Paul Turner

WEBSITE SHOP PODCAST YOUTUBE BLOG Greetings Awesome Person, A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. Proverbs 25:28 Does your church make you want to scream into your pillow? Me too. I don't know about you, but I need walls. There are some who say walls are bad, that we should let all our emotions out all time and people just have to deal with it. The problem with that strategy is that it makes you emotionally vulnerable, but in a bad way. You can' say...

WEBSITE SHOP PODCAST YOUTUBE BLOG Greetings Awesome Person, Did your student leave this comment on my recent viral video about why I think the real Jesus is so unpopular? I have no proof that a teen or young adult left this comment, but I think it could have been one of your students or one of my students, for that matter. This comment could have also been left by anyone who has a preference for a pop culture Jesus vs a scriptural Jesus. This is no swipe at The Chosen, it's an observation...

WEBSITE SHOP PODCAST YOUTUBE BLOG Greetings Awesome Person, Can I be honest? My youth group is difficult to grow because my church is difficult to grow. I'm in a rural church with an older congregation. For youth pastors, winning can, exclusively, look like numeric growth. It's often what validates us, our skills and even our calling, but I'm hear to tell you that is not true. Numeric growth is not the only indicator of "winning" Do you have kids who show up? That's winning Do you have kids...

WEBSITE SHOP PODCAST YOUTUBE BLOG Greetings Awesome Person, Never thought a Deadpool x Wolverine movie quote would come in handy, but here we are. Wolverine: "You got the wrong guy" X-23: "You were always the wrong guy, until you weren't" Have you been feeling like the "wrong person" for your ministry? Me too. You signed up to lead a youth ministry and then everything has gone sideways. Nothing is happening like you thought it would and now all seems lost. Does this this sounds familiar?...

COLDPLAY WE PRAY Hey Awesome Person, Have you heard the Coldplay song We Pray? The song came out a few weeks ago and I thought it was worth sharing with you a few ways to use the song in your youth group as a way to teach on prayer. Here are a few things you need to know before I share the ideas, Chris Martin was brought up in a strict Christian home and shares about it in this interview from 2021. Based on the interview, Pray is not a "Christian" song, but a universal call to pray to...

WEBSITE SHOP PODCAST YOUTUBE BLOG Greetings Awesome Person, I want to make this short devotion about you and your needs, but I'm struggling with that. I lost my mother-in-law this past week and it's been tough. I preached her funeral and it broke me. You see, she was my second mother. I lost both my adopted parents by the time I was 30. I thought I was conditioned to deal with loss by now, I was wrong. I have been my in-laws pastor since I married their daughter 33 years ago. They didn't...

WEBSITE SHOP PODCAST YOUTUBE BLOG Greetings Awesome Person, Oh the highs and lows of youth ministry. One week I have their full attention, the next I am talking to myself. It's easy to judge ourselves, our abilities and even God's call in the low times and it is equally easy to think we have it all together and God is "blessing" our ministry. I think we should ignore both. You're never as good as you think you are and you are never as bad as you think you are. You are, normally, somewhere in...

"It was like a bomb went off in my head." This would've been my answer if you asked me, "Paul, what was it like after you heard the new Skillet song?" Yes, I'm biased, I've been a Skillet fan for a long time, but it wasn't the song as much as it was the message that made me want to write this 4 week study and give it to you. I want students to chase unpopularity in all the best ways, loving their enemies, doing good, sharing the Truth of God's word, all the things that made Jesus unpopular....

WEBSITE SHOP PODCAST YOUTUBE BLOG Greetings Awesome Person, Thud! Did you hear that? That was the sound of my message missing my student's ears and hitting the floor. Normally, I'd be devastated but I've had enough of these nights, over 35 years worth, to know 3 things. It doesn't mean my kids are bad or unspiritual School's just kicked off and we lost one our most engaging seniors to college. These kids were low energy and they're processing new norms. I have to cut them some slack. It...