Rooted in Faith
In the new "Toy Story" film, the toys face the fact that their boy, Andy, has grown up and is heading off to college. The movie opens with Andy and his mother sorting through his stuff, deciding what gets thrown out, what gets stored and what gets kept...

Great (short!) Youth Ministry Training Podcast
I’ve been involved in a project to provide free Youth Ministry resources online at umyouthpastor.com for a while now. We thought about doing a training podcast for a while, but wanted to make sure that we were adding something worthwhile rather than just creating more work for ourselves...

The Hidden and Mysterious Word in the Lord's Prayer
In the Gospel for today’s Mass the Lord gives us the most familiar prayer of all, the “Lord’s Prayer.” It is a prayer shared by and prized by all Christians. Few if any have not committed to memory. Yet hidden within the Lord’s prayer is a mysterious word that both Greek and Biblical scholars have little agreement over or even a clear understanding of in terms of its precise meaning...

Generation Porn - Where Will it End?
A couple of weeks ago I was in the car with my 17-year-old son Nate and one of his classmates. It was early on a Saturday morning and we were driving to a lacrosse tournament. At one point we hit a several mile stretch that serves as a window into a dark - yet increasingly acceptable and rapidly growing – part of our culture...

Chronicles of Narnia Trailer

Letter to our Graduating Seniors
This year we gave all of our seniors a copy of the book Wide Awake by Erwin McManus and inside was a letter from our team. Everyone signed it, and gave it to the seniors: Dear Senior,...

Grass, Graduations And The Song Stuck In My Head...
As if there isn't already enough weirdness about me that's evident to those who know me, let me reveal two little idiosyncrasies that to this point have remained locked in my brain and therefore, known only to me. Both have to do with time...

Church Poster Showing Jesus in the Womb
Protestant churches have been accused of political naivety over an advertising campaign that depicts the baby Jesus in the Virgin Mary's womb, because of its similarity to imagery used by the anti-abortion lobby.

Vatican reveals its favorites for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa
Just hours before the start of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the Osservatore Romano has revealed the Vatican's picks for favorites in the competition...

Prayer is Free

Crazy Video: How to Pull Out a Tooth with a Rocket

The "Come To Us" Model and Why it is Not Cutting it in Catholic Youth Ministry
Is youth ministry at your parish completely dependent on teens just showing up – the “Come to Us” Model? Are you operating out of the pseudo “Field of Dreams Model” of build it and they will come? Sad news is that these models aren’t as effective any more...

Out Of Place
Gwen had graduated two days before, but without even thinking she showed up at church and went through her normal routine: standing outside the high school youth group room, talking and laughing with a few of her friends from the youth group. When the leader called the meeting to order...

Fixing the Ceiling Tiles
I was playing ping pong with Jon the other day when we stumbled on an interesting learning moment. About halfway through the match we noticed that a ton of the ceiling tiles above the tables were out of place. Not a couple of them, but about half of them...

Here's one flight attendant who will never forget this particular flight
I boarded an early morning flight to return home, following a Catholics Come Home presentation in Wichita the night before. After take-off and the beverage service, I took a second to thank the two hard-working flight attendants for their exceptional hospitality...

Vatican Schedules 9 New Beatifications
The Vatican has announced that nine beatifications have been scheduled for the months of June through November...

Jessica's Daily Affirmation

iPhone Worship Band