Category: NYWC

  • Congrats to Tim & Sara

    st_48A few weeks ago Sara and Tim got married. They have a pretty cool story, I hope I don’t get in too much trouble for sharing the little snippets that I know.

    I met Sara last October in Pittsburgh for the National Youth Workers Convention. I was walking around looking for people to interview for the ghetto fabulous podcast recap and found Sara in the hallway and she agreed to let me ask her a few questions. (She also knew Patti, maybe through YMX, I’m not sure on that part of the story!) Later in the weekend she and I bumped into one another again in the store and chatted some more. We connected, it was cool, and now she is a contributor on the YS blog.

    I remember cracking up with her because she told me that before the convention the little old ladies of the church had invited her to come over and they all prayed for her… that she would meet a husband at the conference. Being from a smallish town in Upstate New York it really wasn’t an unreasonable prayer request. There probably aren’t a ton of eligible bachelors there who’d love a life of ministry to teenagers. She thought it was funny that the ladies of the church were so concerned about her dating life. I mean, it is really funny!

    Lo and behold, the old ladies of the church got their prayer answered! Sara met Tim (a youth worker from the Albany area) at convention. They hit it off… obviously. And I have no idea the whirlwind romance that happened between then and November 14th… but they got married!

    Now we know that NYWC isn’t just a place to get encouraged, trained, resourced… and has been well-documented… make babies [for married couples.] Apparently, NYWC is a great place to meet a spouse, too!

    We tried really hard to get them to convention in Atlanta so we could bring them up on stage, embarrass them lovingly, and turn their faces all shades of red. As it turned out, NYWC was a great place to meet and all… but not such a great place for a honeymoon.

  • YS/YW Announcement… What’s Going On?

    Finally!

    That’s totally how I felt yesterday when the news came to me that we were making an announcement about the deal for Zondervan to sell YS to YouthWorks. (Here’s the link)

    The last few weeks, since Marko’s departure, have been a roller coaster for me. The facts presented to the staff on that day were that Marko had been let go, the company was being sold… likely to YouthWorks. And beyond that.. that’s about all that was known!

    It was a lot to take in. A lot to process. A lot of emotions to work through. And then a lot to stuff back in my head as I still had two conventions to work at plus a bunch of major projects nearing completion.

    In a world of live everything– twitter, Facebook, blogs– there was simply no way for this news to stay completely out of the public eye. And of course my job was to keep an eye on all of that. There was so much to say while absolutely nothing appropriate for me to say… a pinch for “the online community dude.”

    So the news is out. I am very happy the news is out. When I saw the presidents of Z and YW together yesterday I really hoped that the news would come out. It was a very exciting/somber (and a bunch more adjectives/adverbs) moment to be a part of. For me, the bottom line was that the news was getting out and that is good.

    The people at YouthWorks are good people. (That’s been clear in the blogs/twitter/Facebook) The people at Zondervan are good people. (That hasn’t been clear, but trust me when I say that they are good people, too.)

    Thanks to everyone who is praying for Kristen and I during this crazy time. For us personally more is unknown than known. I would only ask that you add the rest of the YS staff to your prayers, as well. Michelle, Mark M., Dave P., Jay, Donna, Dave C., Urb, Roni, Holli, Mandy, Tash, Ian, Lara, Brittany, Bethany, and Amy.

    Now… this weekend isn’t about Youth Specialties, YouthWorks, Zondervan, or even me. It’s about serving and encouraging youth workers!

    Back to work.

  • Prayer for NYWC Atlanta Attendees

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    David sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:
    “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

    my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
    my shield and the horn of my salvation.
    He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—
    from violent men you save me.

    I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
    and I am saved from my enemies.

    “The waves of death swirled about me;
    the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

    The cords of the grave coiled around me;
    the snares of death confronted me.

    In my distress I called to the LORD;
    I called out to my God.
    From his temple he heard my voice;
    my cry came to his ears.

    2 Samuel 22:1-7

  • Anxiety in Youth Ministry

    Over the past several days I’ve started to put words to what I’ve been observing: The tribe of youth ministry is anxious.

    2009 has been a ridiculously hard year. Last October when Tony Campolo spoke in Sacramento he said something like… “Church, as we know it today, will collapse with the economy. And we will shake ourselves off and ask, ‘what do we do now?”

    Prophetic words.

    A year later we have to step back and acknowledge that in many ways Tony was right.

    • A down economy has forced tens of thousands of churches to re-evaluate how they spend money. Not a bad thing, but has caused stress at all levels of church staffing.
    • A shifting culture, and the owning of the reality that traditional youth ministry programs are fading in their effectiveness… more stress for youth workers.
    • Time to think, causes that stress to bubble to the surface.
    • The length of time things have been stressful (for some, 2-3 years now) causes this stress to manifest itself.

    And the manifestation of what we are all feeling is this anxious elephant in the room at the National Youth Workers Convention. It’s the tears shed as we go to worship. It’s the hunger in conversation. It’s the sleep in the hallways. It’s the lack of eye contact. It’s the nervous laughter.

    We are an anxious tribe. We fidget. We wring our hands. We bang our heads against the wall. We wonder what to do with ourselves. We wonder what the future of youth ministry is. We hypothesize. We position ourselves. We take our stress out on others. We blame ourselves. We blame our leaders. We blame our calling. We blame God.

    For me… recognizing this tribal anxiety and the disorder that goes with it is 90% of the battle. All of those symptoms in our tribe, I don’t know what to do with them. But anxiety, I know what to do with that.

  • Themes from NYWC

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    I had a great weekend in Cincinnati. I had lots of time to connect with old friends, meet tons of new people, and got into a multitude of deep conversations about life, work, ministry, and family. Over and over again themes came into conversation. These weren’t things I brought up… it just seemed like everything came back to these things eventually.

    • Mentorship, tutoring, education: Apparently, I am not the only one thinking that if youth ministry needs to be Good News to students it needs to somehow involve education. It seems like this is a youth ministry-wide tribal reaction to the realization that programmatic stuff isn’t as effective as it was just 5 years ago.
    • Calling: Living on the West Coast I’m a bit insulated from what is going on in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio churches. My friends would say, “it’s bad, real bad.” And I think that means giving is way down, they are taking pay cuts, and they are having to go back to God and say… “Are you absolutely positive I am called to this?“
    • Ministering to gay and lesbian students: When Andrew Marin came to NYWC last fall and talked about the big rainbow elephant in the room… it opened up a can of worms! One of the things I’ve learned is that while teens were coming out of the closet to youth workers EVERYWHERE, the youth workers were still closeted about it. I can’t tell you how many times a conversation brought this up.
    • Dependency. I think this is related to calling– it’s just the theological “aha” so many are embracing. We all know God’s got this. We all know that no matter how bad things look for the church, the church will be fine. But this weekend I ran into a bunch of people who literally are putting their life out there and depending on God. Even during the convention I ran into people who told me they had been let go that weekend. But they aren’t giving up. They aren’t freaking out. They are depending on God.
    • Fun! Even with the heavy stuff right under the surface. This is a tribe of people who loves life and wants to have fun. Check out what they did on Halloween.

  • Glows world-wide welcome

    The New Colossus

    Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
    With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
    Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
    A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
    Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
    Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
    Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
    The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
    “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
    With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
    Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
    The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
    Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
    I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

    —Emma Lazarus, 1883

    With another NYWC kicking off this morning, this is exactly how it feels. Youth workers are the most misunderstood tribe of church workers. Maligned, misrepresented, dispatched to the corners of the building these resilient men and women endure a lot to be in youth ministry. They do it because they’ve answered a calling to minister to the tribe of people often cast aside as lepers in the church, teenagers.

    And they come to convention looking for rest, ideas, and encouragement. Convention is a place of shared known where we can laugh, cry, and celebrate what God is doing. As they come today, I hope to pour what I can into them.

    This is a homecoming for them and I intend to welcome them home!

  • Headed to Cincy!

    NYWCYS_09logo_smallThursday morning I head out to the beautiful state of Ohio for the second NYWC of 2009. After a year’s worth of planning, preparation, and trying to get people to come– I am beside myself ready to get on site and do my job! The Midwest version of NYWC is always my highlight as “these are my people.”

    Thirty days ago I wrote this, it summarizes my feelings today, as well:

    I may have the best job in youth ministry. Sure, I’m not on stage or writing books or in any way famous. But, I am doing work I love. I get the unique job of meeting lots of people– practitioners of youth ministry, researchers, authors, speakers… And loads of folks who do they day to day work of reaching this generation for Jesus Christ.

    I still believe I have the best job in youth ministry. I am thankful for the opportunity to encourage and invest in this group of heroes.

    Will you join me in praying for a fantastic convention for this group of youth workers? It’s been a tough year to be in youth ministry all-around. But especially in the Midwest.

  • Remember what it was like when this was fun?

    I absolutely loved what Francis Chan said in LA a couple weeks ago. (about :43 into this video) He reminded us- me- youth workers… to stop taking ourselves so seriously, find a way to laugh again, remind yourself that you’re just a stupid kid, mistakes aren’t that big of a deal, we all went into ministry because it was fun. It was the pep talk a lot of us needed to hear among the stress of our lives.

    Let’s get back to just being children of God.

    That’s a good reminder for this weekend, isn’t it?

  • NYWC personal highlights

    Right now I am on the Surfliner Amtrack train headed south. As I travel home to San Diego my mind is full of thoughts, reflections, and highlights from this weekend. Here they are in no particular order:

    1. I may have the best job in youth ministry. Sure, I’m not on stage or writing books or in any way famous. But, I am doing work I love. I getthw unique job of meeting lots of people– practitioners of youth ministry, researchers, authors, speakers… And loads of folks who do they day to day work of reaching this generation for Jesus Christ.
    2. I averaged 4.5 hours of sleep. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
    3. The David Crowder Bamd show at The Roxy in Hollywood was incredible. My favorite part was bringing Ben Kraker. Two dudes from te trenches were VIPs for a night and that’s rad.
    4. I sat in on a conversation between Brian Berry and Shane Hipps after Shane’s big room talk. I’m still thinking about it. I want to be more present to the people in my life and less distracted by the technology I love.
    5. I spent a lot of time with Andy Marin. I love Andy and his ministry. He has grown so much in the last 12 months. Not that he wasn’t great last Fall. But he was better this year.
    6. Meeting Francis Chan was great. I can’t wait to air his podcast segment.
    7. Changes to convention were fantastic. I was a little bit nervous aboutthe changes but it was amazing to see people embrace and get excited about what we are doing and where we are going.
    8. Open space Saturday. This fundamentally changes the game. While there will always be for experts, ministry culture is moving so fast that we need practitioners to equip practitioners. I hope a higher percentage of youthcwprlers stickcarpund for it in future cities.
    9. LA was intense. I had more deep conversations I’m the last 5 days than all of last year combined.
    10. Youth workers are hurting. With culture inside the church changing so rapidly, and the stress of the economy on an already poor group of people… There were a lot of tears this weekend.
    11. Speaking of tears. The session with the Daraja Childrens choir had everyone crying. I think it’s that shared story of making it through pain to hope that caused an electric response to their presence.
    12. I loved Perry Noble’s talk. My guard was up, but Perry was very encouraging to me.
    13. The /live experience was great. I think the adjustments I made to the social media plan for convention went really well.
    14. Tash McGill is a rock star. She is going to tire of me piling her brain one day, for sure.
    15. Speaking of rock stars, Ian straight up carried our lab with his techno-knowledge of all things video.
    16. I still think it’s funny that I got a speakers packet.
    17. This was a difficult convention. I’m thankful for amazing contractors and volunteers that give way too muxhctp YS for convention. With a number of our people getting sick, I noticed they really stepped up and that was amazing.
    18. The postgame show was great. Now to make it better.
    19. For the first time, I sat in the hall for all of the big room sessions. Loved that.
    20. I’m exhausted and energized at the same time. Bring on Cincy!

  • NYWC 2010-2011

    Thoughts?