let’s start with this: watch the video.

hopefully that video allowed you to chuckle a bit, and get an actual overview of our news today. i started The Youth Cartel several months ago. but for a while, it was just the umbrella under which i put all the stuff i was doing (including the Youth Ministry Coaching Program and the Middle School Ministry Campference). my friend and former ys co-worker, adam mclane, has walked with me through this last 18 months, meeting for coffee, being a sounding board, developing my websites. i trust adam completely, and we share so much similarity in terms of vision for youth ministry and the church.

recently, adam and i began a conversation about what it would look like to partner together. while we share vision and values, adam has a complementary skill set to mine, and i knew The Youth Cartel would be able to offer so much more with him on board. so, after a couple months of dreaming, praying, planning, and working out details, i’m stoked to announce that adam is joining me, officially starting september 1 (but doing some part-time stuff prior to then).

not only does this ramp up what The Youth Cartel can offer, it put me in a place to re-imagine the future. out of our discussions, a shared passion came out to help identify and lift up emerging voices in youth ministry. we’re going to do this in a wide variety of ways, many of which are only ideas at this point. but we’re stoked about Instigating a Revolution in Youth Ministry; and the reality is, we can’t do that alone, nor should we.

today, in addition to that snappy little video (which we shot in the california desert this past saturday!), we’re unveiling a new website for The Youth Cartel. we invite you to poke around on the site. you’ll find a much deeper and broader description of what we’re doing.

and we’re launching a bunch of ways for you to connect, becoming part of The Youth Cartel:

• “like” our new facebook page here. that’s a place where you can stay up to date on new stuff, youth ministry discussions, and a community of people who understand you.
• follow our twitter feed here. we won’t annoy you with tweets about what we’re eating or the location of our oil change, promise.
• sign up for our e-newsletters here. our first, youtube you can use, will launch in september, and provide you with a weekly link to a youtube video, as well as discussion questions and creative ways to use it. other e-newsletters will follow.
• add The Youth Cartel blog to your reader. in addition to my blog and adam’s blog, The Youth Cartel blog will be a place for conversation and revolutionary ideas.

oh, and would you do me a favor? tweet this (see the button below), or post it on facebook or google+ (both also below). help me spread the word!

shoot me an email or leave a comment with your ideas. we’d love to hear from you. my hope is that this won’t just be a big day for The Youth Cartel, but will be the start of something fresh for the people i love: youth workers.