Yesterday I spent the day in Denver, CO facilitating our Enroute Training. There were about 25 youth workers there representing about 8 different churches spread across 3 states. Several of the youth workers drove all the way from Custer, SD to be with us.

I always enjoy facilitating our Enroute Training but yesterday’s experience was especially cool because I got to hang with Dan Luebcke who is the pastor of student ministries as Southern Gables. I met Dan a few years ago at some training we hosted in Chicago. Since then we have been developing our friendship and it was a pleasure to continue that through partnering to host our training.

Dan has been at Southern Gables for 12 years. He actually grew up in that church as a kid and now is privileged to lead the youth ministry. Dan serves on the Student Ministries Council for the Evangelical Free Church denomination and has really helped (along with the entire SMC) shape a beautiful training partnership between Youthfront/Sonlife and the Ev. Free. We are excited to see the partnership unfold.

If you are from Denver and you missed the training yesterday, no worries… Dan is hosting us again this Fall.  Dan and a team of youth workers from the Denver area will also be hosting our new weekend event for students called Reveal.

I also had the chance to reconnect with Rich Van Pelt who has been a great friend to me since I first met him a couple of years ago at the Youth Ministry Executive Council meetings in Washington DC that the National Network of Youth Ministry hosts. Rich has been a breathe of fresh air for me as a long-time youth ministry veteran and expert who is longing for fresh, innovative approaches to youth work. He isn’t stuck. I love that about him. I also love what he does with Compassion International. Rich has given many years of his life to connecting people with resources and children in need around the world. Who doesn’t love that?

I am headed back to KC today for our Youth Worker Appreciation Dinner. The YWAD is an informal time for Youthfront to say thanks to the KC Metro youth workers for all they do to help shape the lives of teens. I am excited to experience this gathering for the first time.

As some of you know, the last few months I have been commuting from the greater Chicago area to Kansas City. Our home is on the market and along with so many others around the country, we sit watching the current economic reality scare people — making them more hesitant to buy — and I can’t say I blame them.

I have been on dozens of flights, driven my car to KC a few times and last week I decided I needed a change so I took Amtrak. I gotta say, the train is a very nice way to go! The train only took me a little over 6 hours (I can’t make it that fast in my car) and I was able to work — using my phone and computer nearly the whole trip.

I meet very interesting people each time I make the trip to KC. As you can imagine and might expect, the mode of travel tends to dictate which of my trips will allow me to meet the most interesting people.

Last night, I met a guy named Steve Angrisano. Steve is a fascinating and brilliant guy who has been involved in youth work for nearly 20 years. Steve is a singer, songwriter and storyteller. He speaks nearly every weekend to thousands of students and hundreds of parishes around the country.

I almost didn’t have the chance to meet Steve. Fortunately for me, and not so much for several hundred youth waiting for him to show up, his plane was delayed out of O’Hare (surprise!) en route to Kansas City so he ended up on my flight.

Thinking I had an empty seat next to me I began to get real comfortable. Suddenly Steve rushed on the plane, just seconds before the door was closed, and plopped down right beside me. He was on the phone praying with his wife when he sat down and as soon as he hung up he took his Bible out and began to read. I couldn’t help it. Normally I stay very quiet on the plane, but this time I just had to ask…

My question, “Where are you headed?” was the beginning of an absolutely terrific one hour conversation that involved a variety of topics including the absolute necessity for adult/parent engagement in spiritual development of their children, how to best help students experience their faith, the mystery of God, the similarities between our faith traditions, our families, our travel schedules and a bunch more.

I was deeply inspired by Steve’s passion for students and his love for God. I pray that this week you too will bump into someone who inspires you. Sometimes it is in the passion of others that our own passion is reignited. Blessings friends!

The last few days have been quite the whirlwind! I have been in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Tomorrow I head back to Georgia (ATL) for the 3rd NYWC. Here is a recap of my travels…

>Landed in Jacksonville, FL a week ago tomorrow to speak at a retreat
>Drove from Jacksonville to Simons Island, Georgia
>Flew home to Chicago on Sunday, swung by my house to pick up some clean clothes and left for Kansas City
>Spent Sunday night at a hotel in Des Moines, IA
>Monday morning I got to Kansas City to be in the office for a couple of days of meetings
>Left Kansas City Tuesday night after work hours and drove to Des Moines again to crash
>Left Des Moines Wed morning for the 8 hour drive to Stevens Point, WI (drove through MN)
>Spent today in Stevens Point with Rob Weise and 30 of the youth pastors from his Evangelical Free Church Forest Lake District
>Left Stevens Point at around 3PM, fixed a flat tire in the rental mini-van along the way and got to Chicago at around 6:30pm
>I leave for the NYWC tomorrow morning around 10AM!

I have been able to have my good friend and co-worker at YouthFront/Sonlife named Matt Wilks with me. It has been great to reconnect with him. Matt lives in Calgary and is only in Kansas City at the YouthFront offices once a month so I seldom get to see him. Matt will be headed to the NYWC with me too, which is great. If you are headed to ATL for the NYWC, look me up.

I left Chicago on Friday morning not really knowing where I was headed. I mean, I knew my itinerary was taking me to Jacksonville, FL, but from there I really had no idea where I would be staying for a couple of nights as I spoke to a gathering of Methodist church youth groups from northern FL and southern GA.

I was greeted at the JAX airport by beautiful weather — 65 degrees and very sunny. A far cry from the weather I left that morning in Chicago — 30 something and dark (4am)!

I was overjoyed when we arrived at Epworth By The Sea, a large Methodist retreat center on Saint Simons Island in GA. Epworth has a great deal of history as it claims to be the place where John Wesley began his ministry here back in the day. It is aptly named Epworth as Epworth, England is the “home of the Wesley’s.” Epworth By The Sea is located on the banks of the beautiful Frederica River.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time. The retreat was very creative and had what felt like the right mix of schedule and space. The students were very engaged and I had some really deep, meaningful conversations about God’s story, the mission of God and our role as agents of restoration.

The retreat obviously had been lead well… it was clearly organized with the students in mind and a commitment to their spiritual formation. Below is a pic of myself the youth workers (Bryan, Shannon and George — L to R) who led the event. Great job guys! I am looking forward to seeing you in ATL later on this week at the NYWC.

It is getting harder and harder to be away from my family but I must say that these speaking “gigs” at retreats with students and youth workers over the year or so has been very fruitful and it truly a blessing and privilege.

I am off to Jacksonville, FL this morning. I will be speaking at a youth event somewhere near there — it may actually be in GA I am not sure. I Just know I am supposed to be flying into JAX.

I lived in Jacksonville as a kid for a short while. I don’t remember much about it. My father was in the NAVY at the time. It was one of our many places of residence on the East Coast. I can recall the color of our house (yellow) and I remember going to some of my older brother’s little league baseball games. That is about it…

I am looking forward to being with several hundred HS students from a number of United Methodist Churches.  Here are the main points of discussion…

> How does God reveal himself to us?
> How do we cultivate a life of godly character?
> What does it mean, as the people of God, to embrace God’s call to be a blessing to others?
> How do we begin to see others with new eyes and pursue restorative acts in our community?
> How do we share God’s truth through our personal and community’s story?

Should be great fun!

I wandered through a very artistic expression of the Stations of the Cross on a mountainside in Radium, British Columbia, Canada a few days ago. The bronze depictions of Jesus’ journey to death and his glorious resurrection were a great reminder of his love and sacrifice for me — for us.

The Stations of the Cross are extremely helpful. They assist the faithful follower of Jesus on a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer though the major scenes of Jesus’ final hours. This pilgrimage helps me to enter into the suffering of Jesus’ death and the joy of his resurrection in different way than the when I read the accounts in the Scriptures.

I first encountered the Stations at Colonial Church in Edina, MN. Tony Jones was on staff at Colonial at the time and each season of Lent he would set up the Stations in the fellowship hall and people from all over the Twin Cities would journey through them. Since that experience I try to experience the Stations at least 3 or 4 times a year.

Here is a couple of pics from the Stations in Radium…

Station # 1: Jesus is condemned to death

Station # 7: Jesus is helped by Simon of Cyrene

Station # 12: Jesus dies on a cross

If you would like to help your students on their way to encountering or experiencing more deeply the Stations of the Cross (you can do this anytime, it doesn’t have to be Lent!), I would encourage you to download this FREE guide written by Faith Bosland called Journey to the Cross (a Stations of the Cross adaptation) on the Youth Specialties website.

I have taken a few days to get away and talk through a decision I need to make with my good friend and co-worker, Matt Wilks. We are in Radium, British Columbia. I am smack dab in the midst of what I believe is some of the most beautiful landscape on planet earth. On the way up from Calgary, AB we stopped for a few minutes and gazed at a bear who was looking for food along the highway. Very cool. We were less than 10 feet away when I took this pic on my phone. He didn’t even care to know we were there…

Last night around 10PM Matt and I went down to the hot springs to relax and talk. Very nice. They collect the water that runs of the mountains, heat it up to about 104 degrees and make you lay in it until you are so relaxed you can’t get out — but then they close the place at 11PM. It is quite nice but quite unfair if you ask me…

This morning we went over to the golf course and hit a few balls at the range. We are looking forward to a 5PM tee time tonight! I haven’t been golfing in nearly three years, so we’ll see how it goes. Here is a pic I took this morning from the tee box…

The entire flight up to Calgary from Chicago, most of yesterday and nearly the entire day today I have been consumed with thoughts surrounding the life expectancy of the national youth ministry organization as a whole such as the one I lead, Sonlife. I can’t help to think that as postmodern thought and practice continues to emerge and change the way we “do youth ministry” the national youth ministry training and resourcing organization will have to rethink the way that it serves the church.

I don’t mean cosmetically or even structurally. We have been already doing that for years. What I think I mean (thinking out loud here) is that the complete ethos of the organizations will have to change. I am thinking that the day of the 3 or 4 major youth ministry organizations leading the way might be over but is most definitely dying. How will the “national” youth ministry organization position itself to inspire, empower, serve and support the emergence of more local or regional voices?

I am thinking that in the end, the more glocal (local ministry with comprehensive impact over time is how I am choosing to define this word), contextualized voices we can cultivate and sustain the greater hope we instill and the greater the impact might be. In other words (and in the words of Seth Godin), I think that Small is the New Big“. More on this later…

Ever have one of those really great days? Seems like everything is going your way…

-woke up breathing again, which is always good

-no traffic going to the airport… i felt like i was the only one on the road

-free first class upgrade on a 3 hour flight

-found an old starbucks card in my backpack and it had enough on it for a venti americano

-saw a guy in o’hare that i haven’t seen in about 8 years, parent of a former student my wife used to mentor

-flight landed on time, bag was the first one out on the belt

-checked into a hotel, one of my old high school soccer teammates runs the place and recognized my name, gave me a free dinner coupon and a note for me that he’ll be in tomorrow and we’ll connect

-got a text from a friend saying he is thinking of me today as he knows i have a few big decisions ahead of me

-i am about to go meet with a network of youth workers for coffee and conversation around a new kind of youth ministry.

Just one of those great days! BUT it is only a little half over so I am half expecting “the other shoe to drop”, as they say. I’ll keep you posted (for those of you who care)…

The last few days have been deeply demanding. Not particularly physically demanding (although it was nearly 100 degrees every day and this northerner hates the heat) but certainly emotionally and spiritually. I have been in Managua, Nicaragua the last few days with a team of other speakers and artists from around North America that have a ministry partnership with Compassion.

Like you may be able to imagine, seeing children in poverty — the state of being without — is overwhelmingly wearing on your heart, mind and soul. Some of these children are without hope, some without love, some without food, some without shoes and clothing, some without Jesus, some without a place to call home and the list could go on… It is wearing on me. It is killing these kids—literally.

I am still intensely reflecting on my experience and I am still to close to it to collect my thoughts enough to post about what I am currently wondering around. I can say this much though; seeing children in poverty pushes me to consider who I am, what I have, what I do and what to do.

One of many highlights was the opportunity I had to meet one of the children that my family sponsors. His name is Eliezer. He is 6 years old and lives with his mother and father and his little brother Michael. Eliezer’s father is a baker. He makes about $30 USD a month and their rent is about $27 a month. You do the math… there isn’t much left over.

I visited Eliezer’s home. His home is not much bigger than my college dorm room was, has one small bed, a dirt floor that the boys sleep on and a tin roof in need of repair. I was thrilled to have the chance to spend about 30 minutes with him. I don’t speak Spanish so it was a bit awkward at first but fortunately Compassion supplied a translator. I loved on Eliezer, gave him some gifts and then prayed for he and his family. It was an experience I will cherish forever. It is hard to describe what I am feeling having said “adios” to him.

Do me a favor? Stop what you are doing right now and pray that Eliezer’s father would get more work. If he can get more hours at the bakery he would be able to fix the roof, build some beds, etc. for his family. Thanks for praying. More to come on my experience in Nicaragua.

Tomorrow I am off to Nicaragua for five days with Compassion. I am looking forward to seeing some of what they are up to there. For almost 10 years now my wife and I have been sponsoring a few children in partnership with Compassion and are experience has been amazing. I have wanted to go on what they refer to as a “vision trip” for some time…

We’ll be staying in Managua which is the capital city of Nicaragua. March and April are traditionally the hottest months so I expect it to be nearly 100 degrees each day. I have been to Central America a number of times but never to Nicaragua. Have any of you ever been?

I am really looking forward to engaging with the people, serving in whatever way we end up serving, enjoying some good conversation, food and fun with my good friends Matt Wilks and Ben Rough — and just seeing another part of God’s earth. I fully expect to be deeply moved and challenged when I see some of the conditions that the children are living in — as well as their stations in life.

I am hoping to learn from the people of Managua as much as give. I used to think when I would go on short-term trips like this that I was somehow going to take the poor “out of their misery” just by showing up, smiling and saying “Jesus loves you” or “God bless you”. The truth is I will probably see Jesus resembled more in the faces of the poor children in the outskirts of Managua then I did in the faces of the people at church this morning…