Category: Friday is For Friends

  • Hopecasting by Mark Oestreicher

    Hopecasting by Mark Oestreicher

    My partner in crime at the Cartel has a new book coming out. He has something like 70 titles in the youth ministry genre, been the general editor of a couple Bible projects, and is the general editor of our Cartel publishing line. But this is Marko’s very first general audience Christian book. So it stands…

  • 5 Weeks Until Open Grand Rapids

    5 Weeks Until Open Grand Rapids

    Ah… winter. A quick scan of social media reveals that folks living in Michigan, Northern Indiana, and the Chicago area are completely sick of winter. The supreme irony of our living in San Diego is that we’re Midwesterners who love a good midwest winter. We’d get 6 inches of snow and Kristen was ecstatic about…

  • A Weakness with Formal Ministry Preparation

    A Weakness with Formal Ministry Preparation

    Driving across rural Kansas in December I couldn’t help but be reminded of this fact: In the New Testament, nearly all of the illustrations Jesus used were agrarian. In modern times, nearly all modern formal education happens in the city. It’s a conflict that most people training for vocational ministry either completely ignore or they…

  • Our January Line-Up

    Our January Line-Up

    We’re off to the races in 2015 with 4 new publishing products launching in January. With each new release cycle our stuff just keeps getting better and better. Here’s what is new: A Youth Worker’s Field Guide to Parents by Danny Kwon (Book) The Audacious Seven by Steve Case (Curriculum)   THINK Volume 2: Theology by…

  • A Path Appears Coming January 26th to PBS

    A Path Appears Coming January 26th to PBS

    There’s a lot of money given to charities around the world. I’m not an economist, I’m a youth worker. So I don’t know how much money is given but I’m pretty sure it’s in the bazillions. Until 2010, I was relatively ignorant of the long-term impact of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world. Sure, I’d heard…

  • Behind the scenes of YM360 with Les Bradford

    Behind the scenes of YM360 with Les Bradford

    There was a lot of change in youth ministry in 2010-2011. Especially among resource companies. I think, looking back, history will show that this period of time birthed the next wave of youth ministry stuff, new organizations and ideas got built from the ground up to shake loose from the past. As we were getting going at…