Two articles by New Direction staff members were published in the February edition of the Christian Educators Journal. We wanted to reprint the articles here for those who haven’t had an opportunity to review the journal. In the first, Beth Carlson-Malena shares some of the experiences members of our Generous Space community shared with her…
Recently I wrote about responding to a teen in your youth group who has personally (and privately) come out to you. In this post we’ll be talking about times when a student comes out to your whole group (or to their online friends) publicly. There are certainly some helpful reminders that apply in either circumstance,…
In my introductory post, I reminded us that we all have LGBTQ+ youth in our midst whether we are aware of them specifically or not. Now we are beginning to look at how to prepare our ministries to approach and respond to particular situations that may arise, and since this past Saturday was National Coming Out Day, I think it’s…
Regardless of how long you’ve been in youth ministry, you’ve likely had some questions about how to navigate the topics of gender and sexuality with youth from a variety of backgrounds, assumptions, and experiences. For the past decade I have worked in youth ministry in the context of Baptist churches, though since Sept. 2014 I’ve…
This past summer, my wife Beth and I packed everything we own into a uhaul van, loaded up an ipod with playlists and audiobooks, equipped the cab with a cooler full of snacks, and said goodbye to our friends and family in Vancouver before heading east across the country to start a new life in…