Archive - August, 2009

What did you learn from me?

A good friend and former partner in ministry at Bel Air Presbyterian ChurchDon Coleman and I were texting back and forth last night and he mentioned that he should put together a list of things he learned from me in ministry.  I thought I'd throw the list up here and then begin unpacking each part in the next couple of days.

-Macs are better than PCs


-You get to know kids more out of the office than in


-Being honest is better than being liked


-Parents are better as friends than enemies


-asking permission from parents is better than having to write a letter to say you're sorry


-being thought of as cold to the opposite sex is better than having an akward crush


-explaining why your game was boring is better than taking a kid to the hospital


-having a contingency plan & not using it is better than needing one & saying "oops"


-looking like things are handled is almost as important as having them handled


-having good people around you (& letting them know you value them) is more important than being Superman
AND: being a healthy balanced person is the ONLY way you survive ministry longterm & the best kind if example to set for your family & youth.

A new blogging adventure

Fyi-logo Today I started blogging at a new site hosted by the Fuller Youth Institute. I did a Masters of Divinity Degree at Fuller Seminary and graduated in 2004. I have been really impressed with what they are doing in the world of Youth Ministry.  Their focus is different in that they are primarily working with research based content.  There are a ton of great Youth Ministry resources out there but they have found that there is a need for more writing based on solid research.  Of particular interest to me is what they are doing with the College Transition Project.  As a youth pastor who has sent of 100's of students to college over the years I'm very interested in their research to give me insight about how to best prepare students for when they leave the Youth Ministry.

My project with them is a year long series utilizing the resource Deep Justice Journey's and how it works in shifting our youth ministries focus and how we do missions.  The curriculum resource is aimed at re framing all that we do with missions and includes resources for preparing students and families, while on the trip and how you debrief and continue with what they learned after.  

I haven't read the book yet and am planning on starting it this week and writing about what I think.  Hopefully this year long series I'm going to do with help others understand how to better utilize this resource.  What I like about this project is that it's more than just writing a simple review of the book.  I'm going to actually try to use it and  show how it worked (or didn't).

I'm starting to find that there may be a nitch for this type of blogging. I've bought a ton of resources over the years and many of them I've used but haven't really thought through how they work.  This should be a different fun thing.  Follow along here or check out the Fuller Youth Institute blog and you'll see my stuff as well as some other great writers with a ton to say. 

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