Statement by Moe Girkins, President and CEO of Hostile Takeovers at Zondervan,

Regarding Activities in Youth Specialties:
On Monday, we released(canned) from the company the President of (what you used to call) Youth Specialties (YS), Mark Oestreicher. For many years, Marko was a courageous leader(pain in mangagement's butt) for this organization(formerly known as Youth Specialties) and we appreciate his years of service(It took us this long to muster the guts to let him go). Youth Specialties has been going through a transition(nuetering) since Zondervan(evil Christian publishing empire) purchased it several years ago, and at this time we feel we need to make a change(ruin everything).
Over the past year, we evaluated(from Michigan) many of the programs YS has been providing and set a course to enhance them one by one(make them safe and boring so we can sell more new crappier books). We focused much of our effort reinventing(gutting) our fall conventions to be more relevant(by firing Tic and Marko), inspirational(we will continue to play it safe) and impactful(if you still want to come after this). The feedback we received after our first re-engineered event was phenomenal(we need to remind you that we know whats best for all of you).
Now, to keep that momentum going(the momentum of firing beloved inspirational prophetic voices) we are looking at strategic partners for the events business(we don't like conferences, we just want to sell new crappier matierials and you will still gobble them up becuase it says YS on it!). One option we are seriously considering is to shift the events side of the YS brand to a non-profit organization(sell our soul). We have been in conversations with several of these non-profit organizations and are in final discussions with one organization(Another vanilla company who doesn't want to offend anyone). At this moment, no agreement has been signed(we needed the money from Mark's salary to push the deal over the top). This deal may or may not materialize in the next few days or weeks(we just wanted to tell you about it to keep your attention on something other than the canning of your friend! It worked right?).
Regardless of the final direction determined for the YS events business(we are still firing Marko so cry us a river), Zondervan will continue to publish YS books(our master plan, to sell you crap with the YS brand on it so you will buy it anyway) and will remain committed to the mission set out by YS many decades ago(the mission of treating people like crap for a buck and picking fights with the customers while ruining everything Mike Yac and Marko built) our plan is for Youth Specialties to be relevant(not a chance), impactful(in a terrible way) and extraordinary(ly terrible decisions) for many years to come. Please be patient as the process proceeds(towards total destruction) and pray for God's guidance(on who to fire next) through this transition(hostile take over).

About Youth Specialties
Youth Specialties used to be awesome, it was started by a couple of hippy youth workers who loved students above all other things. The heritage of this company was to help youth workers from every denomination and Christian circle to reach students for Jesus. Youth Specialties took a big hit a couple of years back when our fearless leader Mike Yaconelli died in an automobile accident. Marko took over as the chief shortly there after and did a hell of a job bringing the resources people needed to do youth ministries to them. Our organization serves thousands of youth workers every year through one of the best conferences known to youth workers. A few years back, an evil "Christian company" named Zondervan bought up our brand and has since gutted us from top to bottom. Somewhere Mike Yaconelli is rolling in his grave over all this.
visit www.youthspecialties.com.

Zondervan, a HarperCollins company, is evil and has decided to stick it to the youth ministry community by buying up one of its most beloved companies and gut it for the sake of making money, we hope you understand.

A conversation about Emergents, Escatology, and Relationship

A conversation I had with a friend the other day through Text and Email, wondering what everyone else thinks:

The Conversation continued to Email:

On Oct 9, 2009, at 10:26 AM, Mark's Friend wrote:

Been doing a little - and i stress little - emergent study this morning. i came across this i thought you'd find humorous:

...emerging Christians confess their faith like mainliners—they say things publicly they don't really believe. They drink like Southern Baptists—they are teetotalers when it is judicious. They talk like Catholics—they cuss and use naughty words. They evangelize and theologize like the Reformed—they rarely evangelize, yet theologize all the time. They worship like charismatics—with their whole bodies, some parts tattooed. They vote like Episcopalians—they eat, drink, and sleep on their left side. And, they deny the truth—meaning they've got a latte-soaked copy of Derrida in their smoke- and beer-stained backpacks.

----- Original Message -----

From: "Mark Allen"

Sent: Friday, October 9, 2009 10:45:39 AM GMT

Subject: Re: emergent

Its way off but funny.

Mark

On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 11:10 AM, Mark's Friend wrote:

yeah i think it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek.

i find the idea that that which is not absolutely knowable as a waste of time somewhat ironic when contemplating God. i'm finding too that idea of absolutely (a euphemism for consciously) knowable does seem to be a big part of the thought

From: "Mark Allen"

Sent: Friday, October 9, 2009 3:32 PM GMT

Subject: Re: emergent

Not sure if I used the right words, not that its a waste of time but that its not worth arguement. Emergents don't mind looking at an issue from evrery angle and never deciding on what to go with. I don't subscribe to any particular escathological stance, I can articulate all of them, weight them in conversation, explain the pros and cons, talk about what verses support each one and at the end of the day, I don't care which it is. I care about the fact that Jesus is coming back, the details are unimportant, definitely not worth jeopardizing a relationship over. If someone wants to convince me that their particular idea is right, thats fine but I can see the forest through the trees. A simple example is Calvinism vs. Armenianism as it pertains to sharing your faith. An oversimplification for the sake of conversation is that a Calvinist has no real reason to share his faith because God elects and draws the saved to himself and an Armenian has neutered God by saying he is not totally in control, by giving us to much credit in the spread of the gospel. I see the issues with both, understand the scripture they are built on, etc. I chose to share my faith like an Armenian, as though it depends on me and to rest in the fact that I am the elect as though I were a Calvinist. Why wouldn't i do that? Why do I have to chose one or the other, they are both flawed in my mind or they both work together in some magical way that I will not understand on this earth. So its not the idea that we can know something absolutely but that we can see the folly in backing in to a corner theologically and holding our ground to the determent of the kingdom of God. Theology is not as important as A)the gospel, B)relationships and C)a unified evangelical kingdom of God. At least that's what I am thinking.

Mark

My life represented on one index card.

Actually, might be all youth pastors. Reposted from the site Indexed, check my blog roll for a link, very clever website.

Why Relationships are where its at.

Jesus is the reason I do everything and this weekend reminded me of that like never before.

Last week, we transformed our church basement into the basement to end all basements for our second annual battle of the bands. We wired such loud sound that we had to hand out ear plugs, 4 different colors of lights(12 fixtures in all) controlled by a lighting board for effect and, last but not least,two rear projection 7.5'x10' screens for video. It was the most pimped out church basement show that I have ever seen, we really went over the top. It took two days to set up and substantial financial investment to make it happen. We set up 5 bands to play and had around 80 high school students in our facility for that night. Overall, it was a great night, a night that spoke loudly to students that we might not be what they think we are. I produced 4 2-minute videos hopefully just to open up a conversation, we gave away the message's version of the book of John.

We left the church on Friday well after 1am, weary. We had spent three months promoting, organizing, planning, praying, laboring. We had spent three days taking apart, wiring, setting up and praying. The event had come, the students came out, was it a success? The answer to that question depends on your definition of success. We set out to do one thing, to create and begin to build relationships with students from the high school located directly across the street. Our vision is to leverage our facilities, people, time and resources to reach the students of Pascack Valley High School. So, were we successful? Over 50 students at the B.O.B were first time to our church this year and from PVHS. We loved the students like they didn't expect, we served them like they didn't deserve, and we spoke a message to them all night that they mean alot to us. I'd say we accomplished what we set out to do.

On the way out, three kids stopped me and thanked me for sharing those messages. One said that he was impressed that I had the nerve to share that stuff. His exact words were "That took some major balls, man". I encouraged him to take it to heart and I took his words as a complement. One other student said he was so excited for his friends to hear that message, he admitted being a closet church goer. I encouraged him to be bold. Another student told me that he was rethinking what Church was about after being here and listening to the messages. I encouraged him to stop in after he read the book of John in the message just to chat sometime.

No one got saved, no one recommitted thier lives to Christ. No real measurable hard factual things were accomplished but we were successful. The gospel was presented through the videos, our church gained an elevated standing in the eyes of teenagers in our area, I know 10 students by name I didn't know last week and I was able to connect with three students in a meaningful way. This might seem like slow progress and it is but it is what we set out to do. We want to have meaningful impact over a long period of time and this is the beginning. From the first slice of pizza we handed out on our porch a couple of months ago to the three students chatting with me before they left on Friday, we are building relationships.

After serving in different capacities of ministry for 10 years, earing my degree in youth ministry and leading two different churches as a full time youth worker I have come to this conclusion. Your programs are only as useful as the relationships you create as a result of them. I am committed to being a stable presence in the lives of the students God has given me, to leveraging everything at my disposal (time, talents, volunteers, budget, facilities, programs, etc.) to creating meaingful relationship among students, volunteers, parents and staff. I would assert that the only way we ever change is through relationships. Think of all the times you have had significant change in your life. You can probably point to a person and a relationship that made it happen. After all, God wants to change us through relationship, Jesus modeled relational ministry to us, and we have all seen the power of relationship in our lives. Programs never saved anyone, never sustained change in anyone, never made the difference. It was the relationships within those programs that stuck, that changed, that made the difference. Is it a slow method of ministry? Yes. Can it be frustrating, even seem fruitless at times? Yes. It takes patience and consistency to make it happen. Take my own journey as an example: My life was changed by Jesus, Marty, Mark-Ramona and James, William and Bruce, Randy and Debby, Josh, Tina, Chris, Hannah, Eric, Mike, Len, Ron, Dan, Stan, Troy and Jon, Luke and Chet, and the list goes on. I wonder how many people list me? This is what youth ministry is all about.

Jesus
I pray that we will become those significant relationships for the students who attend this church and for the students across the street at PVHS. I pray they would all find life in their relationship with you and with us. Amen.

An Unboring Life

I started following this site after seeing it on ysmarko.com, its from a site called indexed. It's linked in my blogroll if your interested. . I thought this was particularly cool. Hope your having a great day.

God getting through? or A break in the clouds of my ADD.

Our Pastor said something that blew my mind the other day in his closing prayer which is shocking, not because he doesn't often say things that should blow my mind but because I usually don't hear it. To give some context, I should tell you a little bit about the way I process information. It is not often that I really pay attention in church. There, I said it. While I am a very auditory learner, Sunday mornings I have a lot of things on my mind, it's always racing; got to give that to that person, need to connect with them, have to remember to tell him that thing, where is Mark and Dan and what are they doing, who picked this song, what would a non-christian think about that video? My mind is non stop on Sunday and to be truthful, it's not always important stuff, I am also very ADD when it comes to sitting still on a church bench with no cushioning and forcing myself to follow a sermon. I have always understood why students have a hard time in church, I often have a hard time. I go out of obedience, to connect with awesome people, and for the music. I think I became a youth pastor because I would much rather be the active one, teaching, than the passive one, listening. Now, I do podcast certain preachers and get a ton out of their sermons on my own terms. I can put it on while I am doing something, in a comfy chair, surf the web, enjoy a cup of coffee, pause it if I need to, rewind it when my mind wanders. Its just better for learning. So when my pastor said something that blew my mind the other day, I am sure he often says things that would blow my mind if my mind were wrapped around what was going on, its only shocking because I was listening. What I find funny is that when I do catch something that I can't let go of, I am convinced that it was God who punched through the distractions and made something stick. I don't have a great word for this other than "haunted", I often tell my wife that I am being haunted by a song that I just can't let go of, or a phrase in a book I read that seems to be seeping into everything or a conversation that seems to be applicable to my entire life as soon as it ends. I was smacked in the face and have been haunted by this phrase since Sunday.

"The world can ignore millions of Christians but it can't ignore a handful of disciples." - Pastor Fred

He just rolled it off the cuff during a prayer at the end of service. I don't know if he read it somewhere or it just came together out of the preparation for his sermon on discipleship or what. I haven't been able to wrap my mind around why this is sticking. In Sunday school with the Jr. High students, one of our elders, a talented teacher, was posed with the question from a Jr. High student, how many Christians are there in this world? I pumped out a stale answer in my mind, one billion. There are one billion people in this world that associate their religious preferences with Christ in some way. He did what the best thing a Jr. High teacher can do, he answered the question with a question, How many of them do you think are really Christians?

I think I can't let go of this because I wonder if, as a ministry, are we am pumping out students who associate their religious preferences with Christ or are we producing disciples? I pray that our ministry would produce fruit bearing, Jesus loving, multiplying, Christ sharing, world serving, neighbor loving, grounded in the word disciples. Disciples that the world will not be able to ignore.

Christian music that's not stupid: Brandon Heath

I went to a Third Day show yesterday and was really excited to see Brandon Heath. He is all over "Christian" radio and is an up and coming singer/ songwriter. My intern, Matt, came up with the idea last month of doing a series in our Jr High program called give me your eyes. We play the video every week during our transition into the lesson, we have been talking about how to see the world as God does. I think this is what motivates Brandon, he was all about expressing his desire to serve those in need. He also shared a story about a song he wrote called "Red Sky" about his family taking in a homeless woman one night for Thanksgiving dinner and becoming friends with her during the process. Brandon stated "she was more hungry for respect and friendship than food" and that he was surprised to find homeless people in his neighborhood of suburban Nashville. The song is based on the old sailors phrase "Red sky at night, sailor's delight, red sky in the morn, sailor forewarn." Here are the lyrics:

"There's a man on my street
He reminds me everyday
Better take what you can get
Cause there's nothing more than this
Daylight fades into the ground,
Oh Lord I need You now

Cover me
With the red sky tonight
The promise of a better day to come
Sing over me
An angelic symphony
Tell me everything will be alright
With the red sky tonight

We're so taking with our fear
Now we're folded up in shame
With our feet nailed to the floor
We're the only ones to blame
I can't help but wonder why
Nobody bats an eye
You can see it in the faces
Of all the passers by

I'll sail into the sun
And when the day is done
I need you in the night
To wake me in the dawn
I see you in the sun
When the day is done

It's the red sky
It's the red sky
Tonight

Even though Brandon has been al lover Christian Radio which I am always distrustful of, Brandon seems really genuine and I think his music is both well written and worthwhile. Check him out. Here are a couple of his videos.