A New Kind of Youth Ministry

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!

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.

I spent the weekend outside of the greater Baltimore/DC area at Summit Lake Camp speaking to a few hundred high school students and youth workers. The camp was in the Catoctin Mountains. Beautiful place… more aptly named Summit Pond Camp though.

A team of youth workers from the NorthStar Church Network put the retreat together. I was thrilled to be a part of the event. The team did a fantastic job leading the retreat and they were great hosts. I very much appreciated the chance to share some thoughts and engage in some conversations on what it means to have been created in the image of God.

I especially enjoyed getting to spend some time with Josh Hayden (pictured below). Josh is a very sharp, good thinking, emerging youth worker who is passionate about helping students and youth workers engage in a new kind of youth ministry. You can read some of Josh’s thoughts on his blog here: http://momentsofrecognition.blogspot.com/

While I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Summit Lake, I am still bummed I missed the Postmodern Youth Ministry Conference (Tony Jones and others) in Kansas City. I had also been invited to present there but had committed to the NorthStar Network first. It is all good. My time at Summit with Josh, Shea, Stephen, Andy, Chris, Darren and others was totally worth it. I was impressed with this teams ability to work together, blending various theological traditions, to inspire students and adult volunteers to go deeper with God.

In spirit of tonights game — go Bears!

I spent the weekend speaking at a retreat for University Park United Methodist Church at an amazing camp about 2 hours east of Dallas called Sky Ranch. If I have ever been at a nicer camp, I don’t remember it.

My friend Garth invited me to speak. Garth and I met about 10 years or so ago. I reconnected with Garth last year in Austin at the NYWC after not seeing him for a few years. Garth was a volunteer at Loudonville Community Church near Albany, NY where I was the youth minister for a couple of years. Now Garth is serving at University Park UMC as an assistant youth minister as he finishes up his PhD work at Southern Methodist University.

The teens of UPUMC were incredible. I had some really deep conversations with a few of them. I was surprised to learn how many of them were considering becoming a youth minister. I was even more surprised at how they acted as one community. Being at Sky Ranch with them was a huge blessing for me as I continue to pray for a generation of students that seek the face of God.

Above is a picture of me and a soon-to-be college freshman named Conrad. Conrad is on his way to St. Olaf in Minnesota to study music and religion. What a great kid. I was impressed with his leadership, compassion for others and his constant encouragement of others.

Conrad was the starting defensive end for his high school football team, a state championship team (which in TX is a bigger deal than most states as football is king — ever seen Friday Night Lights?). When I asked him if he was going to play football in college he said, “They have recruited me to play at St. Olaf. The coach wouldn’t stop calling me until I told him I wasn’t that interested in his team because I was more interested in studying about God and learning to help teens.” Very cool… I look forward to seeing and hearing how God uses Conrad (and the many others of UPUMC) to change the world.

Not surprisingly, I am stoked about another season of Youth Specialites’ Conventions — San Diego, St. Louis and Atlanta. I am also hoping to attend the Canadian YWC in Vancouver, BC co-led by Youth Specialties and Canada Fire. I am not planning on presenting anything in Vancouver but my colleague, Matt Wilks who lives in Calgary, AB and works with me at Sonlife, will be presenting there.

In each of the US cities I will be presenting a seminar called, Living, Loving and Leading in the Way of Jesus and a super seminar largely based from a book that I am writing called, Story, Signs and Sacred Rhythms: A Narrative Approach to Youth Ministry. I will also be available for consultations, facilitated by the folks at YS, and will be leading a conversation in a book club format around A New Kind of Youth Ministry.

Even if I didn’t have the opportunity to present content, I would most definitely attend the conventions. I don’t go solely because I am one of YS’ authors. I attend the conventions to learn, grow, meet new people, see old friends, get new ideas, enjoy a different city other than Chicago, etc. In fact, I am looking forward to attending the Vancouver Convention to do all of the above, and of course to heckle Matt Wilks from the back of his meeting room.

I hope you are planning to attend. It is true that some conventions are better than others but I can honestly say that I have never been disappointed with any of them — as a presenter or attender.

Last week my MacBook Pro hard drive crapped out — it totally sucked. I lost everything that I had put on the hard drive for about the last 4 weeks. I usually am disciplined about backing up my files but I had been traveling a bit, attending our Merge events and working away from my office writing so I hadn’t sat at my desk (where my external hard drive is sitting collecting dust) in days.

It’s really not all that bad. I’ll manage. There are a lot worse things that could happen, right? I love Apple computers — love them. Even though I was ticked for a couple of days, my frustration was offset by a wicked cool genius from the Apple store in Shaumburg, IL named Ben. He was amazingly helpful and because Apple offers such great warranty, I have sitting on my lap my old computer with a brand new hard drive. Speedy quick turnaround and virtually a brand new machine for no extra costs. You gotta love a company that stands behind their products.

The biggest losses are my iCal entries and some email conversations pertaining to some speaking engagements. I have put a load of fall 2007 speaking opportunities on my calender in the last couple of weeks. So, after commiserating with my wife, and upon her brilliant suggestion I have decided to send out a plea via my blog hoping that those of you who have asked me to speak at your event, retreat, whatever might see this post and remind me of my commitment to you!

So, if I have committed to speak, teach, train, consult, whatever at your church or event can you please email me @ chrisfol@mac.com. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience…

I am privileged to have had the opportunity to share a day in ministry with my friends from Cultivation Ministries and The National Association of Catholic Youth Ministry Leaders this past week. Frank Mercadante, Director of Cultivation Ministries, led the Institute for New Youth Ministry Leaders here in greater Chicago.

Frank and I have been freinds for a couple of years now. I can’t tell you how much I have learned from Frank about youth ministry, spiritual formation, Catholicism, etc. When he invited me to speak to the group, I just couldn’t say no for a couple of reasons. First, Frank has been such a good friend and mentor. Any additional opportunities to be around him is a bonus. Second, being the only presenter from the evangelical tradition I was anxious to discover more deeply the differences and similarities between protestant and catholic youth ministry philosophy and practice. Finally, any time I get to hang with a group of emerging youth workers, I feel compelled to do so.

Bob McCarty, the Executive Director of the National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministry presented a fantastic and very helpful couple of hours on “Thriving in Youth Ministry.” Bob is a guy with a ton of youth ministry experience, a great mind and a very compassionate heart. Here is the book he has developed his presentation from: Thriving in Youth Ministry. I strongly recommend that if you have a chance to speak to young, emerging leaders, have interns to shepherd or you yourself are in your first couple of years of youth ministry that you pick up a copy.

We had another fantastic week at Merge. Youth Ministries attended from all over the US and Canada — Alaska, Texas, California, Massachusetts, Toronto, etc. We even had a couple of mates with us from Australia! Here is a comment from one of the youth workers who attended…

Our time at MERGE has become an Ebenezer that is set up where we can look
back & say, “see God met us there!”

I guess what really struck me was that our kids finally got to the spot
where they were actually working through & talking about the things that
really mattered. How to love & reach out to their friends, What it means to
live as a community of believers, working as a team to do more than serve
themselves, who God really is, what He is like & how much He loves them.

That is good stuff…

I had the privilege each morning to share some thoughts on spiritual formation with the participating youth workers. That opportunity led to a number of very good conversations about our integrated journey of life and faith. I was deeply encouraged by the number of youth workers who are really thinking hard about how to better shepherd their students to live, love and lead in the way of Jesus.

I have posted the following prayer before. But as I drove home from Merge I was reminded of it and found it fitting…

A Prayer for Today’s Youth

“…Be present especially with the young who must choose between many voices, Help them to know how much an old world needs their youth and gladness. Help them to know that there are words of truth and healing that will never be spoken unless they speak them, and deeds of compassion and courage that will never be done unless they do them. Help them never to mistake success for victory or failure for defeat. Grant that they may never be entirely content with whatever bounty the world my bestow upon them, but that they may know at last that they were created not for happiness but for joy, and that joy is to him alone who, sometimes with tears in his eyes, commits himself in love to thee and his brothers. Lead them and all thy world ever deeper into the knowledge that finally all men are one and that there can never really be joy for any until there is joy for all. In Christ’s name we ask it and for his sake. Amen.”

–From Frederick Buechner’s The Hungering Dark

I spent last week with about 200 students and youth workers from around North America. It was fantastic! Mike Novelli, the assoctiate director at Sonlife oversees our Merge event. Actually, he not only oversees it he is really the creative genius behind it. There is a team that gives tremendously helpful input and Mark Novelli and Kelly Dolan of Imago Media produce the event — but Mike is really the guy who got us all excited about the concept a couple of years ago. Tomorrow I am back at Merge 2 with another 500 youth workers and students. I can’t wait!

You can learn more about Merge here: http://www.sonlife.com/merge/

This past week was great for a lot of reasons. Students engaged in God’s story with passion and inquiry that amazed me, youth workers were able to get a glance at an applied learning model for youth ministry and they responded to it very favorably. I got to hang with a number of my friends — Mark Miller author of Experiential Storytelling, Tic Long from YS, Mike King and Topher Philgreen from YouthFront, Matt Wilks our director of youth worker initiatives at Sonlife, Jen Howver from VOD Communications, Calvin Russell and Mike Harder two of our regional directors at Sonlife and the list goes on…

This week I am looking forward to seeing some of my friends from Youth Ministries Australia. They are coming up to see the event as they are leading the Merge event (they are calling it Immerse) in a couple of cities down under. Should be another great week!

I am really excited about today! Today we are hosting Awake, an interactive weekend for middle school students at Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL. Awake is designed to help students engage with God’s great story and wake up to a new way of life.

I am stoked for a couple of reasons. First, this is what we live for! Serving youth workers and students! Second, I am really looking forward to seeing some friends — Jen Howver, Eric Venable, Scott Rubin, Mark Novelli, Calvin Russell, Seth McCoy and of course Mike Novelli and his entire Awake team. Third, I am thrilled to have the chance to meet Zach Hunter. Zach has very graciously given us a chunk of his time to inspire and challenge dozens and dozens of middle school students. Finally, I am stoked to meet a bunch of new people and share in this Awake experience with them.

If you think about it, pray for our Sonlife team. They have worked very hard to put themselves in a position to lead this event and serve youth workers and students. Pray also that the students attending would:

see themselves in God’s big story
see how much God loves them
see others with compassion instead of comparison
see how they can help those in need
see how they can make a difference now

Thanks for your prayers!!