Change is hard. I was reflecting tonight with a friend about how difficult it is for me to deal with change. We were sitting outside the National Youth Workers Convention main session and had a couple minutes to talk about everything that is happening to the organization Youth Specialties right now.   

As we talked I began to think about the older people at my home church.  I was thinking about how I must be perceived by them when I talk about change.    Many older congregants are very invested in the church. They know the history and the past vision of the church.  They were responsible in a large part with building the church and leading it through much of its years.  Then guys like me come in and want things to change.  And, I’m probably not validating enough what they did as I make those changes which might relate to them that their ideas and vision no longer have value.

As I started thinking about it I realized that much of what I feel now about Youth Specialties must be similar to how many of the people in my congregation feel about the changes we’ve made.  It made me realize that I need to do a much better job remembering people’s feelings about the past and things they were involved with are important. I need to recognize that organizations involving people need care when discussing change.

For those of us who have been involved in Youth Ministry and Youth Specialties for a long time we have to admit that the changes happening now are hard.   But, before we start casting stones let’s take some time to think about what types of changes we’ve implemented that might have alienated and hurt people.  Maybe we need to think about how from this point forward we can do a better job of taking care of those who are heavily invested in things and be careful when we do things that affect them too much.

I love Youth Ministry and that won’t change.  I love Jesus and that won’t change.  What will change is the vehicle in which we are trained to do those two things.  I’m praying for the people who are in the midst of deciding what those changes will look like and that when they announce them that they do it in a way that validates the past and the future.

That’s my hope.

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.

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.