#nywc : you've come a long way baby!

Greetings friends!

Two years ago, I was at the NYWC in Atlanta. Atlanta is still one of my favorite places to do the convention, because it's where my first one was, and truthfully I think Atlanta is an extremely cool city.

However, two years ago, I wrote this post.

YS was not in a good place. They had done what was referred to this weekend as one of the most awkward moment in youth ministry history as they paraded a bunch of dudes to promise us that all would be well. It didn't work. None of us thought all would be well. In fact, as I remember it, several of my friends and I thought that 2009 would be our last convention.

Some pretty significant things happened in the months and years that followed. Tic Long came back to run YS, a move that was heralded in by a video featuring me and Ed standing on the roof of our church (always trying to out-ridiculous each other). We went to the convention last year in Nashville, and had an absolutely marvelous time. Things felt right again. Not that change is a bad thing, it's frequently good. And YS did in fact change a bunch about the convention that year. There was just a calm over the place that was missing in the 2009 convention.

Fast forward to Sunday. Once again we're in Atlanta, and once again we're in a time of transition. Tic Long is moving on to become an executive pastor at the church that every youth pastor on earth now wants to work at (seriously, can you imagine Tic as your boss?). Instead of awkward squirms and cautious glances back and forth, this transition was met with standing ovations and (if I'm honest) a couple of tears of joy. We celebrated the great man that is Tic Long, but I think we also celebrated that YS is on track and headed in a great place.

For better or for worse, YS is a big influence on so many of us youth pastors. For me at least, it's a place of refuge and rest, a place that not only gives me books to help my ministry, but gives me resources to help my soul as well. It's my safety net in ministry, and in 2009 it looked like it had a lot of holes in it.

I am just so very excited for what is happening with YS now. Mark Matlock, Kara Powell, Doug Fields, Adam McLane (who I think is obligated to read my blog every time I mention YS, so how's it going buddy!) and the rest of the crew look like their passionate about the vision of YS, passionate about resourcing us, passionate about ministering to us so that we can minister to our students. I will miss the heck out of Tic, but things are headed in a beautiful direction.

All that said, I still plan on praying for those guys, and I hope you'll join me. I can't imagine that all that they do is easy on them, so I offer my prayers every day for them and their families.

What do you think? Were you at the convention? How do you feel about YS these days?

More to come this week!

Godspeed,

J

YS has me thinking...

Hello again friends.
Youth Specialties has been all over the youth ministry blogs this week with their announcement to bring back Tic Long in a leadership position, and speaking from my youth leader's position, it has brought me a tremendous amount of gladness and joy to see this company making some strides out of a difficult period. But all of it has got me thinking about two bigger points that I thought I'd share with you guys this morning:

1. There's no one like them.
In the time during and shortly after the NYWC in Atlanta this year, it seemed like a lot of us were really worried. We were blogging, pacing around our hotel rooms, and some of us were even ripping what little remained of our hair out. It seemed for a while that the current YS staff was just running around from blog to blog controlling the rumors what we were spreading ourselves, kind of like a really whacked out PR firm. It was scary times.

But I was thinking about this while I was driving yesterday, and I realized the reason that we were all scared was because of how much YS means to us. I tried to think through another industry or career path that had an organization as essential to its survival as YS is to youth ministry. If you're in youth ministry, check your book shelf, I can almost guarantee that there are three or four books on there published by YS. Not to mention the conventions, the blogs, the podcasts, the newsletters, and the job bank, YS is exactly who we go to when we don't know who to go to. Like I said, I thought about it a bunch, and can't think of another profession that has such a relationship with a company in the same way we have with YS.

This is (as we may have realized a bit too well in recent months) a blessing and a curse. I think the big reason we were all nervous over the sale and everything was that we depend on YS so very very much. And let's be honest, even with the confusion, they've never let us down (or at least not me). So I think we owe it to YS to make sure we bless them as much as they're blessing us. (Genesis 12:2) I know Adam and a couple of YS guys have been checking in here a bit lately, so if you all have any suggestions as to how we can best serve you, I'd love to have you share them.

You don't know what you have until it's gone, and I think we all felt the branch creak a little bit. Thank goodness for the YS staff's attention to God's calling, and their willingness to serve!

2. Tic Long is my hero.
That often times sounds sarcastic, or exaggerated or something, but I'm serious. I think Tic's return has just timed out well with a bunch of other things in recent weeks, but I'm just so encouraged to see (no offense Tic) a grey-beard youth leader who still loves what he does and does it so well. There is some sort of myth out there that when you reach a certain age you will no longer be relevant or helpful in a youth ministry setting any more, and I think Tic laughs in the face of such a myth. I've been thinking for a long time about becoming a youth ministry "career man", and barring any changes of plan from God's end, I think that might be what I'm called to for a long long time.

Plus, how much adversity did Tic go through in these recent months with his head held INCREDIBLY high? If I were in his situation, I doubt severely that I would have been able to handle it with as much grace and tact as Tic did. The same could absolutely be said for Marko. I can't imagine what they're learning through all of this, or how difficult it's been, but these guys are walking through God's trials and tribulations with excellence and dedication to God's work. Again, I can only hope that when trials or tribulations come my way, I can handle it the way these guys did.

So those are just some of my thoughts on this week in YS. Anyone else care to share?

Godspeed,

Jason