Back in January 2008 I was asked to participate in something out of character. Tim Baker, a well-established youth ministry author, emailed me and asked if I’d be interested in submitting a chapter to a book he was working on. My first few reactions were simple…
- I don’t want to write a book. (Kind of weird for a guy who works for a publisher, eh? Just not my dream.)
- I don’t have anything important to say.
- I don’t have time. (Besides running YMX and a ministry in Romeo, I had just dropped out of grad school because I was too busy.)
When I talked to Kristen about it she read through the concept of the project and gave me the look and said, “You need to do this.” As I looked at the project once again it became clear to me that I had to participate in this project, I did have something important to say, and I needed to make time. If there is one thing I want my ministry to youth workers to say over and over again it is that youth ministry matters, it changes lives, and no matter how bad it is, there is hope!
At this point, 16 months later, I am stoked to see this book come out in August. I don’t often get Perry Noble-stoked about stuff… but I am getting close with this one. There is a mega-pile of fresh authors, each sharing their unique story of finding hope when bad things happen. But let me be completely selfish here… I think you need to buy this book simply to read my chapter. My particular chapter is on, “How do I find hope for tommorow when the crap hits the fan?” And how many people in ministry haven’t had a moment when everything hit the fan?
So, here is the link. You can pre-order it now.
In December I was looking for some column ideas for a new weekly thing I’m doing for Youth Ministry Exchange. After a ton of discussion, brainstorming, and banging our head against the wall, Patti and I settled on the idea that I would write a weekly column called, Be Strong.
So far, I’m pretty happy with it. Here are the first three. Let me know what you think.
- Start Small
- Roll With the Punches
- Disappoint Someone
Over at Youth Ministry Exchange I’m going to be starting a weekly column. The question is, what should I write about?
I don’t think it should be just general youth ministry stuff. Let’s face the fact that right now I don’t have a lot of up-to-the-moment experience that is going to be useful.
For a long time I’ve wanted to do a “Dear Adam” kind of thing where people sent me ministry-related questions and I had fun replying to them. Kind of like Dear Abby for pastors.
I could do something on adolescent trends. I could do technology stuff. I could do interviews with ministry people.
But mostly I want to know what you think it should be? Please share your ideas in the comments. My hope is to write a few of these between now and the end of the year so the column can begin the first week of January.
ahhhh!
My fall travel season has arrived. When I took my job at YS I knew that this time of year would happen. In fact, one of the reasons why there are some really soft times in my year-round schedule is to make up for this time of year. Here’s the rundown, pray for Kristen and I.
October 9-13, NYWC Sacramento. Live blogging the convention and overseeing the smoking YMX booth at all three locations.
October 16-19, Planet Wisdom Chicago. No official role, but I’ve never been to one and I really need to grasp what goes on.
October 30-November 3, NYWC Pittsburgh. Same as Sacramento.
November 20-24, NYWC Nashville. Same as Pitt & Sacramento.
OK, so now that I wrote it out like this it doesn’t look that bad again. I think the stress comes from realizing I’ll be gone for about 2 weeks straight starting this week.
By the way, I’m totally looking forward to being on site at these events. It’s going to be super awesome fun exhaustion encouragement time.
