My latest article went live on the Immerse website! Immerse is a great new journal for youth workers and youth volunteers – I’m excited to see where it goes.  Anyway, the article I wrote was on the subject of service, and communicating a hunger for service to teens.  Here’s the intro, click the link at the end to read the whole thing and let me know what you think!

Creating a Hunger to Serve

I’ll never forget the first service project I ever put together. I was so excited to create an opportunity for students to live out this part of the Christian walk. The church that hired me had about 20 students, and during my first few months, more and more students started showing up. Meetings were packed out and full of energy. However, the program lacked opportunities for the students to surrender themselves and step out in service. I was so pumped to complete the picture!

So I worked, planned and prepared. Then, on the day of the work project, I waited…alone. No teens showed up. As I stood out in front of the church by myself, half an hour after the project’s supposed start time, I had a mixture of emotions bubbling inside me—disappointment, embarrassment, failure, frustration, anger. And if I’m honest, I was hurt that the teens had let me down. I went home and complained to my wife about these ungrateful kids who were only interested in fun events but didn’t want to do anything serious for Christ.

Download the full article in pdf form here.