November, 2008 | Black Coffee Reflections

Reflecting on Marko's words from #NYWC in Pittsburgh

November 14, 2008 by Tim Leave a Comment

Mark Ostreicher, National Youth Workers Convention – Youth Specialties – Pittsburgh – 11.3.08

I appreciate Mark Ostreicher from YS. I really do. For many reasons but I don’t feel like listing them. But I’m glad that he’s the president of YS. And being president and hosting the YS event, I appreciate that he took the last session on Monday morning when so many attendees have already left. Most presidents of organizations take the best attended session to celebrate their position and their egos but in the tradition of Mike Yaconelli and Tic Long, this is a humble expression that I appreciate.

So there we are Monday morning and Marko was rewinding the events and themes of the conference and said that he felt that he should get rid of what he was planning to say. I do that too. Like when I have nothing, or when I know what I have is garbage, I too pull an Eli Manning and change the play at the line. (Just kidding, Marko has too good of a mind to pull off lame speaker antics).

He told us that he thought he had the pinnacle of youth minisry with this “Back to School” Bash even that brought thousands of kids out. He would walk around and ask people, “Did you see that? God was truly working!” Later on, he realied that in all the years of bumping into former students and reconnecting through facebook, none fo them ever said, “That event changed my life”.

That’s usually my argument against Christian t-shrts and bumper stickers but I appreciated Marko using it to describe events. Because although I rarely thrown these types of events where I rent out an amusement park, I do take some pride in the events we do.

He mentioned a couple of things that he felt were more worthwhile and they were things like the communion he enjoyed with his house church. They had great meals together, they would enjoy the quietness together, share, pray, etc.

It was void of great size but deep with community and mission. Then he said, “Small is the value in the kingdom of God.”. Here’s some more

it’s simple in its dna and structure

beautiful and simple presence of Jesus moving into the world

present, not distracted.

it’s always changing, it cannot be packaged

It’s fluid because the gospel is not an idea, it’s the person of Christ.

Christ is the midst already present,

We can’t conjure it up with slight of hand and amazing programming.

But we are the equipment. (not the youth room etc.) bc what we have is Christ the hope of glory – this is the gospel that we bring to our kids.

The stuff that you thought you needed is a deterrent to youth ministry.

I love this idea for so many reasons. One, it celebrates all that are in youth ministry. Most conferences dangle the carrot of numbers and status in front of you forgeting the fact that many would routinely walk away from Jesus and he spent a great deal of his time in smaller numbers. Second, while there is a place for signage, promotion and the pursuit of better resources, it is not in the place of the heart of the Gospel. This is something we can all buy into and it’s nice to hear it from a guy like Marko.

I’ll end this post by using his closing “May you deeply blessed as you remember the real gospel in your soul.”

Filed Under: Conferences/Events, Reflective, Student Ministry Tagged With: Mark Ostreicher, Marko, National Youth Workers Conference, Youth Ministry

Reflecting on Pete Rollins’ Idea of the "Third Person"

November 14, 2008 by Tim Leave a Comment

I mentioned in my previous post about the Mid-Atlantic Conference in Philly that I liked this illustration:

“(Pete) used this story (that will not work in youth group) about an average guy stranded on a beach with a beautiful woman. He hits on her with great persistence and finally she gives in and they sleep together. In the morning, he asks her to put on a mustache and a ball cap and meet him on the beach that afternoon. Initially she objects, he persists, she shows up with the fake mustache and ball cap. He then tells his friend, “You never would have believed who I slept with last night – this beautiful woman …” the point being he needed a buddy to justify the experience. For some, that third person is God (or our abstract idea of what we think is God).”

This illustration was in a context of not knowing what you are really looking for even though you think you do. So, when you are looking to date someone you never find the right person, because that person does not exist. It’s not until you are not looking that you find the right one.

So Pete used this illustration that cracked me up and I’m still thinking about it. Does God really count as a “third person”? The simple and easy answer is yes and that’s why the illustration works.

In light of all the discussions of the god(s) that is/are created and even Rob Bell’s the gods aren’t angry, I have an understanding on this idea but what bugs me is that many times, for me, “God” (or the idea of God) makes a horrible third person to validate (or justify as Pete said) the experience. To me the illustration implies the third person is needed to almost wake up the guy so he doesn’t think he’s dead or still dreaming or congratulate him (to complete the experience as Pete says) but God doesn’t really do any of that. In fact, many times, quite the opposite. I cannot help but think that many times our experiences with God continue pushing us to keep looking for the third person. (Maybe this is why we have these celebrity type senior pastors who are larger then life but they are needed to validate the experience.)

I think I understand what Pete is saying. Like if we are praying for the health of a loved one’s health, we would only be wishful thinking or talking to ourselves if we didn’t believe in God (or the third person). But I couldn’t help but include the aforementioned in my thoughts.

Anyway, no illustration is obviously perfect but this has occupied my mind the past couple days. Does God make a good “Third Person”? What do you think?

Filed Under: Conferences/Events, Reflective Tagged With: Peter Rollins

Emergent Mid-Atlantic Conference with Pete Rollins and John Franke

November 11, 2008 by Tim 1 Comment

Had the Phillies not won the World Series this season, I would have said that this was the best day Philadelphia had this year. The Emergent Mid-Atlantic Conference at the Church of the Holy Trinity with

Peter Rollins and John Franke was fantastic. Pete gives quite a performance. He speaks pretty fast in a thick Irish accent, uses his hands, quotes everyone from Nietzsche and Bonhoeffer, uses parables, recites stories, employs hyperbole, and chugs coffee.

It was great to have John Franke there to share from his perspective and to hear the two of them dialogue with each other. You can listen to all the audio here (Thanks Scott).

To keep it short, I’m sacrificing context – here are my highlights/questions/etc.:

– Loved the idea of the “Third Person” that is needed to justify an experience. He used this story (that will not work in youth group) about an average guy stranded on a beach with a beautiful woman. He hits on her with great persistence and finally she gives in and they sleep together. In the morning, he asks her to put on a mustache and a ball cap and meet him on the beach that afternoon. Initially she objects, he persists, she shows up with the fake mustache and ball cap. He then tells his friend, “You never would have believed who I slept with last night – this beautiful woman …” the point being he needed a buddy to justify the experience. For some, that third person is God (or our abstract idea of what we think is God).

– “… God becomes the crutch to save us from the abyss”

– paraphrase – “(for some) we need a God to save us from fears, insecurities …. In this way, God is only an aid that leads us to practical atheism”.

– He told a story about a man who said to his neighbor that someone needed to help this poor family. The father was just laid off, the mother was ill, the children were hungry, and the landlord was about to evict them. The neighbor responded, “Oh that’s terrible. How do you know them?” The other replied, “I’m the landlord!”. This story pointed at the disconnect between the Church’s concern with no practical application.

– He spoke about the importance of belonging over belief. This one gave me trouble til he clarified that it was post-conversion.

– Christianity draws a circle but the faithful Christian goes outside the circle and embraces the excluded. – This is another example of the fidelity of betrayal.

– Every time we create a god, we create a bigger/better image of ourselves.

– Numerous examples from IKON:

– In such deep conversation with someone that you do not even know their eye color because the conversation is so imtimate that you cannot even remember the external.

– IKON tries to encourage its people to see its community as a doughnut. There is nothing in the center (no pastoral authority/presence), only the person next to you. So if the person next to you, doesn’t care, no one is there to help you. This encourages that each support the other bc no one else is going to do it.

– John Franke:

– As Christians, we must speak of God but we are human and cannot. We must acknowledge our obligation and responsibility in that very way we give glory to God. (I think it was a Barth quote).

– Barth – to speak about God as God knows Himself to be.

– John shared on the obligations we have to carry the gospel (we are ambassadors)

– We must neither contradict or cohere for they don’t negate the other.

– It’s a manifold witness.

– Example of four Gospels instead of one. There is a plurality.

– We as the people of God to go out to the world by the power of the Holy Spirit…

As mentioned, it really was a great day. I’ve expressed gratitude in other posts but I look forward for Thomas to send us next year’s email.

Filed Under: Conferences/Events, emergent, Reflective Tagged With: Emergent Mid-Atlantic, john franke, Peter Rollins

Monday Morning Brief – November 10

November 11, 2008 by Tim Leave a Comment

Highlight of the Week – Emergent Mid-Atlantic Conference with Pete Rollins and John Franke at the Holy Trinity Church in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. This went really well and am grateful for Thomas, Scott, Todd, Charlie and the many friends like Evan and Derek Cooper who supported the time. It was fun and meaningful. It’s sorta like youth group for the philosophy/theology kids. Where youth group need dodge ball, these nerds need coffee (thanks One Village Coffee).

Then there was the time with Pete. Loved what he said at the conference, appreciated the personal time, thrilled that he stayed over our house (put the unwashed pillow case on ebay. Expecting Evan to bid high). He worshipped at our church (he thought our pastor preaches well. The sermon was on giving).

I plan on blogging about it all … in 2009.

Grateful for – 1. Gary Schnittjer’s class on Conquest to Christ. I learned a great deal. 2. A solid youth group meeting last week. You can’t gauge how you feel from week to week in a youth group (if you plan on having a healthy state of mind) but it was one of our better times together. Also grateful for our new senior pastor.

Looking forward to – Spending some time at home. Though I have a had a great time traveling around and enjoying conferences and events, I am looking forward to being home for a little while. Baby Nathan has early signs of his first real cold. More exciting, he’s learning how to crawl.

Filed Under: Reflective

Tony Jones at Youth Specialties – General Session – 11.2.08

November 7, 2008 by Tim 5 Comments

First, it’s about time Tony speaks at the General Session at YS’s National Youth Workers Convention. Because the world tends to revolve around me, I did literally write in last year’s eval that Tony should be a given a general session. (I’m sure YS would have come up with this had I not written that since I’m pretty sure those evals head straight for recycling but it’s a great ploy in making attendees feel heard – lol.)

After a warm introduction from Marko, there was the Church Basement Road Show thing with Doug Pagitt and Mark Scadrette (who makes a hilarious preacher-type and in real life is the author of Soul Graffiti – Making a Life in the Way of Jesus). After that, Tony began speaking …. lol– just kidding. I, for one enjoyed the CBRS and couldn’t stop laughing, especially at Doug. How one of the most brilliant minds that you’ll ever meet got roped into this is either a great sign of friendship or there is some Josey-Bass statistic out there that has an irrefutable link to dressing up like a 20th century traveling southern evangelist and selling thousands of copies of A Christianity Worth Believing.

On Tony’s new belief.net blog, he wrote that he was afraid that some people didn’t get it. He and his friends are in good company for a lot of people didn’t understand the parables of Jesus and a lot of men don’t understand women and a lot of us don’t understand Sigur Rios but love them all anyway. Perhaps some didn’t get it but for all the times I’ve had to listen to a Josh McDowell type, I appreciate YS considering those like me.

After the Tony & Trucker Frank clip (which is brilliant), Tony shared a little about his journey, his faith and the nature of truth. If you know Tony, you know that he’s well-educated, brilliant, and never got the memo that you don’t have to talk to people after you speak. He probably doesn’t know that because he was a youth pastor for 20 years (source: Marko) and as many of you know, after you just spent 25 minutes sharing the most profound truth humankind has ever known, you are talking to 10^th graders about LeBron, Brittany, and the big Algebra test. Seriously, Tony as well as many of his friends, are among the most accessible to have conversation with you.

Tony talked about his life starting in his senior year of high school about a letter that his youth pastor made him write to himself that was sent during his freshmen year at Dartmouth It was a helpful reminder of the presence of Christ in his life. He shared about his college bible study experience (this story is in his excellent book, The New Christians – you should read it), his Fuller Seminary experience, his studies in philosophy and learning how to understand the great German theologians … in German. This story transitioned into the importance of living out the Gospel relationally while he lived in a poor part of South Dakota in the Indian reservations. If there’s something wrong with Tony, it’s that he speaks better of his time living in South Dakota then he does about his experience in New Jersey (he studied at Princeton Theological Seminary and is currently finishing up his doctorate).

Then the scary part, that wasn’t that scary … unless you are addicted to you pre-conceived notions and couldn’t wait to pick on something. Tony talked about the nature of truth. What he said was extremely appropriate for a YS General Session and from my seat, I hoped it stirred people’s appetites. He said that truth walked with Adam & Eve, wrestled with Jacob, was in a cloud leading the Israelites and that truth was born as a man and had foot fungus and bowel movements and about the profound nature of Christ. “It’s truth with dirt under its fingerails. That’s our truth.”

Reminding everyone that it we couldn’t reduce it all to passages or theologies. It was almost a Pauline moment, “If anyone has right to boast …”. He asked us youthworkers to remember that it’s worth being locked in a YMCA with junior highers, and be underpaid, overworked, and unappreciated. But it was well worth it to “bask in the knowledge” share the truth with our young people.

I am a fan and a friend of Tony and as a brother in the Lord was proud of his time. Toward the end of 2003, it was books like Postmodern Youth Ministry and McLaren’s New Kind of Christians that w

ere very helpful for me like many others. It would be typical to end the story that people rushed the stage for his blessing upon them but he ended up announcing that he was going to play the Jesus Road show song to open up the Crowder set which launched everyone out of their seats to the main stage. So typical of Christians to rush past the challenging stuff to get to the good and comfortable stuff (I love Crowder too, don’t miss my point).

For many this was a great starting point. And For people like me who are barely two steps ahead in this part of the journey, it was more than a good moment but a necessary one. I need to see organizations like YS encourage this part of the conversation. I don’t need everyone to be emergent. Not needed at all but what I would appreciate is that before people attack the conversation and the people that are having the conversation to know the conversation and to participate in it.

Filed Under: Christianity, Conferences/Events, emergent, Reflective, Student Ministry Tagged With: Tony Jones

Monday Morning Brief on Tuesday Night (YS and Election Day Edition) #nywc

November 4, 2008 by Tim 6 Comments

Pardon the delay but I hope to compensate by making it a … DOUBLE FEATURE!

Highlight of the Week not related to YS: Happy for my Philly friends like Evan who now know how good it feels for your team to win the World Series. Though tired of election hype, glad I have the privilege of voting.

Other Highlights Include: I am not always a fan of the General Sessions at YS for several reasons. Among them is because I usually don’t like the popular and for me, I’ve gained much from the lowly seminar speaker. However, this year General Sessions in Pittsburgh were fantastic. No joke. Phyllis Tickle at General Session was a brilliant experience and thought Tony Jones did a great job talking about many things. Among which was his journey and the nature of truth. Also appreciated the Trucker Frank clip. What’s the Church to do with souls like him?

Namedrop of the Week: Hanging out with Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt. It was awesome, I got on both their nerves with all my questions. Truth be told, even after traveling from early in the morning, to speaking all day, these guys are always willing to converse. You may not like their theology (if you’re lame and narrow-minded – kidding, kidding) but they are good people and I wish that was more appreciated.

Tried to compliment Phyllis Tickle after she spoke but YS Secret Service agent Tony Myles tackled me. (Kidding. She may be older, but she left pretty quickly.)

Laughed at: Listening to Demetri Martin on the way to Pittsburgh. Always appreciate the Skit Guys (or the funny skit guy) and died laughing at Mark Yaconelli going disco crazy at the end of his general session. Church Basement Road Show was funny too. Can’t believe Pagitt plays the trombone so well – he’s so talented. The new Ben Folds cd is hilarious.

Listening to: The new Ben Folds album, Way To Normal. Not for the easily offended (also has parental explicit warning. I’m a dad now so it’s ok).

Discouragements of the week: 1. Both fantasy football teams lost. One was a heartbreaker. 2. Had a meeting that I didn’t work out the way I wanted it to. Though I believe that good will result, I didn’t like the meeting.

Something That Broke My Heart: When Evan told us he lost was let go from his job due to budget cuts. Supposedly it was a Presbyterian Church but as I mentioned in an email to him that I didn’t think they were exhibited that infamous “Perseverance of the Saints” thing.

Youth Ministry Update: Doing Ecclesiastes in Sunday School. Starting new series tomorrow called “The Letdown – Dealing with Disappointment”. Trying to make final decision on mission trip this summer.

I think I like but I’m not sure if I am supposed to: Gas being cheap(er). Wheels falling off the economy or those prayers at the gas pump are working?

Really Didn’t Like: The way some of my Christian brothers and sisters spoke about the election, the candidates they preferred and didn’t prefer. I got tired of hearing how awful McCain was. I was angered at the comment that Obama was evil and was the antichrist. (No joke – heard this from people I respect). Got tired of hearing how amazing Obama is. He’s just a man and this should remind us of how many felt during the beginning of W’s first term. Things change.

Still Really, Really Loathing: Dobson’s letter from 2012. If Luther’s 95 Theses was one of the greatest moments of Protestantism, then Dobson’s letter was the lowest and meanest kick to the crotch. Going to my church library and burning all the copies of Life on the Edge.

Proud Moments in my Consumerism: When I received my friends’ books: Brian Chidester’s Pop Surf Culture and Derek Cooper’s So You’re Thinking About Going to Seminary: An Insider’s Guide.

Looking Forward To: Emergent MidAtlantic Conference with Peter Rollins, John Franke and my friends.

Filed Under: Reflective

Tom Sine’s Seminar – Post 5 – #nywc

November 2, 2008 by Tim Leave a Comment

Tom Sine – Where Is the Church Headed and What’s Our Response

You probably should walk into this seminary with Tom Sine in a ready mode. If you are having a rough time this may push you further over the edge –lol. However, depending on what you are upset about (like if you are upset with how the moms in your youth group are treating you) it may snap you out of it because you have new problems.

He’ll be giving this seminar on Monday morning and I highly recommend it if you are reading this and here in Pittsburgh.. There are a lot of notes below but here’s a bit of summary. Things are changing, politically, socially, economically, etc. Different generations are generations are interested in different things and different things are going to interest and un-interest them. So, we will not be able to live as our parents lived – that track is gone.

You may know by now that we younger Generation X’ers and Millennials, will be the first generation to make less income as our Boommer parents. Generally we will not be living in some of the homes we grew up in. Tom anticipated that the next two years will be difficult economically and only two years would be optimistic.

(Though not at the moment), The industrial growth of China and India will raise the cost of oil to $300/barrel. This will affect many things of commuter culture. Even the idea of commuter culture or regional church will be fading out. He also said on a side note that we won’t be building too many mega churches in the next 20 years.

As youth workers or as people in our churches, we need to prepare people for change. We should be teaching people stewardship, budgeting, lifestyle, warn against traps of materialism, greed, purpose. The bigger theme was teaching our churches God’s dream as opposed to the American Dream.

If you are interested, check out his book called the New Conspirators.

Walked in a little late but here are some of the notes I took

Crisis of Foresight

Long range planning in a time warp

Forecast how your community will look 5-10 years.

Who’s moving into the community?

Taking the future seriously in turbulent times

Leading with foresight

Anticipating new challenges

Creating new responses.

Housing markets

Examining the attitudes and behaviors of jr. highers as indicators ….

Culture shift

Waking up on a ship of fools headed into an economic hurricane.

Future of the rich and super rich.

Future of middle class

Future of the global poor

Future of new majority world

Future of the planet

Life stewardship practices the democrization of culture

Taste of wealthy lifestyle always dangled in front of middle class.

Future of the church & mission response

Shrinking church – losing 20’s & 30’s year olds.

Retiring boomers mission funding crisis.

Join the Conversation.

Conversation 2

What are your creative ways to respond to new challenges:

In our lives?

In our churches?

In youth ministries?

We need to find ways to collaborate with others. – We need to get the church out of the building.

Good live of God versus the Good life of the American dream.

Help people do budgeting.

Leading with discernment

Crisis of vision

Joining the new conspirators in taking the culture seriously

Engaging and critiquing modern and post-modern culture.

Checking out high statues/extreme cool”

What does this have to do with following Jesus?

Markets of McWorld defining for people everywhere what is “good life & better future”

No 1 reason why Christina college students are not headed into missions is their parents are forbidding it.

Because of the American dream

· But I think also because boomer parents know to not believe in the church.

· They are the ones on our trustee, elders, missions commission meetings cutting the funding to our missionaries. Of course parents do not want their children to live as vulnerable like this.

· Become an accountant or a banker or a pharmacist so you can support yourself and then volunteer.

· We can give our hearts away to God and the stranger, but not the vulnerability of our pockets.

A warning form the matrix – a reality being pull down over our head

A vision of the good life becoming the norm for our global village

Joining the new conspirators in taking the kingdom seriously

What are God’s purpose for a people and world?

Is. 65:17-19, 2:1-4, 25:6-9, 58:5-7. 35:1-7. 9:2-7

The good life cannot be obtained by pursuing anything in this world.

Only in the paradox of Christ can we find the good life

The good life of God is the life being given away.

The major evangelism is the call to significance.

Our worship music should reflect on how Jesus wants to change the world not

Joining Shane Claiborne in reimagining the kingdom,

Another world is possible

Another world is necessary

Another world is already here!

In the risen Christ, in communities, in shalom

Joining the new conspirators in living into creating into serving into collaborating into

Conversation 3

What is your response to:

The critique of the global mall in shaping our nations of the global life

In the suggestion that the good life of God is not found in seeking life but in losing life in service to God and others?

Joining the new conspirators in ….

Arrod mckenna – peace three community – this generation doe snot need more slick entrainment – they long for space where their deepest questions can be discussed

One mustard seed a tat ime.

New Cons – calling us to authentic whole-life faith

Family loving on purpose through hospitality

Emerging leaders in the UK living on purpose by working only 30 hrs/wk to free up 20 hrs for mission

Nurturing a liturgy of life.

Creating new counter-cultural communties of the kingdom

Small groups with a mission

Proximity communities with a mission

Resident communities with a mission

Temescal co-op, community, Oakland

Turba house Raleigh- durham US

Mustard Seed House/celtic monastic village

Creating new sustainable communities to both embody the kingdom of reduce costs

Creating new approaches to worship

Inviting eh young:

To create new expressions of church

To create a worship that connects profane culture and ancient liturgies

To create new missional worship

Creating US birthing centers fo new expressions

Forge – Melbourne

Fresh expressions, UK

Launch Toronto

Reinventing youth ministry to launch the young

Urging all churches to invite the imagination and innovation fof teens 20- & 30- year olds.

Creating new celebrations of that world that is already here

Joining the new conspirators in partying the kingdom 24/7

Celebrating the world that is already here with Babetts’s Feast.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

YS Pittsburgh – GS 2 – M. Feinberg, A. Marin, S. Chan-Rah – Post 4 – #nywc

November 1, 2008 by Tim 4 Comments

Last night was probably one of the best general sessions I had been to at YS. They had an interesting format, 3 speakers, 18 minutes each, 6 minute discussions with those around you after each speaker, 6 minutes of questions that were submitted via text message. (not real sure about the times but it was something like that.

The first speaker was Margaret Feinberg. Appreciated what she had to say and the spirit she said it in. I felt that her message may have gotten a little lost out of the three but here’s also what I think I know. There were some people who probably really connected with her. Some who really needed to hear another woman speak (that doesn’t work on staff for YS. We love/appreciate you Jeanne).

Margaret spoke about her journey, personal, professional, the call of God, the storms, the joys, and the journey with Him. My favorite part was when she said something to the effect of “We like to think that surrender is one big decision but it’s not. Surrender is thousands of decisions that shape our commitment”. In contrast to the prosperity gospel and whatever, I always appreciate when we are reminded by discussing sacrifice and surrender.

The second speaker was Andrew Marin. Jeanne said in her introduction that this is a discussion that we have had for a while but haven’t had it up front in a general session yet. She said we found someone who can do that and he was Andrew.

Andrew began my sharing how his 3 closest friends in 3 consecutive months revealed to him they were gay. Indeed that’s pretty crazy. Long story short – In order to understand homosexuality, his friends, and the Gospel more, he moved to a part of Chicago that had a large gay population, went to gay bars, events, and tried to become as he said, “the gayest straight guy in Chicago”.

Very, very true that we as believers need to do a much better job for the homosexual community. We should begin by bringing them into our churches. Andrew suggested that almost every school has a Gay-Straight Alliance that we could be a part of.

Since this is a blog, I feel I can write this. I think one of the memorable moments was when he said something like, “We need to stick it to the man” in referring to how some institutions need to woken up. Not sure if that’s the best use of these types of expressions concerning the subject but everyone around me quietly laughed for 20 minutes. It’s a room full of youthworkers so understand that but as for me, I’ll never forget to include this part of the story.

But I don’t want to pick on stuff like that or which Scriptures he used and didn’t use (he was clear that he thought the Scriptures taught that homosexuality is a sin) but it was good to have Andrew as part of the night.

The last presenter was Soong Chan-Rah who was introduced by Marko explaining the genesis of this relationship. If you were part of the YS’s email list, then you know that in one of the skit books, there was a Chinese restaurant owner as a character that was made fun. It included the broken English, to the phonetically spelled mispronunciations to other offensive stereotypes. It was Soong who brought it to Marko’s attention which quickly led to a huge apology, retraction and in short, a humble and beautiful moment in resolve and reconciliation. So they reminded some of that story.

Not sure what was the highlight but was thrilled when Soong Chan- Rah said something to the effect of “we interpret Christianity through a western white understanding not through the Scriptures”. It’s a shock value statement of course. (There is no such thing as an objective interpretation of the Bible by the way) and this isn’t me saying, “yeah Sonng sure told them!! Well maybe a little but seriously, what I am celebrating is that we are having these discussions on a bigger level and in this case, in a general session.

I went to his talk-back session and there is just so much to try to say here that I’ll have to continue later. I recommend that you get the mp3 of this session though. (I will be just to process it again).

Filed Under: Conferences/Events, Student Ministry Tagged With: YS Pittsburgh

Youth Specialties Pittsburgh – Seminary Series 1 – Post 3 – #nywc

November 1, 2008 by Tim Leave a Comment

For Seminar Series 1, I hopped around until I ended up at Marko’s Starting Right So You Don’t End Wrong. The schedule suggests that it’s targeted for those who are in their first 2 years but I think I need to be reminded of many things after these 8 years. Besides I like the guy and appreciate his stories. He talked about the many misconceptions we have in youth ministry, many of them he held personally and was very up front of his mistakes. (That’s cool because I’m still trying to figure out which one to admit as my first mistake – lol).

Aside from being reminded of these things, I regretted once again, not having all of my youth leaders here. (I know, I know, I can order the dvd and play it for them) but these are some of the discussions we spend time on (sometimes too much time) in our youth leaders’ mtg. (I just need to bring them here next year and get them saved ;-).

Marko was gracious in answering questions that came up throughout the seminar. A couple good questions were voiced and Marko gave some good answers ( I can update this later if anyone is interested in the Qs). Good seminar, glad I ended up there.

Filed Under: Conferences/Events, Student Ministry Tagged With: YS Pittsburgh

Youth Specialties – Pittsburgh – Recapping General Session 1 – Post 2 – #nywc

November 1, 2008 by Tim Leave a Comment

Day 1 Recap

Got in the General Session toward the end of Newworldson’s set. They looked like they were having a good time and people were liking them.

Sat in up close to the band stage left of center with the speakers seemingly inches away from our ears. Who’s dumb idea was that? Oh mine. I saw seats up front. We sat in front of a couple that went to my (and my wife’s) alma-mater, Liberty University. Always good to see fellow alumni.

Starfield led us in worship and I must say, even though they are Canadian, they’re pretty good. (Kidding, kidding, you’re supposed to make fun of Canadians. It’s an expression of love and allows them to feel distinct in their un-americanness. If we treated them like we treated Americans, they’d be offended that you didn’t appreciate what makes them different – you see?)

The speaker was Mike Pilavachi. High energy youth pastor who’s been around from London. He shared some of his failures, frustrations, and even a couple of things he got right. He revealed that Matt Redman came up through his youth group and recounted a couple of stories about Matt. He spent a lot of time talking about Jesus’ interaction and discipleship of the 12. Appreciated he was the first speaker, brought some normalness to youthworkers and I had never heard him before.

Filed Under: Conferences/Events, Student Ministry Tagged With: YS Pittsburgh