As I enter my 20th year speaking I thought I would take some time over the next week to go over each of the talks that I have. My talks are heavily researched and I am updating my talks all the time.
Talk title: the man talk
Why would you bring me into your church, school or conference to speak this talk? –This is a talk I have done for dozens of men’s breakfasts over the years. It is really challenging men to be better fathers, husbands, and boyfriends. It is a very practical talk.
Talk Description:
The Man Talk is what it sounds like – a discussion about what it’s like to be a Man today. It’s a real talk, a meat and potatoes approach to issues pressing us from all sides:
Being the best Father I can be.
What it’s like to be a Husband and a Servant.
Christian men and sex.
How to lead my family – spiritually.
Dating as a Christian – A how to.
As I continue my research into loneliness I find more and more articles talking about social media. We need to make sure we don’t have a knee-jerk reaction and just say all social media is bad. This article has a very balanced perspective.
However, that changed a few years ago, when I started to notice big shifts in teens’ behavior and attitudes in the yearly surveys of 11 million young people that I analyze for my research. Around 2010, teens started to spend their time much differently from the generations that preceded them. Then, around 2012, sudden shifts in their psychological well-being began to appear. Together, these changes pointed to a generational cutoff around 1995, which meant that the kids of this new, post-millennial generation were already in college.
These teens and young adults all have one thing in common: Their childhood or adolescence coincided with the rise of the smartphone.
Of course, correlation doesn’t prove causation: Maybe unhappy people use screen devices more.
To be clear, moderate smartphone and social media use – up to an hour a day – is not linked to mental health issues. However, most teens (and adults) are on their phones much more than that.
As I enter my 20th year speaking I thought I would take some time over the next week to go over each of the talks that I have. My talks are heavily researched and I am updating my talks all the time.
Talk title: dating.for.life – the questions
Why would you bring me into your church, school or conference to speak this talk? –If you asked many teenagers and young adults what conversation they want more information on dating would rank up near the top. All students from Jr High onward think that they need to start dating and people really don’t have any basic dating philosophy or plan.
I have on older talk on dating on YouTube:
After speaking this talk for many years I recently redid the entire talk and now have new version called “The Questions”
Talk Description:
In this new update of my dating for life talk I have gone back to the basics. In this new talk I answer 8 questions on dating:
What is dating?
When should I start dating?
Am I ready to start dating?
How do I start dating?
What are Red Flags in my dating relationships?
How do I find out if they are the “One”?
How do I break up?
What if they are the right person for me?
Simple and practical conversations on dating for High School and Young Adults.
What environments can this talk be done in?
Youth Group night or special parents night or students/parents combined session
Conference
Camp
Schools (Private Christian or Catholic Schools)
Dating.for.life: The Questions
I presently have this talk as an online course until we can film it later this year.
If you would like more information or would like to book me for a talk please email me at brett@brettullman.com.
Hope everyone had a good summer. As I head into the fall I am working on research for a new talk on loneliness. I have decided to also start work on a new talk for parents of teenagers. As a father of 2 teenagers, I find myself often being asked by parents about practical tools for parenting. I want to help parents understand their teens, empower their teens, and equip their teens in this crazy modern culture we are living in.
As I begin my research I would love to hear your best parents books, quotes, Ted talks, youtube videos, thoughts, personal tips and anything else you think might be good to address in this talk.
As I enter my 20th year speaking I thought I would take some time over the next week to go over each of the talks that I have. My talks are heavily researched and I am updating my talks all the time.
Talk title: media.faith.culture
Why would you bring me into your church, school or conference to speak this talk? – Media discernment is one of the conversations I have been speaking on for 20 years. How do we connect our ancient modern world? This talk will look at music, movies, social media and other forms of media. Not all media is good but not all media is bad (media). It will also look at how we as Christians can get a Biblical Worldview (faith). The last section (culture) will look at how do we engage the world around us as Christians. It is a balanced look at this conversation.
media: discern your media
“It is the open secret of the church – we make all kinds of incredible claims based on the Holy Scriptures, but our lives are pretty much the same as the lives of the unchurched” Ted Dekker: The Slumber of Christianity
faith: dive into your faith
“The greatest enemy of the spiritual life was inattention, complacency” Pascal
culture: engage the culture around you
Your calling is found “where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet” Frederick Buechner
A similar presentation looking at this subject from a parents/leaders perspective is available called Parents 101 or I can do a combined talk with students/parents/leaders in one session.
Talk Description:
The concept and presence of media have become the modern day parable that has forever altered how we interact with our world. What I have come to realize is a growing disconnect – both youth and parents are struggling with applying their Christian beliefs to the media that daily engages them. Do we hear more from the media on how we should live our lives instead of engaging scripture and spending time with Christ? When we interact with our culture, we take action and, when we think about what we are absorbing, we connect it to our self and our lives. As Christians, we need to actively be involved with our culture without blindly accepting it as true. Pascal said it wonderfully, “The greatest enemy of the spiritual life was inattention, complacency.”
No more thoughtless watching. No more thoughtless listening. No more thoughtless online activity. No more thoughtless anything… Christianity is a strategic, intentional daily pursuit.
What environments can this talk be done in?
Sunday morning or evening service for students and parents
Youth Group night or special parents night or students/parents combined session
Conference
Camp
Schools (Private Christian or Catholic Schools)
If you would like more information or would like to book me for a talk please email me at brett@brettullman.com.
As I enter my 20th year speaking I thought I would take some time over the next week to go over each of the talks that I have. My talks are heavily researched and I am updating my talks all the time.
Talk title: The Walking Wounded
Why would you bring me into your church, school or conference to speak this talk? – Of all the talks that I do this seems to be talk that people ask for the most. I find in our church world we do not have a good theology of suffering or even a decent practical application for how Christians should deal with mental health struggles. In this talk I answer a simple question. What do you do if someone walks up to you and says “I am struggling with anxiety or depression?” We must be prepared to have a Biblical yet practical response to this. In this talk, I will walk through what to do if you are struggling or if people you love are struggling.
Talk Description:
Life is good … until it’s not.
Dark clouds come in all shapes and sizes and leave us asking where do we turn? Some of us struggle with mental health: anxiety, depression etc. Some of our struggles come from coping with tough situations in life by Self Injuring: eating disorders, suicide, self-harm and drug and alcohol use.
When we are surrounded by these heightened emotions and feelings life becomes one that is isolated from others and we begin to be full of questions instead of answers and we do not know what will work, or where to turn.
How do we begin our journey towards hope, healing, redemption, rescue, and a restoration to wholeness? Where and when does our journey back to life begin again? As a Follower of the Way (A Christian) What about our faith? How does our faith fit into our healing journey?
This talk has no cliches, no Christianese and does not put forward promises of false hope.
Brett Ullman in The Walking Wounded begins to address how to walk back towards healing and away from our emotions, feelings and thoughts and that are keeping us paralyzed in life.
No shame, fear, or hiding is required as we are safe to journey towards healing together. There is Hope for the Walking Wounded.
Promotional Trailer:
One of my favourite times to do this talk is a Sunday Morning church service. I call it “Care Sunday” I do my talk for the morning service and after the service one of the pastors talks about all the ways that your church “cares” Some churches put out booths in the foyer with counsellors, prayer teams, speciality groups like grief care, Celebration recovery and any other ways your church supports people who struggle with mental health.
You can make your church a relevant, accepting place for those who struggle with mental health, or who have a loved one who is mentally ill, by talking about it.” Leadership Journal
If you would like more information or would like to book me for a talk please email me at brett@brettullman.com.
