The Youth Cartel

nice review of Understanding Your Young Teen

May 2, 2012

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 [...]

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4 mindsets for staying put in youth ministry

May 1, 2012

last week at one of my youth ministry coaching program cohorts, we were having a conversation about longevity in ministry (in other words, staying at one church for a long time). various peeps were sharing great thoughts on the benefits and challenges. in our little cohort of 10 people (plus me), one has been at [...]

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How I Changed My Mind

April 30, 2012

I had convinced myself that I was speaking the truth; and whether it was spoken “in love” or not, speaking the truth was the thing leaders were supposed to do. But the young woman in my office started crying, and something tipped sideways in my self-analysis. This crying young woman was the third meeting in [...]

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Tic Long will be at the middle school ministry campference

April 25, 2012

yup. big awesomeness. many of you know tic long. tic worked at youth specialties for pretty much all of his adult life, well more than 30 years, until this past fall. he has given his life to youth workers. the dude is thoughtful, direct, articulate, insightful, creative, and–no question about it–fun. many of you also [...]

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a video overview of the elements in The Way bible

April 24, 2012

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 [...]

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overheard at my 6th grade guys small group

April 23, 2012

dang, they were funny last week. on top of that, it was one of the best discussions we’ve had this year. but first, some of the funny bits, which mostly came out during our sharing of ‘highs and lows’. 6th grade dude 1 (describing the best thing about his past week): “the ballooned my dad’s [...]

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Open, an experimental youth ministry event

April 20, 2012

two preliminary comments: 1. someone told me recently that they had stopped reading my blog because it seemed like it was all promotion for stuff i was doing. that bummed me out, particularly because i try really hard not to have that be true. on the other hand, i don’t have mailing lists or marketing [...]

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Young Teens and Exploration

April 19, 2012

Have you ever noticed how young teens want to try everything? Sure, some are shy, and won’t try something that exposes them too much. And young teens approaching the middle teen years (like, 8th graders) sometimes get less and less willing to try new things. But most young teens are game for anything. If they’re [...]

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joel mayward’s review of Understanding Your Young Teen

April 18, 2012

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. ————- I’m not the parent of a young teen, but I will be in about a decade. And when that day [...]

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announcing the 2012 plans for the Youth Ministry Coaching Program

April 17, 2012

over two years ago, when i was trying to figure out what to do with my post-ys life, one thing was pulling at me more than anything else: starting a coaching program for youth workers, built on what i had learned about myself in the coaching program i had been through with dr. john townsend. [...]

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