

See You at the Pole – What Happens when Students Pray
“Nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together. Never do they love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each other's hearts in prayer.” – Charles Finney If you want to see an example of the impact of collaboration and unity in action, take a look at See You at the Pole –the Global Student Day of Prayer. For the past 28 years, students have initiated, organized and led these prayer gatherings, meeting now on the fourth Wednes


Don't Forget the Mortar
The first time a youth worker from another country visited my office, it made an indelible impression on me. He took one look at my library of youth ministry materials and his mouth dropped open. “Where did you get all these?!” he said, as if he had just discovered a chest of hidden treasure. I felt grateful, embarrassed, and sad, all at the same time. Grateful, realizing our abundance of resources should not be treated as a “given.” Embarrassed that I hadn’t used some of the


Caring for our Roots
Roses are my favorite flowers. I love to look at them, smell them, display them, and especially – I love to grow them. I inherited the interest in roses from my mother, who, as early as I can remember, always had a beautiful rose garden that she pampered and enjoyed. Since she passed away, the roses I have are even more special. One day I noticed that one of my rose bushes was beginning to droop. Being a hot day, I just watered it deeply and didn’t think much more about it. S


Why Don't We See More Unity
People are suspicious by nature – at least that’s what I’ve observed in over 30 years of collaborating, as president of the National Network of Youth Ministries. The potential for unity is often threatened if others look, sound, act or think differently than we do. Sometimes our hesitations to work together are from a healthy caution about diluting our energies or focus. But sometimes it’s because we are so partial to our way of doing things that we quietly question if anyone


The Kind of Unity Jesus Wants
In John 17, during His final earthly hours, we have an actual record of Jesus’ conversation with His Father – about us! It is so moving to me to see Jesus’ earnest prayer for every person in the world to experience the same love His Father has for Him (v.23). The profound “Aha!” for me about Jesus’ prayer is that His priority focus wasn’t just on believers being unified or even on winning the world for Christ. His greatest concern was for us to be united with Him and His Fat

Humility: The Foundation for Unity
Billy Graham said, “The greatest need among Christians and churches today is for genuine spiritual revival. Whenever God has touched His people in special times of revival, lives have been changed, and Christians have experienced new power to do God’s work.” [1] Why have we not experienced revival? Why have moral conditions in our country continued to worsen with the passing years? Why does the church seem powerless to make a difference? Religious leaders often say we are on