I was at a coffee shop today waiting for my friend Frank to join me for a long overdue conversation. I was a bit early so I opened Scot McKnight’s latest book (I think it is his latest — it is hard to keep up with him) called, “A Community Called Atonement” and began where I left off a few days ago.

Before long I found myself weeping. I cry a lot at movies (you should have seen me, Mike King and Eric Venable crying a while back over a movie with Adam Sandler — Reign Over Me — I think it was called) and it doesn’t take much for me to cry at home with my family either. Today, as a matter of fact, my son Drew and I went out to run an errand and for a stopover at one of his favorite playgrounds. When we got home he said, “Daddy, this is the best day ever.” My nose is still a little drippy. I can usually keep it together over a theology book though…

Today, the words from “A Community Called Atonement” pierced through my thick false self and found its way right into my tender zone. I love McKnight’s works for a bunch of reasons. I find his writing to be bold, constructive, precise, rooted, absorbing, determined and incredibly teachable. Some of my friends find his writing to be mechanical and choppy — they are freaking crazy. The biggest reason I might love his writing, however, is there is usually a few dozen pages in each of his works that God uses to mold me a bit more into who he wants me to be… today was one of those days.

Anyway, here is what I read…

“Here is a statement by Jesus that few can contest (referring to Matthew 6:14-15). Jesus connects our forgiveness from God and our forgiveness of others — and they are so connected that if we don’t forgive others, God won’t forgive us. However one wants to clarify this text, and it begs for some clarification, the connection of God’s work and our work is unavoidable. The atoning God creates a community of atonement.” (pg. 29)

He goes on to say…

“To be forgiven, to be atoned for, to be reconciled — synonymous expressions — is to be granted a mission to become a reciprocal performer of the same: to forgive, to work atonement, and to be an agent of reconciliation. Thus, atonement is not just something done to us and for us, it is something we participate in — in this world, in the here and now. It is not just something done, but something that is being done and something we do as we join God in the missio Dei.”
(pg. 30-31)

Thank you Scot. Your words deeply connected my heart with God’s intended will and way for my life!

As always, I had a blast at the NYWC in San Diego. It was great to be with friends and to interact with youth workers from all over North America. A couple of really cool experiences…

> I felt like my seminars went well. I have a few revisions to make to the content of both the “Living, Loving and Leading in the Way of Jesus” and the “Story, Signs and Sacred Rhythm’s” before the St. Louis Convention. All in all though, between the vibe in the rooms, the positive/critical feedback and the great conversations since the seminars I feel like they were helpful and good.

> I greatly appreciated Mark Matlock’s challenge on Sat. night in the general session. His ability to communicate makes him easy to listen too and he always has something to say. I was especially challenged by his comparison between culture and kingdom and how the church (and youth ministry organizations) go about their ministry endaveors being guided by either the ways of culture or the kingdom way . His 5 minutes or so on leaders who try to hold on to and build their own identity while “serving the kingdom” was particularly helpful for me to hear.

> Jim Hancock… Over the last couple of months I have had the privilege to bump into Jim. He is a brilliant, creative and gracious person who I just love being around. I especially love how Jim takes the movements in other disciplines (architecture, design, education, sociology, etc.) and finds ways to learn how they impact youth ministry. You can get to know Jim a bit by checking out his site at: http://www.westofthe101.com/

> One of the nights I had the chance to meet with Kara Powell, Ginny Olson, Steve Argue, Mike King, Damien O’Ferrell, Mark Riddle and Jim Hancock. We spent a few hours together talking about the future of youth ministry and how we can best go about aligning ourselves with what God may or may not be doing to capture this generation.

> Had a great dinner with two friends who were over from the UK — Martin and Chris. I am especially intrigued by youth ministry in Europe and how different it is there than here in North America. I think by studying the efforts and movements of youth work in the UK, we can learn a lot about how and what to do or not to do as it relates to our ministry strategies, etc. Martin and Chris are connected to a wonderful magazine you should check out called YouthWork. You can explore the mag here: http://www.youthwork.co.uk/magazine/. YouthWork does a fantastic job helping you explore youth minsitry around the globe.

> I connected with a few friends from my youth ministry days at a church near Minneapolis named, Jeff and Georgia. It was great to be with you guys if even only for a short time!

There is a brief review of my book, “A New Kind of Youth Ministry” over at Youth Ministry Exchange (by Matt Cleaver). I think Matt is right — I could have taken more intentional steps to help people through the “reculturing” process. I only designated one chapter to the potential path one might take to begin and navigate through the process. (Good thoughts Matt — thanks.)

Here is the link: http://www.ymexchange.com/Resource-Reviews/Review-
A-New-Kind-of-Youth-Ministry-by-Chris-Folmsbee.html

I made my way through the smoky air this morning from the hotel to the airport. It isn’t the kind of smoke that you can’t breathe in and see through (yet) where the NYWC is taking place. However, the smell of fires and the thought of the tens of thousands of people who have already been evacuated from their homes and the thought that many more may still be directed to leave all that they have and probably much of what they know, leaves my heart very heavy this morning.

I met some youth workers at the convention whose church (Mailbu Pres) burned down yesterday morning…

I am eager to see my wife and kids later today and mixed into my heart are two very different feelings. There is the joyful thought of the reunion I plan to have with my family when I land in Chicago and the anguishing thought that there are families and communities all over Southern California that are being dispersed not united.

You can pray for the families and communities more intelligibly by learning more about the fires HERE.

This weekend I am in San Diego for the NYWC. I am really looking forward to being there as it is always a great time to hook up with friends, interact with people; making new friends. It is also a privilege to have the opportunity to speak into the development of youth workers as well as experiment with some of my thoughts and ideas in the seminars. The weather is almost always perfect in SD, so I got that going for me which is nice…

I am doing two seminars the time around. The first is called, “Living, Loving and Leading in the way of Jesus.” It is roughly a one hour seminar and is a simple but helpful look at the life and ministry of Jesus. Not so much his strategy for ministry but his approach to modeling what it means to live in the intended ways of God. Hopefully, it results in some transferable principles that any youth worker can take back and immediately apply to their life and ministry. I also hope that it is something that youth workers can use to train their volunteers. If you have been to Sonlife’s Enroute experience, there will be some overlap in regards to the virtues of Jesus’ life that we teach.

The second seminar is called, “Story, Signs and Sacred Rhythms: A Narrative Approach to Nurturing Students.” I am really excited to share some thoughts/ideas I have been having that hopefully lead some of us toward a new paradigm for shepherding students. I believe that we (the youth ministry world) are ready for a creative and fresh approach to the principles that have been guiding us for decades. I will attempt to help youth workers “see” a design for ministry that starts with helping students engage with God’s story and results in the formation of behaviors and practices that are in line with God’s mission. I will let you know how it goes…

If you are one of my occasional or regular blog readers and will be in San Diego at the convention, I would love to meet you. Look me up. You can find me at the end of my seminars which will be shown in the convention handbook.

Marko has a really interesting post (from a few days ago) called “How would you characterize the future of youth ministry?” with a slew of interesting comments regarding the preferred future of youth ministry.

It might be worth a) thinking about where you land on his questions and b) reading through the comments to get a small but honest (and somewhat unsettling) look at what people are thinking the future of youth ministry might hold…

You can get to his blog post here:

http://www.ysmarko.com/?p=2062