I’ve been spending the bulk of today with some new friends from the Diocese of South Carolina. We are staying at a really cool retreat center outside of the Charleston, SC area called St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center.

I was invited down to share some of our training in hopes that we might be able to establish a partnership for years to come. I look forward to investing into the youth workers as I have found them to be particularly engaging and unbelievably open to new ideas and practices.

Dave Wright is the Youth Ministry Coordinator for the Diocese. He is from the Chicago area so we have that going for us. He formerly worked in the UK and over time there has been a few of his friends that have crossed the pond from London and the surrounding areas to contribute to the movement here. Some fascinating stuff. Over the past few years I have spoken to or trained a lot of youth worker networks. I confess, this one might just be the most closely knitted one I have bumped into yet. They seem to have the partnering/collaborative thing down. Of course I am in town only for a day and obviously don’t get much more than a snapshot. I have, however, been moved by their hospitality and generosity toward me and toward one another. Dave has built something very special here.

Today I spent the day training the youth workers out of our Enroute content and also some bits and pieces from some other stuff I have developed out of our Shaping a Missional Community and Shepherding in a Culture of Change modules.

It has been a great day. The weather has been great. The conversation in the training has been very enriching and the highlight of the day was sitting under some of Bishop Lawrence’s teaching and storytelling. I was also blessed as the group prayed over me requesting safety and deeper levels of holiness in my travels and training. They also prayed for my son Luke who is soon to get his hearing aids. It was very encouraging.

Bishop Lawrence has just begun here in South Carolina as the new Bishop. I am not sure all of what it means to be a Bishop as I am not tremendously familiar with the Episcopal Church. The Bishop is a fantastic storyteller and a very well read and insightful communicator. I am looking forward to sitting under him again tonight in our final session.

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.

Thursday night I was in Kansas City speaking at a church for my new friend Casey Kapple. Casey is the youth minister at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Overland Park, KS. Before his current position at Emmanuel, Casey was on staff at Youthfront for almost 4 years. It was great to get some input and feedback on some of Youthfront’s initiatives from someone who knows the organization well and is also a local youth worker.

I spoke to some of the parents of the teens in Casey’s ministry. I was encouraged by the parents’ strong commitment to helping their teens develop an authentic faith. I did some of the training from our Shepherding in a Culture of Change learning module. It was great fun and I was blessed to be a small part of Casey’s ministry, if even only for a night of training.

From Kansas City I flew to Ocean City, Md. What a beautiful place! I have never been to Ocean City but have had many friends who vacation there in the summer. The view (as seen below - not my pic) from my room was stunning - especially in the morning as the sun came up. Very cool…

I was speaking at a YFC event called Impact. There were about 4000ppl there from all over the east coast. I facilitated the youth worker training and had a few consulting appointments as well.

It was great to see Dave Rahn, as it always is. Dave was leading a seminar for students who want to explore God as well as reperesenting the national YFC office.

It was a pleasure to finally get the chance to meet Ruth Barton who I have wanted to meet for a long time. Ruth is the author of a couple of books (one called Sacred Rhythms in which my wife and her close friend Michelle are using these days as a “guide” of sorts for conversation, etc.). Ruth used to be at Willow a few years ago but now she is a spiritual director and retreat leader through the ministry she founded based in the Chicago area called, The Transforming Center.

I am thrilled to spend some time tonight with my good friend Dave Michener. Dave was the first one to hire me for a youth ministry job and continues to be a great friend and mentor to me and my family (Dave performed the wedding ceremony for Gina and me!).

Dave is the executive pastor at Bridgeway Community Church, a multi-cultural church outside of Baltimore in Columbia, MD. I always love talking with Dave about stuff going on at Bridgeway. Bridgeway is an innovative church that is in many ways leading the way forward for churches desiring to be intentionally multi-cultural.

Leave Baltimore early tomorrow morning and head home — can’t wait to see my family!

We have (Youthfront/Sonlife) been doing some work with Barefoot Publishing. Barefoot is what I (a non-expert in the pub world!) would call an emerging publisher. They have been around for a while but I think some of their most recent products have really helped them emerge from being viewed as an average publisher to a innovative, expanding publisher.

I really love their new series of products for students called, Undercurrent. HERE is a link. Most recently I read, “Living Justice” by Jamie Gates and Jon Middendorf. This is a great book to give to your students on the topic of justice. Along with the product they have a free download — a discussion guide for small groups, etc. — on their website.

The book is only about 80 pages and it covers a lot of ground in a very engaging way. I love how the book begins. Within the first two pages there is a lasting tension created using two, very to the point and relevant examples of divergent perspectives on God, justice, and our role in God’s mission. Very thought provoking…

I have become good friends with Jeff Edmondson, the publisher. We are working together on a couple projects — one in particular I am really excited about. We are launching a new weekend missional living training experience for students in 12 locations across North America in the Fall called, Reveal: Joining in the Activity of God. Good stuff. More on that later. Anyway, in the meantime, you might want to check out Barefoot’s line of products for your students.

On Saturday we hosted about 230 youth workers and students at Youthfront in cooperation with Youth Specialties for their CORE Training. It was great to connect with so many like-minded people!

Dave Ambrose was the presenter. Dave did a very good job. His flight was delayed a couple of hours so we began a couple hours later than the anticipated 9AM start time. It was all good… The youth workers in attendance, as you would expect, were very cool about the delay making the most of it by being flexible as only youth workers can by connecting with others in meaningful conversation and participating in a Lectio Divina experience that one of our staff (Jamie Roach) led from the gospel of Luke. It was very cool.

(Me, Dave Ambrose, Rivers Partin, Jamie Roach, Mike King)

I had heard from a few that the CORE: Generation Change content wasn’t that great this year. I disagree. I didn’t sit in on all of the training but the training I was in on was very good. I think the content was meaningful, helpful and very effective. If you haven’t already taken your volunteers or student leaders and you are in a part of the country where they haven’t yet been, you should consider taking them.

I was pleased to see how closely aligned (thematically) the Generation Change content is with what we are doing with Enroute, our one-day training experience. I love that so many of us are thinking similarly and that the thinking is working itself out into training that inspires and equips volunteers and students toward an aligned passion and cry for change.

Dan Webster is a friend, mentor and coach to me and countless others. There have been numerous occasions where I have found myself picking up the phone to get a word of advice from Dan. Dan’s words aren’t always what I want to hear, but they are always honest and what I have needed to hear.

Dan has been investing in leaders for more than 30 years. He founded a leadership development company called, Authentic Leadership in 1994 and since then has been passionately committed to train and inspire leaders to live authentic lives of great impact.

A few months ago I participated in an experience that Dan has aptly named, Pause. Pause is a a one day experience to gain clarity for your life and work. It was a fantastic experience on many levels. I experienced it with some friends — Mark Matlock, Tic Long, Nathan Vawser and Rick Lawrence. The venue was incredible too (see pic below). And — of course — the content was very helpful as well.

As you await the renewal of the earth for this spring, take a minute and ask yourself if you need to gain clarity on your life and work and renew your personal vision. It is always helpful for me to discover again and reflect upon just what it is I am to be, become and do.

You can get all the information you need at: http://pausenow.net/

I have known Doug Jones over at Perigrinatio (www.perigrinatio.com) for a bunch of years. We first met when we were both serving on a Sonlife event team we held in Baltimore at The Johns Hopkins University.

We have become very close friends since that time we first met. I can honestly say that Doug is a friend. You know how it goes… there are friends and then there are friends — the ones who support you, advocate for you, love you enough to call you out, tell you the truth no matter what — yeah, that is the kind of friend that Doug is.

Doug was a youth pastor for a bunch of years. Now he volunteers at his church near Pittsburgh and is one of our facilitators for our Enroute experience. He also speaks at retreats a bunch and does some consulting with churches and youth ministry organizations. I am not sure why I am telling you all of the above — other than I want Doug to know how much I love him back!

Anyway, Doug has a very cool resource that you might find helpful available on his blog called Journey with Jesus. Here is the link: http://www.perigrinatio.com/downloads/

The resource won’t WOW you by its design — but look over it closely.  Get beyond the simple design and read the outline of what Doug has put together.  I think you will find it to be really helpful as you lead your students toward learning more about Jesus and lead them toward experiencing Holy Week.

I am in the Smokey Mountains (Gatlinburg) of TN this weekend speaking at a retreat called Encounter. There are a bunch of students and youth workers here, mostly from Northern Alabama as the retreat is a gathering of churches from The Northern Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church.

I am speaking about my book, A New Kind of Youth Ministry, and also around some ideas I have been working on for my next book called, Story, Signs and Sacred Rhythms.

It feels nice to be out of the sub-10 degree weather. It is probably around 50 degrees but it feels like a heat wave.

I had lunch with Steve Case. I met Steve a few years ago at one of the YS conventions and so it was good to reconnect and share what has been happening in our lives as of late. Steve is a fellow author with YS. You may have come across some of his writing — The Book of Uncommon Prayer, Everything Counts, and Road Rules are a few I know off the top of my head.

Anyway, looking forward to being home with my family later tonight!

I have been doing consulting with churches and organizations on and off for a couple of years now. I have come to love consulting as much as anything else I do these days. In some ways, I think that consulting with churches and organizations might be my greatest contribution to the Kingdom. It isn’t easy work, but it is truly motivating and stretching.

I had my own firm for a while called, The Trek Project but when I began to re-culture Sonlife a few years ago, I set it aside in order to integrate much of what I was doing into the streams of influence at Sonlife.

I am thrilled to be on a new team of consultants that Youth Specialties has gathered. Honestly, I am honored and humbled to be on a team with such great people. You can see the team here: http://www.ysconsults.com/consultants/

You can check out the YS Consults website and get more information here: http://www.ysconsults.com/

On Monday and Tuesday of this past week I was in Boise, ID. Mike and I were meeting with Allelon and also with Mike Kipp from NNU. Great times…

While in Boise I met a new friend named Rickard. Rickard serves on the research team of Allelon and also cooperates with God and a few other folks to direct the Teen Center in a town outside of Boise called Eagle. The Landing Community Center is a wonderful project serving children, teens and adults through the arts, social action, giving trees, etc.
At first glance it might appear that Rickard is running an ordinary teen center. But this teen center is different. Rickard and his team go beyond the ordinary and have been able to explore missional youth ministry.

I had to ‘look again’ in order to move beyond my own presuppositions — but after a bit of time I realized that Rickard and the others are living amidst the needs of the teens and their families in Eagle. They are meeting needs for sure, but they are finding their way into the life of students in a real way.

It is one thing — a good thing, of course — to meet needs. I think it is completely another thing to consistently remove your own desires and take up residence within the suffering, pain, confusion, hurt, sickness, etc. of others. Out of a love that overflows from their love of God, Rickard and his team have been able to help students encounter and engage with God  — in not so ordinary ways.

Believing that God is continuously at work around them and that by cooperating with his activity he can help transform the lives of many teens, Rickard faithfully serves the teens of Eagle.

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 The Hungering Dark by Frederick Buechner)