I’m going to be working out some kinks in my blog this weekend as I’ve officially made the switch to wordpress. It’s fairly smooth but there are some problems with images, links and searches. Hopefully I can figure it out soon.
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I’m tired of talking to Christians
Yesterday I wrote a post that generated a lot of traffic. Not everyone was happy with it but it was something I really felt needed to be said. I was angry about how a group of pastors decided to boycott a bus company because the busses had a slogan on the side that they disagreed with.
I spent a lot of time today reflecting on the comments that were made about my post. There were a couple of people that commented who were self proclaimed atheists or non-believers. I loved what they had to say. But, it also shook me up because I realized that most of them had never had a pastor free them up to admit their doubts and concerns. And most of them had never had someone like me just sit and dialogue with them about spiritual things.
Here's the truth: I am tired of talking to Christians.
Let me explain what I mean by that statement: I'm a huge fan of people who believe in Jesus and are living a life following him. I get to be with a bunch of those people every day at my church. There are some amazing families and students who are walking with Jesus. I also work with an incredible church staff that love Jesus too and are reaching out to the world. But, there is a difference between claiming to be a "Christian" and following Jesus with your life.
My friend Adam wrote a blog post a few weeks back that rocked me pretty good. He is a youthworker and a dad and wrote a blog to his church telling them essentially to go and reach the lost and not to worry about his kids because they were growing up in a home with parents who loved Jesus.
So here's my challenge: We are entering a Holiday season that is all about Jesus and his birth. But, we have to be really careful in the Church that we don't make make this season about us. Our Christmas programs and events are often inward focused. So, how can we look outside the walls of our churches and ourselves? I am a fan of reaching out to Christmas/Easter Christians and want them to know that we'd love to engage with them the rest of the year. But, I'm less interested in them because they've at least heard the good news. I am mostly hoping we can engage people who are willing to admit they don't believe.
I want to be fully honest here and say I know that I'm a failure in this area. I'm really good at talking to Christians. I'm great at propping myself up with my education, degrees and knowledge. But, I'm just not as comfortable sitting next to someone on a bench and asking them what they believe and why. Have I become that which frustrates me? Probably. But, I hope that these blogs will force me out of easy simple world. I'm thankful that people who don't believe what I believe read this blog. I want us to stay in dialogue.
I ended yesterdays blog with this statement:
So if you don't need God I'd love to talk to you. Not to "convert" you or "change" you but to just have a conversation and to share some of my honest thoughts about all of this. If you want to get on a bus and go for a ride I'm cool with that.
Here's a challenge to the Bus company with those signs. Let's actually fill a bus with people and have a dialogue about faith. Let's provide a place where those who fully doubt all of this to be free to express those doubts. I hope that I can be a person that they will want to talk to. I love Jesus but I also realize that many of them don't and I'm ok with that. But, let's talk. I promise to listen and to think and to engage. It's not my goal to covert you. But, I do want to listen.
On a Shoestring book: let’s collaborate
Hi Friends-
If you have followed me at all on my blog or twitter you know that I have been engaged in the process of writing a resources book for Zondervan for a couple months. I’m sure you were wondering when I would realize that I’m not quite as smart as I thought I was and I would ask for some help. Actually that’s not true I could write this thing with my headphones on at Starbucks but it wouldn’t have the kind of impact that I think it can have without some input from you.
The book I’m working on is aimed at reframing how we think about resources. In most churches and youth ministries we tend to think of resources as falling into about 3 different categories: Budget, Staff and Space. Most of us have probably thought at some point that we could do great things if any of these three areas were to be increased. We’ve also probably not put a lot of thought into going to a new job that has a severe reduction in these areas.
The idea behind this book is to help the reader realize that these are not the only places to start from when you are planning your youth ministry. I’ll even argue that starting at these point’s neglects some great creativity that we need to do.
The reality is that most of us have had budgets cut in the last several years. Unfortunately this is probably going to be the new normal, as the economy isn’t going to turn around any time soon. Unfortunately many churches/denominations are realizing that there is a very high likelihood that financially giving we continue to decline from this point forward.
Those of you who know me know that I work in a fairly wealthy area of Dallas at a church that is not generally thought of as lacking resources. In the last 3 years though we’ve cut our youth ministry operating budget by 35% and our staffing budget by almost the same amount.
So why am I writing this book? First, it’s because I have done youth ministry for almost 20 years and I’ve learned quite a bit about how to be creative and resourceful. Second, I am committed to networking and resourcing smaller churches that have even more limited resources. I also believe that we still want to do activities, trips, missions projects and camps in youth ministry. I think I can help people think about how to do these things for less money.
Here’s where you come in. I would like to feature some of your ideas that you’ve done on the cheap that have worked. I’m looking for both short sentences or paragraphs of ideas as well as anecdotal stories. Attached to this e-mail is a PDF document of some of the chapter ideas and places where I am looking for resources. This isn’t an “ideas book” like Youth Specialties has put out before. It won’t be pages and pages of resources. Just some thoughts about specific areas to save money and a few examples or success stories.
Before you right me off to quickly or decide not to help let me just say this. I’m not making very much money on this project and that’s ok with me. I learned and accepted a while ago that I wouldn’t make a living as a writer. I’m way more interested in helping out the Youth Ministry world as a whole than I am trying to create the Lars Rood empire. If you want proof of that I can just point you to some churches here in Dallas that I am committed to helping out and resourcing. My heart is to help the Youth ministry world.
You will get credit for your writing in the book. I’m even willing to reciprocate the help if you have a project that you ever need help on. That’s an honest statement too. One of my gifts is that of a connector too. I love to get the right people together and see what happens. I’m willing to help you out any way I can.
So if you have any ideas or ways that you think Youth Ministry can be done with a “shoestring” budget please send them my way.
There you go, If you are willing to help I’m submitting the manuscript to Zondervan on December 1st so any help you can give me in the next two weeks would be of great help.
You can e-mail me ideas at: onashoestring@me.com
You can download the Table of Contents here
My Tribe: The Youth Ministry World. #nywc
So I'm a youth pastor. I've pretty much always been a youth pastor. It's all I know what to do. In the last couple of days I've gotten a few e-mails from parents who's students aren't connected, dealt with budget issues and just some overall stuff that are not the "fun" parts of youth ministry. But, even with those things I still love what I do and wouldn't change it for anything.
This weekend I'm hanging out with a couple thousand other youth workers. I'm here with a few of my staff from church which is great this time. I'm also here to teach a couple seminars which is cool. But, the part that I'm most looking forward to is to get to be with people who "get" me and understand what it is I'm doing with my life.
Being around other youth workers who love all parts of youth ministry is an amazing thing. I don't feel like I have to try to "explain" what it is I do with my life. I don't have to justify my role or why I hang with students all the time. I don't have to be the "slightly older guy" who is still hanging around and I don't feel guilty for wearing shorts and a v-neck. I love knowing that we all "get" each other and value the gifts, skills and sacrifices we make to do what we do.
I like the word "tribe" to describe the community of people who are involved in this life. Many of us have moved churches and even states over the years but when we come together we're still part of the same group. I could move across the world but when I come together with these folks wherever we are I still feel like I'm home.
Just a quick note to my tribe in Dallas. I love you. I love your quirkiness, I love your greatness complex, I love your khakis, the shirts tucked in and the way you dress up to go to lunch on Sundays even if you don't go to church. I love your hearts and the way you desire to do good. I love that Youth Ministry is a priority and that many churches recognize that. I love that resources are given towards youth ministry. We have a lot of work to do to raise up youth ministry in all parts of the Metroplex but I think we have a core of people that care enough that we can make it happen. I'd love if more of my Dallas friends would consider coming to the National Youth Workers Convention in Nashville Nov 17-22. Come with it we'd love to have you join us.
Domain Names and Youth Ministry.
I love youth ministry. Today I got to hang out with a group of 5-8 grade students and play dodgeball. This will sound lame but I actually like to get hit right at the beginning of the game so I can sit on the floor and watch everyone play. Today I got hit at the same time as a 6th grader named Eric. We sat across the line from each other and just laughed and tried to figure out silly games to play. At the same time a couple other students and I started a silly game where we rolled balls to each other. None of this really makes any sense except that at the same time I was doing this I was thinking about how much I love being around those kids and how sad I am to know the statistics that say most of them won't be believers by the age of 25.
So that's wehre the Domain names come in. I have some great friends who have been encouraging me to do some writing. I've had a few articles published recently and I'm thinking about writing a couple of books.There are a few ideas I have that I think are really good (I want I believe this) and I'm working on getting them put together in formats that will make sense to publishers.
So today I bought 2 domain names. I'm not ready to reveal what they are here on the blog but I think that one of them is helpful for Youth Ministry and one of them is more of an overall challenge to Western Christianity.
That's all I got. I could use some prayer.
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.
A new blogging adventure
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.
Blogging to blog or actually have something to say.
I struggle with my blog. Some days more than others. Sometimes I feel like the stuff I have to say is worth reading and other times I think it's a lot of fluff. Lately I've taken to only blogging when I have something worth reading. That's probably not a good strategy to gain readers but it's a good way to stay real to myself. I was with a good friend recently and we were talking about our "place" in the world. Part of the conversation strayed into insecurity issues and liking comments and readership on blogs, twitter, etc. I thought a lot about that and realized that I am actually in a good place with this now. I have gotten more involved in a bunch of things in the last year but those things don't define who I am. They are cool and fun and I'll probably mention them here from time to time but I really don't want to have them become too much of who I am.
Here's something worth reading:
So here's a brief thing I'm working on that I could use some prayer about. I'm preaching in our main worship services at my church on Sunday April 19th. Two services. It's the day we honor our senior class and it's also the first time that they've asked me to preach in that service. It's a little scary as it is not my normal crowd as I don't attend either of those services (I go to a contemporary style service in our gym) but at the same time it's something I'm actually looking forward to. I'm working on using the verse Psalm 111:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" My title is "A little fear is a good thing in faith" I'm trying to remind the students that relying on God is a crucial part to growing up as opposed to self-reliance that is so preached by culture.
I could use some prayer.
New post up at my other site
I've been trying to figure out for a while how to keep two blogs going without a whole ton of energy for either one. Well I've decided to start working harder at www.relevantpew.com so that's where most of my posting is going to be done.
Go over there and read the new post I just put up.
Thinking about shutting it down
I've been blogging for quite a few years now and now I have two different blogs and one probably needs to go. I'm trying to focus more of my energy at RelevantPew.com because I feel that project has legs and I've been encouraged to work on it to make it more of a voice. This blog has really just been about updating my friends about what I'm doing and I often feel like I don't really need to have it. So I'm thinking about shutting this one down and focusing.
