Comments on: zondervan buys youth specialties

By: Zondervan, Marko & Me : Len Evans

Zondervan, Marko & Me : Len Evans — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:09:29 +0000

[...] pretty wierd reading Marko’s post about Zondervan buying Youth Specialties in light of his being fired, I said it, it’s okay. I hope that vision of what the [...]

By: Links: Daily Round-Up « Youth Hacks

Links: Daily Round-Up « Youth Hacks — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:57:37 +0000

[...] May 1: End of a Year, Start of a Year – from ysmarko.com: Mark Oestreicher from Youth Specialties talks about the one year anniversary of the Zondervan/YS partnership and the beginning of his year-long sabbatical from speaking. [...]

By: ysmarko

ysmarko — Tue, 01 May 2007 18:00:10 +0000

[...] the next morning i was in grand rapids, at zondervan, when the announcement was made to their staff. the response was warm and loud and affirming. concurrently, my blog post went live, an email was sent out to all our email lists, and our website posted the news. and we had that fun little video of me and tic talking about the change or lack thereof (i still get comments from people about that video). at that time, that day was my highest blog traffic ever. i received about 500 emails in 24 hours, mostly congratulatory. the response from youth workers (as seen on the blog comments) was mostly positive and encouraging, with many neutral, in a “let’s wait and see” mode — which was totally fair. and, of course, there were a handful of “you’ve sold out”, and “clearly you don’t care about youth workers, you only care about making money” accusations, which were painful to read, even though we expected them. [...]

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 08:32:08 +0000

Keep up the good work

By: Laura Jordan

Laura Jordan — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 11:35:45 +0000

My prayer is that you will continue to be the prophetic voice you have always been. e.g. reminding youth workers at beginning of NYWC that they may need to go work on their marriages! If you ever lose such “irreverence”, a much needed voice would be lost, and the gospel being lived out in our world would suffer.

By: Annie

Annie — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 19:07:04 +0000

Hey! Wow…that’s huge…as others…I am shocked, but I know it will be great for YS! Have to say, love the video! Miss you guys…and can’t want to see ya’ll at DCLA

By: neenee

neenee — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 04:22:39 +0000

YS and Zondervan are in my prayers! I’m sure that YS did not go into this without prayer and listening for God’s clear direction. It saddens me that people get so worked up and upset about something such as this. It’s a great time for all of us who care about youth to band together and give praise! Instead of grumbling about what horrible things might become of our beloved YS, let’s have a positive attitude, TRUSTING that our awesome God has a perfect plan!
“Lord we trust in your awesome mercy and love. Please guide YS, Zondervan, and the great crew that manage them. And connect us all in the body of Christ to serve You, to serve Youth, and to serve each other! Amen!”

By: YS lifer

YS lifer — Wed, 31 May 2006 22:28:05 +0000

YES…i agree with you deadyouthpastor regarding the harpercollins profit center of the gospel. Publishers have turned their eyes to the ‘christian’ book industry for years and have increasingly veered into it. I’m curious how this will affect Doug Fields who singlehandedly has carried YS with product for 3 years??

Unfortunately, since Yak’s death YS has been on the slope of death not because Marko is inept as a manager but more to the point of Yak’s heart is what kept YS turning. You can easily replace a manager or editor but you cannot replace heart.

Marko: best wishes to you as you work for corporate america. I spent the last year selling insurance and well it was empty, void and lifeless. I hope this will not be your experience!

OH how i miss the days of being able to walk up to people like Amy Grant and other guest speakers /performers and chat with them about their heart for the kingdom.

Via Con Dios’

By: brew

brew — Tue, 23 May 2006 17:22:06 +0000

dead youth pastor, you have got to be the most encouraging and uplifting person i’ve ever run across. your blog writings and now this comment have really just been such a positive shot in the arm to the Kingdom. Oh, wait, I had you confused for that inanimate object in the corner of my office. lighten up, man.

By: dead youth pastor

dead youth pastor — Mon, 22 May 2006 04:35:17 +0000

wow, a for-profit business bought another for-profit business? 2 businesses whose profits depend on the budgets of non-profits?

wow great news man. wow my world is upside down, wow wow wow.

i hope the people who have continually gone to the mat for you guys feel justified by their free copies of “purpose-driven profits” and their lovely new financially crippling youthworkers-to-the-upper-middle-class conference escapades.

im excited for your new opportunities to sell jesus to the portion of america with disposable incomes.

ys lived convention to convention? your average youthworker lives paycheck to paycheck. your average american is financially worse off than your average youthworker.

so congrats on your sale to another for-profit business.

i sure hope the poor people can afford the jesus that you sell.