Ronald Long's Blog

I just moved in with my wife’s parents. Here are a few things that haven’t happened: No one’s marriage is in shambles Nobody is broke or in financial jeopardy Nether of our houses have been foreclosed on No one is crazy lazy Everyone has a good job Basically none of the reasons you normally hear […]

Iused to be a guy who could keep it together. I used to be able to control those occasional onslaughts of emotion that would consume lesser men. Then I had a daughter. All emotional control went soundly out the window at the ultrasound when the nurse told my wife and I we were having a […]

Dianne Reed hated the spotlight, so far as I could tell. She only ever got behind a microphone during VBS or a child’s dedication service and one of those times were only because she was asked to.Most of the people who served at FBC Lexington knew the best part of having Dianne for a children’s […]

My team of volunteers and I are reading through an AWESOME book for Middle School Ministry by Mark Oestreicher and Scott Rubin. I highly recommendit! In the chapter we’re reading this week, they list out some healthy measuring sticks for ministry. So many times youth workers know how to measure only one thing: numbers. How […]

Sunday was morning and evening church. Monday night was visitation. Tuesday was a Bible study for the committed teens. Wednesday was Wednesday night youth group. Friday night was a high school sports game of some sort. Saturday was when Bekah would tell me that she (and everyone else in the family) missed seeing me. And […]

Have you seen this video? Six photographers get told six different stories about the same person and their portraits of him look markedly different. It’s pretty interesting to think about how others see you through preconceived notions. But how do your students see themselves when they’re the ones taking their own pictures? Do you see […]

I’m bummed. Not depressed. Just bummed. The short story is that I didn’t get asked back to help with a ministry I know and love. No hard feelings, they told me, just a new direction. That new direction left me feeling, well, bummed. Discouragement in ministry can happen when you least expect it. It might […]

Every ministry has that one kid...

What do middle school gatherings look at like at Wayside Chapel? Part 3

What does our middle school ministry gathering look like at Wayside Chapel? Part two of three!