hey, i have an idea: how about i run a big ol’ blog contest where the winner gets a FREE copy of my brand-new book, A Beautiful Mess: What’s Right About Youth Ministry?

but, here’s the catch: you don’t have to do anything, you don’t have to enter, and everyone’s a winner!

i am quite pleased that the creative minds at simply youth ministry suggested we give away my book for two weeks (the downloadable versions). after these two weeks, it’ll cost you a few bucks, and you can also order a physical copy if you want. but for now, you can FREELY download a packet with a pdf, a .epub file for ipad, and a .mobi file for kindle.

how much does that rock? well, quite a bit of rockage, thank you very much.

here’s the skinny on the book: i was starting to sense a weariness in the youth workers i connect with, due to the barrage of “bad news” coming from people like me, as well as the research and books that have been telling us, in a sense, that we’re failing at our calling. i was stirred by a poignant moment i had at an event last year, where i felt i was complicating things, and stopped to try to encourage the good and faithful youth workers in that room (read that experience here, which shows up in the book also).

so, when SYM was asking me for book ideas, i suggested i write something about what’s going well in youth ministry.

at one point the book was called The Glass Half-Full — and that’s really the point of it. sure, there are some problems in youth ministry, and we can’t stick our heads in the sand. but there’s also lots of really wonderful stuff happening in churches all over the place. AND, the subtle notion that fixing what’s broken is completely within our power is, honestly, a bit arrogant and messiah-like.

so, that was the nexus of this baby. it’s not long — a quick read at about 10,000 words. easy, peasy.

here’s the back cover copy someone at SYM created (which summarizes the book very well):

When you think about the state of youth ministry today, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you cheer or fear? Is the glass half full or half empty? In this honest, frank, blunt examination, veteran youth worker Mark Oestreicher offers a fresh perspective on what’s working in youth ministry today—and discovers that perhaps things aren’t as broken as some of us might have thought.

Theologically and anecdotally, we can uncover plenty of encouraging signs in the realm of youth ministry, according to Oestreicher, whose youth ministry experience includes time as an in-the-trenches youth worker and as a publisher of youth ministry books and resources. A Beautiful Mess features insights on the issues and opportunities facing youth workers, including the trend toward longevity in ministry, the power of smaller churches, the work of the Holy Spirit, the rewards of authentic relational ministry, the need for integration instead of isolation, and the centrality of faith and humility.

This book will help you experience the freedom of your calling, rather than the stress of expectations. You’ll discover an abundance of reasons to remain optimistic, intentional, and faithful as you engage in the lives of today’s teenagers.

so, get to it. download your free copy here!

last year, in my first nashville cohort of the youth ministry coaching program, i had a participant who was a little bit of an anomaly. he wasn’t a youth pastor (as most YMCPers are). instead, he was a ministry minded guy who happened to work for a short-term missions organization, trying to connect with youth workers. he boss paid for him to participate in YMCP for a combination of personal growth, and to get a better sense of the real needs of real youth pastors.

i hope we accomplished the 2nd of those goals. i know we saw the first one take place.

jeff goins is a gifted a brilliant leader, writer, and ministry mind. so i was thrilled to fantastic post on the value of coaching (really not about YMCP, but — c’mon — by inference, it is!)

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Why You Need a Personal Coaching Program

We weren’t meant to do life alone. Without a good team — and a good coach — we’re left with little direction or guidance.

Many of us have believed the lie of the self-made man or woman. But in order for us to become our best selves, we need a quality support network to challenge, affirm, and empower us.

I just finished up my year of being a part of the Youth Ministry Coaching Program (YMCP). Although I’m not a vocational youth minister, Mark Oestreicher was kind enough to allow me to be a part of his cohort.

It was the best professional and personal development decision I’ve made in a long time. Maybe ever.

I thought I’d sit in a lot of long meetings that would be informative, but relatively boring. I should’ve known better.

I was blown away by times of teaching, prayer, and personal sharing. I connected with the other ten members of this group in ways that I’ve seldom done with other groups.

I made lifelong friends. I was encouraged to pursue my dreams and walk more confidently in my identity. Oh, and I learned a few cool things about youth culture and ministry.

Everyone should pursue some kind of professional coaching program. Here’s why:

Good coaching challenges you

This group called me out when I was wrong or asked more of me when they knew I was holding back.

I learned that I can be arrogant and dismissive from this group. I learned that I still need to grow in my inner life and that while I know a thing or two, I don’t know everything.

I was challenged to be humble, open, and honest with others who are different from me.

Good coaching affirms you

The first time we met, someone asked me what my dream was.

“I guess it’s to be a writer,” I said, questioning myself.

“That’s ridiculous,” someone said. “You already are a writer.”

I’m not a big sports guy. I was on the golf team in high school for a year and was in a lot of spelling bees. That’s the extent of athletic, competitive involvement.

When I did do anything remotely athletic, I sensed that the coach was embarrassed by me. In fact, he occasionally would say so. It made me never want to try. So I didn’t.

In this group, conversely, I learned to believe things about myself that were already true. And I started living into them. This blog is a direct result of my involvement in the YMCP. There’s no other way around it.

That’s what good coaching does.

Good coaching empowers you

Perhaps my favorite part about this group was the “confession” time.

Now, this is not what you may be thinking. Clear your mind of images of sitting in a dark cathedral confessing your sins to a disinterested priest.

Every time we met, we would circle up our chairs, look each other in the eyes, and whoever had something they wanted to talk about, they would share.

We shared triumphs and disasters in our lives. Sometimes, we gave each other advice. Other times, we shared a moment of silence together. Deep dark secrets were divulged, and beautiful healing happened.

This kind of openness allowed us to feel safe enough to begin making important changes in our lives. As a result, we did things we never would have dreamed of this year.

That’s what a good coaching group does. They help you do your job better by first changing you. I love how we did it — collaboratively and in community. It was powerful.

Your turn

If you can find something like the coaching program I did in your own town (or even if you have to travel far to find one), I heartily recommend doing it. It’s well worth any investment of time or money you spend.

————

btw: jeff has written a few excellent ebooks (and his first — also excellent — traditionally published book coming soon). his latest ebook, which i’m not sure would have become a reality were it not for YMCP, is a fantastic charge and practical steps for would-be writers, called “You Are a Writer: So Start Acting Like One.”

i continue to be encouraged by the response to Understanding Your Young Teen. in fact, i’ve had quite a few youth workers buy bulk orders for parents in their churches, which is totally cool.

dan istvanik (a.k.a. “jh uth guy”) wrote a nice review for youthworker journal, and posted it on his blog also. here’s what he wrote:

There is finally a book that you can feel comfortable handing to the Middle School/Jr. High parent sitting in your office! Understanding Your Young Teen by Mark Oestreicher (*Marko, to most of us in the youth ministry world) is a concise and thorough read that gently walks parents through the young teen years. His heart for this age group saturates every page as he introduces and explains each area of young teen development and life.

The book starts off introducing the age group, defined as 11-14 years old and then hones in on the key word of this period of life as “change”. The core chapters of the book follow through explaining each of the changes that are taking place in a young teen’s life. The final chapters close the book out helping parents understand young teen culture and suggestions on responding well to your child. Beyond just the exceptional content inside each chapter, the book also includes “A Word to Parents” written by other well-known youth workers on each subject.

If you are a youth worker that is involved in any way in the lives of young teens, I would strongly suggest you reading this book and also having a few copies of this book available in your office for parents. If you are a youth worker that works specifically with middle school and Jr. High students this book and the previous book Middle School Ministry are essentials in your library.

there were a couple other short quotes about the book on that youthworker journal web page also:

Understanding Your Young Teen offers great insight into so many specifics about the different areas of young adolescence from the physical changes to friendships. Parenting is not just about understanding one part of your teen but his or her culture and the world around him or her. It gives you practical ideas about getting inside the mind and emotions of your teen during this big change in their life. Oestreicher reveals the importance of parenting and the true impact parents can have on their teens.
–Dr. Scott Newton, Student Minister First Baptist Church, Moore

Marko did a great job with adolescent development background coupled with practical tips and aids for adults and parents to come alongside teenagers with real world advice.
–Dr. Jeff Baxter, Littleton, Colorado

thanks, guys!

well, hey, i might have developed and general edited this new bible for young adults, but i hadn’t seen this video (i just found it on an australian youth ministry blog that linked to my blog!). cool video — and it gives a great overview of the various elements, as well as the online community we hope will grow at theway.is.

i really had 22 year-olds in mind when i was working on this baby, though we always said it was for 17 – 30 year-olds. but the more i sit with it, the more i’m convinced that it really is a perfect bible for high schoolers also. we all know (well, i use ‘we’ to mean ‘youth workers’) that most ‘youth bibles’ are way too juvenile for today’s high schoolers. not this one, to be sure.

remember, you can download a ‘gospel of john sampler’ here (you can also order ‘em, if you’d like). but i really just wanted to share that cool video.

sharp youth worker and youth ministry coaching program grad joel mayward posted a nice review of Understanding Your Young Teen on his blog recently. joel’s blog is worth following, btw; he’s a thoughtful guy.

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I’m not the parent of a young teen, but I will be in about a decade. And when that day arrives, I’ll be sure to check back on the wisdom shared in Marko’s fantastic resource, Understanding Your Young Teen. It’s essentially the parenting version of Marko’s section in the youth ministry tome, Middle School Ministry, offering insight into the ever-changing world of 11-14 year olds.

Change. That’s the word Marko uses to describe this season of life. This change is holistic, from physical to cognitive to emotional to social to spiritual. Marko encourages parents to relationally engage with their young teen on all these levels, taking a posture of humble understanding and guidance. He proposes some new metaphors beyond the disciplinarian or the disconnected parent: cultural anthropologists and adventure guides.

As anthropologists, we learn about the young-teen experience, we study the generalities of development and culture, and we get to know the real issues and stories of the young teens living under our roof. Then we act as their adventure guides through the early adolescent experience, including–but not limited to–their spiritual journeys. (pg. 159)

Marko’s metaphors remind me of Richard Dunn’s discipleship phrase pacing-then-leading, found in his book Shaping the Spiritual Life of Students (the best book on teen discipleship I’ve ever read, btw). We enter into a teen’s life, pacing alongside them at their pace, which requires a posture of listening. As we pace, we also point out potential pitfalls and open their eyes to new visions and vistas they might have otherwise missed, leading them into maturity.

The tone of the book is practical and friendly while also clearly deeply informed. Marko has 30+ years of experience with ministry to young teens, as well as parenting two teens of his own. Yet he never comes off as overly didactic or formulaic; he practices what he preaches, offering insights as a fellow parent and guide with a tone of humble confidence. I also loved the other voices he invites into the conversation–at the end of each chapter, there is a section contributed from a fellow middle school expert, as well as a bonus chapter from Kara Powell and Brad Griffin from the Fuller Youth Institute.

One of the themes that emerges is normalization. With so many changes, parents can continually remind their young teen that they are, in fact, okay. “We must always be ready to slip ‘It’s okay,’ ‘It’s normal’ and ‘It’s good’ into our conversations with our young teens. These statements constantly remind them that their changes are normal and good and that they’ll turn out great.” (pg. 38) No one wants to be viewed as abnormal or bizarre; to offer genuine words of security and comfort can be a sacred act of love in a young teen’s life.

My favorite chapter is the one on young teen culture, entitled “White-Hot Temporary.” The insights in this chapter alone are worth the price of the book as Marko exegetes the current cultural trends of early adolescence. With sub-sections on “an intense but temporary culture” and “a driven yet sedentary culture,” there were so many descriptions that accurately describe the young teen cultural zeitgeist. To understand the culture requires patience and grace, but that’s exactly what Marko is encouraging: understanding. “If you understand why your young teen thinks, acts, and feels the way he or she does, you’ll be in a significantly better place from which to engage with your child.” Understanding and engagement–two critical values to godly parenting, and values that permeate Understanding Your Young Teen.

one of the things i love about my partner in The Youth Cartel is that he is SO much more than a smart, tech-savvy youth worker. adam’s a guy with a particular vision for youth ministry, one that has implications for how he and his family live. one of adam’s strong values is about how the gospel should be good news to the people we live among. in other words, our homes, and our youth ministries, should be present to the real people and real needs of the community around us. and adam and his family live that out.

along those lines, adam teamed up with his friend jon huckins (author of the excellent book Teaching Through the Art of Storytelling, who is likewise committed that kind of incarnational community presence) to write a 6-week youth ministry curriculum called Good News in the Neighborhood. it’s pretty robust — with videos for each of the lessons. here’s what you get:

Printable PDF of teachers notes
Editable Word version of teachers notes
6 introductory video stories (One for each week)
Multiple options for each session to fit the needs of your group (Activity ideas, discussion starters, teaching options)
6 experiments for students to try between sessions

and here’s the outline:

Week 1: Tuning In (Experiment: Ethnography/Observation)
Week 2: Diving Deep (Experiment: Participating)
Week 3: Crossing Borders (Experiment: Two-fold inviting)
Week 4: Advocating for What Matters (Experiment: Standing up for our neighbors)
Week 5: New Eyes (Experiment: New eyes)
Week 6: Living a New Story (Experiment: Commissioning)

the whole thing is downloadable (including the vids).

this is one of the first forays into publishing for The Youth Cartel. you’re going to see a whole lot more of this during 2012 (we have a pipeline of cool resources in development!).

you can check it out here.

and here’s a video teaser (a trailer, of sorts):

any reader of this blog knows how completely stoked i am about The Way bible, a bible i spent 2 years developing for tyndale publishers. it’s an NLT bible with hundreds of stories and elements that curate the message of scripture and the kingdom of god. developed with 17 – 30 year olds in mind (but, heck, i think it’s a pretty killer bible for high schoolers, and i’d like it as a 48 year-old), the intent is to create space for questions, doubt and hope.

and, since, you know, i have a hook up with the publisher, i get to give some of ‘em away.

but i also have friends connected to Blue Like Jazz (The Movie), which has its theatrical release at the end of this week. of course, many of you have read the book, and some of you have seen a screening of the movie (as i have). and i think you’ll see why it makes sense that i would think this movie (which is great, btw) and this bible would connect with the same kind of people (regardless of age). the cool thing is, i get to give away movie tickets also.

seriously, this is probably the best giveaway i’ve ever gotten to host on my wee humble blog. i’m going to award 20 winners with a prize package including 2 movie tickets (which can be used at any theater, any showing of Blue Like Jazz, good until april 30) and a copy of The Way. the movie tix will be a download code, and the copy of The Way will be shipped to your eager little hands. (so, each prize is worth something around fifty bucks!)

i’d love, love, love it if you would show your support by doing a couple things:

- like The Way bible on facebook
- like Blue Like Jazz (the movie) on facebook

heck, i’d love it even more if you would spread the word. tweet this. send people here to this blog post. use the little social media sharing options at the bottom of this post. send people to the BLJ website or The Way website (which, for what it’s worth, is more of an extension of the bible than a marketing site).

i’ve gone ’round and ’round on how to decide who gets the 20 prizes. i thought about giving ‘em to the first 20 peeps who bought something from The Youth Cartel store. but i decided that wasn’t ethical (and probably not even legal!). i thought about just saying the first 20 comments win, but decided that was way too boring, and would be over too quickly.

so i’ve settle on this: tell me why you want them (the tix and the bible). keep your answer to 1 – 3 sentences (no need for massive paragraphs and emotional pleading). i’ll pick the first 10 winners at the end of 24 hours (roughly, that is — i’m on vacation this week, so i’ll pick ‘em tuesday morning at some point). and i’ll pick the remaining 10 winners a little later — probably on thursday morning.

this is one of four similar contests launching today. i corralled my friend, and The Way contributor, scot mcknight, into doing one on his blog. so, hey, if you don’t win here, maybe you can win at one of the others!

ok… here we go! why do you want the Blue Like Jazz movie tickets and copy of The Way?

oh, and how about a couple trailers:

THE FIRST 10 WINNERS

choosing winners has been MUCH more difficult than i imagined it would be! i grabbed about 40 that caught my attention and copied them into a word doc; then kinda went with a combo of random choosing and my gut from there! sorry to all those who aren’t in the first 10. i’ll be choosing another 10 on thursday.

but, the first 10 are…

Mookie
Eric McFarland
Vik Schaaf
Stuart Delony
Todd Graham
Rachel Kurtz May
Deena
Jordan Wiseman
Jenny Call
Marv Nelson

and, the 2nd (remaining) 10 are…

Kevin Ibanez
Bobby Mooney
Ian Robertson
Chris Saulnier
Danny Eiler
Dawn Wisner-Johnson
ryan guard
Tim Gleason
Mark (from Topeka First)
Brian Barnett

that’s it folks — thanks for playin’! go see the movie even if you didn’t win, and pick up a copy of The Way also.

time for another wad of 2-sentence book reviews! my format: i allow myself one sentence for summary, and one sentence for opinion (easy for some, really hard for others!).

Young Adult Fiction

Cracked, by K.M. Walton
5 stars
a bully and his prey both end up in a teen suicide psych ward at the same time and learn some things about themselves and each other. great characters and voices, and a great treatment of an important subject without being either glib or heavy-handed.

The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green
5 stars
a cancer-ridden female teenage narrator wrestles with love, otherness, mortality, and hope. expertly written. it’s what could have been good about the twilight series, but with cancer instead of vampires.

Youth Ministry

Like Dew Your Youth: Growing Up with Your Teenager, by Eugene H. Peterson
3.5 stars
The Message writer gives advice, rooted in both practicality and theology, to parents of teenagers. written in the 70s, it’s extremely dated in most every way, while still coming from the brilliant mind and pen of eugene peterson.

99 Thoughts about Junior High Ministry: Tips, Tricks & Tidbits for Working with Young Teenagers, by Kurt Johnston
5 stars
this book is exactly what the title says it is. not intended to be a game-changer or thought-provoker, this tiny book is a perfect gift for junior high ministry volunteers.

The Middle School Mind: Growing Pains in Early Adolescent Brains, by Richard M. Marshall and Sharon Neuman
3 stars
an educator and a psychologist team up to inform parents about young teen brains and their behavioral implications. i had high hopes for this book and was disappointed, mostly with the mediocre-story-after-mediocre-story approach, but also with the dry writing.

time for another wad of 2-sentence book reviews! my format: i allow myself one sentence for summary, and one sentence for opinion (easy for some, really hard for others!).

General Nonfiction

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks, by Ken Jennings
5 stars
jennings (that guy who won forever on the tv show jeopardy) takes us a romp through the world of maps and those who love them. you don’t have to be a ‘maphead’ to love this book, as it’s fantastically witty and fun, while being surprisingly interesting.

Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work!, by Douglas Coupland
3 stars
off-beat fiction writer coupland takes a serious left turn and writes a non-fiction biography of the father of media studies. i had no idea what i was buying, and the book is well written, found myself getting extremely bored with this mcluhan love-fest.

Fiction

Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
4.5 stars
the wild tale of a boy lost at sea, drifting in a lifeboat with a massive bengal tiger. this one’s been around for years, but i finally read it and loved everything but the ending.

Leadership

From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership, by Harry M. Kraemer
4 stars
basic principles of what it means to lead from values rather than goals. some fantastic points, but dry and too targeted to a CEO reader.

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman, by Yvon Chouinard
5 stars
the founder and owner of patagonia tells his life and company story and how patagonia ruthlessly works to embody their corporate values, even when it means a loss of potential profit. my third read of this fantastic book (and assigned reading in my coaching program), this is an amazing case study of allowing values to be your organization’s decision-making matrix.

Anything You Want, by Derek Sivers
3.5 stars
the founder of cd baby lays out his story and the values his rocketship of a company tried to embrace. a decent case study, but–as with most books in the domino line–rambling and long on words for the points made (which is saying something, since it’s only 88 pages!).

i got a text from the bible acquisitions guy at tyndale yesterday, telling me they’d received one softcover and one hardcover copy of The Way bible from the printer. it was cause for a handful of WOOTS and reminders of both how amazing this thing is and how much anticipation we have about it.

i worked on The Way–a very different kind of bible, intentionally developed for 17 – 30 year olds–for more than 18 months. it mas the most massive publishing project i’ve ever undertaken: developing the concepts, scheduling out the whole project, writing major chunks, finding and coaching well over a hundred writers and a dozen photographers, general editing hundreds of elements, and selecting more than 200 museum quality photos.

here’s some of the descriptive copy from the in-development (but freakin’ awesome, full interactive and participatory) website:

We’ve all got questions. We’ve all doubted. But too often, those doubts are viewed as threats. Hard questions are met with cold stares.

Is this how Jesus meant it to be? The Way answers with an emphatic “no”.

The Way is a starting place. It’s a Bible that creates a space for questions, doubts, conversations, and hope. And a community that says it’s OK to ask, to doubt, and to talk.

Joined with raw Black & White photography and video, the features of The Way give voice to the in-betweens. The gray space. And the Hard Places. They open the hearts and minds of people from all walks of life for all to see – the good and the bad. The questions that we just don’t get. They’re not about giving neat answers. Just the opposite. They show that life is messy. That sometimes it doesn’t make sense. And that it’s OK to feel that way.

it will be in stock and ready to go in two or three weeks.

The Youth Cartel has been pre-selling copies, and that sale will continue for another few days (through tuesday, march 13). we’ll still sell it after that, of course; but the pricing might be different. i know a few youth workers and churches have been ordering them as graduation gifts for seniors, which is just perfect. so many ‘youth bibles’ have a juvenile feel to them; but this thing has none of that. it’s gorgeous, visually, and amazingly honest. the biblical text is NLT, and the extra bits (hundreds!) are full of vulnerability, thought provokation, story, and life connection points to the biblical text.

i expect and hope that people who work with high schoolers or college students will find this bible to be their top recommendation. check out the free download sample (the gospel of john) here.