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"Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act." —Matthew 7:15-16 If you really want to know who someone is,  watch what they do — not what they say . "Sadly, we do not have a Christian culture today that easily discriminates between a person of spiritual depth and a person of raw talent.  The result is that more than a few people can be fooled into thinking they are being influenced by a spiritual giant when in fact they are being manipulated by a dwarf. We must always be aware that there are great leaders who can build great organizations (including churches) on natural gifts. Say the right words, be smart enough to do the right things, be insightful enough to connect with the right people, and one can go a long way before anyone ever discovers that the inner life is close to empty."  From the 2003 preface of  Ordering Your Private World by ...

In 1986, Mkele Mbembe was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Mbembe approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Mbembe worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.  The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Mbembe stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Mbembe never forgot that elephant or the events of that day. Twenty years later, Mbemb was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenage son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures tu...

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While visiting a friend's church one Sunday morning in Tennessee,  I asked my 14-year-old daughter,  "Who are you going to watch today during the worship band? I'm going to watch the bass player." She looked me straight in the eyes and said flatly, "I'm going to worship God." Touche'   The student has become the teacher. From this point on, she'll be discipling me. Let's be friends on social media!     Instagram          Facebook           Twitter        Subscribe here & let the fun begin !

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 by  Bill Allison ,  www.cupojoewithbill.com About 80 percent of churches in the United States do not have the luxury of a paid youth pastor.  And once you step outside of America, finding a paid church youth worker is about as common as finding someone listening to an ABBA eight track tape.  (I’m not saying they don’t exist, just that they are extremely rare.) Think about the ramifications of this for a moment.    The overwhelming majority of youth ministry here and around the world is quietly being done on the backs of volunteers in volunteer-led youth ministries.   If you think that’s news, as BTO once sang: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”  What’s really amazing to me is this:  Despite often being ignored and minimized in the current youth ministry dialogue, I contend that many of these under-resourced volunteer youth workers from volunteer-led youth ministries are literally changing the world for Jesus Christ a few students at a t...