Who is that smiling devil?

My friend Bronwyn, who is the Youth Officer for The Episcopal Church, has a blog dedicated to youth ministry in our denomination. She asked me to share the 52 reviews in 52 weeks series with the larger church and I agreed. So now the world has to endure an entirely too large photo of my smiling mug on her blog. Worst part is that's what I really look like. I'll let you decide for yourselves how frightening it is.

I encourage you to check out the first of her "Illumination" series and the entire EpiscoYouth blog. And for the many other Episcopal youth ministers out there, let's see what you've got!

Don't forget you can find the reviews all on one "page" HERE

Resource Review - Youth Ministry Geek

(This is part of a year long series of resource reviews I've been doing. 52 resources in 52 weeks. You can see all the reviews in one place here)

Youth Ministry Geek A blog about youth ministry and technology.

OVERALL - A great blog for youth ministers with a bit of the geek in them (or who wish they had a bit more geek in them). Technology that is useful and helpful as we work with our young people and church in general.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT? Chris Davis, the Geek himself, found a way to bring together his love for young people, his faith and his self professed "love of toys". He's my kinda guy. His blog is always a source for all kinds of great ideas he's found around the world wide web. Last week he shared a video of a group of teens playing "The Carol of the Bells" on their iPhones, a bunch of Christmas media freebies and the iPhone apps so our kids can do the iPhone band thing themselves. Scroll down a little farther and find excellent ways to get a little more life out of your old computer. Great for those of us on a budget. His posts are concise and easy to read. An excellent resource to keep ready.

RESERVATIONS It does tend to be very Apple/Mac oriented. Not entirely but I'd love to see the blog expand the stuff for PCs just a little more. Like it or not PCs make up most of the computing world.

RECOMMENDATION I can hardly turn my back on a fellow youth ministry geek brother. Chris's blog is a fixture on my blog reader and I've picked up some very good ideas from him. You will too.

Carpe Diem by Shaun Mayfield

Shaun Mayfield does a LOT of things. One of them is write the blog - "an introspective view of life and the meaning of it" which is a regular on my blog feed. His latest post is the perfect example of why : "Carpe Diem - What Does Your Life Mean?" In it he gives four straight forward ideas on how to live your life, not somebody else's. While there is no mention of God anywhere in the post (Shaun is a youth minister in Arizona) I think the message is perfectly in line with a life in faith. Good stuff.

Thoughts on the blog

I started this blog six years ago as a way to keep people up to date on my adventures at General Convention 2003. Since then it's been a lot things for me. There has been one question I've always struggled with however. Is this primarily a ministry related blog or is it a personal blog that includes my ministry? It seems like there should be a dividing line between my "work" and my "life". At the same time I don't believe that a life in faith is properly lived out divided from the rest of our lives. We live our faith out best when it simply becomes part of the whole, coloring, flavoring and influencing who we are and what we say and do. My faith has certainly become that for me.

At the same time I know that I'm not now, nor am I likely to ever be one of those "nice Christians". It's just not in my nature. Some of what I think and occasionally say would set off some folks. Not just in the blogosphere but potentially in my "real" life as well. So I am faced with the question of how much I censor myself here simply out of self preservation. My lifelong attitude is that I work very hard, really sink myself into my work (and perhaps especially the work I've been doing for the last 9 years) and that any "company" dumb enough to fire me I probably don't want to work for. I've been told that's fairly arrogant. OK, I'll take your word for it. Why a company WOULDN'T want an intelligent, hard working employee who is willing to be as honest as he can for the good of the company I'm not quite sure. But then I don't get a lot of what passes for common wisdom. Some places prefer compliance to competence. So far that hasn't been a problem with the diocese (Thank you God and Bishop Michael!)

With that in mind I intend to broaden the scope of what I write about here. Currently it's mostly youth ministry and fairly trivial personal stuff. Beginning on Friday I'll be sharing the scripts to a media commentary program I do for a local low power FM radio station operated by our local Arts Council. I've been in and around the media my whole life either as a Baby Boomer raised by the TV, as a movie fan and later as radio professional. The opinions are fun for me and worth every penny the station pays for them (I'm a volunteer). I do three shows a week, each about two minutes thirty seconds. I'll combine the scripts into a single post of about 1200 words. No guarantee of profundity but it's something I do. In order to give priority to their broadcast I'll post the scripts on Fridays.

I will probably also begin to branch out into other topics all of which will be colored by my theology. We'll see how that goes. Again I have no idea if I have anything worth listening to but we won't know till we start.

It's time to see if this blog can stand the strain of being a fuller representative of its author.

Wish me luck.

Peace

Translated Part two

Part 2

I mentioned earlier this week that Stuart Delony (above) had asked me some questions as a way to keep his blog active while he is away on a training trip. He broke mine into two posts (he did that with lots of other folks too!) and here are my answers (in my usual rather smart a$$ fashion) to the second two questions.

Part 1

Me, translated

Translated as in moved to a different place.

Stuart Delony who blogs at "The Ramblings is away for two weeks doing some rock climbing and raft training (some guys get to do all the cool stuff). He is a missionary youth minister working among unchurched youth in the Pacific Northwest. He also writes one of the most interesting youth ministry blogs out there. Anyway, while he was away he asked some of the other bloggers he knows to answer some questions to "fill in" for him while he's gone. That included, I'm very honored to say, me!

Those who know me will be stunned to discover that my answers were so long he broke my responses down into two separate posts. Here's part one, part two tomorrow.

Part 1

If you're interested in what Stuart is doing check out this video about his group:

Resource Review - Rethinking Youth Ministry

RETHINKING YOUTH MINISTRY - Youth ministry blog

OVERALL - Rethinking Youth Ministry is the product of two self described "progressive" Christians working in the Disciples of Christ church. This is a resource for youth ministers (rather than the more general tenor of mine which also includes resources for youth ministry)and covers a lot of ground.

WHAT'S IT ABOUT? I read a lot of blogs. Can I be honest and say that most youth ministry blogs just don't grab me? But hey I'm sure people feel the same way about mine so it's all good. Brian and Jacob, the authors, are creating a resource with some real depth here. For example they've done a whole series on Lenten studies and practices that will be useful if you're just "discovering" Lent or have been observing it for years. There are many posts on spirituality, ideas, creative worship, community building and much more. It's offered simply as a gift to the larger community. And their live traffic feed shows that folks from all over the country have discovered it.

RESERVATIONS Ummmm, sorry can't really find one.

RECOMMENDATION Within days of writing the original review for this website they came up with an answer that I needed for our summer mission trip. This is a seriously useful blog with real world, hands on ideas that you can put to use right now. Some folks are going to see the words "progressive Christian" up above and stop reading. That's too bad because they'll be cutting themselves off from some great resources. I applaud the guys for being upfront about who they are. This is one of those sites you just need to bookmark, or do what I do and have them registered on my blog reader. That way I automatically get notified when something new pops up. Thoughtful, useful, prayerful. Can't imagine what else you'd want.

Welcome to a new look!

There's only one possible explanation for this.

A limited attention span.

Of course I probably actually look at this blog a lot less than other people do. My stuff is all the "Pay No Attention to that man behind the curtain!"



But after a while I get bored and it's time to move the blogo-furniture. Out with the old and in with some new.

Till I get bored again.

Peace

A new project and a milestone

I just realized that my previous post was #500 for this blog. Not an overwhelming production for a blog that is almost 6 years old but not too shabby either I think. I began this simply as a way to stay in touch with anyone who might be interested in what was going on at General Convention 2003. And it's just perked along from there. A neat milestone.

I've been working on a project with my home parish over the last year. It's a 15 minute radio program on Sunday mornings. We're always looking for new ways to reach out into the community and introduce ourselves. I'd been functioning primarily as a behind the scenes producer for the show till this fall when Fr. Eric asked me to share the responsibility for hosting the show. He does half and I do half. My first challenge was to figure out what I was going to do that was different from his shows and still appropriate. What we decided on was an introductory series on what it means to be an Episcopalian. That series now has a name - "Who We Are". By necessity they are brief thumbnail sketches of who we are since I have about 14 minutes (plus intro and outro). The tone is very informal and conversational. So far I've done:

A Walk Around St. Luke's - Our church is an English neo-gothic and folks find it a little intimidating. So I took my recorder and just walked people through the door explaining to them what they can expect.

Structure of the Episcopal Church - This is a look at how we are organized and make decisions.


Myths about the Episcopal Church - Concerning Henry the VIII, that we're not a "Bible church" and the frozen chosen. This was the FIRST one I suggested.


Liturgical Worship - An interview with our associate rector Mother Susan about what liturgical worship is, why we do it and it's place in the Episcopal Church.

The links will take you to our audio blog where the streaming audio is available which is pretty cool in an of itself. But this is the really cool part for me - I'm a recording artist! We've been looking for other ways to do some outreach and get our identity out there. So St. Luke's has it's own Cafe Press store which features among other things a CD of my first four programs! Which is just so cool! The stained glass on the various items are all from our church. The four gospel logos was put together by Fr. Eric (they don't occur like this in the church, they're on four separate windows)which I thought turned out really well.

I give the church credit, they are open to trying new ways of communicating. Still waiting to see how effective they may be.

Well this is cool!

Here's a much better way to start the day.

Someone quoted me (favorably) on their blog.

Cool!

Andrew, over at justinfatica.net, liked my "Thoughts On the Cart and Horse" sermon and has been thinking about it since. It led him to offer a couple more scripture passages for youth ministry. Good stuff.

Don't know much about Justin except he's a local boy (just over the state line in Erie) originally. I like that the site encourages young people to post as well. We have an awful lot of us old folk talking about youth and faith and not nearly enough youth doing it.

I must have done an especially good job with that sermon. RevRef even said he might steal an idea from it!

Youth Ministry Rant

I'm so...(well I can't really use the word here that I'm thinking so fill in the blank yourself). Let's just say I'm not a happy camper.

I spend a bit of time conversing with other folks on various blogs. By and large I get along pretty well, even with the folks with whom I disagree. But every once in a while...

The discussion that has gotten me cranked was started by a post referring to "unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity" by David Kinnaman, President of the Barna Group, and Gabe Lyons, founder of the Fermi Project. The book looks at the attitudes of 16-29 year olds toward the church, especially those who are outside the church. I don't think any youth minister would be surprised by the results. This led to a discussion on the comments thread about youth ministry, mostly the question of what are we doing wrong?

I believe we have been doing some things wrong. I also believe that a lot of us are working VERY hard to correct that. As always with youth ministry the fruits of our work may not be seen for a while.

But two responses astounded me. The first amounted to "Well youth ministry is probably a good idea but really it doesn't matter one way or the other. The kids either get it or they don't. We just need to leave it in God's hands". I don't know if this one makes me more angry or sad or frustrated. I do not deny the central role of the Divine in the process of growing in faith. I'm just here to try and water God's garden and provide some of the earthly things each plant needs to thrive. In real terms that's relationship, teaching and listening.

That brings me to the second poster. He sees teaching as a very limited tool, all the current models of youth ministry as completely failed and youth ministry simply as a tool of the institution to perpetuate itself. Sunday school, youth group, failures. Not worth discussing. The first poster mentioned her concern with "forcing Jesus down(the youth's) throat". I'm sure no one will be surprised that the second person has nothing positive to offer, just a dismissive attitude toward everything we try to do. Quite simply if we don't have something brand new to offer then it's just SSDD and therefore automatically bound to fail.

Needless to say my doctor would not approve of my blood pressure right now.

Don't get me wrong. I don't live in a fairy tale world. I'm well aware of the shortcomings of youth ministry. The spectre of ministries that rely on "magic box" programs, unimaginative teaching, lack of building relationships with the youth, lack of resources and/or dedication from the congregations make what we do almost impossible in some places. But more and more we are recognizing that and making changes. Sadly the most visible elements in the church too often make the rest of us look bad. Spending massive amounts of time and energy arguing the fine points of worship style or fine points of theology while the world is hungry and naked and in prison makes us all look like hypocrites.

But having to fight both the cynicism and defeatism embodied by these two folks just makes it so much harder.

Maybe I'm kidding myself. Maybe I'm just re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The only problem is that when we do it right I see a difference being made in the lives of young people. Not as many youth as I'd like at any given moment but then I'm not supposed to be playing the numbers game.

And the numbers are betraying us. People forget that statistics only measure the past. They can be used as an indicator for the future but the accuracy of that indication relies, nay REQUIRES, that all conditions remain the same as before. If what we're doing now is right we won't know for at least a decade. It the curse of youth ministry. That the harvest almost always comes after they're gone. We plant the seed and we often get to see it bloom. But the full harvest, the fully developed person of faith, is truly a rare thing for us to see. And that's probably as it should be since when they leave our care they're still in the final stages of growth.

The recurring challenge was don't tell me about how kids show up or continue to go to church. Prove to me that they are growing in their faith, that they "get" it. I just want to scream "You're the idiots who don't get it!!! What you want isn't measurable. By your carping and defeatism you make this even harder than it is."

I have managed to refrain from actually calling anyone an idiot.

This really comes at a tough time (or maybe a good one). I'm struggling with the ideas in Loren Mead's book "The Once and Future Church". I'm struggling to find the wheat among the chaff. What is good and useful for my youth from that which is just "we've always done it that way". I think I'm making progress too.

I read what these people say and I wonder why should I worry about it? If they're right then I'm spinning my wheels. If they're wrong they represent a real voice in the church (which I've heard in other forms before) and if the church doesn't care any more than that then what do I owe it?

Yeah, yeah, I already know the answer to that one. I owe the institutional church a return on what they've invested in me, I owe the spiritual church a return on my gifts, and I just owe God. Period. Oh yeah and I owe my kids for the love and trust they put in me.

So I guess I can't pout and have a pity party or throw a tantrum.

As I said on the thread - youth ministry is harder than it looks.

(Editorial Note: After I posted this the first poster mentioned above and I had the chance to exchange some e-mails. I understand where her point of view grows from and know that she was not attacking me or youth ministry per se. Rather the frustrations we all feel about how hard it is to make a difference in the lives of young people had just taken her someplace I'm not ready to go. I hope that we've made our peace personally now. And I'll keep fighting the good fight knowing that while she hopes I'm right she reserves the right to wonder if I'm wrong)

Peace

Purist just means no one's made the right offer yet.
Expert? Well I do have THREE blogs and own a blogring so maybe.
Undiscovered. Oh mostly I suppose.

Peace

A new recommended blog

You'll note that I have a very short list of blogs I "recommend" over on the right. I'm aware that it's a bit of a violation of the blogosphere's common courtesy not to list the many wonderful blogs I read regularly. There was a good reason for that when I started but I'm considering changing it. Some blogs I read just because they're written by friends and I can "keep up" with them that way. Some of those blogs are also darn fine blogs. So I'll probably be expanding the list. I'm not guaranteeing that everyone will like every blog I like. That's just the way it goes. But some folks deserve the extra nod.

Which brings me to today's post. I just came across a youth ministry blog that is also a excellent blog written by someone who just reaches out and grabs me with his thought process. His name is Stuart Delony and his blog is "The Ramblings"

I like Stuart's writing style, I like the way he thinks, I like his approach to faith, I like his courage, and I like the fact that his 201 facts about himself reveals that he and I have a lot in common. Even though we're a couple decades apart in age and a continent apart in distance.

Go read this blog!

Youth video

If you haven't discovered Father Matthew Moretz you're missing out. Here's a video he did with some of the youth of his church


He has more videos with his rather tongue in cheek approach to church and theology on displayHERE

Peace

Well I did it

Well following the lead of fellow foot dragger RevRef I have moved over to the "new" blogger software. My ongoing concern has been that they refer to it as "beta", which to my mind always means "We're pretty sure there are still some bugs in this stuff but we're gonna let you find them for us".

Which I resent. I mean it's THEIR job to write code, not mine. Anyway...

So I checked this morning and all I see is the word "new"! Ah, they've finished the process and now I may proceed. It isn't until you've started the process that the word "beta" re-appears.

Finks.

So if this all goes horribly wrong, I'm blaming the priest in Montana. LOL.

Peace