• College isn’t for everyone

    The cost of college has gotten out of control

    When I tell people that I have never had a student loan and paid for my undergraduate (and the 50% of my graduate) studies out-of-pocket, their jaws drop. It’s true. Kristen and I both earned our bachelors degrees and walked across the stage at graduation debt-free.

    It really wasn’t that hard.

    And yet, in the last 10 years college has gone from “really expensive” to “ridiculously expensive.”

    For instance: I was an undergrad student at Moody Bible Institute in 1994-1995. Total fees paid for room & board, $4200. Same room & board 17 years later? $11,000. $4200– I was able to swing that. I worked full-time during the summer and part-time during school and made it work. $11,000? I don’t see how that is possible today. And that is at a private Christian college which doesn’t charge tuition!

    Here’s a quick glance at the current costs of some various undergraduate programs: (looking at in-state, on-campus, with meal plans, etc.)

    For most families and almost all students that simply isn’t possible.

    An undergraduate degree isn’t worth as much anymore

    There’s an assumption that somehow all of that cost will pay off and that people who go to college will make more in a lifetime than those who don’t. But when you calculate in the cost of education, student loan interest, etc… earning an undergrad degree might not be your quickest path to financial success. Let’s compare two high school seniors. One chooses to be an elementary teacher and the other a plumber.

    Profession Cost of Education Interest paid by age 30 (assuming 50% of costs result in loans) Average salary Working years until age 30 (assuming you complete the programs on time) How much money have you grossed by age 30? (pre-tax, after debt)
    Elementary Teacher $92,938 $17,702 $51,467 8 $301,096
    Plumber $0 $0 $58,332 11 $641,652

    Notes:

    Teacher – Bachelors degree only, assuming no years off and getting a job right out of college.

    Plumber – 5 year paid apprenticeship averaging $17 per hour; 6 years as a journeyman plumber averaging $40 per hour.

    The same is largely true for a lot of professions. It takes so long for the cost of the education to make it worth it, and at the same time people change jobs more often than you’d imagine.

    The median number of years that wage and salary workers had been with their current employer was 4.4 in January 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. This measure, referred to as employee tenure, was 4.1 years in January 2008. The increase in tenure among those at work reflects, in part, relatively large job losses among less-senior workers in the most recent recession. — Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor

    So there is a good chance that a person is going to go into debt learning a profession they might not work at long enough to make it financially profitable to do so.

    This flies in the face of the mantra that college is for everyone. That’s a marketing lie. College isn’t automatically in the best interest of every student.

    The Atlantic has a series of articles on this subject, far more in depth and poignant than I can articulate.

    A sad fact is that a lot of people incur a lot of college debt but don’t complete their degrees nor enter into the profession they were studying in the first place.

    College alternatives

    I think, as youth workers who care deeply about the lives of our students, we need to help students and their parents find the best solution and not just a mantra that everyone needs to go to college.

    The idea that everyone needs to go to college doesn’t make sense on so many levels. Not everyone wants to go to college. Not everyone deserves to go to college because they performed poorly in high school. Not everyone who graduates from high school knows what they want to do. And we don’t live in a society where our economy can support an environment where everyone gets a college degree. (There aren’t enough of those types of jobs, which is why a plumber makes more than a school teacher. Simple supply and demand.)

    In fact, I think most students need to take a year off after high school. They need to get free enough from the rigors of high school to ask themselves the question, “Do I even like education? Do I want that? Is it worth my going into debt? Do I even know what I want to do?”

    They need to get away from their parents. They need to leave their communities of comfort. They need to get a job. They need to just get the heck out of what they know to find out who they are!

    In other words they need to be allowed the space to grow up.

    Which is, in my opinion, their parents worst nightmare.

  • Thank you, Mr. Long

    Tic Long & Mark Matlock reviewing their announcement video. They got it on the first take.

    “Well, I’m in if you’re in.”

    That was the phrase that began my next season at Youth Specialties. Back in December 2009 I’d been offered the opportunity to stay on with YS after the purchase by YouthWorks. Tic and I exchanged a couple phone calls and texts… and I remember saying to him playfully, “Well, I’m in if you’re in.”

    Verbalizing with my lips what was in my head for the very first time I wanted to stay on for the next phase of YS’s history. But I wanted it to be with him at the helm. Everyone knew it was our best chance. Just crazy enough to work. And just crazy enough to be fun, too.

    Tic rejoining our team meant a world of difference. Instead of pushing the sled uphill we’d take it to the top of the hill, throw our hands in the air, and gleefully shout “wwwhhheeeee” at the top of our lungs.

    Today, Tic announced that he was leaving YS to pursue something he’s always wanted to do but never quite felt called to until now, working for his church. I have mixed emotions about that. On the one hand there’s nothing more important than listening to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit and obeying. On the other, when this transition period is over I’ll miss his daily presence in my life.

    The last 16 months have been a blast. Knowing you are on borrowed time has made the whole thing more precious. (He made it clear from day one that he didn’t intend to stick around forever. Though, like the video points out, we’d all hoped it would be 2-3 more years. God changed the timing!) Each day of gleaning wisdom and knowledge has been a gift. I’ve known it was a gift– and done my very best to savor that gift day-by-day.

    That’s not to say that the last 16 months have been super serious. If you know Tic at all you know the last 16 months have been filled with deep moments where you’d cry followed quickly by massive amounts of laughter. One thing I’ve learned from Tic is that it’s OK to be the guy who is a wussy-sissy-cry-baby and also to break the tension by telling a joke that’d make a middle school boy blush.

    All this to say, I’m thankful to Tic for the gift of the last 16 months. Coming to YS three years ago I had hopes that I’d get to know Marko and Tic well. Like a lot of youth workers I kind of grew up in ministry looking up to them. And while I never could have predicted that I’d get to know them in this season of their lives, I’m grateful to call them both friends, to have seen their character exhibited again and again in the toughest of circumstances, and to see them chose the right way versus the easy way again and again… the only way I can express it that its been a gift. A gift I am thankful for.

    Am I excited for Mark and the future of YS? Absolutely. I’ll have much more on that another day.

    What about you, Adam? How are you doing in all of this?

    (Thanks for asking. I appreciate your love for me and my family.)

    I love words. And I love making up words in my head that serve as mantras.  This has been the word/phrase rattling around my head for the last few weeks. “I’m Happysadexcitedscaredhopefulangst-tastic.”

    I’m happy for Tic.

    I’m sad that I won’t get to work with Tic forever.

    I’m excited for Mark.

    I’m scared for Mark because expectations are crazy like that.

    I’m hopeful for the future of YS. I wouldn’t work there if I didn’t think our best days are yet ahead.

    I’m angst-tastic because it feels like we’re leaving the dock of what we know to sail into the Sea of Unknown once again.

    More than anything, today I chose to be thankful.

  • Why do I do this?

    A few months back we had some meetings at work. And by “some meetings” I mean we were in meetings from Monday – Thursday more than 8 hours per day.

    All throughout the week, one member of our team asked us, “Why do we do what we do?”

    I wasn’t sure what this person meant by it. And since it was often randomly inserted into the conversation I wasn’t sure how the question fit.

    But on the last day– at the last moment– the question was asked more insistently. “I need to know why we do this? Why do we do what we do?” It was unavoidable. We all were going to be forced to tell the group why we do what we do. We personalized it and went around the room answering the question, “Why do I do what I do?”

    It was a powerful conclusion to the week. I’m really glad we finally made the time to answer the question.

    The truth is that its a very important question. It doesn’t matter if your a plumber, a surgeon, the President of the United States, or you are me… what motivates you to do what you do is vitally important to who you are.

    My community group reminds me that I live at the unique intersection of a job I love, working with people I love, and I get paid enough to take care of my family. Not many people in the world can claim all three.

    With that said, it doesn’t mean that my life is without heartache or challenges. While I may live at that rare vocational crossroads I am still human. I have moments of weakness. And I’m often left running back to the bedrock question, “Why do I do what I do?”

    In those self-doubting moments, when I question myself, I go back to my motivations. These are some of the core reasons I do what I do:

    • I love resourcing youth workers. Whether its by being a listening ear or I make it easier to buy a curriculum for their Bible study or teaching a seminar on social media or just listening over a cup of coffee and saying, “You are crazy. God has you right where He wants you. You are doing a great job of loving God’s kids.” I love it. I love it more now that ever.
    • I love YS. It’s hard to imagine life in youth ministry without Youth Specialties. I have a deep love & respect for the legacy created by Mike and Wayne. I consider it an honor to carry on their mission. It feels like the best way I can honor that legacy is to keep pushing and keep innovating. I hope that one day soon I’ll be a part of coming up with the next thing as great as the Ideas Library.
    • I love who I get to work with. The team in El Cajon is a part of my family. But that family extends well beyond our office. I love working with my friends up in Minneapolis. Expanding further, there’s an amazing group of people who are really part of YS even though they aren’t on our staff. I love working with them.
    • I’m not satisfied with 10%. If you regularly read my blog you know I’m passionate about the people the church doesn’t reach. For every high school in our country, maybe 10% of the students are involved in a Christ-centered ministry or church. That’s not enough. I will be a broken record on this until people listen! My heart yearns to see youth ministry reach beyond the walls of the kids who show up and innovate methodologies that reach more. Ultimately, a big reason I do this is so that more kids will find Jesus.

    No matter what happens… Those are some of the reasons I do what I do. Even before I was on staff at YS… most of those were true. (That helps too, I did much of this even before I got paid to do it!)

    Why am I sharing this?

    I don’t think it’s all that important that I shared these things today. Except for the fact that I hope that you can find the time to search yourself for your own motivations. Things will happen in your life that will rattle you to the core of who you are. Sometimes life shakes so hard all you can do is cling to the 1-2 endearing facts that keep you from giving up.

    It will be worth it for you, for your long-term effectiveness, and for the trajectory of your life if you’d make time to drill down into the profound simplicity of this question:

    Why do you do what you do?

  • Manage Acceleration or Acceleration Manages You


    Back in college I had a job managing a group of machine operators. Part of my job was to make sure that the materials for the equipment were easily available to my team so that they could keep the machines running as much as possible. I taught my team to think of the machine as a cash register. When it stopped running the company stopped making money. With that simple mindset we were extremely efficient.

    Our materials came from various sources around the world, I purchased in bulk through a series of middle men, then stored the materials in our warehouse. In our department, we kept a small quantity and I would order replacement items on a regular basis and a different department would go get what I needed and bring it near our area of the warehouse and we would put stuff away.

    Typically, this was a smooth operation. But sometimes, like on a weekend or over a holiday, I would have to go out into the warehouse and get my own materials.

    Our stuff was densely heavy. So, I would take apart skids of materials on their shelves and put what I needed onto a very heavy hand cart one item at a time. Then I’d push as much as 1 ton of materials and put them away in our room.

    This cart was really cool in it’s simplicity. It had big steel wheels, heavy wood, and a massive steel bar for pushing or pulling.

    You know what was interesting about that cart? I could put thousands of pounds of materials on it, give it a big shove, and then walk along with it along the smooth concrete exerting very little effort. It took way more energy to stop it and start it than it did to just keep it going in a straight line.

    To keep that cart under control you had to find the right speed and apply an even amount of force. If you did that it was fine. If you didn’t apply enough force consistently you ended up working way too hard. But if you got going too fast… you would be out of control and you might not actually be able to stop it.

    I always feared that someone would walk out in front of me and I wouldn’t be able to stop the cart before it hit them. That never happened. But one of my co-workers did hit a very large steel post (buried in concrete) and bent it severely.

    That is physics in action. A giant mass doesn’t need to go very fast to apply a large amount of force against a stationary object.

    It is also a lesson in how momentum works. In order to keep moving with the least amount of effort, you have to apply a steady amount of force.

    I think the cart taught me a lesson way back that is easily applied to stuff I do today.

    Moving a lot of mass involves the right amount of force

    When I reflect on things that are out of control in my life… maybe I’m misapplying force? Maybe I’m going too slow and working to hard as a result? Maybe I’m going too fast and changing directions is just too difficult? And maybe I’m just not patient/disciplined enough to walk at the right pace or applying the right level of direction?

    Accelerate safely

    Too often, I have an attitude that I can do everything at once RIGHT NOW and all the time. And that means that things sometimes get out of control. Sadly, it also means that sometimes people get hurt.

    The role of friction

    The key to the cart working in the warehouse is that there’s very little friction between the steel wheels and the smooth concrete. That’s why its so important to keep the floor of a warehouse clean. Outside of the warehouse, friction is the variable in the equation that is not always under my control. In order to maintain momentum, I need to constantly monitor and deal with sources friction.

  • CONTEST: Cobra Pit Cleaner ad

    Sometimes I watch a YouTube video or read a news story and I wonder…

    “What would the Craigslist Ad look like for this?“

    Contest: Write a fake Craigslist ad for the gig featured in the video above. Make me laugh. Make me cry. Make me wince in pain. Just make it good.

    Rules: Keep it PG-13 or below. No more than 2 entries per person. I’ll narrow it down to 3 finalists on Monday and run a poll to pick the winner.

    Prize: $25 USD Amazon gift card. (If I get a lot of entries, maybe I’ll find more prizes.)

  • The Chronology of Holy Week

    Photo by KOREphotos via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    Have you ever tried to teach Holy week? It can be confusing to nail down the chronology. Looking at the narrative and laying it out against what we celebrate reveals that we might not be counting the days exactly the way the four Gospel writers counted days.

    • Palm Sunday – Jesus enters Jerusalem (Luke 19 – check)
    • Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – Jesus teaches at the Temple. (Luke 19:45-Luke 22:6 – check)
    • Maunday Thursday – Last Supper, praying in the garden, arrested, late night trials. (Luke 22:7-65 – check)
    • Friday – Further trials and Crucifixion (Luke 22:66-Luke 23)
    • Friday sundown – Saturday sundown – Nothing happened because it was Sabbath (check)
    • Sunday morning – Resurrection (Luke 24 – check)

    So what’s the problem? That all makes sense in the narrative once you work it out.

    The problem is that our written and oral tradition says that Jesus rose on the “third day.”

    The way we say (sing, read, write songs, print Easter cards) “three days later” would be Saturday, Sunday… Monday. That would imply that three days after Jesus died would be Monday, not Sunday morning.

    It’s confusing. So confusing that you find this story in today’s USA Today.

    As Christians worldwide prepare to celebrate Easter, they will follow a familiar chronology: Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and rose from the dead on “the third day,” in the words of the ancient Nicene Creed.

    But if Jesus died at 3 p.m. Friday and vacated his tomb by dawn Sunday morning — about 40 hours later — how does that make three days? And do Hebrew Scriptures prophesy that timetable?

    Even Pope Benedict XVI wrestles with the latter question in his new book, Jesus: Holy Week, about Christ’s last days. “There is no direct scriptural testimony pointing to the ‘third day,’” the pope concludes. read the rest

    The article goes on to propose how 40 hours can be called three days.

    Literalist – It’s 3 days because they counted Friday as Jesus died before sunset.

    Figurative – In those days “three days later” was a phrase of inexact length. Kind of like “See you in a few days.“

    Either one of those are fine with me. They both make sense.

    But here’s my last difficulty with calling it Holy Week. If Holy Week starts on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Sunday… it’s really eight days so it should be called “Holy Weeks.”

    No matter how you look at it, if Palm Sunday is included that’s two weeks!

    Bonus

    If you want to blow your mind today– check out the Wikipedia page on weeks. 5 day weeks, 10 day weeks… 3 day weeks! There’s a lot of ways to divide 365 days.

  • Lie to me, baby

    Maybe we are just a little too authentic in youth group?

    Last night, our high school ministry night met. We were down a couple of adults and up a few students. Actually, the night felt right at that balance between “out-of-control” and “in control” that is some of the secret sauce of youth ministry.

    As I struggled to push my table group through a Bible study they clearly weren’t interested in I was feeling a little heart tug in a couple of directions:

    • I need to push these students through this study on Psalm 19, this is God’s Word… and David was describing some really cool stuff they need to know.
    • I need to pull the plug and call an audible. There’s something serious going on that’s more important than Psalm 19 right now.

    Instead, I decided to just let it ride. We half-pushed our way through and half-let them stay easily distracted and unsatisfied. I resisted the urge to either side.

    I’ll never know if I did the right thing or the wrong thing. But I do know I came home deflated and frustrated. Again.

    Another time, another place

    I’ve been thinking a lot about the purpose of Tuesday nights in our group’s life. On the one hand, we want to “keep it real” and be authentically who we are. But my problems aren’t their problems. And my students already deal with more crap than they can work through in a lifetime. So I’m not sure “being authentic” about a lot of stuff is very helpful.

    Nearly all of my students have spent some time in foster care. Nearly all of my students have at least one member of family member who struggles with drug addiction. Only 1-2 students have a dad in their lives. More than half have experienced some level of physical or sexual abuse. Most scrape by academically.

    At 15 years old most of them have lived a lifetime of grief.

    At the same time they deal with all of the normal pressures, temptations, realities, and burdens of being a high school student.

    They don’t want to keep it more real. They want to keep it less real.

    Maybe instead of dealing with the realities of life… Tuesday night should be an escape from all of that?

    When you desperately need a new life “being authentic” just feels like you get dragged back into the quick sand you’ve just escaped.

    A little less authenticity replaced with a glimpse of Fantasia?

    Maybe Tuesday night would be better if it were kind of an other world experience? A healthy escapism? A place that intentionally disoriented students from their own reality and allowed them to escape to another reality for a night? A place in which at some point, on the way home, they questioned… was that even real?

    Maybe youth group should be more of an escape? Sure, one on one or in small groups or in other high trust situations… we can go there and deal with that stuff. But when we gather as a large group I’m questioning the value of creating an authentic experience when a fantasy one is so much more desirable.

    For discussion: I’ve used my own group as an example. But the reality is, youth ministry-wide, the pendulum has swung back and forth about youth group nights as a whole, about the youth worker being more authentic with their struggles, about sharing in small groups about life stuff vs. Bible study groups, etc. What do you think? Is it more useful for students to have a place of deep authenticity? Or is it more useful for students to have a place of escape to play, worship, and laugh?

  • 5 Simple Ways to be Good News This Week

     

     

     

    Photo by Steve Snodgrass via Flickr (Creative Commons) 

    Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Practically speaking, that means that going to church on Sunday and rocking a Christian bumper sticker isn’t enough.

    Here are 5 simple ways that your actions can be Good News this week:

    1. Personalize your convenience. Ask the store clerk where you go regularly for their name, begin to see them as a person with a story and not an object who collects your money or makes your double shot skim vanilla latte.
    2. Tip well and say thank you. No strings attached, just be a good tipper and look your server in the eye to express gratitude. (Learn more, Christians are Bad Tippers) [Conversely, if you see a Christian leave a tract as a tip, be Good News to servers worldwide and punch them in the face.]
    3. Sweat the small stuff. Did a coworker get a haircut or just come back from vacation? Make a few minutes to compliment them or look at their pictures. Or did your kids school get recognized for an achievement? Send the school’s principal a note expressing your appreciation. Noticing something small is huge.
    4. Mow a solid. Next time you mow your front lawn, go ahead and mow the front lawn you turn your nose up at. You know, the person who hasn’t figured out that Spring has sprung. Maybe, just maybe, that person has a really good reason they haven’t mowed their grass yet. Doing them a solid might open the door to hearing their story.
    5. Bless from excess. Next time you are out to eat and have leftovers, don’t just throw it away. Instead package it up as a meal for a homeless person. Add napkins, a fork, and a bottled water. Not all homeless people are hungry. But some definitely are. You don’t even have to wait until you eat out. Why not make an extra lunch and take it with you… just in case? (Read Under the Overpass for more on this.)

    Being God’s handiwork made new in Christ to do good works doesn’t mean you have to save the world. You don’t have to build a house to do good works. You don’t have to go on a mission trip or teach Sunday school to children.

    Small, simple things do make a big impact.

    Be Good News this week.

  • Video Tip: Consider the Background

    Check out what happens at :37. My guess is that something happened or maybe the person filming the piece wanted to change up the subjects angle or the lighting was just a smidge better… but they caught a recycle bin in the background.

    Drats. I hate it when that happens.

    You can usually get away with shooting something on the odd side of an office building or even back by the loading docks. Just make sure you look at the whole shot.

  • Shut up and drive

    Church Van
    Photo by Simon Abrams via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    People are showing up and I have a million things running through my mind.

    • Do I have all of my personal stuff?
    • Do I have all of the stuff we need that the church needs to bring?
    • Are all of my leaders here?
    • Did I double check fuel levels? What about oil changes, we good there?
    • Which students still need to turn in permission slips?
    • And those two students I was trying to convince to go at the last minute, are they going to show?
    • Did I print off directions? The other drivers hate it when I forget to do that.
    • Don’t forget the orientation before we leave.
    • Did I print the flyer for parents? If I don’t write down all of the details they will call me the whole time.
    • How will I start a meaningful conversation with someone new on this drive?

    These are the myriad of things rattling through my brain as students show up for an event. I have a tendency to think 2-3 steps ahead of what is presently going on. Early arrivers check-in and I barely even acknowledge them as I’m still lost in the mental checklists of a deeply analytical moment.

    And I’ve learned over the years that since I’m lost in those details it’s better to identify a couple of volunteers who can be fully present when students arrive with their parents. It’s better to allow them to greet trip participants, answer questions, and get their bag put in the right place.

    But there comes a moment in each youth group trip where I have to intentionally shift gears and turns off all of that forward thinking.

    Sometimes you just have to shut up and drive the van.

    That’s how I’m feeling about life right now. There are a myriad of things going on. Too many things to list and some far too personal or private to share. But each day I have to find a moment where I tell myself, “Just shut up and drive.”

    All of that future planning and strategy is great. But if I don’t shut up and drive forward, those plans and strategies will become regrets. And ultimately, intentions, plans, and strategies don’t mean squat. All that matters is results.

    Shut up and drive.