Category: The Youth Cartel

  • Join us for Open Seattle

    I’m getting really pumped for Open Seattle next week. If you live in the Pacific Northwest we’d love to have you. Yesterday, we extended the regular registration deadline until next Monday– so you can still get in for $25!

    What’s Open Seattle?

    Open is an experiment. It’s asking the the youth ministry world the question… “What would happen if we completely flipped the script on a youth ministry training event?”

    • What if a national organization gave leadership to local organizers?
    • What if front-line youth workers were favored in speaker selection over those on the speaking circuit?
    • What if we took chances instead of playing it safe on the stuff we present?
    • What if The Youth Cartel didn’t have to fly its name out front, but instead lifted up the names of its partners?
    • What if none of the speakers got paid? What if I didn’t have to get paid to help organize it… I just did it for a fair share?
    • Speaking of money, what if a local YM charity was benefited financially?
    • Heck, what if we just posted the full event budget online for anyone to see?
    • Why not record everything and then share all the sessions with the community on a central website… so no matter where you live you can have access to training resources and the freshest ideas out there on the ground?
    • What if we perfected the thing and just kind of open-sourced THE WHOLE THING so we can help people who have been to one organize one themselves?
    My hope for the answer to all of those questions is… I think that the best ideas will be given a voice. My hope is that when front-line youth workers get an opportunity to share what they know and even their big, crazy ideas with a group of people just like them… that it’ll spur on more ideas and spark new innovations with the net result that we’ll reach more teenagers with the Good News.

    So yes, it’s an experimental thing. Originally there was a lot of risk. It was really hard to explain the overall concept to the first few partners– Jeff at SPU, Brian Aaby at YouthMark, Mark Moder at Youth Dynamics. But as we kept talking about it this idea really took off. They made the idea even better.

    At this point in preparation– I’m not feeling this is as big a risk anymore. Actually, when I look at the people who are presenting and the folks who are coming I don’t see a lot of risk. Now I just see an awesome, affordable, innovative event. 

    We’ve got two tracks of learning. One is training, it’s full of great stuff as a refresher for the paid person and covering a lot of bases for your volunteers. The second track is all about ideas. It’s got some stuff in there that’ll cause you to scratch your head or write stuff down or just plain want to wrestle the speaker at the after party.

    For $25 You Get

    1. 16 sessions
    2. A free t-shirt
    3. The ability to say you were at the very first one of these. (We’ve got two more planned for this school year, one in Boston and one in Paris.)

    In 2013-2014 we hope to add 6 more of these as we beta test the concept… 4 more in the United States, 1 more in Europe, and 1 Lord willing, in Canada.

    I hope to see you next weekend on the campus of Seattle Pacific University. And if you can’t make it there, I hope to see you at an Open event soon.

  • Come Dream with Us in Atlanta

    The season of youth ministry, from 2007 – 2012, has been an extremely difficult time for those in vocational youth ministry. There have been a couple of major forces at play which have left our tribe discouraged, shell-shocked, and struggling to dream about what’s next for their ministry.

    • Going into the recession there was a lot of re-thinking of youth ministry going on, both from those who were in youth ministry and [more importantly] those who were making decisions about continuing to fund it. As thousands learned… this meant that many churches were ready to pull the plug and try something else.
    • Many churches were unprepared to handle the economic downturn. They had expanded their budgets during good times and been slow to respond when the recession hit. I can’t tell you how many youth workers got sucker punched by a budget cut that included their salary and their ministry. Too many wonderful youth workers are left sitting on the sidelines and asking God, “Um, what happened?”

    If you’ve made it. If you’re still in this thing. And if you know in your gut that God has called you to youth ministry (even if you don’t have a job in a church anymore) than you are probably like Marko and I… ready for the next season to begin.

    Dreamers Wanted

    We are hopeful. We believe that the best days of youth ministry are yet ahead. And we think it’s time to come together and dream, celebrate, get refreshed, ideate, and ask God to reveal to us what this next season of youth ministry should look like for each of us.

    We don’t pretend to have all the answers. In fact, we’re more convinced than ever that there isn’t “an answer” but instead “many answers” to leadership in this new season.

    The Summit is a celebration of this hopefulness.

    We’re bringing together 18 presenters– all high quality leaders, some of whom you know and some of whom you don’t know, and asking them to present a series of short 15 minute-ish talks as we look at where we’ve been as a tribe, where we are at today, and what’s possible in this amazing life calling.

    But it’s not just talking heads. There will be time to interact with people like you. There will be time to interact with the presenters. And there will be time to interact with the Holy Spirit as you get out of your normal routine and ask God to help you dream new dreams about your ministry.

    Why Am I Talking About This?

    The Summit is on my mind a lot right now because our early bird deadline for registration is this Friday at midnight. Since we announced it in the Spring we’ve heard from lots and lots of people that they love it and want to be a part of it. Well… it’s time to be a part of it!

    We’ve got some great incentives for you to register by Friday.

    • Registration prices go up by $20 on Saturday, so you save money by registering early.
    • You’re automatically entered to win an iPad from The Youth Culture Report. (This is a different contest than the one on our Facebook page.)
    • You’ll get MP3’s of all the presentations for free after The Summit.

    Yes, I’m asking you to attend. Yes, I may be asking you to rearrange your schedule a little. Yes, I might be asking you to spend money you hadn’t planned on spending.

    Yes to all of that. And thank you.

  • OpenYM.org – When my dream starts to become our dream

    It’s hard to put a finger on when Open started to become a dream. I can remember having conversations with Kristen in 2006 about the glass ceiling within the youth ministry world. The majority of the speaking/writing/training opportunities went to a relatively small group of people.

    Sadly, even though I’ve since joined the ranks as “one of those people” there still isn’t a true, mechanical and democratic, way for folks on the front lines of youth ministry to get their ideas heard. There is lots of desire within the youth ministry world to hear from new voices. And there is lots of desire from folks doing ministry on the local level to share their ideas. But the path to connect those two groups has been fuzzy, at best.

    That’s really the genesis behind Open. How do we connect those two groups in a way that helps the whole community?

    That’s really been a dream of mine. When I talked about it I got a lot of nodding of the head and people would say, “Yeah, that’s really interesting.”

    It was my dream. And it wasn’t catching.

    Then last Fall something awesome happened. I started to talk to people about it who did more than nod their head. They’d stop me and go, “Hey, just a second. Let’s add ___ into this. This is exactly what we’re looking for.”

    I put together a little white paper and started to shop it around to people who loved that conversation. And it spread.

    That idea has started to go from an idea that Adam had to an idea that many people in our tribe have.

    So here’s how it’s rolling out…

    Alpha test – Proof of concept

    In this phase, I’m very involved. It’s my baby and I’m helping at every step of the way to make sure that the first 3 Open events are what I’ve been dreaming about.

    Those first 3 locations are:

    I hope to see you at one of those 3 first ones. Of course, everything will be recorded and shared with the YM community on openym.org for those who can’t quite make it to an Alpha test city. (for free!) But it’s awesome to see people coming from all over to check it out, too!

    Beta test – Refine the concept

    With the 3 Alpha cities rolling… Later this fall I’ll start to get serious about the next 6 cities. My hope is to add 4 new cities in the United States, one Canadian city, and an additional non-North American city.

    I’m talking to folks in about 10 U.S. cities for what those 4 additional cities might be. Of course, I’m “open” to consider a bunch more. So if you’re in a metro area and are interested… let me know.

    The goal for the Beta phase is really to work out the bugs and start to get things into a plan that anyone can follow. My hope is that of those first 9 cities that most of them will keep rolling and birthing new Open’s all over.

    For instance, let’s say that some people from Portland come to Open Seattle and really dig it. So they come back with an eye on… “How do we do this in Portland to benefit our area?”

    That’s the my dream becomes your dream moment, right? And that’s why we’re doing the next phase.

    Production – Out in the wild

    After the alpha and beta test phases are done in 2013, early 2014. My plan is to document all the how-to stuff and release Open to the youth ministry world as a free, open-source regional training event.

    So, just to be clear, if you’re interested in hosting Open _____ (your city) than you’d need to come to a couple of the Alpha/Beta test cities. Maybe come to one as an attendee or speaker, then come back to one as someone who wants to be a host… because if I know that I’ll make sure you see how the whole thing works! Then, as long as you’ve seen it and get the vibe of it, you can get approved to host one yourself and I’ll work with you to develop the partnerships, find the location, and help you promote it.

    This is fun

    I’m an idea guy. And I’m having fun watching as Open takes on a life of its own. It’s morphing, improving, and getting more awesome as it goes from a “me dream” to a “we dream.”

    What is it going to take to convert your dream to our dream? 

    photo credit: dreaming of cotton candy skies by K Nicoll via Flickr (Creative Commons)

  • 10 Things I’m Excited About for The Summit

    The Summit: A chat with some of the presenters from The Youth Cartel on Vimeo.

    With just over 100 days until The Summit, I thought I’d share 10 things I’m excited about.

    1. The theme. After the insanity of the past 3-4 years, the idea of linking arms– taking a big, deep breath, and looking at where we are at and where we need to go. Gosh, that’s so needed.
    2. Awakening dreams. Each of us in youth ministry went into this thing with some dreams. To have 2 days to intentionally awaken them, spurring them into action? Bring it on.
    3. An incredible line-up of presenters.There’s depth in this line-up. We have a wide variety of leaders from a wide array of background… it’s broad in that aspect but really, really specific in its aim to elevate youth ministry.
    4. A fresh schedule and approach. Yes, the main sessions are very much TED-like. There will be 5-6 presenters, a couple surprises, and a theme. But I also love that we’re creating feedback space when you can go and connect with presenters. No one is zipping in and out. Our presenters are coming to help you become a better leader.
    5. It’s in a church! I think events like this belong in churches. Plus, Josh and the kind folks at Fellowship are a blast.
    6. It’s cheap. $129 for groups and $149 for 1-2 people… when you compare that to any other event… it’s a great value for what you’re getting. Plus, it’s just 2 days… so you can do 1 night in a hotel instead of 3-4.
    7. Really fun partners. Oh baby, our partners are making The Summit even more fun for everyone. We’ve got some great giveaways and surprises coming.
    8. Marko & Adam unleashed. Over the past year I’ve heard over and over again how cool our partnership looks. Well, come to The Summit and you’ll see it on full display.
    9. My favorite people. We’re a small business and Marko and I are very involved in every aspect of The Summit. Each time someone buys a tickets we’re like… “OH YES! ____ is coming!” I know that sounds cheesy, but the room is going to be full of really cool people.
    10. It’s new. I mean, I like new. Don’t you?

    How can you help? Here’s 2 things we really need at this stage in the game.

    1. Register now. I know the deadline for the early bird rate isn’t for another month… but if you are coming it helps us the most if you buy your ticket now.
    2. Help us promote it. Our biggest weakness is our size. We know this is a great event. But we just don’t have a big marketing budget. (This is directly related to our price, by the way!)

  • Scenes from the Revolution

    I’m working on 3 hours of sleep. Again. No eloquence this morning, it’s all pain!

    This is what the front line of a revolution looks like. Tired, exhilarating, fast moving, and sometimes scary.

    Oh baby, here’s stuff that is happening right now.

    • I’m pretty close to helping Parentzilla.com relaunch. Combined with Parentministry.net and another site slated for later this month, Jeremy Lee is making very impressive steps into online ministry this summer. And I’m happy to help him behind the scenes in both strategy and development.
    • Sunday night, I wrapped up a round of edits on a book I co-wrote with Marko, A Parent’s Guide to Understanding Social Media. It was the first time I read it from start to finish. (And first time I’ve written a book of this length!) As reluctant as I was to do the book thing, dang this is such a good resource for parents.
    • I’ve been working with the organizing team for Open Seattle to try to nail down speakers/line-up. When I launched Open I kind of had this wild dream that we could flip the script on youth ministry training events. Yup, verified that.
    • The early bird deadline for the Middle School Ministry Campference is this Sunday. There’s a lot of movement happening behind the scenes on that one. Gonna rock.
    • We’ve begun work on layout and design for a couple Cartel books. I’m enjoying both learning that process and having discussions about how we can revolutionize the publishing relationship. Of course, it helps that the books are really cool.
    • We hired a bookkeeping service yesterday. This is a weird sign of growth… but is reflective of the level of complications things have gotten to, in an absolutely beautiful way.
    • I had some amazing conversations yesterday with folks about everything from small events to big projects that will continue moving this revolution.

    8 hours of meetings and 10 hours of work… didn’t make for a great night of sleep but did make for a soul filling day.

    It’s spreading and gaining momentum. Join us in reimagining youth ministry in new ways.

  • Freebies for registering early – The Summit

    This week we opened registration for The Summit. This is our brand new, TED-like, national youth ministry event. [Here’s the announcement]

    And, as excited as I am about The Summit, this post isn’t really about the event itself so much as it’s about the type of ministry organization we want to be.

    Here is a phrase from the announcement:

    We have lots of freebies to reward you for registering early. Why? Because we think early adopters should get the most rewarded. (Duh!)

    You might not know this but that is an upside down methodology within the marketing world. For instance, I get regular emails from Southwest Airlines offering me great deals from San Diego to the places I visit most often. But why is Southwest offering me those special prices? Because the market isn’t buying them at their regular fare price, so they’ve discounted them to try to entice me to buy low. And it works! I’ve actually booked trips I wouldn’t have booked simply because the flight cost was so low!

    But, for me at least, I would like to think about The Youth Cartel as the type of organization who rewards our most loyal folks with the best possible deal. We’ve done it in some small ways by offering pre-order specials on books and curriculum and gotten a great response.

    For The Summit — we’ve ramped that WAY UP to make it so that the people who register first get the absolutely best deal on price & rewards. Our early bird price is valid all the way through August but if you register in May you’re going to get all sorts of stuff for free that people who register in September won’t get. (Or will have to pay for.)

    • An invite to our private Friday night after party
    • A vote for who gets to speak in the soapbox session
    • Video downloads of every session
    • One registration to a pre-event session
    • Entered in a raffle to win things like… free lodging, car rental, and other fun stuff we’ll dream up.
    • MP3 downloads of every session
    And then, as we get closer to the event these rewards start to go away. So folks who register now get the best possible deal and those who wait get a little less.

    So that’s my theory. What do you think? Is it a crazy theory? Do you think it’s better to go the traditional way and discount stuff when it doesn’t sell?

    And… are you planning to attend The Summit? We’re hearing from youth workers all over who are planning to come, which is rad! Are you registered yet? If not, what are you waiting for?

  • Engaging with the Faith-Based Community

    Here’s the Keynote for my Boost Conference presentation later today. You can also download a PDF of this presentation & a PDF of all the raw data from my recent survey, Church Involvement in Public Schools, by clicking the link below. (free)

    [download id=”21″]

    Thanks to all who helped with the research portion of this presentation. I love having fresh insights to share!

     

  • The Open Manifesto

    There aren’t many places in the church where all ideas have the same opportunity to be presented. Everything is editorialized, shaped, and packaged. Every idea is filtered through a lens.

    We think something is wrong with that. Deep in our souls we know the solutions to the problems we face today are already out there, waiting to be discovered.

    Open is just that. Open. The Youth Cartel sets the table, plays host, and invites anyone and  everyone who has an idea to the table for a day where we all have equal value for our ideas. Whether you are a big dog with 20,000 people writing down your every word, a college student with some crazy ideas, or somewhere in between, the table is open–we will give you your shot and equal time to share your idea.

    Now that doesn’t mean you will automatically be appreciated or celebrated. It’s an open table and you have the chance to play with the big boys. There will be winners and there will be less-than-winners. Just like everyone has the same shot, everyone undergoes the same scrutiny. The point isn’t that everyone will be equally received, the point is that anyone can have the platform.

    No one gets paid to present at Open. Why? That wouldn’t be fair, would it? Those making presentations submit a proposal and chances are good that if they’ve got something to say that’s on topic, they will get a shot. Their only compensation is the chance to present their ideas, and free entry to the day.

    So what does it cost? We’ve kept it as simple as possible. Tickets start at $25 for the day. If we sell out early then that’s it. But as we get closer to the day, tickets will naturally get a little more expensive.

    True to the premise of Open, we aren’t out to make a lot of money. We are splitting any proceeds for the day equally with a local organizer and a local ministry recipient. We think that’s fair, and we will be 100% open about the money so you know who has made what.

    From top to bottom we want Open to be a different type of event. We set the table, invite all, and provide a day where the best stuff filters to the top. Why? Because we trust you. We are in this together. We care deeply about impacting the Kingdom and we know you do too. And we know that low control, high trust openness is the way to get there.

    Join us.

    Being your ideas, bring your voice, and let’s dream.

    Backstory

    This is the driving document for Open Seattle, a new youth ministry event we just announced today. This is the first of what I hope will become a movement of Open events which gather all over to collaborate, celebrate, and innovate within our beloved tribe of youth ministry. The plan is to do two more as an alpha test, one in the Northeast and one in Western Europe. (Hosting info)

    A fun story about this manifesto is that I wrote it about 6 months ago. I kind of woke up with this from a dream. It was one of those things that dragged me out of bed and I typed it as fast I could. For weeks I had been thinking about Open, I’d had conversations with about a dozen people about it, but I couldn’t put the whole thing into words until that morning. It’s crazy how creativity works. Sometimes you have to dig to find it and other times it attacks you and you just try to keep up.

     

  • Good News in the Neighborhood curriculum now available!

    Early this morning I finished final edits and uploaded the final version of my latest project: Good News in the Neighborhood, a curriculum for groups. (Check out the trailer in the sidebar to the right)

    I’m very proud of how it turned out. As I think back to the original brainstorms and ideas for this product I don’t think I could have imagined it’d turn out this cool. Jon and I worked our brains off pushing through this content, finalizing edits and writing content as late as yesterday! The leaders PDF turned out to be 52 pages and about 18,000 words. This thing is beefy!

    Here’s the description:

    This 6-week series will deep dive your students into the practical realities of a radical life with Jesus. Built around six themes of community life, students will gain an understanding of their role in their community and be challenged by a series of simple experiments they can try. More than a series that teaches your students about being Good News in their community, Good News in the Neighborhood offers practical application based on the life of Jesus and the 1st century Church. Our hope is that your students begin to see how God has called them to become good news in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods.

    Who is it for? It’s for groups. It’ll most naturally fit with high school and young adult groups (college). But I would totally do this with my adult small group. In all honesty, I’d preach this as a sermon series!

    Now the really exciting part… people actually using it! 

    So that’s my excitement this Monday morning. As Marko just pointed out, my first book!

    Do me a huge favor and buy this sucker for your group, your youth pastor, your pastor, or even yourself.  

     

  • 5 reasons I’m stoked about The Summit

    Later this morning we’re officially announcing a brand new youth ministry event called, The Summit. Obviously, it’s a pretty big deal for our little start-up. So I’m excited about it for all sorts of business-y reasons.

    But I’m stoked about The Summit for far more important reasons than business stuff.

    1. We need to dream again. We’re a tribe of dreamers. Since the beginning of youth ministry we have been a body of folks bound by our eternal optimism. But the past few years have taken the wind out of us. We’ve gone into survival mode and it’s time  to shake out of it. Oh, I’m longing to be in a room of people exploring what could be instead of what is impossible.
    2. It’s unlike anything else in youth ministry. It’s true that there are a good number of youth ministry events out there. Creating this one wasn’t a thumbing of the nose at any of them. Instead, we really think that this format/style/vibe is something missing from within our tribe.  We’re taking a big risk on this because we think that’s true. Now we’re asking you to take this risk and join us in figuring out if we’re right.
    3. Electric things happen when you mix these folks with a pile of youth workers. This thing has a crazy awesome line-up of thinkers. Just like the Extended Adolescence Symposium, we wanted to create a day we’d really like to attend. As the line-up has taken shape I just kept going back to look at it. Wow, it’s a group of crazy people who are changing things. (Crazy in my language is good!)
    4. This thing could birth some stuff. Looking at the theme and topics, I’m really hoping that people don’t just consume this thing but that they really are stirred by it to advance Kingdom stuff.
    5. It’s a work in progress. I’ve never announced an event that was intentionally incomplete. But that’s what we’re doing. We’re talking to a pool of people but we aren’t quite sure who we want to add in what session. Don’t touch the walls, we’re still painting!

    Question: What feels new about The Summit? What doesn’t feel new?