Wow, it’s been almost five months since I’ve posted here! I miss you guys and all the youth and family ministry conversations we used to have. What happened?

Well, many things, actually.

1. Life caught up with me. Turns out having 3 kids is a lot different than having 2 kids, especially when they’re all 3 years old and younger. Whew!
2. I transitioned out of my full-time job at Epipheo. Their web video series ended that I was overseeing, so I started a new business called Video Creators that’s designed to change lives through YouTube. Thankfully, the Lord is blessing it and I’ve been able to support my family off it full-time now for the past two months, but man, getting a small business off the ground and profitable (no loans!) to a full-time income within only a few months is crazy task.
3. Honestly, I’ve been learning a lot about the Biblical perspective of family, especially from the Old Testament patriarchs, and it’s had a lot of implications for how I lead my own family, which has taken a lot of time and energy, as well. The higher my view of family grows as God’s design for passing faith to the next generation, the deeper my belief grows for how important my role is as a father to my children. And the more implications that has for how I spend my time both with my family and outside my family.
4. The whole family thing has also led me to think about youth ministry from a pretty different perspective. I think youth ministry is still important and necessary, but I’m wondering if the belief system behind the traditional model is actually leading us to some wrong conclusions about how and why we do youth ministry. I’d love to flesh out what I’m thinking for you guys, but I’m still wrestling through what I deeply believe about all of it and feel that sharing poorly formed thoughts may be rather unfruitful.
5. My wife and I have also been leading the new family-based youth ministry at Red Door Church, the new church plant we’re a part of. The summer was full of vision casting, brainstorming, planning, meetings, and more, and then two weeks ago it finally launched! Woohoo! I have a lot to share with you all about that. I just have to find time apart from my business, family, and student discipleship to do it. (Ha!)

What have you guys been up to? What have I missed? Hopefully later this week I can share with you all the seven guiding principles that drive the family-based student discipleship at Red Door Church, but until then I’d love to hear what God’s been doing in your life, heart, and family.

Oh, and if you’re going to the D6 Conference in two weeks, let me know. I’d love to connect with you there and catch up!

Posted on October 8, 2013