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9.28.2004

Going to Big D!

The NYWC is about a week away. This year I'm helping in the Youthworker Journal booth and I was asked to sit in on a couple of late night options and hang out and talk out loud with a few others on a panel for a bit and then it'll be open interaction with everyone there. No talk to prep just ideas to think about and discuss. It shoud be fun!

If you're going to be in Dallas, look for me, it'd be nice to meet.

Here are the Late Night Options:

Friday, Oct. 8: What's Wrong with How We are Doing Youth Ministry

Saturday, Oct. 9: Dreaming a New Dream: Beginning to Reimagine Youth Ministry

The Magic Number is 11!

The Red Sox clinched a spot in the playoffs. 11 wins in October equals a World Series Championship! (I have to enjoy the idea until reality crushes my hopes, but for now, hope is strong.)

Oh and while watching the Red Sox vs. Yankees series this weekend I spotted Stephen King wearing a Yankee Haters hat. :-)


9.27.2004

Beyond Relational Youthwork

For many years as a church-based youth worker, I lived with a considerable amount of guilt. Hardly a week went by when I was not thinking about what I believed I needed to be doing but was not. My training for youthwork had been in the context of an organisation called Young Life. Young Life is an American parachurch organization that pioneered and had considerable success with the incarnational model of youth ministry. My guilt stemmed from a self-expectation that I needed to spend a considerable amount of my time building individual relationships with young people outside the church. As I was not doing that, part of me felt that I was not being an effective youth worker. At times I thought myself a failure and that it was only a matter of time before I would be exposed and made redundant. In reality though, within a few years our ministry was reaching unchurched young people and growing rapidly.

Incarnational Youth Ministry, or relational youth work as it became known, emerged in the middle of the last century through the visionary leadership of Jim Rayburn, founder of Young Life. This philosophy of ministry seeks to communicate Jesus' love by means of a very simple method: building relationships with youth through which they can experience the love of God. Young people have the chance to see firsthand the reality of Christ in the lives of leaders who reach out to them in a personal way. When Rayburn introduced this concept, it revolutionised youth ministry because churches and various parachurch organizations had been working under a paradigm that said, 'Come to us '. Rayburn's Young Life said we must take the gospel to youth and share it with them through our lives and then through our words.

Read the rest of this article at the UK's Youthwork Magazine

9.23.2004

New Blog to Visit

Roger is blogging again. Pop in and leave a comment. I think he has the coolest Screen Name on the YS Boards (elohimismydj) and he started a great thread called "I shaved my goattee today, or Looking for 100 not to go to NYWC".
That's his avatar from the boards with the subtitle "Funkadelic Fighter For the Faith in NuBee City" I have no idea what that means but his blog should be fun.

9.19.2004

Missing the Barefoot Ragamuffin

Today was the 7th anniversary of Rich going out like Elijah.

Here are some of my favorite quotes by Rich:

You don't write because the world needs your music, you write because you have a need to make order, to organize things. If you're a musician, you express that very human, very common need by making music. If you're a baker, you do it by making bread. It's all the same goodness, it just expresses itself in different areas.

I think creativity is a very Christian thing. I think if we are created in the image of God that means we're going to have and impulse to create.

It seems that I always am and always have been an outsider. I've never really fit in. I was always too religious for my rowdy friends-they though I was unbelievably hung up-and too rowdy for my religious friends-they were always praying for me.

Our faith becomes real when we focus on what never changes instead of our ever-changing opinions.

I don't think you read the Bible to know truth. I think you read the Bible to find God, that we encounter him there. Paul says that the Scriptures are God's breath and I kind of go, "Wow, so let's breathe this as deeply as possible."

So don't get so hung up about how important you are in the Kingdom of God or who important you are to the growth of the church. It seems that God is always saying, "I'm not worried so much about how you're doing as much as I'm glad about who you are."

Let me tell you this-God will never give up on you. He will never stop loving you. That love is a reality no matter what you do or don't do. God does not call us to be angels; He calls us to be His, and to who we are in Him.

I still miss Rich.

9.18.2004

Nuke the Gay Whales for Jesus

I'd like to start a movement and use this as our slogan so we can make bumper stickers, bracelets, coffee mugs, and of course a 96 page mini-book (so people might actually read an entire book) that gives some bible verses that supports this movement.

Any Christian Venture Capitalist out there?

Someone wrote . . . nuke the gay whales for Jesus and it just made me laugh so I posted this as a response to the post by Riddle: "Confessions of leaders and pastors who are reimagining Church" on LiquidThinking.org

9.17.2004

Good Free Resource

My friend Steve writes some very good stuff for VeryBold.com's e-zine: Sports Illustrating God

If you want a good resource to use for illustrations and even a devo for yourself, subscribe.

9.12.2004

Another one bites the dust

Mykel stopped blogging. How sad. :-(

9.11.2004

Remembering Sept. 11, 2001

An archive of articles and multimedia features about 9/11 and its aftermath.

From the NY Times.

9.03.2004

Made My Day

I read this on Kevin's site and it gave me a big smile. kevin just started his first full-time youth ministry gig.

Last Sunday I was introduced during the service, casually, it was like "And we want to lift up a praise because we have found our new youth director..that guy.....raise your hand Kevin"

Then I met a whole bunch of people and went to a Sunday School teachers meeting where I ordered a series of lessons from Len Evans, my youth pastor from Jr. High. I'm going to use it for Sunday School and it's going to be awesome. Cause when I recived Christ, Len recived me and even though we wheren't that close or around together to long but his precense in my life was actually a mjor factor to both my faith and my calling.

So it'll be awesome to se lessons he wrote for my students!

9.01.2004

Worst Loss in Franchise History



Couldn't happen to a better team. :-)

The Red Sox are now 3.5 games back for the AL East lead. What was unthinkable only two weeks ago seems unstoppable today. That's too optimistic of course because it's the Red Sox, afterall but ohh this season has turned out to be a fun ride, afterall.

People can now talk about a post-season that wouldn't involve the Yankees. It's at least possible now.

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