today, those two guys are now 33 year-old men, planting a church in iowa city, iowa.

i’ve followed their stories on an off over the years, thanks to facebook and a few mutual friends. i ran into jeff at a youth worker event about 5 years ago. both guys were youth workers for a while (among other ministry roles). but they felt called to start this church in iowa city that is especially targeted at connecting with the 40,000 students of the university of iowa.

i was in iowa city last weekend for a speaking gig, and had a chance to reconnect with mark and jeff. man, there is just about nothing better for the heart and ongoing calling of a youth worker who’s been around the track a few times to see now-adult former students with a significant faith. i thought i’d have youth ministry fuel for at least a year merely based on the comment mark made as we said goodbye, “hey, thanks for building into us, man.”

but then, i saw this — mark’s blog post from the other day:

This summer is the 20 year anniversary of when I first “got it.”

You see, I was a Christian butthead. I grew up in church, prayed “the prayer” every night (“God if you didn’t hear me last night, I really don’t want to go to hell. I invite you into my life once again as my personal Savior.”), but I had a problem. I was an angry, violent, insecure skate punk.

My mom, along with Sally Kuphal (my friend’s mom), conspired to get Joe and me on a mission trip to Mexico. They brokered a deal with Marko, the junior high pastor, that we would both go if we could be together the entire 10 days of the trip. And so it happened, we went kicking, but not screaming, because we figured, “Ehh, it can’t be that lame if we can be together. We should be able to endure this uncool group for a week.”

It was the first time I prayed out loud in a group (other than my family), saw poverty, got caught up in corporate worship, felt “called” to something bigger than skating, made friends other than Joe… (One of them I’m currently planting a church with. Cosmic accident?)

I look back on that summer as one of the top ten defining moments of my life.

But somewhere in the middle- between a 13 year old spoiled American skate punk and a loving and good God- was a junior high pastor who believed that 13 year olds are worth it.

Nineteen years later, as divine providence would have it, Jeff Thune and I got a Facebook message from our old junior high pastor, “Hey, I’m in Iowa City doing some training for youth pastors. I heard you guys are here! Let’s hang out.” Of course, 20 years later he’s going stronger than ever, loving teenagers (he still has a small group at his church) and training youth workers (he travels the world, speaking, writing, and mentoring).

From 13 year old punk to 33 year old church planter. That’s me. I have a trail of people to thank along the way.

Thanks, Marko, for believing that teenagers can change the world. Bless you, my friend.

i read this to a youth ministry friend who is also “seasoned” and she started crying, even though she’s never met mark and jeff. this is it — this is why we do this thing. this is why. thanks, god; this is why.

a new web portal launched this week for church leaders, appropriately called churchleaders.com. the have some original content and some aggregated content, as well as lots of other stuff. i like that they have the home page that includes a variety of content, but sections divided into specific content for pastors, worship, youth (ministry), children (‘s ministry), small groups, and outreach.

i’d been asked to be part of the advisory team (or something like that) for the youth ministry section, and agreed to that. and, they asked me and a handful of other youth ministry bloggers if they could aggregate some of our blog posts. here’s what i like about how this website is aggregating content, though:

let’s be honest — not every blog post by every blogger is worth reading. some are, some aren’t. i chuckle when i look at some aggregators that include every post from a handful of bloggers. if i wanted to read every post by them, i’d add them to my reader. a good aggregator should be selective, imho. so, the youth ministry section of churchleaders.com has blog posts from me, adam mclane, josh griffin, and many more; but only those posts that are specifically about youth ministry and would have interest or application to a wider audience. that’s helpful.

anyhow, i encourage you to check it out. a friend of mine is in the final throws of becoming the “channel editor” for the youth ministry section, and i expect the quality and depth of the content will increase when that happens.

the point of the article: be ready for a great time of deep discussion to show up when you least expect it.

here’s the first few ‘graphs:

I lead a small group of seventh grade guys in my home each Wednesday night. Four out of five weeks feel like we barely accomplish anything (whatever that means!).

That fifth week, though. Hmm! That’s the one that keeps me coming back week in and week out. It’s like the chip shot that magically drops in the hole—after the stinkiest round of golf in the history of links—and leads me to think, “I can do this!”

I had one of these “fifth weeks” recently. It started out looking like it was going to be the worst small group time of the month. I hadn’t prepared a thing. My co-leader had the DVD curriculum. After an uncommonly unruly 30 minutes of sharing highs and lows of our week, I turned to my co-leader and asked if we could pop in the DVD. “Uh, I think I left it at home,” he said. Time to punt!

click through to read the rest.

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my friend mark aardsma has developed a slick little iphone app called ‘time audit‘. it’s a time-tracking app; but it’s for more than just “billable hours” or something like that, because you choose not only a ‘how i spent my time’ option, but also a ‘why’ option. the resulting metrics can provide interesting data for how your life aligns with what you want it to be about!

(btw: mark’s other two companies might be interesting to church leaders and youth workers: ats acoustics sells pre-made and you-make acoustic panels for recording spaces and other spaces with sound-baffling needs (can you say “youth group room”?), and their prices are WAY below anyone else; and ats rentals rents out video projectors (and other a.v. equipment) in a super-easy ‘shipped to where you need it’ carton. easy-breezy, lemon-squeezy. i wish i had 25% of mark’s entrepreneurial savvy.)

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i thought this l.a.times article was an interesting reflection on the recent lebron james bruhaha. instead of commentary about what he should have or shouldn’t have done, it’s commentary about how lebron’s choice is in step with the values of the millennial generation he’s a part of. a snippet:

…But his move simply puts him in step with others of his generation. If younger workers have displayed anything as employees, it’s that they prize mobility more than they do fidelity to their employers

Our shared desire is that no one should ever have to deal with the crushing weight of loneliness, depression, anxiety, stress, abuse, addictions, or thoughts of suicide alone. Become part of the movement. Whether you are the one in need or someone who desires to encourage others in theirs, My Broken Palace embraces your participation.

it’s a good resource for youth workers also, either to point hurting teens to, or as a reference (see the “get help” page) for online links and referral stuff.

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truly, one of the strangest interactive webthings i’ve seen in a while: nails. not a game, just a very strange mouse click interaction featuring a few dozen dudes exhibiting odd behavior. weird. but not in a bad way.

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now that i’m thinking more about the problem of extended adolescence, i’m also noticing our cultural endorsement of it more often. for instance, this cnn.com article on homeless ‘youth’ (focused on denver), uses the terms ‘youth’, ‘teen’ and ‘young adult’, but never ‘young adult’ or anything else remotely adult. every ‘youth’ they refer to in the article, or in photo captions in the gallery, is between 18 and 26. fascinating to me, and frustrating also.

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here’s a lovely little time-waster: pulsate. not a game, really. just a visual and aural treat. click your mouse and start expanding circles, which chime and retract when they bump into each other. i had fun trying different patterns to see how they’d play out. and — crazy — it was relaxing.

here are the first two questions and the answers i gave:

Q: What has changed about the way youth workers (yourself and in general) disciple students over your career in youth ministry?

There’s been a healthy shift away from a one-size-fits-all mentality. We were really into creating “discipleship programs” that offered one path, one option, when I was a young youth worker. Of course, there’s many still pursuing this route. But, my thinking is (and the thinking of lots of youth workers these days) that a mono-optional “program”-driven approach isn’t honoring to either the disciple or to God. It’s not honoring to the disciple because it only allows for one kind of disciple, the kind that is naturally wired for the expectations and path of the program or approach. And it’s not honoring to God because it denies, at its core, the gorgeous diversity of God creation as seen in the body of Christ.

The move toward mentoring as a key theme in many youth ministry discussions is a reflection of this shift. the old approach was to programmatic; the new (and, really, super-old, in that it’s the way Jesus discipled!) is relational. The old was all about “do this”, while the new (super-old) is all about “follow me.”

Q: What’s the same?

Teenagers are living in a different world, to be sure. But they’re still teenagers, and they’re still dealing with all the developmental realities of a post-pubescent awakening. They’re still wrestling with core questions of Identity, Autonomy, and Affinity (or Belonging). All of these necessarily play into any discussions about teenage discipleship, since they were and are central to the everyday experience of all teenagers (whether they’re aware of these issues or not). Another way to say this: teenagers are still wrestling with who they are (identity), they’re still wrestling with how they’re unique and to what extent they can influence the world around themselves (autonomy), and they’re still wrestling with the question of to whom and where they belong (affinity). All of these are deeply discipleship questions, at the end of the day. Or, at least, they should be!

the remaining questions were:

Q: What’s the best “how-to” discipleship advice you’ve ever received?

Q: What’s one trend in youth ministry today that you disagree with (or want to change)?

Q: Why are (or why aren’t) mission trips good for building students’ character? How high of a priority should they be in youth ministry?

but you’ll have to click through to see my responses.

i particularly liked april’s four “principles of rest”:

Principles of Rest

Principle of TRUST. Ultimately choosing to rest is about whether or not we trust God. I find that when I don’t rest, it’s because I don’t acknowledge he is Lord of heaven and earth…and I am not! God is ultimately responsible for the kids and programs and parents and events and needs in our ministries. We have all the time we need to accomplish everything he has called us to do. So maybe if we can’t find rest it’s because we don’t trust God with the big and small things in our lives.

Principle of WILLINGNESS. God doesn’t force rest – you have to be willing. Never does God guilt us into another thing to do. Rest is simply an invitation to “come to me” and offer our burdens and exhaustion to the One who is capable of handling it all.

Principle of PARTNERSHIP. This is an incredible principle! The yoke Jesus is offering is about partnership with the Triune God in the activities of the world. In the Old Testament, yoking was only lawful for two like animals; only two similar animals were allowed to be partnered with each other for the work they were to accomplish together. And yet Jesus offers us a partnership to yoke or connect ourselves with him to find rest and work. Rest is about trading our heavy yoke for an easy and gracious yoke.

Principle of EXPERIENCING GOD. We are to say “yes” to rest not just because we’re tired but because we need to connect with God our Father. Rest is a gift for you to experience intimacy with the Father so you know all he wants for you to say and do. Then, as we find rest, it creates space in our souls for connection and gratitude.

read the rest of the article here.

my ranking was certainly helped by the fact that, for whatever reason, my technorati ranking is pretty good at the moment (526), while josh griffin’s blog (who, i’m VERY confident, gets WAY more readers than mine) has an oddly low technorati ranking at the moment.

i like adam’s approach of considering influence as a subjective portion of the rankings. all rankings are, ultimately, subjective in one way or another (the compiler chooses which metrics to care about, which are often in opposition to one another). but i think the list will be even better next year, when those voting on influence are the last year’s top 20 (or, will that make it worse, like a church elder board that has the power to choose their own replacements!?).

some of the list are the expected standards of youth ministry blogging. but i was pleased to see tash mcgill pop up from 41 last year to 16 this year. tash is one of the only female bloggers on the list (kara powell of the fuller youth institute blog being the other), and one of only two non-US bloggers (the other being ian mcdonald of the UK-based youthblog). her blog is really worth reading (she’s a great writer), and i’m glad this list will give her more exposure. i’m also a fan of jeremy zach (as a person, youth worker, and blogger), and glad to see his blog on the rise.

the two biggest “injustices” on the list, in my opinion, are josh griffin not being in the top 2, and the fuller youth institute blog coming in at 13, where it actually dropped from #5 last year. the FYI blog is, i think, the single best youth ministry blog out there. if i were creating a “blogs youth workers should read” list of my own (100% weighted on my subjective opinion), the FYI blog would be #1. i’m not sure how it could drop this year, as the content is better than ever. but i have to believe it’s because not enough people know about it, and with the addition of “influence” in adam’s formula this year, it didn’t score high enough with those who provided the input on that factor. (there’s also a little “injustice” in people who barely ever blog at all making the list. for example, my good friend chris folmsbee makes the list at #8, a climb from #21 last year, but hasn’t posted since mid-march! or, how ’bout mark riddle, who rose this year also, but hasn’t posted since mid-january!)

ultimately, whether i made the list or not, i’m glad adam created it, because there are a few in the top 20 that i’ve never heard of — and i want to start following them.

here’s the list — happy reading!

2010 Rank / Blogger Name / Blog address (2009 Rank)
1 / Youth Specialties Blog / http://youthspecialties.com/blog (12)
2 / Mark Oestreicher / http://whyismarko.com (3)
3 / Tim Schmoyer / http://studentministry.org (3)
4 / Josh Griffin / http://www.morethandodgeball.com/ (2)
5 / Adam McLane / http://adammclane.com (7)
6 / Adam Walker Cleaveland / http://pomomusings.com/ (1)
7 / Orange Leaders / http://www.orangeleaders.com/ (–)
8 / Chris Folmsbee / http://www.anewkindofyouthministry.com/ (21)
9 / Ian MacDonald / http://www.youthblog.org (9)
10 / Walt Mueller / http://learningmylines.blogspot.com/ (–)
11 / Jeremy Zach / http://www.reyouthpastor.com (28)
12 / Jonathan McKee / http://blog.thesource4ym.com/ (19)
13 / Fuller Youth Institute / http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/blog/ (5)
14 / Mark Riddle / http://www.theriddlegroup.com/blog/index.htm (25)
15 / Mike King / http://king.typepad.com/mike_king/ (15)
16 / Tash McGill / http://tashmcgill.blogspot.com/ (41)
17 / Gavin Richardson / http://www.gavoweb.com/ (8)
18 / Matt Cleaver / http://mattcleaver.com/ (29)
19 / Kurt Johnston / http://simplykurt.com/ (10)
20 / Stevan Sheets / http://www.stevansheets.com/ (10)

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Lord Jesus Christ suffers minor injuries in downtown Northampton crosswalk mishap

[the police] said officers checked Christ’s identification at the scene and confirmed it was his legal name.

(ht to scott miller)

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entire wedding party falls into a lake — no one thought about the dock not being made for that many people!

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a totally hilarious espn column about an extremely strange “sport”: the sauna world championships. seriously, give yourself a 3 minute break and read it. you’ll be refreshed.

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andy martin’s wonderfully weird and strangely beautiful little bit of musical animation…

Dry Fish from Andy Martin on Vimeo.

(and here’s a “making of” bit)

so, in the spirit of my old post that suggested david crowder and cornell west are either twins separated at birth, or a secret father/son sort of thing, i now present my fairly conclusive, exhaustive photo research to prove, once and for all, that scot and dietrich are, in fact, either twins separated at birth (in some cosmic time-warpy way that i can’t quite yet explain, though i suspect quantum physics has something to do with it), so at least genetically linked: