yup — here’s the big announcement i’ve alluded to a couple times. i’m pretty pumped. we’ve been friends with the planet wisdom gang for a while, and walked down the road of considering merging with them a couple years ago — but the timing didn’t seem right then for a few reasons. as we (ys) were considering our desire to expand into student events more, to compliment our student line of books (invert), we thought it was silly to create something new, when the planet wisdom tour and website is already fantastic, something we’ve promoted, and something we could really help expand.

mark matlock, the main dude at planet wisdom, has spoken at our events for years, and has published a bunch of books with us.

so this means ys will be working with mark (and a few of his staff that we’re bringing on board) to host the planet wisdom event tour, planetwisdom.com (a website primarily for teenagers), and to develop a parent training initiative.

here’s a great announcement video the skit guys helped us make:

and here’s the press release:

SAN DIEGO, CA, July 22, 2008 – Youth Specialties, a world leader in youth ministry resources, has acquired Dallas, Tex.-based Planet Wisdom from Wisdom Works Ministries. Planet Wisdom, a ministry dedicated to teens and those who care about them, hosts student tours, maintains a robust web site and offers a variety of published resources including books and curriculum. Terms of the acquisition, which was effective today, were not disclosed.

“Youth Specialties and Planet Wisdom have enjoyed a long-standing relationship and have a deep admiration for one another so this acquisition makes a lot of sense for both organizations,” said Youth Specialties president Mark Oestreicher. “We have been anxious to expand our services to include student and parenting events and resources, and this acquisition will allow us to do just that with an organization we love and respect.”

“It’s been evident to us that our organizations strongly complement one another and our missions are closely aligned,” said Mark Matlock, founder of Planet Wisdom. “This acquisition will afford us the resources we need to grow and build our events, web site and content of the Planet Wisdom tour beyond what we could do alone. Our commitment is to continue to deliver the quality resources and services we are known for, while improving and expanding our ministry to students, parents and youth workers through innovation and creativity.”

Planet Wisdom will launch the eighth year of their popular student tour in October, with events in 13 cities planned between October 2008 and April 2009. Mark Matlock will again serve as main speaker and presenter, with long time performers The Skit Guys returning, as well as worship leaders Dutton.

Matlock is a long time speaker and presenter at the annual Youth Specialties’ National Youth Workers Conventions, as well as the author of more than 10 books with Youth Specialties publishing. He is currently developing a training curriculum called Real World Parents which will roll out in the spring of 2009. Real World Parents is designed to train youth workers to present parenting resources that encompass a partnership between parents and youth workers in the spiritual development of teenagers.