I am 31 years old. I have done youth ministry, pretty much, since I graduated from High School.
And I still get jazzed about an all-nighter. I am pumped to hear that many of our students are not only coming but bringing friends.
In 30 minutes doors open. I’m ready. I hope they are.
Over the last few weeks I’ve had several people ask me about Youth Ministry Exchange. I don’t mean people from the community, I mean people from Romeo.
So here is the scoop.
Back in November-December 2005, I created a website with some friends of mine. It’s an online community for people like me… people who do youth ministry vocationally or as volunteers. Feel free to check it out, I’ve got nothing to hide.
What, were you bored?
Nope,just crazy. We just set out to meet a relevant need. From there God has blessed it and it’s taken off. In a lot of ways it’s taken a life of its own.
So it’s a place where people vent about their jobs or waste time at work?
While there is always that kind of thing at any online community (facebook, myspace, etc) there is actually very little of that. Most of what I participate in is practical advice, encouragement, and that kind of thing for people working/volunteering with youth groups like ours. I know for me personally, I don’t go to the site much during the day at all… well, unless I need advice on something at work! Like… I need an event and I’m looking for something cool… got any ideas?
What about all these other websites?
If you look on my sidebar to the right you’ll see a bunch of other websites that YMX owns. These are “sub-sites” that operate within the youth ministry genre but to a slightly different audience within youth ministry.
I heard you do web design “on the side,” is that true?
Yes and no. I do all of the church’s sites and all of YMX’s sites. But I’m not a professional web designer by trade so I always feel uncomfortable building other people’s sites. So, if you’ve got a project… just understand that as much as I like you… if it’s not for the church I’ll have to charge you and I’ll have to do it outside of my “work hours” at church or on a day off. Hints, discussion, advice are always plentiful and free!
Is it profitable?
This is the question that every person from the church wants to ask but is afraid to! Yes and no. Yes the site generates revenue and pays for itself. No, I don’t take a salary from the site. We simply reinvest profits into growing the site. Kristen and I are in it because we want to encourage other people…
Are you a solo act on this thing?
Nope. Never! Yuck. Boring. I have a great business partner. Also, I have an incredible group of moderators who oversee the “heavy lifting” part of the company, the forums. (1300 members and growing every day) The other thing we are getting known for is our youth ministry content. All of the credit for that goes to our managing editor. Seriously, Amy is awesome.
Is the goal for this website to become your job and for you to stop being a pastor at Romeo?
Not at all. The aim of the website was always to encourage other youth workers. I am more passionate about reaching this amazing generation of students here in Romeo than ever. As Kristen and I like to say… we have 28 years left on our mortgage so we intend on being here for a long time. We don’t know the future. Really, YMX is the result of responding the Holy Spirit’s prompting. Just like I love building into the lives of Romeo’s students, for some reason the Holy Spirit is directing us to build into the lives of youth workers around the country. The church is always #3 in my life. And YMX is generally a distant #4 or #5.
Last night’s small group was great.
That makes 3 “good time had by all” Light Force events in a row. With a sure winner on Friday night, we’re off to a good 2008.
I have an ultra-swanky Smartphone. You know, one of those devices you see people carry around and you think… I’d like to be surfing the internet too!
It takes 2 megapixel pictures, connects nicely to my Outlook, and a whole bunch of other nice features.
But there was one thing it didn’t do that I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve always wanted to be able to be able to use my cell phone’s mobile internet connection to hook up my laptop. You know, you’re out on a boat in the middle of the lake and you just can’t browse the internet or post to YouTube or even blog quite like you’d want to. More importantly, I’ve been traveling and needed to do important things on my laptop and not had access to wireless. (Or not wanted to pay $10 for crappy wifi at an airport or conference center.)
Well, now I can. I just installed a tiny program on my phone which allows me to convert my phone into a mobile wireless router. This means that for the extra $20/month that I pay AT&T for my mobile internet connection I can now use my laptop too. Sure, it won’t be blazing Wireless N or even Wireless G. But it is basically Wireless B.
This could even be a fix for folks who live rural and can’t get anything faster than broadband where they live. (Well, satellite… but that’s about the same speed as this for 1/2 the cost.)
If you have a Windows Mobile 6 equipped Smartphone. Go here and try it for yourself. It’s a free program too.
So next time you’re somewhere with me and you want to use your laptop to do stuff, just tell me to turn on my mobile router.
HT to Make Magazine
So, check this out.
This is side B of our exterior sign at the church. (Other side is “big church”) This is a revision… so feel free to give me feedback on it.
p.s. If you haven’t checked out the KidsTown site lately, it’s got a fresh new look. www.romeokids.com
p.p.s. So does the church site, www.romeochurch.com
Last night in Light Force we had our 3rd worship night. And they just keep getting better.
The first two I was really self-conscious about who was and wasn’t there. (Easy to do when only a couple people show up!) This one I was just focused on making it a great night.
We had a fun game to kick things off. (Ping pong baseball will be back!) Then Jimmy did a great job leading worship. I may be biased, but I think Jimmy is one of the better worship guys out there! Our students are lucky to have him and I hope they recognize how good a job he is doing.
For the talk I spoke from John 13. This was kind of a blend of a talk I heard from Andy Stanley at YS and a fantastic video that ESPN did on Tim Tebow, winner of the 2007 Heisman trophy. What I liked most about this talk (Ha! It’s my own talk, of course I like it) is that it started from a very positive angle… you are a person of power somewhere in your life… and helped students answer the question, “What do I do with the power I have?”
I know exactly how Chris Folmsbee feels. Chris is Chief Ministry officer at YouthFront and President of Sonlife. He’s a class act guy and is an excellent leader.
Part of being a leader is sticking your neck out. And Chris has done that. He put the nail the coffin of a great, but dying youth ministry model at Sonlife. (Sure, it gave birth to some of the great movements of evangelicalism but, as much as I loved it, was becoming a dinosaur.) Next, he closed Sonlife’s offices and joined forces with YouthFront. On top of all that he published a bold book called “A New Kind of Youth Ministry.” In all of these things he said and did things that were strategic, smart, and bold. And for a guy who sticks his neck out you have to expect that criticism would come.
Imagine the polarization of Christian leader Chris encounters! People either love what he is doing and think he is brilliant or think he is a complete failure who is ruining the good things they knew and loved.
I can imagine, as I’ve been in similar situations, how Chris gets tired of the criticism. And, more to the point, there is always a temptation to get on your high horse and blast a critic.
For a few months now someone has been emailing me a link to this review of my book: (not linking it intentionally) — Almost every week I get an email — sometimes a couple of times a week. It is wicked annoying. Read the rest of his post
Principle:
Leaders need to be careful how often they use their talents. Chris is gifted as a leader and is a great communicator. While it’s OK to be annoyed/hurt/pissed about this, he’s got to be careful not to lose his composure.
Here’s a temptation:
Ranting is addictive. When you break composure and let out that something has gotten to you, loads of people cheer you on. They see their own situations in your rant and encourage you. Furthermore, the economy of hate kicks in and your vent gets so much traffic, so many comments, and so much attention that you actually like the ego boost. So, you carefully and strategically do it again.
Was Chris wrong? No… I don’t think it was wrong to say what he said. Certainly, it is his space and he has the freedom to do as he wants. All I’m saying is that it’s a temptation to do it again. (I don’t think I’ve ever read a post like that on his blog, which is what made it so memorable)
When you are blogging, chatting in the foyer at your church, chatting with friends, or any other place in your life where people are listen to you, you need to be careful how you use the talents God has given you.
Because abused they can be powerful in destroying yourself and others.
Another quiet Saturday in the McLane house. I’ve got some super fun quick books work to do with YMX as well as some “de-Christmasizing” to do on All Access and YMX, but other than that I don’t have much planned this morning. Here are the next 10 tunes I’ll be listening too this January morning. As always, I’ll I’m doing is pressing shuffle on iTunes and giving you the next 10 songs without cheating, rating included.
In the coming weeks I’ve cleared my schedule a lot so that I can concentrate on two things more than I have in the recent past.
So here’s the deal. If you are a student or a parent and you would like to meet up to talk about Light Force… I want to hear from you. Got gripes? Got ideas? Got wants? Wanna share what’s been going on? Call me, email me, Facebook me, AIM me, whatever it takes… I’m trying to get in contact with you, you try to get in contact with me. Let’s get this bus moving in 2008. Let’s overcome obstacles. Let’s do what we need to do.
One dream I have right now is to have a regular group of people who meet weekly to pray for our students. Nothing would warm my heart more and highlight my weekly calender in “can’t miss red” better than that.