Category: YMX

For lack of a better place to keep my draft picks… here they are.

1. Shaun Alexander (RB, SEA)
2. Hines Ward (WR, PIT)
3. Ben Rothlessberger (QB, PIT)
4. Thomas Jones (RB, CHI)
5. Chicago (DEF)
6. Marc Bulger (QB, STL)
7. Andre Johnson (WR, HOU)
8. Chris Cooley (TE, WAS)
9. Chris Brown (RB, TEN)
10. Brett Favre (QB, GB)
11. Reggie Brown (WR, PHI)
12. Byron Leftwich (QB, JAX)
13. Joe Jurevicius (WR, CLE)

More as the rounds go on.

Today I had some spare time. So I spent my morning and most of the afternoon toying around with the design and feel of YMX. At the end of all that, there really isn’t much to show for my efforts… but I’ve got some ideas.

The site continues to do well, but I really feel like it’s plataeued as a "survival and indie-looking" site and we really need to take it to the next level of a professional-looking site. Websites, unlike blogs and other things in life, really and truly have a first impression area.

People come to the site and have to immediately decide if they are going to be a part of it. They say

1. "is it attractive?"
2. "Is it easy to navigate?"
3. "Is it worth my time here?"

That last one is the hardest to make happen by far (content, content, content)… and I actually think this is the highest quotient of the three for our site. We’ve got content that helps people in ministry every day.

My guess is that the site continues to grow despite an awkward interface and an awkward design because people are finding it very useful. But, we can’t continue to assume that our benefits of coming will always continue to lead new people to the site… and with the first two on that list can be fixed with some creativity, time, and money. We should be and will be looking to fix the first two things on that list while we continue to keep #3 going.

Of course, time and money are two things I am distinctively lacking in. But that’s beside the point.

In the last two weeks YMX has seen an increase in the amount of spammers joining the forums and trying to post their junk.

This is annoying in a couple of ways. First, no one wants to see ads for Cialis and porn sites in the prayer section. (Why is it that spammers only post there?) Second, it’s starting to become a pain in the neck to go through the ban process. (I had 10 of them to do when I woke up this morning. That’s a lot of IP, user name, and email address banning for one morning.)

That said, I am banning the purchase and distribution of the food Spam in my house for one year. Until this rash of spammers goes away, my family will just have to find another ham substitute to eat.

Just a note for users of YMX. Our web host is experiencing a massive power failure. At this point, we know nothing about when we can expect to have the site up. If I know anything I’ll post here.

This is highly unusual as the host that we use has about 160,000 sites hosted with less than 1% of downtime annually. Again, sorry for any inconvenience.

I’m not talking about the people. The people of YMX are always amazing and forgiving. But the site itself is acting weird. For some reason there are all kinds of errors coming up.

I shouldn’t whine since the site has been nearly maintenence free all year… but it’s still annoying. I’ll be workin’ on it Saturday.

I won’t be shy. I wanted to take Light Force to DCLA this year. But on the heels of a lot of other projects it just wasn’t possible.

I was glad to hear that the first installment went so well, that YS seems to be doing a great job with it, and that 3Story continues to effectively teach people about evangelism in our culture. (Read the review here)

A few weeks ago a Catholic member of YMX called me some names and said I was intolerant. Honestly, those are daggers sent out foolishly because they only inflict harm without attempting to fix anything. Certainly, those accusations (which were a cyclical arguement whose logic proved themselves wrong: Calling a person intolerant for having different views from yourself is actually a form of intolerance!) were meant to belittle me as inferior, blah blah blah. I just chose to overlook those daggers thrown, it’s really not a big deal.

So, I’m a glutton for punishment and I responded to another thread in the forums about Vatican II, specifically the document on Ecumenism. (Just a disclaimer to my friends: YMX exists to love, support, and encourage those who love, support, and encourage today’s amazing adolescents… so we’re not stuck on doctrinal differences… we unite in our love for today’s student’s.)

So here is my response:

OK, well I’ve left this alone for a while hoping more conversation would spur on. While I see how VII has changed the RCC (much to some dismay who are still in denial that it’s a good thing) I don’t think some of the reforms went far enough IMO.

As an evangelical, the one document that speaks out to me is The Decree on Ecumenism. I love the first paragraphs but I quickly depart from the document when I get further into it.

Just for the sake of conversation and understanding that I’m not trying to be argumentative or disruptive or "a hater," I just depart on some areas of the document.

1. Peter and his succesors as head of the united church. Obviously, protestent church history doesn’t teach this to be true. We’re not going to solve this here… but it’s been a point of division for more than 400 years, in my western civ classes it was pointed out that this was divisive for much longer than that. So protestant’s and catholics are likely to disagree on that topic indefintely.

2. Point 3 clearly accuses both protestant and orthodox Christians of the sin of seperation. It starts off by saying this was mutual "both side to blame" but then condemns the people they are trying to unite by saying "who grow up believing in Christ cannot be accused of the sin involved in the separation." Specifically, this fails to acknowledge that the Reformers acted righteously in seperated from a corrupt papacy. Protestants still hold that Luther’s claims were valid and this document calls Luther’s actions "sinful." So we are likely to disagree on that topic indefinitely.

3. Protestants do not acknowledge the following statement as true "For it is only through Christ’s Catholic Church, which is "the all-embracing means of salvation," that they can benefit fully from the means of salvation." Protestants beleive that salvation comes from grace alone. (Ephesians 2:8) We’re likely going to disagree on this point until the cows come home.

I’m not a theologian or church historian… I’m no expert. (So please be careful, speak slowly to me!) But I know when I read this document I disagree on many points. The overarching reason I don’t think many protestants have not embraced this document resolve around the three issues I’ve raised. It "feels" like the document exists to encourage Catholic leaders to try to "bring back" these groups who have seperated from the Catholic church. However, it doesn’t deal with the reasons these people seperated. Until it’s abundantly clear that these groups seperated for valid reasons and an open repentence for those reasons comes from the RCC… there will likely be no great effort to seek "unity."

Last thing. While here in the United States this discussion can take place peacefully and a place like YMX is perfect because we’re not coming together here because we agree theologically… we’re here because we share a common denominator of loving students… it must be acknowledged that there are places where the dialogue is not happening peacefully and these documents have led to fire and brimstone coming from RCC and protestant pulpits alike.

So, these are my thoughts. Hope they help spur on more discussion.

I am continually impressed by the success of YMX. Not only has the site continued to add members… we’ve also continued to get excellent articles and resource reviews submitted by our members.

Amy’s review of the new Caedmon’s Call CD is the perfect example. Not only are we happy to give it "top billing" on the site, it’s also got a link directly on the Caedmon’s Call website. (Of course, I love the new "listen now" feature on the site. Having streaming audio rocks!)

It’s very exciting to be a part of people find their voice in the world of youth ministry. It’s my position that some of the greatest minds in the church today serve adolescents… I hope that continues for a long time to come.

Last night YMX reached a big milestone. 400 members. Barely past it’s 6 month anniversary, we’re excited about our growth rate. May has been a gangbuster month so far… pretty cool.

There are several new developments that are right on the cusp of being able to talk about. Cool times for this little site and it’s community.