no, that’s the wrong subject line. it should just be “wonderful youth ministry resource.”

scott miller is a national leader in youth ministry — particularly in the catholic church. he was with the national federation for catholic youth ministry (nfcym) for a number of years, and is now the youth ministry guy for the archdiocese of baltimore. and he’s a really good guy, very intelligent, and passionate about youth ministry.

scott has two websites worth bookmarking for every youth worker. the first is his blog, called catholicymblog. his posts often. and it’s a running update of links and ideas. very helpful stuff.

the other website is a fun little project of scott’s called “inside the youth minister’s studio.” it’s a podcast site, with interviews fashioned after the tv show “inside the actor’s studio.” today, the podcast interview with me went live. it was an interesting conversation with scott (really, i’ve come to believe that a good interview worth listening to has much more to do with the questions than the answers), and i’m honored to be the token non-catholic interview for this podcast.

here’s a direct link to the podcast.

i also enjoyed the summaries scott pulled from the interview, which i’ll copy here:

Wednesday, February 21, 2007
BIO: Mark Oestreicher (Marko) is the president of Youth Specialties. For over 30 years Youth Specialties has worked alongside Christian youth workers of just about every denomination and youth-serving organization by providing publications, training, and leadership. Marko has a thoughtful, well-hyperlinked, funny/rude, personal blog which is found at www.ysmarko.com.
QUOTE TO NOTE: This is an area where a lot of youth workers and churches, in general, go wrong in terms of discipleship and that’s they just treat it (discipleship) as a program or a component of their youth ministry rather than the goal of the ministry. The command of Christ is that we go into the world and create disciples. And that’s what the whole point of youth ministry is about. . . . Discipleship is what we should be all about.
OBSCURE FACTOID: During the conversation, Marko talks about the challenges of “attractional” ministry. Since the taping, he expanded on these thoughts in this blog entry. Days later, Dr. Leonard Sweet also addressed this theme at Baylor. This line of discussion should NOT be obscure in any youth ministry field, let alone Catholic youth ministry.
BEHIND THE SCENES: Ahhh, an editing confession – When this was taped, my Baltimore Ravens and Marko’s home team, the San Diego Chargers, both looked as if they were might be NFL playoff rivals. Therefore, the call started off with some trash talk, mostly on my part. Unfortunately, both teams lost their home games during next weekend.
BLOG REFLECTION: MARK OESTREICHER IS “INSIDE THE YOUTH MINISTERS’ STUDIO”
Marko, I do believe, is a little jazzed about being considered a “Catholic Youth Ministry expert” as he becomes the latest addition to the pod-cast series. Of course, we Catholics understand “the word ‘catholic’ means ‘universal,’ in the sense of ‘according to the totality’ or ‘in keeping with the whole.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #830) Further, “those who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church” (CCC 838) Soooo, recognizing we ALL have lots of work to do in addressing imperfections on all sides to get closer towards this totality stuff, It’s a honor to have Marko in the studio. Why? Youth Specialties and Marko believe in CHURCH- yours, mine, ours. They would acknowledge that “it’s flawed, inconsistent, institutional, bureaucratic, even embarrassing sometimes. Yet it is also incredibly heroic at other times. Whether we like it or not, want to attend it or not, we’re stuck with it.” So, Marko, keep on doing that catholic thing of yours. . . because we’re stuck with it, we love the kids, and we all know that the Spirit and young disciples have the possibilities heroic differences within them.