Category: YMX

Sometimes I worry that a lot of young ministers aren’t investing in their future because they are too worried about paying off school debt and other things. Since investing is one of my hobbies, I keep track of some money-oriented websites. I came across this question today and thought it was worth posting:

I opened a Roth IRA at my credit union, but now I’m confused. As I
understand it, my Roth, which the teller told me is "just like a CD,"
lasts only 23 months. Based on what I’ve read about Roth IRAs, however,
I thought you could put your money aside for a couple of decades. Does
the amount of time the Roth lasts depend on the financial institution
you open it with, or do all Roth IRAs expect you to decide periodically
whether you want to extend it?

If you don’t know the answer, click here. (Ask the Expert on CNNMoney.com)

There are a few thing I never had intended to do in my life that I’m both learning about and entering into at the same time.

1. Owning any sort of business. Stocks are easy to do because you can get some minor benefit of ownership and none of the work. Being a part of the YMX team has been really, really weird for me. There’s a steep learning curve and I’m trying to catch up. We think we’re doing well. Maximizing what we do good and minimizing our mistakes.
2. Going on tour. I have no idea how this came about, but there are some sketches of a plan for a YMX United 07 tour. More on that at another time… never even dreamed of that one. But this may actually make it from the dream stage to the real life stage.
3. Being a part of promoting something. There is a thing that we can’t talk about yet that YMX is helping promote. It may always be 100% "behind the scenes" promotion… but since I’ve never done it before we don’t know what to do our say about it. We just think it’s cool.

So there are 3 things that I’ve done in the past 6 months that if you had asked me 6 months and a day ago… I wouldn’t have imagined.

Well, it was a big kicker to learn that Youth Specialties has been acquired by Zondervan. Really all this seems to mean is that Karla sold her stake and Zondervan took it’s spot. In the short term this obviously means little… but down the pipe it would make sense that there will be some changes. (Afterall, any living entity changes!)

Not to be lost in all of this… their video press release is a riot! Marko and Tic Long are two funny dudes. It might be the funniest thing I have seen since lunch.

I don’t know how to explain this, but the last several days have been very encouraging for YMX. We’ve gotten all of our LLC paperwork and Federal ID stuff taken care of. I’m going to the bank tommorow to finish up the account set-up. So that is all very cool.

But we’ve also gotten a lot done with our advertising. As of right now, 80% of our years advertising has been booked. How cool is that?

I really consider myself a nobody on the landscape of youth ministry in America. Afterall, while I think Light Force is pretty cool… we’re not exactly bringing in Switchfoot or David Crowder just for fun. We’re just a small group of people who get together and focus on changing our little world… but we also have plans to take over the world! With that in mind, it’s fun to hear from and meet with or chat with people who only know me through YMX. It’s doubly fun because most youth workers are just really cool people.

But occasionally I get weird contact too. One of these days I’ll list them… but let’s just say now I get the occasional "fan letter." I just got one today that closely resembles SPAM… but perhaps it isn’t, who knows?

I’m pretty stoked about this. YMX launched to fill a void when Youth Specialties shut their forums down back in June. Some alternative boards popped up, but all of them were freebie forums and the quality wasn’t quite there in my opinion. So, long story short, Marko (YS’s President) was interacting with some YMXers on our forums and decided that he’d re-direct people looking for the YS forums to the YMX forums. How cool is that?

— while ys was ‘thinking about whether to bring the forums back or
not’ — and had mostly, but not completely, decided to NOT bring them
back, ymx sprang up.  it’s clear that ymx is a great space for this
forum purpose; and somehow (because it’s not connected to YS?  because
it’s just a fresh start, a clean slate?) there doesn’t seem to be the
tiring nastiness and argumentitive-ness that had become so
characteristic of the ys forums.  so, now that ymx exists, why should
we even bother to consider bringing the ys forums back?  this space is
fantastic, and this need is met (frankly, being met better than when we
were doing it); so why would we do that?  frankly, a "business
decision" (which a few of you seem to think is the driver around ys)
would say, "let’s start ours back up and obliterate ymx, we need the
forums to drive traffic on our site so people will buy things!"  but
that’s not the way we think or work around here. [From the YMX forums]

And this is what the YS forums now say… "The YS Forums are offline. If you’d like to continue to connect with other youth workers, you can visit the YMX Forums" [Here’s the link]

That is very cool!

So yesterday I went to this "big meeting" down in Livonia for youth workers. Why is it that I always feel so dwarfed by the egos of youth pastors? Even though rule #1 of the meeting was that we weren’t allowed to talk about "numbers" or size of churches, it was still very clear who the "haves" and who the "have nots" are. It is abundantly clear that being here in Romeo still has me firmly labeled as "have not" in the Detroit area.

I suppose this is a good time to remind myself that I know who I am and my self worth is not determined by what my peers think or don’t think of me. And another thing… while I will shamelessly plug the name of who I stand for, I absolutely refuse to plug my own name and to stand up and proclaim how great I am. Adam McLane is now and will always be nothing in comparison to the great name whom I serve.

I’m not saying that I won’t go back to another meeting like this. I am just saying that I left feeling really quite small and did not feel "more connected" or "encouraged" or "better resourced."

In a few minutes I’ll be taking off to go down to Livonia for the first Detroit Metro Youth Workers lunch.

The big idea is the brain child of Jason Raitz. The idea is strikingly similar to YMX… people who do youth ministry are unique and their task is specialized enough where they don’t naturally connect with one another. Jason writes, "I have tried to forget about it, trust me, but God keeps planting dream of what a safe, healthy community can look like for youth workers from all over the Detroit Metro area. The goal is to build community for youth workers where they can be loved, cared for, resourced and encouraged.”

So I am going today with dual purposes. My primary purpose is for me… I know that I need to be better connected with people who do what I do and live like I live. I mean, can I get enough love, care, resourcing or encouragement? Can I possible get full in those areas?

My secondary purpose is to tell people about YMX. The same reality exists all over the country that exists here in Detroit. Most youth workers feel unconnected with other youth workers. They don’t have people to connect with, share with, get ideas from, or just shoot the breeze with. That is where YMX comes in… and I am always happy to tell people about that! Plus, we’ll be giving away a nice door prize… so that is cool.