Marko has a fabulous post on organizational thinking HERE.

Doug Jones over at Perigrinatio tagged me for my top 10 films. So here you go. Keep in mind, I am a pretty simple man.

In no particular order…

1. Fast Times at Ridgemont High - I used to watch this a couple of times a week with my friends in the neighborhood growing up. This movie brings back some great memories.

2. Caddyshack - I love golf and any self-respecting, wanna be golfer has to have this in their top 10 list.

3. Stripes - I am a big Bill Murray fan and the one-liners in this movie are priceless.

4. Bull Durham - I love baseball and growing up I wanted nothing more than to play MLB baseball. To bad I couldn’t hit, throw, catch or run very well.

5. The Bourne Movies - Obviously, I am counting this as one movie. Deep in my heart, I am a part of Treadstone.

6. Unforgiven - Three words: Eastwood, Freeman and Hackman. Three of the best.

7. Die Hard - “Yippe ky yeah … ”

8. Hoosiers - “I think you boys will find that these are the same measurements as our gym back in Hickory.” Dennis Hopper was amazing in this movie.

9. Bells of St. Mary’s - Father O’Malley and Sister Benedict… gotta love the generosity of one Horace P. Bogardus!

10. Big - Learning to cope with the world of adults. I still struggle with that.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Calgary hanging out with Matt Wilks and Wayne Smele. Matt works with me at Youthfront and Wayne is the Pastor of Student Ministries at Centre Street Church. Wayne also teaches Youth Ministry at Rocky Mountain College.

I was a guest in one of Wayne’s classes. It was very cool to sit and visit with a great group of emerging leaders. I was deeply inpspired by the questions I was asked and the passion that each of the students has for new kinds of youth ministry. I left the campus of Rocky Mountain College feeling very encouraged…

As I was leaving the building a bulletin board caught my eye. The ad below (crappy pic — I took it with my phone) made me chuckle. It also made me deeply concerned. An intern that can lead, develop and supervise an entire youth ministry — wow — I’d like to meet that person. I am not saying that intern doesn’t exist but I sure haven’t run into someone who can do all that effectively especially as an intern. [I’d love to hear what Mark Riddle would say about those expectations. Mark works as a consultant with churches around the US and he sees first hand these kinds of expectations being unfairly placed on emerging leaders all the time.]

When I wore a younger man’s clothes I couldn’t even lead, develop or supervise myself let alone a number of students and their families. Makes me think that among the many challenges we face in the world of youth ministry today, this might be one of the biggest. I mean, asking an intern to lead, develop and supervise an entire youth ministry? I just hope whoever takes that role, assuming someone does, has a mentor who can help them. I am all for young leaders having positions of influence but with this mindset how can we possibly be setting up emerging leaders for success?

It also pushed me to think about who I am mentoring and who I am investing in. I need to do more than I am… I couldn’t help but be grateful to people like Dave Michener, Dan Webster, Doug Jones, Stan Key, Mark Patrick and a slew of others who took seriously the role of a mentor and invested (and still invest) in me. So fellow veterans of youth ministry … is there someone in your area you ought to be mentoring?

** Words from Piano Man, Billy Joel

I was invited to speak to a small group of youth workers today in the Chicago area. It was very cool — great conversation, great food and great people. The combination of those three things always provides me with a time well spent.

I’ve been attending youth worker luncheons for about 14 years or so now and in the last couple of months I have probably been to half a dozen of them — either as a guest or as the host.

Over the years I have come to realize that at each of the gatherings you can inevitably run into at least 5 types of people (of which I confess I have at one time or another been myself).

1- Ms. or Mr. Resume — this person just has to share their latest accomplishments. It might be a degree, a former place of employment, the number of churches recruiting them, etc.

2- Ms. or Mr. Event — this persons primary objective at the gathering is to get fellow youth workers to bring their students to their upcoming event usually for two reasons. A) They screwed up the budget and need more money to keep the event in the black or b) They think their events are utterly superior.

3- Ms. or Mr. Frustrated — this person is consistently sharing a different (or more of the same) frustration that is most definitely always someone else’s fault.

4- Ms. or Mr. Job Search — this person seems to be looking for a new job. They usually want a new job with better pay, larger amounts of students and paid staff to work for them.

5- Ms. or Mr. Name Dropper — this person can’t resist telling you who they talked to on the phone, who they got an email from or who is coming to speak at their next retreat.

I am sure you can probably think of more… what other types of people do you find at your gatherings? Next time you attend a youth worker luncheon/gathering do your best to avoid being connected to any of the above classifications and see what if anything changes about the gathering.

I am certainly not trying to be mean. I have been and could probably be categorized as one of the above too. I just find it incredibly predictable, progressively funny and moderately troubling that right now you are putting a face or name to each of the above.