school and youth group outings. It [...]
The Free eBook – DONE – is Now Available in Chinese and Spanish Thanks to the help of a wonderful team of burdened volunteers, the minibook DONE is now available as a free eBook in Chines, Spanish, and Romanian. The Spanish version, “HECHO” is also available in printed form through Striving Together Publications. The Chinese [...]
Both TIME magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported on some dangers surfacing behind the many hours that teens are spending in social networking. Here are a few quotes from the San Francisco Chronicle article that relayed the results of a poll of 1,000 teens and 1,000 parents: “From behind their bedroom doors, more [...]
This is a small book that every Christian should read! This is a new book from Dr. Paul Chappell that was made available in July. Most of our announcements spotlighted other projects, but this one is well worth being noticed and used! Pastor Chappell did a marvelous job of taking many years of studying, teaching, [...]
I have written a couple of posts about twitter—why I decided to use it and things I’ve learned from the experience. Overall, twitter has been a positive experience, but not entirely. Here is a short list of the best and worst ways to use twitter: The Best Uses of Twitter: Encouraging Connections—Twitter is a great [...]
God just gave our family a wonderful vacation together. We spent time with family and friends on the East Coast—particularly New York. In looking back over the trip, I thought I would share some lessons learned—mostly serious, and some not so serious. The list could be longer, but for the sake of brevity—here goes: 1. [...]
While on vacation with my family last week, I received this email. It powerfully encouraged my heart on many levels. I pray it will encourage you that soulwinning still works. Dear Pastor Schmidt: I just finished reading your book “done.”. I thought you might like to know how I came upon the book.
