Scene from conVERGE 2011

Last year I was invited to speak on student leadership at conVERGE 2011 at Huntington University.  I was blown away by the conference’s tech-savvy highly-interactive format and its Christ-centered worship (having Tim Timmons as your worship leader certainly helps). When I came back I blogged that conVERGE broke the mold for regional conferences. Students who attended came away even more impressed.

This year, the good folks at conVERGE 2012 invited me back again to talk about global issues and to speak Sunday on our identity and character.  I’m completely pumped to be a part of this.  The lineup of speakers and musicians (digital or live) include Doug Fields, DJ Rhino, Josh Griffin, Derry Prenkert (student ministries pastor, Nappanee Missionary Church), Tim Timmons, Gabe Lyons (author of unChristian), Bob Morton (former Notre Dame football player), David Livermore, Jeff Eckart (Claim Your Campus), Carrie Badertscher (urban youth worker), and Seth Bartlette (of RemedyLive.com). Plus a ton more contributors via art, video, and photography.

Whew! That’s a lineup.

Add in the high-tech digital hall, the amazing facilities of Gull Lake, and that an abundance of iPads for students to use will facilitate a constant dialogue throughout the conference and a heavy responsibility on presenters to not just drone on.  In fact, I think the days of the 30+ minute lecture/sermon are coming to an end soon. Hopefully.  Especially in youth ministry.  Even more so in middle school ministry.  More on that another time.

If you missed conVERGE 2012, keep your ear to the ground for this conference next year in middle Michigan.  If you are a student or youth worker at conVERGE 2012 and you’re reading this, be sure to post a comment about how the conference is going for you. Maybe even post a photo (if the comment box lets you). 

Let’s chalk this up to sentimentality th, but I’ll need to explain.  In the early days of college, I thought my future was going to be in radio or music. I coordinated a comedy show that feature some folks currently making their living in radio. One of the more curious elements was that, in 1984, we had a running character called “Bob, the Talking Sponge.” I kid you not.  And he was square.  But I digress.

So, radio folks like novelty songs  (see the Top Ten of all time) and song parodies.  In fact, if done well they’re slam dunk bits and you can get lots of mileage out of them.

Well, this week while touring around YouTube, I found a video of comedian Marty Berk doing a karaoke bit to Rick Dees’ old classic, I Wanna’ Be Elvis. Rick Dees was (maybe still is?) a famous radio personality who also had some Top 40 hits like “Disco Duck” and “We Are the Weird” )(a parody of We Are the World.  Anyway, because we used a lot of Rick Dees’ material and because I like this song, please enjoy (“for you fun Friday”!) this gem as Marty entertains a group of people who probably saw Elvis in person.

So, this weekend I will participate in conVERGE 2012 as a ‘live presenter.’  This high-tech, high-touch savvy conference at Gull Lake Center in Michigan is one of my favorites and I look forward to it every year.

Anyway, I could use your help.  I’m finishing my track on Around the World and, if you had the chance to teach American high school student leaders about global issues, what would you emphasize?  What one point regarding global issues would you want to communicate?  Or, what one point might I not be aware of, but should include.

And, if those students had access to the Internet (each group of four will have access to an iPad in my session) while you were teaching, what exercise would you have them do as an application of your teaching point?

I am ready to go for this presentation, but woke up today curious to see if I could, well, ‘put the icing’ on it with some thoughts from others too.  I’ll even ‘cite’ you in the presentation if I use it.

I look forward to your creative input!  Thanks in advance for your help.

BBC News       Time.com/world       Globalpost.com

Miracle Camp is one of my favorite camps in the US and whenever Jason and Emily Coon ask me to come speak, I work it out so that I can say, “Yes.” Miracle Camp has incredible and versatile facilities just south of Kalamazoo, Michigan.  But better than the facilities, the staff are seasoned professionals who care about camping …. and do it well. I’m also excited to see Michelle Mason, one of our Bethel College youth ministry graduates, working on her post-grad internship there.

So, this weekend I am at ICE CAMP, but with the warm winter, I think I’ll have to bring the ice with me.  We’ll still have a great weekend and there’s tons to do even without the snow.  And, really, who’s complaining that we haven’t had to shovel snow this year but two times? I’ll miss my usual travel buddy, my son Sean, who is recovering from oral surgery and looking cute with his ice packs next to each cheek.  He loves going with me to Miracle Camp and is bummed to be missing it this weekend.

I’m pumped for Ice Camp and I’ve been praying that it will be a significant weekend for all of us as we take some time away and seek to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ.  I’m looking forward to hearing the band Attaboy and I’m working some new object lessons and at least one Prezi presentation too.  The problem with me using Prezi is that I’m not a particularly gifted visual person.

Ice Camp a lot of fun, a great time for youth groups to draw closer together, and a significant weekend for many students who seek to grow in their faith. If you’re looking for a winter retreat event, and live within 4 hours of Kalamazoo, I recommend checking out Ice Camps at Miracle Camp.

I found this live performance for those of you fellow 70s fans. Enjoy!

When I look over the ‘field’ of youth ministry, I sometimes grow concerned that we can become a vocation focused on running programs, teaching/speaking lessons, or even a personal exercise in leadership and personal status versus one based on Christlike service. As I read through Scripture on ministry like a ‘shepherd’ (I Peter 5:1-11) and the missional and service focus of the New Testament church, I wonder what our responsibility is to the youth in our community, our region, our country, and around the world.

I think part of that responsibility is to grow in our awareness of some of the underlying problems facing global youth, trends that may change all of the ‘rules’ for how to organize youth ministry someday.  For the past two years I worked with David Livermore and other global youth ministry leaders to produce two books that will assist youth ministry leaders in fostering their own global awareness as well as that of their youth.When we started the projects, Russ Cline (then of YouthWorld and now Leader Mundial) told us of his struggles to get American youth workers to attend a seminar on global youth ministry at the National Youth Workers Convention.  His concerns echo those of other global youth workers who had found that working to get American youth workers to care about global issues a tough hill to climb. I remember attending a NYWC session on international youth ministry led by Lucas Leys at an NYWC a year or so later and only about 7 other youthworkers showed up.

Despite the poor showings and the apparent lack of interest, I think their work (and others, like Roger Glidewell and Randy Smith and Aaron Arnold) is paying off.  And times are changing.

Whether due to short-term missions, the Internet, or the hard work of global youth leaders, more youth ministry leaders seem to be aware of what’s happening in the world, and the world of youth.  When Global Youth Ministry and What Can We Do? came out, the initial response was tremendously enthusiastic.

And yet there still seems to be a high level of disinterest in the plight facing youth and youth workers around the world.  Perhaps it’s just the insulating nature of American culture (or our continent) which keeps us from wanting to know more.  Or maybe we just have so much to do just to keep our own work afloat that we don’t have time to expand our understanding.

I hope not.  The rules will be changing. The world is flattening. The world of youth is at our doorsteps.  And I have learned so much about youth ministry from the long-time veterans and the pioneering innovators who minister in other countries in more dire contexts and continue to offer hope and love rooted in Christ’s gospel.

Who in the world cares about youth?  I hope we all do.

He said that we develop confidence in our life from (at least) three sources:

1. Our capacity.  The gifts, talents, and abilities with which we’re endowed and have developed give us confidence as we exercise them. Think about this a bit:  We get courage to do something because it’s within our abilities or our gifting.
2. Our experience.  We are confident and courageous based on what we’ve done before.  For instance, we know how to respond and what our car can do while driving because we’ve driven before.  We know how to tell a joke and make it funny through experience, though I’m still working to learn this it seems.
3. God.  God as the source of our courage is the theme of Joshua, but it’s also the challenge of the message.  For those of us who are Christ-followers, what IS our confidence in God?  Many of us have talked about Christian Smith’s discovery that many Christians live as functional Deists.  Well, what about that for our own lives?  Do we believe God supplies courage? Do we pray like God really answers prayer? Do we expect God to intervene, guide, heal, prompt, or even correct us in our lives? (read Acts for examples of these)

Dave made the statement that courage can be borrowed or loaned from others.  I’ve thought about this for quite a while since then. He noted that we can draw courage from others (i.e. see the local pre-game pep talk or epic battle scene on the movie screen) as we face uncertain circumstances.  But, and this is where we need to reflect, he said “relationship is essential in the courage economy.”  (see verses 11 and 16)

So, naturally I began to reflect on the implications for youth workers and leaders.  How are we instilling confidence in those we lead?  In what ways do they grow in their courage because of our relationships?

So, I’d love to discuss this a bit.  Who has given you courage before?  What was the context?  And, perhaps more rhetorically, what is your confidence in God rooted in?

Be courageous this week.