Stephen Curto

My Ideal Youth Ministry

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This is a paper written for my Christian Ministry with Youth course at DTS. The assignment was to write your philosophy of youth ministry and include things like your essential theology, the purpose of youth ministry, and the structure and outcomes of your ideal youth ministry. It is intended to be used in interviews and applications for youth pastor jobs. If nothing else, it will give you a glimpse of what I think about how the church should be run and what the essential doctrines of Christianity are. Introduction The purpose of this work is to tell you about my … [Read more]

The Gate is Small (Pt. 2)

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The following is a continuation of a story started in The Gate is Small (Pt. 1). I encourage you to read it first.   I made my way across the bridge with growing confidence that the path I walked was a good one. I thought about the man so afraid of the height of the bridge that he forgot about the builder of bridges! All who hiked this mountain knew he was as trustworthy a builder as they come. Dismounting the bridge on the other side I continued my hike along the trail. It wound around the mountainside, along a … [Read more]

Baby Don’t Hurt Me: Four Things Love Isn’t

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Let’s define love. My absolute favorite extra-biblical definition of love comes from J. Budziszewski’s “Ask Me Anything.” “Love is a commitment of the will to the true good of the other person.” This succinct, profound, and jam-packed definition is my favorite because it clears up so many misconceptions about love that people have these days. Let me show you four of them. LOVE IS NOT A FEELING I think many people would affirm this fact when talking about the definition of love, but forget this fact when they go about loving. Love is not a feeling. As the great theologian … [Read more]

The Gate is Small (Pt. 1)

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“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are they that find it.” As I was hiking through the mountains, and following a pleasant little trail, I came upon a gate. It was small and unassuming as it sat alongside the trail; I had nearly passed it by. Wrought iron framed the parallel bars that ran up its middle and a small wooden sign hung on the gate. “To Life” it read, barely legible, in faded painted letters. I looked down the path, thinking that I couldn’t spare the time. There was … [Read more]

To Be “In Christ”: This Is the Gospel

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To Be “in Christ” To be “in Christ” is a curious thing. It’s a distinctly Pauline idea. He seems to use it of anyone who is a believer in the gospel, as in anyone who has been saved by grace through faith in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to save them from the penalty of their sins. Galatians 2 gives, I think, the clearest explanation of what he means by the phrase. “Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in … [Read more]