In this Source we hope to provide you and your students with a diagnosis and cure for what we're calling "Spiritual Schizophrenia." Have you ever suffered from it? I know I have. I know Peter and Judas did as well.

"Spiritual Schizophrenia" is an illness where you struggle making your "spiritual world" match your "everyday world." While the Enemy would love for you to think it's a fatal disease, it's not. There is hope. The game is not over. Together, let's uncover the symptoms, causes and cure for this dreaded disease.

So grab a cup of coffee and a tissue. In this Source not only will you laugh a little, but you might cry a little as well. If I haven't said it in awhile, thanks for letting me be a part of your life my friend.

Much love,

The war raging within you and me that, if we're not careful, can go unchecked is the war between power and true biblical authority. We are especially susceptible when we experience any measure of success. We can sometimes misinterpret that success as divine approval for all of our motives.

In this Youth Leader's Coach, we'll look at the fall of Saul, a king whose motives got all tangled up in his ego, insecurities and need for the approval of his people. We then turn to the life of Jesus to detangle the mess and show us how to conquer the battle within.

Fight the fight, serve the people and remain true to your Christ-honoring convictions and, little-by-little, your voice will echo in the lives of those you lead.

Lovingly,

"The Gray Zone" - It's a place that many of the teenagers in your youth ministry probably spend more time than you wish. What is it? It's the unspoken territory where convictions and standards are neither clearly "wrong" nor "right," neither clearly "black" or "white;" just a confusing "gray."

Years ago in youth ministry I learned that principles are received much easier than rules. So this Source is a set of "filter questions" to help your teenagers develop their own clear convictions in the crucial gray zone. It's one of those messages that you'll want to keep nearby for even future use on an individual basis.

Bless you, my friend, as you yourself continue to fine-tune your own spiritual convictions in the many "gray zones" we face as leaders. May you make your decisions realizing that we "TEACH what we know, but we REPRODUCE who we are."

Lovingly,

Some of us haven't seen the 1997 American action film that I took this name from, but I think in Christianity, many of us play "Face/Off" on a pretty regular basis. It's especially easy for our students to KEEP CHANGING FACES on who they are in their everyday life. I'm not talking about being "full blown fake" or hypocritical. They just slowly give themselves permission to be one person in front of some people and another person in front of others. In all honesty, sometimes we can all be a little "spiritually schizo."

In this month's Source, "Face/Off," I'm sharing with our gang some of the symptoms and causes of becoming a "Face/Off" person. You'll hear me come back again to one of the most pivotal aspects of shaping our students' Christian walk...friendships. So listen in and share it with your own youth gang. I promise it will be an incredible night for you!

Lovingly,

Life is full of them. You know, those small issues people fight over, kids argue with parents about, or simply walk away from God on. Subjects like secular music, movies, television, books, friendships, and money are some of the delicate issues that our students wrestle with. The truth is, it is our role as youth pastors to help them figure out where they stand on these issues. How do we help our students navigate through these "gray" matters?

In this month's Youth Leader's Coach, "Helping Your Kids Live Black and White In A Gray World," I'm sharing with you seven simple questions to help your students as they wrestle with their convictions. I promise this will be an incredible resource for you!

Living "out of the gray,"