“Mama, I never meant to hurt you, I never meant to make you cry, but tonight I’m cleanin’ out my closet.” – Eminem, in Cleanin’ out My Closet He trusted her. That’s what little brothers do, so when his eight year old sister and her friend called him into a field, four year old Malik…

Opportunity Not “me.” I wasn’t going to make this happen. We. Raw, gritty, spiritually immature street kids included, and whoever else wanted to help. We were going to have to lead this effort. Together. Not everyone from that initial meeting rose to the challenge. But thirteen of them did, ages 14-22. Most were struggling high…

“It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed.” – Harvey S. Firestone Every youth pastor understands the challenge they face when students finally become seniors.  They seem to unplug. They complain that the programming is “too young” for them.  There are very few programs they want to connect to.  Let’s face it,…

Many of the Generation Xcel co-founders with the Summer 1999 interns “And a child shall lead them.” – Isaiah 11:6 “You see things and say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were and say, ‘Why not?’” George Bernard Shaw It felt like a mutiny. As an official youth group, we were still young, not…

Over this past winter, as we were teaching our students, we noticed that an increased amount of them were approaching our staff with questions about water baptism.  Some just had questions about the purpose of water baptism, while others who had a solid understanding of the nature of baptism showed an intense desire to be…