It’s my most despondent month in ministry. It’s the month where all of my critical self-assessment of our ministry comes to a head. It’s the end of the school year, which stumble-starts (in our community) a downturn in participation through the summer. Worse, another group of seniors is headed for the door, so you have to deal with that.

The seniors. Living testimonies to your failure as a leader. Forget for a moment the 400 different opinions about how you ruined senior Sunday. In your heart you know that you didn’t do enough in their lives. You had these kids in your care for X number of years and just look at them. Completely unprepared for life. Infants in discipleship that can’t quite feed themselves yet. But that’s all you get with them; tomorrow that infancy hits the street of “real life” which, statistically speaking, will erase your influence from most of them anyway. Sure, there are one or two that seem to have a grasp on things that really matter. But that’s easily chalked up to the quality of the individual; no point in taking credit for them. Freaking May.

So for most of May I avoid human contact whenever possible. The first week of June I get to go on a mission trip and that usually evens me out and I get approachable again. But last night at a vespers service in Chattanooga, my mind rabbit-trailed from a sermon’s main point to this ray of light:

Jesus was a terrible youth minister too.

I mean, they weren’t youth he was dealing with, because youth hadn’t been invented yet. Kids became adults back then in what is now middle school and didn’t have the opportunity to hipster-whine their way into their late 20s. (I just saved you a semester on adolescent development.) Jesus spent three years with his disciples, about twice as long as the average youth minister sticks around. And after 4 canonized Gospels of miracles, parables, small groups, betrayal, crucifixion, resurrection, and reappearance over the following 40 days his disciples high-five him and in a single question prove that they’ve learned nothing:

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

“Idiots. And now I have to leave,” had to run through Jesus’ mind. All of that effort and they still thought he was here to overthrow Rome. All of that example and they still didn’t get that his was a kingdom of love. “Alright, guys. Let’s make sure we’ve got our pics turned in for the disciple slide show.” It was probably nice, apart from the betrayal and crucifixion bit, not to have to deal with the accusing stares of a finance committee just before the ascension. “Jesus, you’ve been with these guys for three years and we’re just not seeing the results we were hoping for. Not sure if you’re a good fit for the direction we’re headed.”

It’s easy to forget that in youth ministry we’re not usually end-gamers. We’re launchers. And if we’re really honest–we’re mostly observers. There are certainly ministries that exist as primary spiritual influences in the lives of youth, but for most of the middle-class mainstream youth ministry that goes on we’re supplementing what spiritual development goes on at home. I think this is why I don’t enjoy particularly enjoy ceremony or marking occasions (apart from in general being a grumpy jackass). Nothing is really ever complete; we’re always moving forward. Particularly in Christian living, there is always a “next thing.” A next wonderful opportunity to live in service to others. Another opportunity to meet God in community.

But at the end, the disciples got it. After Jesus left, they grew. This time they didn’t go back to fishing.

So while we may not always get to see the fruit, let me encourage you in your planting, tending, and watering. You get glimmers here and there; maybe see a bloom or two or shoots of new growth. And don’t forget that those in your care are on individual journeys; they’ll be making decisions beyond your influence. Be present. Be faithful. And remember that June is coming. The clatter of rising 6th graders is at the door.

Peace,

K

During this same time the Methodist church came under fire because of its very un-democratic episcopal structure. There were charges leveled against the church of being unchristian and anti-american (which is a totally different from now). We pushed back by saying that our structure was not about being mindless servants of an autocratic bishop, but that we were a single unit that was facilitated by the Bishop and other superintendents. It was about connection.

You saw the connection in how we operated. Yes there were individual churches, but they were constantly teaming up and coming together in small or large groupings to do everything from having a camp meeting to starting a hospital. We were different because we were not duplicating efforts, we were not fighting amongst each other for members; rather, diverse congregations were working together in a network (some might say a body) to accomplish far more for the Kingdom of God than any one of them could do on their own.

Fast-forward to the present and it is difficult to see that radical contrast to the congregational approach being lived out in our Church. The Connection may not be dead, but the signs of its imminent demise are everywhere. Since we are talking youth ministry here, lets use it as our test case. It was not long ago that conferences had thriving youth programs that were a beautiful collaboration between adults and youth from all over the conference. They did camps, retreats, mission projects, evangelistic rallies, you name it. What was even more beautiful than that was the fact that these events grew out of districts that were doing the same thing on a local scale.

Now that is quickly becoming the exception rather than the rule. More and more conferences are dissolving the youth ministry position because it has become irrelevant. If no one is coming or participating in those conference events, there is no need for a staff to facilitate them. Why? The big churches say the events are too low quality (translation: we can do it better by ourselves) and the small churches are concerned that if they join in with the bigger groups, their students might like the bells and whistles somewhere else better and leave.

Wow. How competitive. How unhealthy. How un-methodist.

I’m not sure exactly where it all jumped the shark, but one thing is clear to me now: we are on the brink of losing the beauty of the connection altogether. You know the story. After a couple of conversations with the DS, you get a new pastor. A couple months later there is electricity in the air when he takes to the pulpit to unveil his new “vision” for the church. You are going to have coffee in the lobby, go to the local mission once a month and even start visiting the people who visit your church. People praise him for being a visionary leader and follow willingly. When that pastor moves on, the church repeats the cycle with yet another pastor and yet another vision.

You can’t blame the pastors, it’s what our culture expects. Jim collins pointed out in Good to Great that over the past several decades, our culture has grown to associate this visionary-hero style leader with the pinnacle of leadership success. Around this leadership style has grown enumerable conferences, books and seminars that help even the most introverted step up and step out to cast their vision to the masses.

The problem is, this leads to isolated, suspicious, non-connected churches. Each church is out for its own success in its own mission with its own members. This is done in part because the churches have asked for a visionary leader and in part because that is how they are evaluated. They are evaluated for individual success. But that’s what we want, right? We want vital congregations. We want accountability. We want growth in each individual church.

And there it is: each individual church. Not the connection, not the body, each church must exhibit the same hallmarks of vitality. That is a congregational view not a connectional one. In a connection, each congregation will have different functions. Some might be the thriving evangelistic arm while another might be the missional outpost. One might be the writers and teachers who develop amazing curriculum while another might be incredible at hospitality. There may be churches with a few, committed members that perform a vital function within the connection that allows the connection to be successful and reproductive; while the church is not reproductive in itself.

There is a church like that in our community. It is small. It is not adding members each year. It is not converting people each year, but it is a vital part of what God is doing in our community. That church houses and cares for a host of missional interns that serve our community and reach out to the poor, ignored and oppressed. Those interns are not a ministry of that church (though they are a ministry of the Methodist church). The church doesn’t get statistical credit for all the amazing things those interns do, but without that church, that growing, innovative, vital edge of ministry in our community would be crippled if not gone altogether.

I think there is hope, but I think that our treatment for this illness has to have a multi-faceted approach.

The first step is to address that which is immediately under our control: ourselves. We need to get over ourselves as leaders and churches. It is not about us rising to Hybelian heights of leadership glory or growing into another mega-church with a crippling addiction to mortgages. We need to leave our vision meetings and long-term congregational strategy groups and start dreaming together. What could we do together that we could never do apart? What does the part-time youth leader excel at in her ministry that eludes the multi-staff mega church youth group? What would happen if we stopped thinking about our personal success and threw ourselves together for kingdom success?

However, we won’t be able to transform our methods if important, vital voices are shut down because they aren’t getting the right types statistical success. I work with an incredible pastor who is prone to pithy, wise outbursts that are as true as they are corny. One of them is that you can expect what you inspect. I agree. If we want to be a connectional church, we need to start valuing the types of success that grows from connectional ministry. Congregations that act as isolated, non-connectional bodies need to be seen as less vital (no matter how large or growing they are) than those who are using their resources to do something with the connection to impact their community.

You may be asking why. Why not just give in to our cultural history and go full-congregational? Why not just throw in the towel on an outdated and ineffective system? Because I believe that the connection is the key to our success in the coming era. Look at our world. It is decentralizing all around us. Fifty years ago the best metaphor for almost everything was a building with a foundation, walls, and roof. Now, it is the web. More and more we are giving up these hierarchical silos for nodal, interconnected networks. We are moving into an era of connection, and we have connection in our DNA! We have a system that is ready and has the potential to be far more relevant than anything else in that sort of world. I hope that we can save it before it’s too late.

Jeremy Steele has been working in youth ministry for the past fifteen years and now serves as the Next Generation Minister at Christ United Methodist Church in Mobile, AL. He writes for Group Magazine, RETHINK Church and various publications and organizations. You can find a link to all the places he contributes on his website at JeremyWords.com.

"I must break you."

Do you ever find your youth ministry being compared to other ministries in your area?

Sometimes I feel like I’m trapped in Rocky IV.  Other ministries are like Drago, the powerful Soviet boxer, with all the resources, training, and technology money can buy.  And then there’s me…lifting logs and chasing chickens in a set of poorly-fitted sweats.

I wonder if we could learn from Rocky IV though.  Maybe having an abundance of resources isn’t always better.  Maybe there is a way to practice ministry in a way that is uniquely United Methodist.  Maybe there is something that a United Methodist youth ministry could offer that the other local churches can’t.

What kinds of things do you think we can offer as a United Methodist youth group that is different  than the stereotypical youth ministries around us?

As United Methodists, we have a storied history of a uniquely missional approach to the faith.  Early Methodists weren’t confined to their church buildings.  They were out in the communities seeking out opportunities to minister to the least and the lost in a powerful and relevant way.

That was (and still is) the power of the Methodist movement.  

Also, the early Methodists had an extreme sense of discipline and discipleship (hence the name “Methodist”).  Obedience to the teachings of Christ didn’t just happen.  There was an active and hands-on method to developing faith.

That was (and still is) the power of the Methodist movement.  

The Methodist movement also had the ability to adapt to any context.  Because it was a movement and not an institution, Methodist principles could readily be adopted in every situation.  The Methodist movement was built on the idea that you used what resources you had available for ministry.  Too often I see churches, often resource-starved, trying to do youth ministry like the local megachurch.  They have an idea of what a stereotypical youth ministry should be and they strive to make that happen no matter the cost.

But what if instead of trying to keep up with Drago, we used what we had available and began to think outside the box?  What if we used the lessons of our Methodist heritage to inform the way we do ministry now?  What if we actually began to offer a unique approach to youth ministry that other local churches in our area can’t?

That was (and still is) the power of the Methodist movement.

For Fun…Turn your speakers up and get pumped! - Rocky IV Training Montage

In the start of the Methodist movement you would have found yourself in the midst of an industrial revolution which brought with it culture shifts and issues of crisis. People were moving away from family units and farming communities to the industrial and urban areas. This broke up, what to that point in time, was the center point of spiritual and church life. The young people led the way with this movement, not the elder states people or the institution of the church. These young folks had the foresight to see a need for mentoring guidance in their movement, which led to John Wesley being given the leadership authority of the movement. Though John Wesley was a younger clergy person he was one considered to be quite the dynamo of a spiritual leader to set up this transformational movement.

So What Can This Teach Us Today?

In today’s youth we should be okay with saying that what we are doing is not working. Many times it does and we have a core of youth who are dedicated to the church, the youth community as well as their spiritual life. But are we really tending to the soul? Or are we doing some activity based version of the traditional education system that trades a recess for pizza and the pledge of allegiance for the UMYF benediction? There is something deeper that we are missing than the power point and catchy ‘talks’ in our youth ministry. My thoughts center around the care for the soul.

In the earliest of the Methodist movement you were not invited to be a part of a bible study or mission trip. You were invited to become part of a class meeting.

What is a class meeting?

A class meeting in the Wesleyan sense was a gathering of 7-12 people who would get together once a week for a check in on their spiritual lives. The question you regularly answered in a class meeting, which I am sure many have heard before, “How is it with your soul?” The answering of that question by the individuals would give a sense of belonging, accountability, testimony and transformation for the individual as well as the group. Only after a six month period within the class meeting were people accepted into membership of the movement and then given more responsibility. It was considered at that point where the leaders of the class meeting could attest to the persons transformation. As well the new person to the movement could speak to their own spiritual transformation and personal change.

If you were a person within the Methodist movement at this time you would be inviting someone to your class meeting, not your worship or bible study. This relational meeting is where the Methodist movement saw the importance of transformation happening, not in the spoken sermon or the institution program. But that face to face meeting where the only agenda item was to ask how are you doing.

So Why Don’t We Do This Now?

‘This sounds great Gavin, why are we not doing this?’ That is a great question, for some reason we have disposed of many of the great things of our early movement DNA. The class meeting, from a language/semantics angle is not a very appealing ‘naming’ of a gathering of people. Honestly, if you invite someone to a class meeting and give them a traditional Wesleyan class meeting they are libel to feel cheated that there was not some in depth study course work. Class meeting, as a name, does not work for us in our American sense. The adoption of Covenant Meeting (and Covenant Disciple) has been used to shift the language and give rise to the class meeting form. The Covenant Disciple group meeting is not a pure class meeting in set up but is our closest modern comparison. However, that still, somehow does not seem to have caught on. The ‘small group’ phenomenon in youth ministry has come around, but there again we make these program teaching times more times than not.

Another thought on why we do not do class meetings is that we are in a culture where every action needs to have some tangible result. The class meeting at its core does not have a lesson plan or study guide. Coming together to talk about how the spirit is working in our lives is great for the teenagers that experience that, but stinks for the youth worker who has parents asking what you are teaching their child this week. Believe me, I know this first hand practicing what I preach here.

Another thought on why we do not do class meetings is that we have had a few generations that had values of keeping their ‘baggage’ to themselves. Our teenagers are open books, they will tell you anything and everything. They want help in navigating their troubles and triumphs. However, their parent generations do not share these sentiments as something of value. You keep to yourself. You certainly do not share with others outside the family.

So, Can This Work Today?

Absolutely!! And it is not very hard. And it is very hard.

You can absolutely do this. I have helped lead this change and seen some awesome transformation and some serious struggles. In my largest youth community I have led we shifted our traditional UMYF setting to a youth led small group (with adult leaders supporting) and the youth went through a traditional set up that centered on asking “How is it with your soul?” The results were great and terrible. They were great because the youth were loving it and taking on all types of ownership and leadership beyond the youth ministry. It was terrible because we had many youth who grew up in, and were comfortable with, a culture that did not ask much of them except to show up. We also had a number of leaders who had to ‘un-build’ all their training of years of youth leadership to NOT try and teach and take over, but to listen and relate. New youth started to come as they were ‘invited’ not to our church per-see, but to that particular youth’s class meeting. A movement was happening.

It is very hard because you have some serious culture shifting that, most likely, needs to take place. We have a premium on program within youth ministry today. Parents shop their churches not for what transforms their child but what cool things they can be involved in. Pastors need to know that something is happening in the life of the church and it is easiest to say that ‘we are teaching this or that’ than to say, youth 1 and 2 are struggling with self-image and eating disorders and cannot come to terms with a Christ that we say loves them. Not to mention youth 3 does not even believe in God right now, even though they were confirmed last month. It is messy, and we do not like cultures of messy. You might say, but this is how ministry should be, absolutely I agree, but agreeing with me and not tending to changing the culture will get you fired. Promise.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

You can find all kinds of resources out there that can help you navigate some of this ‘recapturing’ of the Methodist movement. I suggest the works of Kevin Watson, who has a great article primer here,  as well some excellent books on Blueprint of Discipleship and Reclaiming the Wesleyan Tradition. You can also read his article on Wesleyan Class meeting for the 21st Century. Tune into Steve Manskar at the GBOD as he is the go to person on Covenant Discipleship these days. Subscribe to his email newsletter to get his latest thoughts and historic background on transforming disciples in the Methodist Movement.

If you want to talk to me more about this exploration and re-imagining of our youth ministries feel free to contact me at gavin (at) youthworkercircuit (dot) com or through my wesleyan based resource and curriculum site http://youthworkercircuit.com

**the image for this article is an internet meme that someone created during General Conference a few weeks back. I am a sucker for making fun of ourselves. as well i am a fan of others who feel a reclaiming of our past movement practices will help us to navigate and transform our future.

Well for about two weeks now I have become the acting Children’s Ministry Director at the Church where I am doing Interim Youth Ministry. They are doing some budget reallocations for staffing.  First off let me admit I know next to nothing about Children’s Ministry.  Or I should say, I have a lot of opinions about Children’s Ministry, most of which I imagine are badly out of alignment with reality.

Are you a Children’s Minister who recently was asked to “expand” your job to also be the Youth Minister in the midst of church staff budget cuts?  Are you a Youth Director that recently took on the Children’s Department in your job description?  Are any of you in charge of BOTH Children and Youth and now have been asked to take on an additional ministry area?

So, I always had this opinion that the difference between Children’s Ministry and Youth Ministry was more or less rules and structure.  Obviously developmental age differences also, but I mean philosophically different otherwise.  Children’s Ministers were much more professional than a Youth Minister like me.  They had charts and databases and lot of volunteers.  There were clear rules that all must follow.  These rules had no grey area.  Youth Ministers like me tried to break rules or eliminate them to give Youth room for “creativity” and “growth” and frankly to justify me wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap to work.  Parents generally liked Children’s Ministers and Parents were generally worried about Youth Ministers because of things like the marshmallow slip and slide and the mystery trip (which I think was invented by an early Youthworker who just could not plan a trip with any details).

OK, so my opinions about most of this have been way off.  Many Youth Ministers are highly organized.  Some Children’s Ministers actually “wing-it” each week to teach Sunday school.  (At least try to “creatively imagine” this for the sake of the article please.)

When I started in Youth Ministry, there were a ton of well-trained folks doing full time Youth Ministry.  Many Youthworkers were still volunteers, but we had these Seminary trained clergy doing Youthwork, planning camps, leading group mission trips, etc.  We had “go to” people who were experts at the Conference Office and at area churches.

Now, three decades later, we have put event managers in place at the Conference level and these good folks have little training or local church experience to help in adolescent faith formation.  Similar things have happened on the Conference level around the country with Children’s Ministry.  Camps suffer.  Events suffer.  The “go to” expert has gone bye bye.  So we search the internet for the best “help” we can latch onto.

This has now trickled done to the local church.  We just need somebody to keep the calendar organized, the programs running, the trips planned, and the parents happy and out of the Senior Pastor’s office.  We need budgets maintained and we need Safe Sanctuaries implemented.  And now because of growing debt and shrinking staff budgets, we need one person to cover Children and Youth.  Or maybe go back to getting volunteers to do it all the way ministry happens in most churches.

Don’t get me wrong, most of these things are important to vital ministry with Children and Youth.  But it seems like an era has come to an end.  Who resources the volunteer?  Who supports the overworked Children/Youth/Young Adult/Family Life/Outrach Director who also needs to develop the Power Point for this week’s comtemporary service because only this uniquely qualified staffer has that skill set?

What happened to the well-trained Christian Educator who knows about developmental needs of toddlers through high school seniors?  What about Faith Formation as opposed to event preparation?

I recently took my confirmands to an all conference rally designed just for them.  I must say it was well-planned and very FUN!  Some groups were led there by their Children’s Minister, some by their Youth Minister and we stood and waited together while our kids ate pizza, played in the gym, watch a video of a comedian, played some more on blow up outdoor game items, did some crafts and then sang some CCM songs they didn’t know and then listened to our Bishop ask them if they had ever been to Israel like he had as he gave a semi-motivational speech.  Now, nothing about this is completely wrong.  But I did have a common conversation with several Children’s and Youth Ministers: what faith formation is happening here?  What is the “hidden” curriculum in these large events?  Are we teaching something about what it means to follow Jesus that we DO NOT INTEND TO TEACH?

Is there something bigger going on?  In all of this push to have better and bigger metrics (because we have a perceived need to measure our success and failure) have we lost something that is actually Vital?  Have we ended Youth Ministry? Children’s Ministry?  Faith formation?  Have we slowly but surely stopped Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World?  All to reshape budgets to pay for more bricks and mortar so we can have better metrics on our dashboards so that we can…….

All the research says we are headed in the absolute wrong direction.  ALL of the research.  Youth’s theology is underdeveloped at best, it started in Children’s Ministry but is a direct result of the fact that their parent’s faith is equally underdeveloped.  The Bible teaches that when you are headed in the wrong direction, REPENT, and then head in the right direction.

So, do you find yourself doing both Children’s and Youth Ministry?  What do things look like in your context?  How does that feed into what is happening in the BIG Picture across the realm of all/most churches?

Am I wrong to worry?  Am I off track?  Has Satan confused me?  Or maybe Wall Street and Madison Avenue?  Too-Meta you say?  Is it?  I think I will REPENT now and head in a different direction.  Who is with me?  Let’s have a conversation.  We are better, together!

Peace and Grace,

Charles W. Harrison
charles@mcyouth.org
www.charleswharrison.com

ME: We would like for us to recognize our seniors in service as graduating youth.

PASTOR: That’s great, how would you like to do that?

ME: We would want to recognize our two youth in our second service and give them a gift that we set aside budget money for to get.

PASTOR: I love it. What do we do about the three other youth in the church that are also graduating?

ME: There are others?

You know the issue. We come to that end of the year and our eldest youth are hitting that life milestone graduating from high school. Parents are happy, we as their youth leaders are sad (sometimes happy). There is this natural want to recognize this milestone in the lives of the youth and the youth community. BUT, there are also those youth who are also graduating high school AND are members of the church BUT not active with the youth ministry. Sometimes they are so inactive you do not even know who they are.

Yet, they are important.

So how do we recognize our graduating seniors and keep everything from being awkward?

The best way to lead these celebrations is to separate recognition moments.

1. Have the church celebrate all the youth from the community that it claims within its rolls. At some point they were affirmed into membership of the church, even if they were not an active member of the youth community. Let the pastors and lay leadership make that a responsibility of their celebration. Send out invitations to all the youth on the rolls and let them choose to participate in the church’s celebration.

2. Have a separate opportunity for the youth group community to celebrate those who are active in the group. This needs to be ample time of personal reflection and emotional good byes (even if it isn’t a complete good bye, there is an emotional break from the thread that united the youth together). Let that be in an environment and time that gives the youth comfort. Begin this as a tradition for the youth group with a ritual of blessing by the group. Those who are active in the group and invested in the group will know that this milestone is coming up and will be there.

What to give?

Then comes the eternal burning question of what do you give to these graduating seniors?

For the senior celebration that the church is responsible for go with something that has some practical element to it and is less personal. Some of my gifts over the years have been items that can go into their room (dorm room or other room) or could fit into a college lifestyle.

• Salvador Cross
• Waterproof Bible
• Water Bottle with a Church logo or saying
• Travel Coffee Mug with personalization
• Favorite Book with some well wishing write up in the cover
• Gift card/s for restaurant

For the senior celebration that the youth group is responsible for go with something that has the personal touch that the youth can participate in or be represented in.

• Photobook with pictures from their years of youth participation
• Group photo with youth members signed matte
• If you did a personality or strengths profile over their time, a creative frame with their traits
• A specific gift that fits each youth’s personality & passions
• Signed cards
• Notes of Affirmation in a jar type container
• Poem or Song written for the seniors
• A mix tape (cd) put together by the youth with songs from their years of ministry

What other great ideas have you used for celebrating your Senior Class?

General Conference 2012 has ended and is in the history books…what happens next should be interesting.  Yoshiro Nakajima, a youth worker from the California/Nevada Conference, was there as a delegate and shares the Young People’s Personal Point of Privilege he helped draft.  This address was  read by Stephanie Gottschalk, clergy (31).  She couldn’t quite get to the end of it.

As a young person and a first-time delegate to General Conference, and I want say…

I love you…

I came to general conference in order to hear others voices, share my own and to be in Holy Conferencing. While here, I have been captivated by the beautiful visions that I have seen at the 2012 General Conference. We’ve dreamed dreams of a church that addresses the changing needs of our world. We have talked of a time when our church empowers the voices of the the young and marginal.

We all yearn for meaningful change and I genuinely came full of hope, to be in holy conferencing with you, so that we could together, with God, discern what meaningful change is.

I am happy to say that through the many conversations that I have had with other young people, I have discovered this to be true.  I have made many friends with people who look like me and don’t look like me, from around the world.  I have experienced powerful worship services and have had even more powerful holy moments.  I have also had deep conversations with people that I have agreed to disagree with.

[quiet voice]

And yet, for me, General Conference has, in many ways, opened my eyes up to a different reality.

[regular voice]

The pain of coming to the table with a heart open to listening and finding closed-door meetings, manipulation of the process, and systematic ageism. I feel betrayed by what I have witnessed. The lack of integrity in a system in which important and SACRED work is done. Fear and mistrust have led to actions which, in turn, breed more fear and mistrust.
I have heard of specific and repeated behaviors dismissing, intimidating and disempowering many, but especially young people.
In one committee, when a young adult asked questions, the respondents always turned to an older adult to give their answer. Others have been told they cannot understand legislation because it is too complex. After being kept away from the conversation surrounding restructure, young people were asked to endorse legislation compromises that they were not invited to help draft.

However, I am most upset that we could be forever be known as the General Conference, which on Wednesday, adopted a restructure plan that takes away all guaranteed youth and young adult voices from it’s most central committee.

This isn’t right.  It isn’t right, it isn’t just and it isn’t holy…

I love you.  I love Jesus, and I love the United Methodist Church.  I am not saying these truths because I’m disenfranchised or giving up.  I’m saying these things because I care and becuase I’m not leaving.

To all of you who have listened, comforted and supported us when we have been hurt…  Thank you.

[quiet voice]

…But to change this system… we need more.

[regular voice]

We need you to be our champions: We need you to stand up for the underrepresented of our church family when you see things happening that aren’t right. We need you to trust us with the gospel that you shared with us; calling out unjust behaviors when you witness them and to consider your own assumptions about the young people you encounter. By doing this work together we can start living into being the holy body of Christ.

Bishop, can you please pray for this body, for those who have been harmed, and especially for those of us who have hurt others here.

 

Questions:

What is your reaction to General Conference 2012?

If you were you there, what did you think?

What are your hopes and dreams for the future of young people in the UMC?

About the Contributor: Yoshiro Nakajima

Yoshiro will stand by his youth even if it means he’s standing alone (w/Jesus).  He recently represented the good looking-young-asian-male caucus at General Conference 2012.  Yoshiro hopes that his work empowers youth and also helps create space within the church for their future.

Yoshiro Nakajima, a youth worker from the Cal/Nevada Conference, was one of a handful of professional youth workers to attend General Conference 2012.  (By the way, where are the youth workers at General Conference?  Our guess is that you are busy planning you summer mission trips and busy doing the stuff of youth ministry when your Annual Conference selects GC delegates…)  Each night after worship ended, young people (and those who love young people) would meet as an informal, unofficial caucus to discuss the church and the future for young people.  In Yoshi’s words, here are a few lessons learned:

The young people who attended our meeting last night were asked (by Yoshi),

“What would you like to tell yourself of the future (30 years)?”

Here are their answers…

• Remember being young.
• Remember that All Means All!
• Stop going to GC and let someone else take your place.
• 10 o’clock dance parties everyday.
• If you’re stressed out, you’re doing something wrong.
• Don’t be afraid to feel, you have a conscience for a reason.
• There is a youth here smarter than you. Find them!
• Don’t forget to meet Christ in the poor.
• Speak the truth IN THE MOMENT. Don’t let fear silence you.
• Don’t let those darn kids destroy any of your sacred cows!
• Remember to take long walks with family and friends
• Resist the urge to conform to the status quo and reject the errors of it’s way.
• Avoid using complex rhetoric to make recommendations for change in the church.
• Don’t be afraid to speak the truth. God is on your side.
• I will be active in identifying, reaching out to, and supporting young people. At local, conference, extension and general level.
• Remember the core passions you have for this church, no matter how differently they are expressed now.

What advice to yourself in 30 Years would you give regarding General Conference?

About the Contributor: Yoshiro Nakajima

Yoshiro will stand by his youth even if it means he’s standing alone (w/Jesus).  He recently represented the good looking-young-asian-male caucus at General Conference 2012.  Yoshiro hopes that his work empowers youth and also helps create space within the church for their future.

Behavior:

- abuse of alcohol/illicit drugs

- difficulty coping with minor problems

- loss of enjoyment

- dread of work

- increased irritability/impatience

- losing things

- suicidal or homicidal ideation/attempts

- reduced work efficiency

- PTSD-like symptoms (post traumatic stress disorder)

Physical:

- chronic fatigue

- insomnia

- muscle tension

- panic attacks

- weakened immune system

- flare-ups in preexisting medical conditions

- weight gain or loss

- changes in appetite

Interpersonal:

- withdrawal from family and friends

- difficulty separating professional and personal life

- decreased interest in physical or emotional intimacy

- loss of trust

- loneliness

- allowing clients (pastors/parents/youth?) to abuse your professional boundaries

- ending of long-lasting relationships

- difficulty coping with minor interpersonal problems

Attitudinal:

- boredom

- guilt

- depression

- pessimism

- helplessness

- survivor guilt

- grandiosity

- sense of meaninglessness

- self-criticism

Rev. Gary Mueller
FUMC Plano, Texas
gmueller@firstmethodistplano.org

Gary shares some daily thoughts in the Notes section of his Facebook page.

YouthWorker Movement Questions to Consider:

Have you ever had a perfect day?  What would it look like?

What is a “normal” day like for you?  For your ministry?

When was the last time “God Happened” for you?

Is it easy to “let go and let God” or is it difficult?  Why?

How is God at work right now? In you? Your Family?  Your church?  Your ministry?

[You may find it helpful to spend a day on each question and write down your responses.  Write whatever comes to mind without judgement.  Then take some time to carefully pray through what you have written.  And take time to listen because God is talking to you.]

Now that my bias is clear, here’s a list of questions to get students thinking and talking about the movie:

Fun Creative Exercise:

Ask students in the group to think about themselves and decide what some of their strengths and weaknesses are.  Then tell them you want them to exaggerate those strengths and weakness and come up with their own super-hero persona.  Name, Logo, whatever they can think of but the most important part is their main 1-3 super powers and their main weakness.  Take a moment to allow them to share with the group.

Openers:

1. What was your favorite part of the movie?
2. What was the funniest line in the movie?
3. Where did you see God or Christianity reflected in the movie?

The Super-hero theme:

1. What is it about super heroes that makes people get excited?
2. What need does that point to inside us as humans?
3. What about villains?  What is it about them being so incredibly evil that makes these movies so good?

This group of super-heroes/villian:

1. Every super hero has a strength and weakness.  What are they for each of the avengers?
2. How do their strengths and weaknesses support each other?  Where do you see that happen in the movie?
3. Think about their personalities.  Do you think their personalities help each of them or hurt them?
4. How do their different personalities compliment each other?  Where do you see that happen in the movie?
5. What do you think motivated Loki to attack earth?

Avengers Scripture:

1. Read Romans 12:3-8
2. How can the difference in strengths and weaknesses in The Avengers help us understand this scripture?
3. If the body of christ were a super-hero group, what do you think Paul would say is the key to it being effective?
4. What is one thing you can do over the next week to be more supportive of/connected to the Body of Christ?

Jeremy Steele has been working in youth ministry for the past fifteen years and now serves as the Next Generation Minister  at Christ United Methodist Church in Mobile, AL.  He writes for Group Magazine, RETHINK Church and various publications and organizations.  You can find a link to all the places he contributes on his website at  JeremyWords.com.

I don’t know if you have been watching General Conference at all. I have been watching whenever possible. So addicted this is to my church nerd DNA that I have watched the live stream while giving a bath to my two year old. It is sad, I know.

So what has been happening and how does this affect me?

First: What Has Been Happening

The first week of GC generally has worship, reports and legislative committees. It is in these committees that the church body works through the details of all the resolutions that are sent in and then makes recommendations to go to the whole GC body to vote on. I can share that your committees worked tirelessly to come to these recommendation points. Not always were they successful and not always were they without pain felt by people in the church. Here is what I saw happening and an active observer on the outside:

• The General Administration committee, which received all the resolutions for church restructuring put aside the Call to Action and adopted the Plan B proposal for restructuring as their starting point. Plan B is much more of a conservative change, so to me, this seemed a logical and prudent move. They then tried working in other proposals for changing the structure as well. The sticking point seemed to be a consensus on a governing body over the agencies and in the end, there was no recommendation to GC (ie. a voting majority to send as official recommendation). So when this comes up on the floor it will be the whole body who works this out, which is sure to be a lengthy process. Unless a Call to Action or Plan B has sufficient votes to pass through on their own. We shall see.
• All of the homosexuality resolutions, including our social principles stances and a new stance affirming gay marriage were voted down in committees (as I know, there were so many resolutions dealing with sexuality it was hard to keep up with). This means our stances as a church will most likely not change in regards to sexuality. It is unfortunate for those LGBT brothers and sisters of the church who hurt because, in their hearts, the church rejects them. It is unfortunate as a youth pastor as our teenagers, more and more, have sympathetic and/or supportive stances towards the gay community and the issues they fight for. So our church is in conflict with their principles. Tough spot to be in for a youth leader in explaining that.
• Guaranteed Appointments, or the removal of them, has come as a recommendation out of the committees. What is adopted is called the Mueller plan which puts a committee of 8 people (4 lay, 2 clergy, 1 district superintendent, and presiding bishop) together who would approve the removal of ‘ineffective’ clergy from the appointment process after documentation of why they are ‘ineffective.’ The stance against this is a pastor cannot preach prophetically without some safe guards of stability for their family. I get that for sure. However, I am not sure everything in the life of ministry is supposed to have safety nets. I am not sure how this will affect the itinerant process as that seems to still be intact. We shall see how this pans out. For a youth worker, you may or may not be the lay person on this committee. Who knows. [UPDATE: Tuesday morning guaranteed appointments are no longer a part of the UMC as the legislation came to the floor as part of the consent calendar. That means they voted on a bunch of items at one time because the guaranteed appointment legislation came out of committee unanimously. Caught a lot of people off guard who expected to have some questioning or speeches for or against.]
• Young people getting a ‘whiny’ rap. You can argue with me on whether this is justified or not, but it seems to me that the young folks getting a reputation of being ‘whiny’ at conference. And that is confirmed by a few sources there. Our young adult delegates are no doubt there and making their presence known. But my sense is that frustration comes to a boil quickly and in more public spaces (ie. twitter, which has been reported on extensively how active twitter is, just check out #gc2012) for the young adults because they have been relegated to the Freshman team so many times. “You are here, we let you dress up for the games, but you are not Varsity yet. So sit and watch.” I get that frustration, but also learned to live with it on my own terms. I am also not a classifiable young adult. It does not help either that some of the young peoples causes are inclusion into the church (homosexuality inclusion) and fairness in the Call to Action, which is seen as a top down approach to doing church (they want more people at the table and grassroots revival).
• There was reconciling. There was a moment when Mark Miller, who is gay and a delegate at GC, stood up as a moment of privilege to speak about hurt experienced during holy conferencing. There was as well a powerful service of reconciliation and forgiveness for atrocities perpetrated against the Native American people of this land.

Second: How Does this Affect Me?

Right now, nothing affects you. I mentioned the church’s stance on homosexuality and our teenagers increasing support for the gay community. That really hasn’t changed in the last four years and probably won’t for the next four. The other items still have to go to the General Conference floor for amendments and voting. In the end, there could be a huge shake ups. But equally, in the end there could be the same everything as when we came into this General Conference.

If you are reading this and represent that young adult demographic. Please do not do things that contribute to the bad vibe that the young adults are getting. Just as you and I as a youth worker can get 100 praises for a programmed event, is that that one negative that hits deep in the heart, so is it with how folks are feeling the message from young adults. Can you speak to your hurt? Absolutely. Can you speak to your position? Absolutely. Refrain from taking cheap shots at Bishops and delegates. It is cool that we disagree on things, we all want what is best for the church & though we do not see eye to eye on it all, it is a good thing to not show off the plank in your eye while pointing out some splinters.

Do watch the live stream some this week. If you want, you can watch with me and others as we do a “Hangout” on google plus. I find this to be helpful in keeping up with amendments and the whole process. Send me an email (gavin (at) youthworkercircuit (dot) com) and I’ll make sure to include you in the invite lists (we tried to do a public hangout but that went bad quickly, think chat roulette).

Just From Me

My personal opinion is that if we come away without some major changes then we will risk being bankrupt as a church within the next 15 years. Clergy pensions and healthcare will drive the need for promised money, which I feel is something we need to do (think of how our social security system is working right now & in future). But declining numbers will mean less money for the overall church. Exterior programs and agencies will loose funding as apportionment dollars continue to fall. People will be out of work at the agencies, but then try to re-enter the appointment/itinerant process. Prospective young pastors might be detouring away from Elder routes because they cannot incur student loans that have little stability of getting them work as churches close or are filled by older pastors who are having to keep working because of their pension and benefits in limbo.

It really is a potential mess that can affect a lot of really wonderful people.

Great Articles for Reading:

• The First Week of General Conference 2012 by Kenneth Carter (future bishop candidate)
• Igniting Young Adults to Change the World (a introduction to Spark12)
• Dollar General Conference (by Dan Dick, pastor and former researcher for GBOD)
• Plan UMC is showing up as the new restructure compromise. Or is it?
• Sub-Committee Votes to End Guaranteed Appointments
• Young Methodist React to Call to Action
• Jeremy Smith, young clergy puts together a comparison of restructure Plans

Bang Up News Sources:

• United Methodist Reporter (with their new site design)
• GC2012 Conversations

 Just Plain Cool:

• The #gc2012 Word Cloud Project

Want to revolutionize the way you do ministry? Quit your job!

As of last April, I began having discussions with my Senior Pastor about attending seminary in the fall of 2012.  That gave me over an entire year to do my best to prepare the leadership teams in my youth ministry for the upcoming transition.  Over the past year, I’ve come to realize one unanticipated truth…I am more intentional when I know I’m leaving.

I’m embarrassed to say that setting a termination date has revolutionized the way I do ministry.  At the same time it has added new vitality to my sense of call and mission.  Don’t worry…I’m just as perplexed as you are.  Quitting your job is obviously not the answer (always).  I’ve been at my current church over five years and have been struggling with a call to further education for a while.  Now my family and I feel like it is the right time to take this next step.

Below are some things that I’ve noticed about my ministry since I set a date for the end of my employment.

My week is more focused on pastoral care.  

Partly because of my departure and partly because of talks I’ve had with trusted mentors, I’ve begun to spend more time during my week outside of my office.  I went from spending roughly 4-5 hours of face time with my students and their families to now spending anywhere from 10-12 hours a week in direct contact with youth and their families.  Not to mention, it feels good to escape from my cinder block prison (AKA my office) every once and a while.

My ministry is more focused on discipleship.

Because of my impending departure, I have been focusing more on the discipleship of the students already in my ministry.  That’s not to say that we do not outreach anymore, but rather that the goal of everything we do is to move students deeper into discipleship.  ”Well, isn’t that the point of youth ministry, Todd?”  Maybe so, but it took the reality of my departure to add urgency to my desire to see the faith “stick” with my students.

My leadership is more focused on training.

The fact is, after July 1, I will no longer be at my current church and there is a possibility that there will not be a new youth minister hired yet.  That means that our leadership team will bear the brunt of the responsibility for our youth ministry’s continued activity.  Because of this, a lot of my time has been spent training adults, empowering youth, and casting vision.  This process is not without it’s bumps but, in a weird way, it has been very motivating and empowering for our leadership teams to know that they have real stock in the ministry’s progress.

Things to consider:

What would you do differently if you learned you only had 12 months left in your current ministry?

What if it was only 6 months?  Only 6 weeks to make the most difference possible?

What is the most important way you could spend your ministry time?

I’ve become pretty accustomed to finding my opportunities to worship in unusual times & venues. It’s extremely rare in ministry that I find myself in an attitude of real worship within the confines of a sanctuary, so I’ve learned to seek communion with God through conversation with others and in quiet time alone. Usually those happen without notice so I’ve learned to remain alert and listening. Every now and then an opportunity comes along where I anticipate an opportunity for worship. Most often this involves attending a church I’ve adopted in Chattanooga on Sunday nights that we don’t have youth programming. But while my wife and I were on vacation a couple of weeks ago I thought I saw such an opportunity. A music venue near where we were staying offered a breakfast buffet. On Sundays, the price triples for “Gospel Brunch,” featuring live gospel music. The venue is well-known and brings in medium-to-large national acts; this sounded pretty legit so we went to check it out.

Bust.

We’d eaten their buffet before and knew that the food would be good. The last time we’d been the place had been nearly empty, peaceful, and private feeling. I was excited to return to that atmosphere, enjoy a breakfast with my wife, and soak in some gospel singing. Probably even encounter God. But as we were lead to our table, I knew it wasn’t going to work out like that. The place was packed, which was fine, but everyone was clapping. And if they didn’t clap, they were reminded to clap by the man with the microphone (followed by a man with a TV camera) who was singing an apparently 20-minute rendition of “This Little Light Of Mine.” He was also joking with everyone and stopping at nearly every table to make someone sing the refrain. Ugh. Forced participation. At breakfast.

We sat down and waited for our server, who never came. Eventually the man with the microphone and the man with the camera approached our table. I made eye contact and shook him off, trying to offer the possibility of walking past. He took it as a challenge. Leaning in over our table, he explained how we’d broken the rules (about clapping), which meant that someone had to sing. He stuck a microphone in my face. Again I looked him right in the eyes and simply said, “No.” He seemed to finally get it, but instead of leaving us he turned his attention to my wife, who eventually conceded and sang to make him go away.

Eventually breakfast entered the picture; we talked another server into bringing us drinks. At the buffet they took my order for an omelet, apparently for posterity. It never came. It took a very literal 10 minutes to get a second glass of orange juice. And to top it all off, the gospel singers took a half hour break while we ate. Adding it all up, we were paying $40 for poorly executed customer service coupled with a gospel presentation that was dictated on their terms, leaving no room for me to interact on my own.

Driving away, I realized that’s probably what church feels like when people come to it in need. You come through the door needing something you can’t quite define and are squeezed through definition boxes of predefined engagement. Small groups by age or marital status. Worship by what kind of music you can stand your Jesus filtered through. When we get you in a room, you will stand and sit as dictated and people will notice if you’re not singing along. The words are on the screen; what do you mean you’re unfamiliar with this song? It’s so popular right now! So good to see you today. Hug three people before you go!

I’d skip out on that check, too. I get that lots of people like church that way; companies don’t build an industry around things that they can’t sell to a lot of people. But somewhere in the middle of all of that I think we can lose the simple idea that we’re serving people and that those people have individual needs. That they might need to avoid eye contact for a few weeks. That it’s OK to not clap or sing or be forced to greet people for a season. People come to God all kinds of ways.

I’ve been wrestling for a while with whether or not our youth ministry is invitational, for many of these same reasons. How difficult is it for a new person to walk into your youth room? Are they greeted aggressively or do you let them simmer a while first? There are pros and cons to both. Is there a way to do both? Is your content deep enough for your regulars but palatable to a newcomer as well? Is that possible?

In case you’re deeply troubled by my ditching on a check, I didn’t know I was doing it. I thought my wife had paid when we came in. She knew, but presumed that when I said, “Are you ready?” I was acknowledging the misery we were both experiencing and indicating a honk-n-holler would be a more appropriate exit than paying. She was all in. After a few miles of silence down the road we started to debrief our experience (you should never have to debrief breakfast on vacation) and the truth came out.

I immediately felt better about the whole thing. It had totally been worth nothing. Does our worship inspire commitment or do people drive away relieved that at least it was free?

Peace,
K

Leading Metrics

First, there are two main classes of metrics when you study a business process. One class is fairly familiar, it measure results and benefits and is straightforward to understand and as a result is most commonly used in most situations by most folks. Dollars of revenue, profit, homeruns, steals, strikeouts, grades at the end of the semester. They are easy to see, understand and use. People know what they mean, and by and large these are called trailing indicators. In other words the measure what has already happened.

The second metric class is much harder to get a grasp on sometimes since they don’t actually measure what has happened, but can and do give a measure of the probablility that things will happen a certain way. Some things like that might be manufacturing quality, employee engagement, interest rates, price of gas, pitches per at bat, deflected passes. These are all things that, in and of themselves, do not measure results. But after careful study and analysis, it turns out many are good indicators of what results will follow. These are called leading indicators, or sometimes predictors. The best part about these type of metrics is you know when things are going wrong BEFORE the bad results happen. You can make adjustments, and change from failure to success, and from losing to winning.

Leading vs. Trailing

Ok, let’s give a simple example of how this whole leading vs. trailing works. Let’s say you run a car manufacturer like GM. You have some things you can measure. Initial Owner Satisfaction, Brand Impression, Sales, Internet Searches for specific vehicles, Price of Gas, Interest Rates. Now, this is pretty simple, but you can see that these things happen in a certain order. Let’s take a stab at which ones are leading and which ones are trailing indicators:

1. Price of Gas
2. Interest Rates
3. Internet Searches
4. Sales
5. Initial Owner Quality
6. Brand Impression

If the actual sale is the measureable result, you can see that items 1,2 and 3 all have to happen prior to the sale, so they are leading indicators. And reports on sales have to come after the actual sale, so items 4, 5 and 6 are all trailing indicators.

In this simple example, you can see if you are looking at “Brand impression” (think of the favorability scores that the UMC just received) you may not see a problem show up in the numbers until it is WAAAY too late. So be very careful when looking at numbers that are trailing indicators, it could mean you are letting a large problem build without addressing it.

MoneyBall

Examples from the world of sports: If you have watched the movie “Moneyball,” you know in pretty good detail how identifying leading indicators, creating new metrics that capture that insight, and using them effectively has completely turned baseball upside down in the past decade. In the movie, Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane successfully puts together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players.  His key insight was that avoiding outs was more important that scoring runs. If you never made an out, you could score an unlimited number of runs in baseball. You could wear out all of the other teams pitchers, and your odds of winning go up greatly.

All the prior stats that people used to keep are augmented by brand new stats that are now being made public for the first time, and there are even more stats that are being kept secret in club houses around the country and we won’t know about for years. None of these stats can be found in the baseball almanacs, and once they were conceived of they had to be created and manually maintained.

Look at basketball, and Phil Jackson during his championship runs with the Bulls and Lakers.  Jackson would have assistant coaches keep track of some pretty crazy stats during the game that other people never tracked before, stats like defensive touches on the ball, even if they did not create a turn over, times diving on the ground or into the stands. Things that “don’t show up in the stats” and hustle plays, he created metrics for.

He believed that hustle and effort, even when it didn’t result in a traditional stat like a steal or block or rebound, was an important indicator of later success. They were leading indicators and eventually they would lead to steals and blocks and rebounds as long as they kept up the hustle. And, of course, in order to determine if his team was executing and hustling the same from game to game, he had to invent stats and start collecting them manually for his team.

To capture a new insight like hustle or avoiding outs, and to make it into a new metric and drive new and significantly better results REQUIRES, in my opinion, new stats.

Vital Congregation Metrics

Certainly, paying attention to results and what already happened and is happening is valuable.  But looking outside of that, what are the new insights and new indicators? I am afraid we have missed a great chance to ask some very smart people to think about that.

I think there is a lot of great metrics that people could track, and that there are plenty of smart people, especially the ones trying to move the UMC towards a vital congregations model.

But we did not ask them or give them the freedom to bring in the cutting edge science of engagement and new metrics. We did not give them a chance to create the UMC version of moneyball. I would love to have seen what they could have come up with if they were turned loose.

I would respectfully submit that you have not yet realized the world has changed both culturally and technologically.  I concede that you seem to be using all of the new technologies available to you.  Let me compliment you on your easy navigation web-site and your Facebook fan pages and of course your deft ability on Twitter.

The source of my dissatisfaction is simply this: you don’t really “get” me or how I want to watch some of your shows.

The 2010’s being what they are, my weekly schedule is unpredictably different each week.  So, sometimes I like to watch one of your shows as an entire season on DVD.  More recently, I have enjoyed being able to watch your shows as part of the “On-Demand” line up from my cable provider.

In an attempt to watch one of your 22-minute sitcoms in its first season entirety I learned that you don’t really care about me at all yet you are very proud of yourself and what you offer.  I learned that my FF (fast forward) button has somehow been magically disabled while I watch the 22 episodes of your very funny show (and now it takes me 30+ minutes to watch the 22-minutes I want to see).  I understand now that it was simply disabled to force me to watch your commercials.  I guess it is hard to remember if the reason you provide quality shows if for the enjoyment and even edification of the viewer or simply to have a vehicle to run an advertisement to pay for the show.  I get this; you are simply not a pay-for cable channel so you need to make some greenbacks.

But here is my confusion: you didn’t advertise products, you advertised yourself.  Often you run the exact SAME ad, show after show after show.  BORING!  You also, for some reason I cannot comprehend, advertised the show I was attempting to watch “on-demand” by telling me when I could show up to watch it once a week at a certain time convenient to your schedule alone.  I think you don’t really get “on-demand” viewers.  And why disable my FF button to do this?  Is your goal to make me dislike interacting with what you offer?  It seems so.

You see, I am perfectly capable, without any assistance from you, to figure out what shows would help build me up through laughter and/or education or just for pure joy.  I can read a schedule; I don’t need you to read it for me.  After interacting with your fan pages and tweets, I have a great idea of what you offer.  I don’t really care that you once showed the Olympic games the last Quadrennial and you plan to do it again this Quadrennial as well.  And by the way, it is the athletes who should be celebrated not you who simply showed what the athletes did.

Some reading this letter might think I am being petty.  I probably am.  But you see I serve in ministry in United Methodist contexts.  I have watched my beloved Church make these exact same mistakes, ignoring cultural change, mis-understanding/underestimating technology, and I see now that we are making half as many Disciples as we used to make (assuming we actually make any at all).  I would hate to see one of my favorite program providers go the way of the UMC and simply become somewhat irrelevant to an emerging generational culture that “gets it” without any help from you.

So my request is this: let me use my FF button when I want.  Trust that I can figure out how great your programs are without any extra push from you.  Hire some people younger than me to help you understand the technology you seek to use and take time to listen to them about what they want, truly want, from being in community with you.  Don’t insult them by telling them that they really want what you need them to want.  Let them have a say.  And please, please, please do not disable their FF buttons for any reason.  They want to move forward, let them.

Thank You,

Charles W. Harrison

charles@mcyouth.org

www.charleswharrison.com

This event teams Rethink Church with the Imagine No Malaria project to make a huge impact in th world. This takes your everyday service work and gives it even more meaning as the power of the UMC connection unites our efforts around the globe to enact the words of Jesus when he said, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

What’s great about the way they are putting this together is that each site is registering their projects which can then be viewable on a map…really cool!

If that’s not great enough, they can make you look really good by having a (FREE!) small group curriculum that goes along with the event. You can get all you need from their site and register your group so that you can be part of making a differnce and changing the world on May 19–20.

Jeremy Steele has been working in youth ministry for the past fifteen years and now serves as the Next Generation Minister  at Christ United Methodist Church in Mobile, AL.  He writes for Group Magazine, RETHINK Church and various publications and organizations.  You can find a link to all the places he contributes on his website at  JeremyWords.com.

A katana and an orange? Maybe not at youth group...

Ever since the days of Gallagher, people can’t get enough of torturing innocent fruit whenever they get a chance. The iPhone is not immune to this fad, why should your youth group miss out? Let’s cut to the chase:

Supplies
* Water balloons
* Food coloring or fruit juice (see below)
* Twine
* Broomstick
* Bat or stick with a needle or nail poking out of its side at a 90 degree angle
* Plastic

Preparation
Decide how many participants you will have and how many pieces of fruit (balloons) you would like each to have. Multiply those two numbers and you get the magic number. Fill the magic number of water balloons with liquid (fruit juice or water tinted with food coloring) tie each off. Cut the magic number of 3–5 foot lengths of twine. Tie one end of twine securely to each balloon and the other in a loop that will slide easily on the broomstick.

Play
Pick your participants, and give them the bat. Have two volunteers load one of the balloons on the broomstick and begin to swing it. Begin timing when the leader says go stopping when the fruit (balloon) is slashed. Repeat however many times you prepped for and add the times together. The participant with the lowest total time wins!

In my quest to be a good United Methodist, I have been spending time here and there over the last several weeks getting up to date on all of what is up for vote and debate, but it wasn’t until this afternoon that I realized there was a great iOS app that would take care of a lot of what I was piecing together from different sources online.

Of course the app is not easily named, nor is it particularly beautiful (both a big surprise I’m sure).  It is called “The Official Mobile App of The United Methodist Church General Conference 2012″  which meant that the only way for me to find it in the app store easily was to follow a link from the UMC site.  Try typing that with your thumbs!  However, the app is pretty solid on the whole.

You are able to search for and view individual petitions, read the current news and watch a live stream.  That about covers every aspect that I was looking for, but if you are one of the lucky few to have been sleeted to spend 12+ hours a day on the ground a General Conference, it also has some features that will help you navigate the ins and outs including a schedule and a map that can link into the iOS location data to help you get where you need to be.

All in all, I’d say every United Methodist that cares to know what is happening over these next critical days needs to download the General Conference app.

Jeremy Steele has been working in youth ministry for the past fifteen years and now serves as the Next Generation Minister  at Christ United Methodist Church in Mobile, AL.  He writes for Group Magazine, RETHINK Church and various publications and organizations.  You can find a link to all the places he contributes on his website at  JeremyWords.com.

The Bureaucracy Virus

First, I think it is great that the UMC is at least making an attempt to use some modern management techniques to address what is looking more and more each passing year like an organization in decline.

Not your church, and not mine, of course. But somewhere hiding in the machinery of the modern UMC is a little tiny General Motors (GM) trying to fail. Okay, maybe it is not tiny, but it is hard to catch.

I have often called organizational bureaucracy a virus, because the definition of a virus is something that is not really living but that reproduces.

A bureaucracy tends to only create more bureaucracy, therefore virus.

The Signs.

There are lots of signs of a viral infection of this sort.

At GM, there were multiple layers of middle management, decisions made by accountants instead of people that dealt with the customer and knew the product.  They pioneered design by commitee, they focused on some metrics like bottom line, and did not focus on others that were harder to get like quality. They had a culture of entitlement and were slow to recognize and respond to competitors that did not directly compete with them for older, more affluent buyers but served younger people on a budget. The corporate culture at GM was very insulated and driven by insiders and political power, they had lifetime union employment and out of control retirees benefits and helathcare costs.

All of these were, of course, hallmarks of the way business operated in what is now a bygone era.

The Tools to Fight the Viral Infection

The process of starting a corporate turn around relies on clearly recognizing the problems, making some new distinctions and getting a better handle on what is happening realtime in your business. Great data drives great business decisions, in the absence of solid reliable data, managers must instead rely on gut, intuition, superstition, or worst political power calculations to determine what choices are made.

Often this is the first step to lead all other steps because, until the quality of data is improved, the quality of decisions cannot be improved, and until the decisions are improved and the execution is improved, the results cannot improve.

And I had a lot of hope for the Vital Congregations project to get to that goal. But then I read this:

In order for an indicator to be used they had to meet these criteria:

• DESCRIPTIVE
• DIFFERENTIATING
• QUANTIFIABLE
• AVAILABLE

And there it is, that one last word. Apparently the decision was made early on that the criteria for what we can use for the dashboard has to be something we already know.

Maybe I am over sensitive to this and I hope I am wrong, but without some new distinctions into your problems, and some new metrics that capture this new insight you have gained, you cannot make different decisions. If your baseline is “it has to be data we already have for the decisions we currently make,” I don’t think you can expect different decisions, actions or results.

And that makes me sad.