Brendan Pratt

Student pastor at LifePoint Church in Quincy, IL. Husband to Emily, dad, and builder of Shepherd, pastoral-care software for churches. Here to talk about student ministry, church leadership, and following Jesus in ordinary life.

Church tools should get a pastor out of the office faster, not keep him there longer. That's the test I use for everything I build.

Most parents blame the phone. Often it's the listening. "Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak." James 1:19 Before the next lecture about screen time, try ten minutes of just asking and listening.

You'll plant seeds in a student you'll never see grow. That's not failure. That's the job. "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." (1 Cor 3:6)

Protecting kids in youth ministry isn't paperwork. It's love. Background checks, two adults in the room, parents who know where their kids are. Every church, big or small, owes families that.

The best church software I can build is the kind a volunteer can learn in five minutes on a Sunday morning.

Discipling your kids doesn't start with a curriculum. It starts with them seeing you open your Bible at the kitchen table on a normal Tuesday. "You shall teach them diligently to your children." (Deut 6:7)

@Stephen_Means @skrajisnik3 please say all the things that need to be said for Ohio State fans.

@vinted your referral program is misleading and lies to the customer.

Teenagers aren't just distracted. A lot of them are lonely. A screen can fill the silence. It can't fill the seat next to them. Sit there.

People keep asking if Gen Z is really coming back to church. From inside a youth room, my take: they aren't asking church to be cooler. They're asking if it's true, and if the adults actually believe it.

Paul wrote Philippians from prison, and one of the first things he offers is confidence: "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion" (Phil 1:6). God started the work in you. God sustains it. God will finish it.

A student pastor can't know every kid well. A room full of faithful small group leaders can. If you serve with students on a weeknight, thank you. That's pastoral work, even if nobody calls it that.

You don't have to be a Bible scholar to disciple your kids. Read a chapter out loud. Ask what it shows about God. Ask what it shows about us. Then pray. That's enough to start tonight.

If young people are coming back to church, the question for the rest of us is simple. Will an adult sit with them, learn their name, and still be there next month? In a youth room, that's usually what revival looks like.

Jesus said a grain of wheat has to fall into the ground and die before it bears fruit (John 12:24). That's the upside-down way of his kingdom. In order to live, you have to die. It's not about me. It's about him.

If your church has a youth group, parents should be able to ask how you keep their kids safe and get a clear answer. Who's screened. Who's in the room. How leaders talk with students. That's not red tape. That's care.

Parents, your kids learn what repentance looks like by watching how you apologize. "I was wrong. Will you forgive me?" might be the most gospel-shaped sentence they hear from you all week.

Church can't compete with a phone for a teenager's attention, and it shouldn't try. What it can offer is something a screen never will: people who know your name and an hour where God's Word is read out loud.

Achan buried stolen treasure under his tent and figured nobody would know (Josh 7:21). But the real hiding place was his heart. I don't know what's in your tent, but it's not worth it. Bring it into the light. There's grace for you there (1 John 1:9).