Category: YMX

Two posts in a row about a silly website? Sheesh. Anyway…

Since a bunch of people at YMX used Saturday as a "shutdown day" and statistically Monday’s are the slowest day for the site anyway… I took full advantage of that to give YMX a fresh new look. I’ve been wanting to do this for some time now and when I had heard about a shutdown day I instantly thought to myself, "What more perfect day could there possibly be to mess with the site?"

So, check it out. It added all the stuff I wanted, made it altogether look more sleek, and it’s much better CSS than the last one. (Which means it taxes the webserver less.)

Tim Schmoyer, formerly of Dallas and now a resident of the great state of Minnesota, mentioned YMX in a post called "Top 5 websites I use for youth ministry." He gave us a nice description… but the keyword for me is "use." It does us no good whatsoever if we have a nice site that people like unless they use it. There are plenty of products on the market… we don’t want to compete with them, but we want YMX to be completely useful for people in ministry. I’m glad some are feeling that way.

The popularity of our current series on YMX, Sex, is coming to a close. I’m proud of our authors and their willingness to talk about tough topic from a God-centered perspective. Some of the articles that we’ve published have been "middle of the road" while some have made cases for disagreeable positions that stirred up tons of discussion.  Clearly the site has taken a quantum leap forward in development.

So, March is nearly over… What’s Next?

In April we’re continuing to talk about tough topics. Our next series is called "Youth Ministries Dark Side." As I write this, articles are coming in which address stuff that knocks some of us right out of ministry. Politics, transitions, loss of a senior pastor, addressing issues of abuse, on and on. (Of course… we’ve got a pile of sweet interviews from musicians and artist… but that’s another story altogether.)

I’m in a fun seat at YMX. I get to see where we are at and where we are going. I get to see how the community responds to what is being written. I get to see how concerns raised today will be addressed providentially by articles published tomorrow. And I get the priveledge of hearing the stories of how the site is helping so many people serve Christ better.

One more cool  thing about YMX. We’ve been doing this site for about 16 months… and the original crazy diverse team who started are still together, still excited, and still looking towards the future of youth ministry.

There are actually very few pastors willing to talk frankly about masturbation. Jonathan Herron apparently is one of the few. Friday night we published an article called, Solo Sex, that has really been stirring the pot.

This series on sex in March is teaching me some stuff about the church. They are very curious. They are very willing to read. They are very willing to email an article. But very few readers will comment. I wonder why?

(more…)

You know… sometimes God’s people are just amazing. Just 2 days ago Derek and I published a little mini-manifesto about church’s not taking good care of their youth workers.

And people have begun giving. I mean, we don’t have our ducks in a row and people are giving. Other than saying… let’s raise $5000 to get us started helping people in tangible ways… we don’t know what else we’re doing. Well, we didn’t two days ago, we do now.

Last night, we agree to start a 501(c)3 charity to handle these funds and help youth workers. In fact, fellow administrator and friend, Patti Gibbons, will be heading that up. So YMX, LLC and this new entity will be completely seperate legally, but completely united in mission.

So, I’m praying for Patti as she weighs through mountains of paperwork. I only ask that people in youth ministry give. Give biblically, over and above what you give to your local church… but give. Likewise, if you can’t give… help us in raising funds to meet some needs.

Need a story?  This happened this week…

I come in after putting in a really good Wednesday night service with
the youth, to find that the pastor had been going around to the deacons
of the church and meeting with them privately about me.  The long story
short is that I was given the option of either taking a month’s
severance pay and leave immediately or to appear in front of the
deacons the next day who (according to the church’s really messed up
bylaws) had the power to send me packing with no severance.  With a
baby on the way, I obviously chose choice #1 and packed up my office. 

What
makes it worse is that I was not allowed to even come back for Sunday
morning to resign properly in front of the church.  I cannot come to
Wednesday night this week for a last message or anything like that.
Simply, that’s the end of my time with this church.
Now, I’m
finding out that there are people in leadership (deacons, etc) talking
bad about me now that I’m gone.  One youth emailed me saying that she
heard "many reasons why quit, but [she doesn’t] believe any
of them."

See… not every local church is as good as mine. I heard a great analogy that most churches treat staff the way people treat the couch in their living room. One day it’s the centerpiece of their house. The next day it’s out on the curb getting rained on.

Derek and I have felt like we needed to do this for a long time. We’re going to be championing the raising of some funds to help youth workers who are in need. We’re not trying to "be the church" so much as we want to "be the community" that goes beyond the local church’s reach.

The problem
Each month, we encounter a few youth workers whose church’s mistreat them. They may fire them and not offer severance. They may have their salaries cut. They may need to get counseling but can’t afford it or ask their church for help. On and on…

How can I help?

1. You can contribute
   financially to this fund. Like we’ve mentioned, there is absolutely
   nothing in this for us… we just want to help people in the youth
   ministry community.
2. You can post our widget (many sizes, color options) on your blog,
   myspace, facebook, or pretty much any other site. Please help us raise
   funds to help people displaced, bruised, or hurt by their local church.

The rules
I want to be really blunt. We don’t want anyone to give $1 to this fund if they are not giving biblically to their local church. We’re not doing this to circumvent any church, nor are we encouraging anyone to sin and withhold from their local church to help us. We’re serious about that, please… if you aren’t giving to your local church, please don’t give a dime to this fund. Seriously.

Legalese
Derek and I aren’t touching this money at all. Nor will YMX, LLC. This fund will be managed by some members. We’re working out the exact details of that right now, but just like in everything else with the site, Derek and I have removed ourselves from majority voting rights. In other words, we will not be in control of the distributions 100%, nor do we own the accounts. That said, we will seek independent review of the books on the hurting youth worker fund.

So far this month we’ve published a number of "sexy" articles. All of them represent a quantum leap in the quality of content that we’re offering. I spoke to a member on the phone Sunday afternoon who described YMX as "a collaborative effort far different from the typical youth ministry site." That’s a great compliment and clearly a person who gets what we’re all about.

Sex and the Single Pastor
Sex God, a review of Rob Bell’s latest book
How Far is Too Far? (Not my talk… this is detail driven!)
Reaching the Porn Generation, an interview with J.R. Mahon from xxxchurch.com

Just wait until we publish the really controversial ones, coming up.

We’ve actually had a nice response to this… YMX has gone into the web hosting business. So, if you need a host for your blog or would like to get your own www.yourdomain.com for whatever else, check out YMX Hosting.