Merge

I have something important to share with you.

This fall I wrote 7 blog posts about how we gather which continued off the blog with a lot of folks who host conferences for church leaders or for students. These have been personally encouraging conversations for me as people begin to explore a framework in which transformation happens for people in communities.

This summer (June 27-July 2)Mark Novelli and Kelly Dolan (Imago Media) and Michael Novelli (Echo the Story) are hosting an experience called MERGE. It maybe the most unique, teen empowering, discipleship experience I've heard of for high school kids.

They are combining both the story of God (specifically a 16 story arc from scripture) and a way of gathering that cultivates transformation of communities.

It isn't a camp where you hand off your kids to strangers, the framework allows for you to bear the responsibility of leadership of your group, but also allows for the teams to own their own faith and the responsibility for it.

The MERGE team plays host and facilitator.

The experience will work because the folks like you will be there and the MERGE are great guides.

Michael, Mark and Kelly are on my short list for people I think are/will truly change the church. They are pioneers of ministry and thinking.

So go check out the MERGE site. Take your kids to MERGE. Then email me and thank me for sending you their direction.

Large Church Youth Ministry Learning Lab

This week I tried something new. A Learning Lab here in Tulsa. I named it "Leadership for the Rest of Us" because I believe in people and how God has gifted them. With so many of the conferences have the same 6 or so presenters and speakers telling the rest of us what leadership is and isn't I felt I'd try a learning lab. Intentionally small, spread by word of mouth, brought together without having to adopt an experts opinion. My hope was to create an alternative experience, something like an un-conference. 12 people converged on Tulsa Monday-Wednesday for a unique experience. Together we wrestled with ways to think of leadership differently. Most were youth pastors and wrestled with ideas related to doing youth ministry differently. What we call, church B. This was also the first module for folks interested in becoming consultants.

It was a beautiful experience.

We will do it again soon. I thinking of doing two different gatherings.

I'm investigating dates right now. But was thinking one of the Learning Labs (module 1) would be for youth pastors in churches larger than 3,000 people.

The second would of course be open just like the others. Then we'd begin to explore Module two together.
If you are interested in either of these? Let me know.
mark@theriddlegroup.com

Blog Tour Begins today

Today I'm on the YS BLOG with Adam McLane

Go here for the video interview.

I've met this guy...

Ignatius from travis hawkins on Vimeo.

(Thanks to Brandon)

Calvin and Hobbes wow.

wow. what do you think of this?

(Thanks to Brant)

Genetically test children for sports aptitudes

Unbelievable.

When Donna Campiglia learned recently that a genetic test might be able to determine which sports suit the talents of her 2 ½-year-old son, Noah, she instantly said, Where can I get it and how much does it cost?

"I could see how some people might think the test would pigeonhole your child into doing fewer sports or being exposed to fewer things, but I still think it's good to match them with the right activity," Campiglia, 36, said as she watched a toddler class at Boulder Indoor Soccer in which Noah struggled to take direction from the coach between juice and potty breaks.

"I think it would prevent a lot of parental frustration," she said.

In health-conscious, sports-oriented Boulder, Atlas Sports Genetics is playing into the obsessions of parents by offering a $149 test that aims to predict a child's natural athletic strengths. The process is simple. Swab inside the child's cheek and along the gums to collect DNA and return it to a lab for analysis of ACTN3, one gene among more than 20,000 in the human genome.

Link here

(Thanks to Bevan)

Prediction

There are a lot of churches (I'll call them church 3.0) who developed a significant portion of their understanding for ministry based on youth ministry 18-15 years ago. These leaders may not have personally been involved in youth ministry, but they are smart folks, who planted church (mostly in the last 10 years). They are the people on the stages of most church conferences we see today. They are great leaders. My impression is that they are incredibly intuitive and adaptive. (a characteristic youth ministry of the 80-90's taught us) and are top down leaders. Like youth ministry of ol' was (see youth ministry 2.0).

Did you ever walk into one of these Church 3.0 churches and think, wow, this is like a big youth ministry, only done better with more money invested.

But my prediction is, that these churches built on old youth ministry models wills struggle with modern youth ministry almost exclusively because of the leadership style of the church.

Churches who have a high "command and control" systems will struggle the next 10 years because their command and control system will only have limited results. It will be interesting to see if they notice, because it may be that numbers are the last thing to go for them.

Of course these churches will say, that they are young and need to grow into youth ministry. This is why I imagine there's not a lot of talk about youth ministry at conferences like catalyst etc. (tell me if I'm wrong).

These churches over the next 3 years will have a come to jesus experience because they are smart folks. They plan ahead. Their children's ministries are the talk of the country. They sell their children's stuff. They have children's conferences. or new children's buildings "theme" by professionals.

But this will not work for youth ministry. You can't do youth ministry for the future in this way.

What do you think?
I'm totally shooting from the hip.
I'm open to being wrong.

Inside the Mind on Ecampus

I'll be using "Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors" next semester for the seminary class I'm teaching on Leadership. I'm excited that it's on ecampus. If you're a youth ministry prof for a seminary or college, hit up YS for a free copy once they are available so you can see if you want to use it for youth ministry curriculum too. My apologies for the blatant self promotion. :-)

Toying with an idea

I'm toying with an idea. My good friend David Welch recently suggested this idea and I've been tossing it around and thought I'd get your input.

Folks email me questions pretty often these days wanting some outside perspective to various issues and I respond to every email I get. I give my take and I try to get the takes of others I know. When appropriate I might even spend some time talking with them you) on the phone.

Still others invite me into the church and I partner with them in their own context.

David suggested that I answer some questions that people ask me via video and post them in a video blog post.

What do you think?

I'm really asking here friends. What do you think?

A program-less youth ministry

Adam over at Pomomusings has invited dialogue on program-less youth ministry.

here's my response to his question.
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lots of thoughts on this man.

1. I love the heart of this.
2. I'm guessing you know more about this than I do.
3. I might ask the question a bit differently. The way the question is inherently retributive in nature, it's the like the kid who is growing up asking who will I become, as long as it's not like dad. The question contains barriers the possibilities are you hoping for. The goal isn't program-less ym so much as it is, what are the possiblities for great ministry to/with/for/from youth and their families. Or perhaps better than that is a series of questions for each community to answer like:

What might community look like in our context?
What is the role of a pastor in a community?
What is the role of a community member, and how well am I (as a member) contributing to youth and children?
How important are youth to me as a community member and what kind of commitment am I willing to make to kids here?
What rhythms and activities in my life (as a community member) encourage and interfere with our hopes for community and spiritual formation for youth?
Are youth important to us as a community, and in what way have we lived this out?

It seems to me that how a church answers these questions will lead them to answer yours. To declare youth ministry be program-less is actually another subtly colonial leadership style to impose on people in a church. The vision of program-less youth ministry then becomes one more way in which a leader declares what they think is best and attempts to align people with their program. buy in or ownership in this circumstance will likely not happen on a meaningful scale, because it is essential the same thing as program driven youth ministry, just a different means. A leader trying to leverage influence to minister to youth.

the question then is, instead of how do I as a leader, or resident expert try to create a program-less youth ministry that I believe in, it becomes, what environment do I need to create to enable the congregation to care for youth in a way that is meaningful, healthy, and faithful to them.

Just a thought or two.

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I think this is true for any area of ministry actually.

What do you think?

From the Eyes of a Youth Pastor

Watching Rick Warren last week lead the forum with the two presidential candidates I had an ugh moment.
Warren and Obama were talking about "What is rich?"
and Obama stated that $150,000 a year or less would be considered middle class.
To which Warren said, "In this region you're poor." Followed by loud applause.

He may be right with housing prices etc. But it made me think, (and this is part of my psychosis i think). I wonder what his youth pastors make? (and the rest of his staff)

I wonder if by saying such a thing on his church's stage he hurt someone on his staff. Because if he's paying them less than $150,000 a year, he is knowingly paying them less that it takes to live in their context.

(I don't know what Saddleback pays their youth staff.) But it's one of those moments that might leave a staff person feeling a bit distant from their churches leader.

Can you relate?

Kids Be Gone?

Here's an article one might see as symptomatic of our culture and the teens feeling abandoned by adults.

A wall-mounted gadget designed to drive away loiterers with a shrill, piercing noise audible only to teens and young adults is infuriating civil liberties groups and tormenting young people after being introduced into the United States.

The Mosquito, which targets loiterers, projects a shrill noise audible only to teens and young adults.

Almost 1,000 units of the device, called the Mosquito, have been sold in the United States and Canada after the product debuted last year, according to Daniel Santell, the North America importer of the device sold under the company name Kids Be Gone.

Link

Biblical Seminary Youth Ministry Certificate

I'm really excited about the opportunity to lead these courses. I've been impressed with Biblical Seminary for several years. John Franke is a brilliant and influential thinker on the faculty and Alan Roxburgh Has consulted them on what it looks like to become a missional seminary willing to engage a postmodern world. Word is that Tim Keel pastor here, has done a lot of work with them as well. I'm grateful to Todd Littleton for inviting me to join Biblical and Shapevine to facilitate these 5 courses. Here's the description from Biblical.

A master’s level certificate program offered by Biblical Seminary in partnership with Shapevine for the development of missional leaders around the world.

Developed by Mark Riddle
http://www.theriddlegroup.com

This fully online program lets you earn a certificate in youth ministry without leaving your current ministry context. The five-course certificate can be completed in less than two years.

Youth Certification Link

Exciting Day and I'm tired

I woke up this morning and caught a plane to Dallas to meet with Mark Matlock and David Welch of Wisdom Works. It was a productive meeting about the future or both our organizations. Lot's of potential and I'm excited about what it holds for us. We're developing two consultant training modules that will be really exciting for veteran youth workers looking to make a difference in their part of the world. It's something I've been hoping to do for quite a while and has a lot of potential for supporting youth pastors and local churches around the country. Mark and David are super sharp guys and I'm humbled to get to work with them. more later.. (But if you are interested ... let me know)

anyway I'm tired. My 8:00pm flight is delayed until 10:45pm. ugh! I'm tired and not feeling 100% and I'm ready to be back in Tulsa.

1 in 4 Teen Girls has an STD

"CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- At least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, or more than 3 million teens, according to the first study of its kind in this age group.

A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls -- nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

About half of the girls acknowledged having sex; among them, the rate was 40 percent. While some teens define sex as only intercourse, other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some infections.

For many, the numbers most likely seem "overwhelming because you're talking about nearly half of the sexually experienced teens at any one time having evidence of an STD," said Dr. Margaret Blythe, an adolescent medicine specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine and head of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on adolescence."

Link

The Insane Youth Ministry Solution

Church leaders who want a "great" youth ministry, but who struggle with the current reality are often tempted to return to the well of another youth pastor hire. If you feel as if you need a youth pastor to fix the problem with your youth ministry, whether it be relational, programmatic, theological, or vision and it looks like the obvious solution is hiring someone to lead... don't. 99% of the time, this is the wrong solution.
You've heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.

That would make this the insane youth ministry solution.

Still the temptations is strong, because most church leaders see no other alternative.

Youth Pastor question

A few years ago I was leading a late night forum with Mike King, and Jim Hancock. I believe we were in Atlanta and there was about 100 youth workers in the room We were talking about the future of youth ministry.

During the conversation one youth pastor broke down and began to weep about his struggles and stress as a youth pastor. Another shared a personal story about past drug use and his desire to use less profanity. It was a rich conversation.

Mike mentioned that the Youth Pastor of the church he attends in KC doesn't lead programs.

Hands shot up everywhere in the room. There was suddenly a burning question in the room and people needed to know the answer to it. One young guy stood up and asked the question on the minds of many, "If your youth pastor doesn't lead programs... what does he do?"

There it was... floating out there...

But before Mike could respond, I made an observation.
with 100 youth workers in the room hoping for a new future in youth ministry, most seemed unable to understand a world in which they didn't lead programs.

This is a big problem for us all. chances are you weren't called to be a program director. chances are, when you said "yes" to God's calling to vocational ministry, your heart wasn't leaping for the opportunity to shop for industrial sized can's of chocolate pudding, writing bulletin announcements and sustaining a great program week in and week out. While feeling the pressure to outdo the week before.

Were you called to that?

This isn't an attack on programs, there have been enough of those in recent memory. (Maybe there's a way to keep your programs, and you not have to plan them.) Also, I'm not talking about working yourself out of a job... that's simply nonsense.

If you didn't have to lead programs or administrate a youth program, would you still have something to do? Anything of substance?

Forget about whether or not your church would by it, can you think outside of your current reality.

Hiring for the Future

Hiring a youth pastor to lead a program as it has always been done is not the way to the future. Chances are the for your church's youth ministry to work, it will make you uncomfortable. I might even venture to say, that if you are a church leader and your youth ministry feels nice and comfortable to you, then it's not reaching it's potential.

What do you think about this?

It's an interesting way to find a youth pastor.
Advertise on YouTube.




So what do you think about this?

Stories from Senior Pastors

I really enjoy great stories told by Senior Pastors.

Here's a story from Don Johnson.