The beta test year for OpenYM is now about 3/5th complete, with Boston this weekend and Grand Rapids at the end of the month.
Three years ago Open started as a whitepaper. Something I was tentatively calling “YouthMin Camp.” It was forking the very best of WordCamp & some of the flavor of BarCamp, and adding in a few elements to make it work within the youth ministry world.
OpenYM is built on a very idealistic hope: The best ideas in youth ministry are being tested on the front lines of youth ministry right now. If we can find those people and ask them to share their ideas (in a seminar/workshop format) with other front line youth workers, that’ll create new ideas.
Whereas most youth ministry training events are packaged, OpenYM is intentionally unpackaged. Most of our presenters are not nationally recognized names and that’s totally intentional. Open is a place where local experts have the platform to share what they are learning.
Finally, we’ve built Open with collaboration at it’s core. Since they are locally organized, every event has it’s own flavor. It reminds me a ton of “leading” YMX back in the day. Sure, I’m the instigator of this thing… but really the organizing team makes all of the decisions and I am a vote on the team, not the vote on the team.
From 2 to 5 to 10 to 50
Alpha Season: Seattle, Boston
Beta 1 Season: Paris, Seattle, Bay Area, Boston, Grand Rapids
Beta 2 Season: Denver, unannounced new city, Paris, Seattle, Bay Area, Boston, Grand Rapids… and 1-2 more unannounced cities in the works.
Beyond? The intent all along is to kind of perfect Open through the Alpha/Beta test phases and eventually “release” it as an Open Source youth ministry training event. And that’s still the intent. We’re continuing to build a group of amazing local organizers who are taking the “core” of what Open is and building on it. We are learning from one another and sharing what we are learning.
As we move from a Beta season of development to a wider and wider scope… the idea is still “If you’ve attended Open somewhere you can apply to be an organizer of Open in your area.”
The Key to Growth is Letting Go of Control
So why am I sharing this?
I’m sharing this because so many people seem stuck on how to grow something beyond themselves.
They can create something… a product, a church, a youth ministry, a small group, a soccer club, or something like that.
And as long as its run their way and built around them it’s fine. Thriving even. But the idea of whatever it is– no matter how great it is– growing beyond them? Impossible.
Honestly, this is the great problem of the typical evangelical organization. They can make it through the first season of its existence when the founder is at the helm. But most fail or quickly dwindle when the founder retires, dies, or otherwise loses interest. We can all point to specific churches or ministries that had a heyday when the original person was there, but because the organization was built around that persons unique talents and/or personality… it just fizzles out once they are gone.
Open (and to a larger extend The Youth Cartel itself) has dreamt about a different model from inception. To me it’s a failure of Open if I’m at all of them forever. For one, I’m dream of a time when there are more than 52 of them in a year… meaning I couldn’t physically attend them all anyway! But even at 10 next year… I’m not planning on attending all of them.
You see, this is the transferable principle for all of us: In order to see an idea achieve it’s full potential we need to give up control of the idea, allowing the idea itself to take on a life of it’s own. Yes, you nurse the idea and guard it in its infancy. And yes, you always protect that idea and remind people of where the idea came from and the hopes you had for it while it grew.
But you have to let it go to see it grow.
You can’t hold on.
You can’t wrap the idea around you or it’s just a cloak.
If the idea is any good at all. You must let go.
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