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Heading to Cincinnati for the National Youth Workers Convention

Finishing up some work stuff today and getting ready to head to the National Youth Workers Convention in Cincinnati this weekend.  I'm looking forward to being there but also have a bit of trepidation because there seem to be a lot of unknowns about the future of the organization right now.  But, this is an event that I've gone to for the last 15 years and it always feels like I'm at a place where I belong.  I'll be working as a consultant meeting with youth workers to talk about their ministries, churches and help them wade through any issues they might have that I can help with.

Here's a top 10 list of what I'm excited about this weekend.

1. Seeing Friends-  Most of my friends do youth ministry.  Many will be there. I like my friends.

2. Being Validated- Even though I have a great church where youth ministry is a huge priority it's still nice to be around an organization and people who get it when I tell them what I do and that this is all I want to do and I'm not just waiting to be a senior pastor or get a real job.

3. Getting re energized-  It's funny to think that a weekend without much sleeping and a lot of business can give energy to this closet introvert.  All I can say is that I love it and can't really explain why I get energy since on a normal weekend 2 hours at church makes me need to take a nap.

4. Reaffirming identity- When I was in high school I was one of those kids who blossomed in youth group.  I discovered who I was and what my gifts were.  That still happens for me when I'm at this event.

5. Discussing future- This year I'm guessing there will be a lot of conversations happening about "what's next" I enjoy being a part of brainstorming and dreaming.

6. Meals and Fellowship-  I enjoy sitting around tables talking to people about what we are learning or what we disagree with.  I also like to eat. I've never been to Cincinnati so I'm hoping that there are some good restaurants.

7. Seminars and speakers-  Even though this is my second convention this year I haven't seen or heard most of what is going to be taught. There are a couple speakers that I'm looking forward to interacting with.

8. Consulting-  One of my favorite things to do is to meet with people  trying to figure out their youth ministry.  I don't have all the answers for sure but I do enjoy helping people wade through some of the issues that they are dealing with.  I do this every day with my staff and I like getting the opportunity to meet with more people. 

9. Taking the online offline-  I'm a bit of a geek and through this blog, twitter, facebook and the online world I interact virtually with people every day.  I'm looking forward to have real face to face conversations with many of those people. The world is funny now in that there are many folks that I have never met but I feel like I know a lot about.  

10. Resources-  I still  enjoy walking through the booths and the resource area.  I'm scared of booth people and do a poor job of making eye contact but secretly I like to see what all the booths are about.  If I could just walk through all by myself I think it would be very enjoyable.  But since that's not an option I'll just wear sunglasses. :)

Youth Specialties, Marko and the future of Youth Ministry as we know it.

This last week has been a bit tough in the Youth Ministry world.  There seem to be only a few constants in our chosen professions. Youth Pastors tend to come and go but for the last 25+ years Youth Specialties has always been a place we can all go to where we feel like we belong.  Sort of like a regular trip to the Cheers Bar we all  knew that it was a place where we belonged and people knew our name or at least understood us and what we do. 

Several years ago Zondervan bought YS and we knew that change was coming.  It was comforting to know though that those who we had followed for many years were still there and leading and it didn't feel much different. Then this last year Tic left and last week Marko.  On top of this it became apparent that Zondervan was trying to figure out what it wanted to do with YS and the future became slightly rocky. 

Now I'll be the first to admit that the organization is more than both those guys but there is a DNA link to the past history of YS that comes through them.  They embody much of what I've decided to do with my life and having them in those positions just help me validate my career to myself.  I had an amazing conversation with a few people at the LA convention about who the "ambassadors" and history are of YS and that was like walking down a history lesson of Youth Ministry.

Now the people who are still there are amazing folks.  I'm a huge fan of Mark Matlock , Adam McLane and all of them.  I'm praying for them because more changes are likely coming and they are sitting in the midst of it wondering what their world will end up looking like.

Change is inevitable and always happens.  I am not a fan of change but in this case I'm praying that ultimately it ends well.  I wish I was going to Cincinnati this week but I can at least hold onto being there for Marko's last convention in his room till 3:00am talking about Youth Ministry and loving it.

Marko you will be missed but you need to hold onto knowing that you and YS had a huge impact on so many people.  That impact will never go away.

A crazy fall

As a youth pastor I often tell parents that one of the problems that their kids are dealing with is being just too busy.  This last month I've totally eaten my words as my kids have been the busiest of our lives.  For my family this has been the craziest we've ever been.  I have 3 kids who are involved in a lot.  2 play soccer which involves a game each week and a practice. 1 who plays lacrosse that has two practices and a game each week.  On top of sports my boys do cubscouts and my daughter dance and my oldest son also has piano lessons.  With all of that too they go to Youth Group every Wed night.

So we did it. We overburdened our kids with activities.  That which I've always told parents not to do I did. We have had a lot of talks the last couple of days about being more aware of all that our kids are doing and working to limit the activities.

To parents. I know it's hard to say no and to limit.  I'm sorry that I tried to make it sound like it was easy. I'm working on it and I'm praying I figure it out.

Working on a book proposal

I imagine that many writers have quite a few different book ideas floating around in their heads just waiting for the time to be able to put words on paper.  In my insecurity I picture them with sleek Mac Book Air's just sitting at a coffee shop somewhere typing furiously and laughing because its just so easy to put together intelligent stories and ideas. 

Now I know that writing is not like that for the vast number of writers.  I've read enough Anne Lamott, Donald Miller,  and Len Sweet to know that writing is hard and takes a lot of work.  But, I still want to believe that it's going to be relatively easy.

I'm working on my first ever book proposal for an idea that I think has pretty good legs and there isn't much like it out right now.  It's being written out of my experience of doing youth ministry for a bunch of years. I've got a great group of pretty well known people I can ask for help and endorsements and even have some solid connections to publishing.   Still with all that I know the likelihood of it being published are still not very good.  

For me writing is a lot like running and going to the gym.  I hit it in spurts. It feels really good and I enjoy it when I do it but my biggest issue is continuing a pattern that produces results. I'm praying this time as I have new motivation because the idea is good that I will move forward with it.

So that's me this week.

Something to Chew on.

Just got back from LA last night.  Spent the past 5 days with a bunch of youth workers.  It's always an interesting thing when Youth Pastors get together.  We are an eclectic group of newbies, old guard, educated and not. We come from a variety of denominations and independent churches.  There is a ton of new as well as the tried and true ideas.  The great thing for me at this convention are the relationships that I've had for many years but also the new one I have the opportunity to be involved in. 

So today I'm going to chew on what I learned and I'll post something about it later.

National Youth Workers Convention Day 1

So I'm wiped.  I had quite a bit of interactions with some great people today and since I'm a natural introvert who forces himself to appear and extrovert I get really tired.  Had a great lunch with a bunch of blogger folks today put on my Fuller Seminaries Youth Institute.  Then spent the afternoon in the general sessions (I know Big rooms) and then meeting with youth workers who signed up to spend an hour with me.  I met some great people today and have some that I want to follow up with tomorrow.

Tonight was great because I met with two couples that I'm performing weddings for this next year and just hung out.  Added into that mix was one of my closest friends, a new friend and one little brother of a bride who is also a great friend.  We walked to a taco shop downtown too which is always good for some sketchy fun.

Looking forward to Day 2.

National Youth Workers Convention Los Angeles

Made it here to LA today about 1pm.  Decided to get some In N Out and then head to Santa Monica to wander around the 3rd Street Promenade for a while. After that we decided to head up the coast a little and do a surprise visit to Pepperdine to visit two girls from our youth group who are students there.  I love that about Youth Ministry that I get to go visit people at school and see how they are doing. 

Later made it to the hotel. Hooked up with some friends and had some food.

I'm looking forward to this convention. Praying that God gives me some great opportunities to hang out with people and hope that in my role here as a consultant is useful for people who need to talk.

I'm a Youth Pastor let's get some coffee.

The last week or so I've been thinking a lot about what I'm qualified to do.  To put this into context a bit I'm heading to the National Youth Workers Convention in Los Angeles this next weekend.  I've been asked to be a part of the team and work as a consultant.  Basically, that means I have the amazing opportunity to meet with youth workers for 45 minute time slots, listen and give advice if they want it.  I'm pretty stoked to be given this opportunity because I feel like it's actually something that I'm pretty good at and really enjoy doing. 

To put this in further "life" context I'm barely in my 30's anymore and have been a full-time Youth pastor for almost all of my adult career.  I've worked in 4 different churches which sounds like a lot but I was first an interim, worked at a church for 6 years, left that church to raise kids at the beach and that was a bad fit so I have now been at a church for almost 3 years here in Dallas.  Along the way I've had more interns, directors and volunteers than I can even count.  I don't have a lot of gifts but two areas that God has gifted me are in the areas of discernment and leadership.  On the discernment side I have a pretty solid gift for recognizing the right people who should be in positions and when it's the right time for change.  I've learned a ton over these years and think I will have a lot to offer youth workers this weekend.

I'm pretty excited to get to see some old friends this weekend as I lived in the So.Cal area for 13 years but I'm also excited to meet with some new people I've met this last year.  These conventions for me are always a huge blessing of encouragement and if I'm honest a little bit of a kick in the pants as I realize that there is so much more I could be doing if I was more organized, focused, passionate, smart, musically gifted, technological, networked etc..... But I'm not so let's just get coffee and figure each other out.  Maybe my gifts will help you and maybe yours will help me.

Peace,

Coach to Cure MD

One of my best friends in the world James has a son who has Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy.  They are hosting an event on September 26th called Coaches to Cure where major college football coaches from all over the US are supporting this cause of raising awareness and funds for MD.  Please watch this video and then consider joining the crusade to help create awareness for this problem.

Watch the Video Here

Check out the website for Coaches to Cure here.

Back to the writing

I took a pretty solid break from writing the last several months.  I shared in a post that I didn't want to write anymore out of guilt but only when I felt like i really had something to say.  I quickly realized that I didn't miss it very much.   

The last two months I've been given some pretty cool opportunities to be involved in discussions about youth ministry.  I'll most likely blog about these opportunities as they happen.  It is hard for me to do that  because I'm not really one who likes to talk about what they are doing too much.  At work I often get accused of not letting people know enough the things I'm doing and if I mentioned them more people who be really interested in getting involved in them.

So I'm back for a while.  I just posted a new blog post at the Fuller Seminary Youth Institute talking about missions and in particular our desire to grow in how we do things but the pull to plan them the way we always do.  If you are interested go ahead and read it and if you think about something that might be helpful post a comment so we can interact together.