Month: October 2006

  • What’s the real state of Youth Ministry

    The past few days has seen contrasting articles published in newspapers. Here are two that I think contrast two views of youth ministry in America.

    The Sky is Falling attitude: New York Times Article
    We’re getting better every year: Austin Statesman Article

    My opinion is the latter. I’ve seen youth ministry get better and better. The ministries who teach students the Bible and love students passionately for who they are tend to do great. Ministries who focus solely on entertainment… they will fail.

  • Battle of the Brains

    If today’s Notre Dame vs. Stanford game were about engineering or medicine, I’d be a little worried. But Notre Dame should dominate Walt Harris’s injury deflated team on all sides of the ball. Really, all the Irish need are some people to lose in front of them and to keep healthy. With no difficult opponent on the schedule for almost a month, Notre Dame should be highly ranked by the time the USC game rolls around.

  • Great night for Romeo High School

    OK, so our attempt to just meet-up at the Homecoming festival didn’t go so well. But, the night was fantastic for Romeo High School overall.

    The Bulldogs thumped the #17 ranked Titans of Stevenson 12-0. They were impressive.

    A highlight for me wasn’t just the game. I really had fun cramping into some seats with my family. There was "standing room only" about 10 minutes before kick-off. So, while LF didn’t get to sit together it really didn’t matter since there was so much going on. Another highlight for me was just something simple. I got to hang out with Chris B. for the first time where we could just hang out and talk. It was cool, and he’s really funny! It’s pretty weird when you know an older sibling really well to hear how they are similar and different and what the little brother thinks of the big sister.

  • Public Service Announcement

    Brought to you by Dr. Al Yankovich

  • Another suicide

    Don’t want to share many details publically. But a friend of a light force student took his life in the last 24 hours. Few things break my heart more than a student looking at his life and deciding there is nothing worth living for. (I know there are more reasons than this.) A life ending never always stops me in my tracks.

  • Where will youth ministry be in 50 years

    Ct
    Christianity Today     published an article called What’s Next: Youth in their 50th anniversary edition. Basically they went around and asked a bunch of people "What will youth ministry look like in another 50 years?"

    Mark Ostreicher, president of Youth Specialties, (a big player in youth ministry, publisher of YM related stuff, and all-round cheerleader of the cause of YM) is involved in discussing the article on his blog. He’s asked a lot of his friends "in the biz" to pipe in with their thoughts.

    I’ve not had time to formulate my thoughts, since YMX was mentioned in his post as "the nifty gaggle of peeps" I think that’s an invite to chime in. If I get time or have something to say I’ll jump in. But at this point, I’m most likely to observe.

    My initial thought to the article was, "Cool, people think there will still be youth ministry in 50 years!"In all seriousness, so long as their are people hard-wired to think differently in the body of Christ (adolescents brains literally work differently) God will create people in His body with the gifts and desire to reach them.

  • Phew, MainStreet was a Hit

    Kidstown_color2_webThere was a lot of pressure felt last night by the staff and the people putting on the first ever MainStreet. MainStreet is our new monthly family worship night where we roll out the KidsTown virtue for the month. It’s a "big production" from the church’s perspective. So, instead of doing big quarterly events plus a week-long VBS style event, we hope to do a monthly "big production."

    The cool part of last night was that we didn’t know what to expect at all.     We guessed that about 20-30 people would be there (nearly double actually showed up) and we had planned everything out (20+ moving parts including skits, songs, puppets, a clown, carnival games, snacks, on and on) but were never able to get every single part together for a "dress rehearsal." Amazingly, it went 90% smoothly.

    There are a few factors why I would call last night a hit. First, we communicated in many ways the virtue about courage. We involved all sorts of people. Parents actually sat with their kids and experienced the "show" together, honestly this isn’t happening very many places out there… so that was a huge hit. I saw my LF students having a good time. Families hung out and played together and talked to one another for a very long time. I saw new faces talking to members and visa versa… woohoo!

    So, I’m encouraged. Not encouraged enough to want to start planning the November MainStreet event today (though we will) but encouraged nonetheless.

  • Pedestrian Killed in Front of the Church

    Yesterday, when I was coming to work, there was the remnents of a terrible accident about 100 yards from the church. I had to walk through the accident scene because the road was blocked off, I could tell that it was a terrible accident. I saw that it was a high school students car. I asked the officer there if a student had been hit and he told me that a student had hit an adult lady. My heart sank because Romeo is such a small community that somehow we must know either the student in the accident or the woman killed. So far, that hasn’t come true.

    Here’s the news story:

    BRUCE TOWNSHIP — A 17-year-old Romeo
    High School student likely is not at fault in a car/pedestrian accident
    that killed a woman walking on 32 Mile Road this morning, Macomb County
    Sheriff Mark Hackel said.

    The accident happened about 7:18 a.m.
    at the intersection of 32 Mile Road and Campground in Bruce Township,
    about a mile from Romeo High School.

    The student, a girl whose
    name was not released by police, was driving her 1996 Oldsmobile
    Regency eastbound on 32 Mile Road, when a 57-year-old Washington
    Township woman stepped off the curb and into traffic, Hackel said.

    "This
    doesn’t seem to be the girl’s fault," Hackel said. "We haven’t wrapped
    up our investigation yet, but all indications are that the girl tried
    to avoid the pedestrian."

    After the car struck the pedestrian,
    whose name also was withheld, the teen stopped. Another motorist who
    saw the accident called 911.

    The victim was taken to St. Joseph’s West Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

    Thanks to Kristen for the link.


  • Great memory

    Northern_ireland_jon_2I saw this picture on Andrea’s facebook. I had never seen it before and it just floored me. At first I thought I was just nostalgic about the Northern Ireland trip… but now I see it more clearly.

    Those 21 days are like a time capsule in my life. There we shared moments that were so unique and so special that they just defy definition. Factually, I know that we were snapping these pictures while waiting for Katie and Dawn. I know that the picture was taken where the women stayed while doing training at Methody. I know that we were in Belfast and that Belfast was fun. But the emotions associated with those days and pictures like this one are difficult to pinpoint.

    As I said at last June’s "Senior Roast," I shared some of the best times of my life with that group of students. In my mind, the early years of Light Force are defined by Andrea, Autumn, Lisa, and Jon. They said "yes" to God and God rewarded them with 21 days they will never forget.

    We move on, we grow up, we move forward, but we never forget.

  • Tired

    How is it that I’m both energized and exhausted at the same time? I love what I do and I couldn’t think of doing anything else. Yet, at the same time I’m fatigued.

    That doesn’t mean anything politically and that’s not meant in code or to mean anything else than this. I’m ready to get away and get recharged. I can feel that I need time to wander, time to dream, time to waste, time to listen and not talk, time to meet people for the sake of just meeting them, time to get lost or to not be worried about a detour, time to adventure, time to browse.

    After all, how can I lead people when I’m too tired to want to lead people?

    Good news. I have a whole week away coming up. In the words of Robert Frost, "I have miles to go before I sleep." As I think about NYWC: Cincinnati I can’t help but chuckle at the words of Mike Yaconelli. He began each conference saying something like, "We have X, Y, Z, but that’s just for your bosses. We don’t care what you do this week. Just get recharged. If you need to lock yourself in the hotel room for 5 days, go for it."

    Of course, between that respite and today there is oodles of work. It’s tough sledding for the next month. I hope I have enough energy to get there.