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!
It’s been a big summer for Megan. At eight years old she has visited 19 of the 50 states. (By her age I think I had been to 3 states.) She got to go to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia this summer. Since she is my road trip girl she took all of this in stride. Hadly a complaint along the way. Long car rides, plane rides, ferry rides, and train rides don’t really phase her. They just make her hungry to learn more, see more, and explore more. She is like her mother in that she can quietly take everything in or read a book to pass the time. Her intelligence amazes me. I hope that we are broadening her horizons fast enough to whet her appetite.
My girl also has a spirit of adventure. While timid at first, she likes to go fast and isn’t afraid of skinning her knees. Both of our kids amaze me with their adaptation skills. Mom and dad have this crazy idea that they want their kids to grow up embracing diversity and looking eye-to-eye with the urban working-class poor. So it shouldn’t have surprised me that Megan loved our day with Jeremy Del Rio on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She played games and enjoyed a street fair there as if she’d lived there her entire life. Back home, we sent her to day camp with folks from the church where, again, she just jumped in and enjoyed the experience. On a more personal note, she proved that she is becoming a California girl… (1/4 of her life here, by the way) At the conclusion of day camp she went to the beach and learned how to surf. A couple weeks later she shocked up by learning to ride a bike in a single day. Then yesterday, the waves were perfect at Torrey Pines and she must have riden 25 waves in a row before giving up in exhaustion.
I guess I’ve always known this. Heck, I know I’ve been nuts a long time. But this weekend I got a lot of glimpses at just how crazy some youth workers are. In fact the craziest youth workers are volunteers who wil bring 45 kids from Kansas to Los Angeles for an event– by car– is absolutely insane. It’s one thing to do that for money. It’s an entirely new level of nuts to take your own vacation time to do that.
People who are faithful, full of the Holy Spirit, and willing to take big risks for the Kingdom of God often look crazy. It’s a good kind of crazy. It’s the kind of nuts that gets me excited.