Consulting Part 2A

There is no shortage of griping about how Christianity has wallowed around in the unscrupulous practices of secular business models and marketing strategies.

EXAMPLE:

I was so excited to take my wife to the National Youth Workers Convention for the first time this past fall. We had a great time but… upon entering the main hall to the convention center she could not stop talking about how abhorrent she found the shameless marketing going on. It really ruined a large part of the experience for her.

So today I was thinking a bit more about all this stuff. It seems to me we have developed a symbiotic relationship btwn. marketing and ministry. Think about the Purpose Driven Life for a bit. How is it that that book could saturate the planet (virtually)? Of course many would say that it was a resource directed by God. I am not interested in disputing the effectiveness of the material. I am however drawing the conclusion that this type of saturation simply would not have been possible without the complex marketing strategies available within the Christian publishing enterprises. Of course you could say that that simple dynamic is also a work of God. Let also not forget that it is also a work for profit. And that profit is not small no matter how altruistic the end result of those profits are.

Long and short of it – The purpose driven life does not become the ‘success’ that it is unless it can take advantage of some pretty powerful marketing schemes. Of course, for a skeptic like me it is not hard to follow that statement with questions about the authenticity of the spiritual power of this resource.

And here is the kicker the marketing system is built bigger and more complex with each successful run of a ‘product’. So that it is not long before these systematized marketing schemes can ‘own’ the Christian community. And for youth workers who are already under considerable performance anxiety the temptation to gobble up the latest proven material is irresistible.

You know for the longest time the buzz word was small groups (still is in places). I remember showing up at a ministerial and hearing people talk about their small group ministry and how awesome it was. I thought shoot I must be missing something. But then I realized my youth group was a small group all on its own. And do you know what so was all these other guys too (well most of them). Now I’m not saying small groups are bad. In fact I strongly advocate them but their fad status stripped some of the legitimacy of the strategy for me and proved to me that hopping on the latest ‘strategy’ train is over rated.

That’s why I think we need to walk away from these mass marketed strategies and ‘contextualize’ our ministry models to fit the culture, needs and realities we live in.

Thanks to YSMARKO for posting these pics

new youth worker apparel

youth workers are checking out some new duds for this year:
theology seems to be the vestment of choice for a growing number of youth workers and according to some of the presenting/feature seminar leaders at this years NYWC in Anaheim there is an impressive new hunger for that discipline.
For years the gurus have stared down the barrels of their seminar guns and fired warning shots against allowing youth ministry to degenerate into 'fun and games'. Tony Jones figures that more and more youth workers are interested in theology than ever before and they are ready to open their minds to let in competing points of view.
Jones who led a late night theology forum at NYWC said: "In the six or seven years I've been at this, I can say that I've seen the conversation about youth ministry change qualitatively. Youth workers are more serious, more theological, more educated"
Jones also commented that the seminar was more civil than it had been in the past.
I will suggest to you that theology is far too important a discipline to ever loose the reins on. Youth ministry has a cronic propensity to mindlessly importing formulaic methodology.
I also say that the fact that any theology discussion at a youth workers convention that is more civilized may show just as easily that theology has reach the pinnacle of its life cycle in youth ministry. It takes a high level of ambivalence, in my experience, for youth ministers to be able to interact with any amount of civility toward each other. (I mean did anyone bother to notice the repeated flatulence on the escalators - that is hardly civil). I am saying this tongue in cheek somewhat. But if you get the impression that I think that for most youth workers theology is mostly a trend - you've got me nailed.
I appreciate what Tony Jones, Dan Kimball, Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, and Donald Miller have done to reawaken the theological pursuit in youth ministry but it is hardly time to let our guard down. Okay, so maybe mr. Jones was just trying to inject some optimism - in an otherwise bleary news day but...

What we did on Monday...

We (Garry, Char, and I) skipped the last 1/2 day of the convention. We took in a tour of the Crystal Cathedral. Wow!
The decadence is astounding! Not many could say that these people have given less than their best to God – at least when it comes to their building anyway. The Christmas set that was erected costs a million dollars to make. It was all really overwhelming
In light of Shane Claiborne’s message it all felt sickeningly gluttonous. Ironically, if Shane could he’d:
“visit the Crystal Cathedral with St. Francis... and then hitchhike to the beach to turn some somersaults and hear him preach to the seagulls.”
I digress…
Then we went to Huntington Beach and spent 1 1/2 hours in the ocean (the first time since I was 10)
We packed up and headed to the airport and ‘enjoyed’ the bumpy ride home…
Much to process…

Ted Haggard...

As most of you have heard Ted Haggard has finally confessed to sexual misconduct in realtionship with a male prostitute. I read the USA Today story. I was mostly unaware of who this man was but obviously he held some significant influence in the Evangelical world. He endorsed a candidate who was against homosexual marriage in the election held today.

Tony Campolo said something interesting about the Ted Haggard issue: "We are all better than our worst mistakes."

At the same time, the National Youth Workers Convetion was picketed by three ardent men who advised that NYWC led to hell. MarkO encouraged everyone to be non combative and to buy the guys some Starbucks. I think that most of the fuel for this demonstration came from places like this (which, ironically were the same sites that were used to suggest that I should not attend this conference.)

NOTE: When I first tried to make some connections with these protestors I was thought I made some connections between organizations but now i can't seem to fidn the links on the web to help me make those same connections. Maybe they weren't there in the first place or maybe they have been removed.

shane claiborne

Just got out of the Shane Claiborne general session. I wept like I haven’t for long time not out of conviction so much as a deep personal sense of urgency to get on with following Christ into the deep places of faith.
This guy interned with Mother Theresa got a degree under Duffy and Tony at Eastern
Amazing
I really was not able to appreciate Vicky Beeching. I know many people were. She was the worship leader for this session and quite frankly I just felt like it was more of the spiritual musical gluttony that makes me barf. I left and ordered CD’s.
I sat in on Tony’s seminar. It was good. “How to become a red letter Christian”. He said that even though he considered himself an evangelical he was starting to label himself as a RLC. I really wanted to ask him the question that Gil and I have batted around for a while: isn’t taking on a new label just a form of escapism? I mean I have often wished that I could stop calling myself an evangelical because of the ramifications that this word brings in the public consciousness. Yet I wonder if there is something wrong disavowing something that is so ingrained in the identity of who I am or was…
Any thoughts…

Yesterday

was an interesting day…
Physically, I was bagged most of the day.
In the morning session Matthew Barnett from the Dream Center came and shared his testimony in the general session. Very powerful. Very Assemblies of God. Very Good! His message: give up our preoccupation with success and commit ourselves to make everyone else’s dream become reality. It is inspiring to hear someone who was willing to dive into significant risk.
Char and I talked about this later in the day. Throughout this conference I have gotten the distinct impression that God is calling me into a place of way more risk. This is directly related to my deep craving to exercise more faith.
I went to MarkO’s Super seminar. I was challenged. He mentioned the idea of being Level 5 leaders in the vain of Jim Collins book Good to Great. Collins suggests that if you are not a level 5 leader you cannot become one. MarkO suggested that with Christ’s help we could grow into Level 5 leaders. My suggestion would be that: no honest Christian leader ever suggests that they have ever achieved L5 leadership.
L5 leadership’s most prominent feature is that the leader has professional will and personal humility. Collins uses the mirror/window illustration. An L5 leader looks in the mirror to affix blame and responsibility. The L5 leader looks out the window to others to give credit for success.
I would have really like to push back at MarkO a bit more on the co-dependent martyr complex that often youth workers live in. And what about the need to be honest in the face of the glaring stupidity that can often dominate the function of the church…
More on this whole thing in another post.
I had to duck out early on his seminar – another bone chip decided to work its way out of my mouth. After some medicine I was fine…
Char and I spent some time talking together before supper.
I would love to live in a climate like this again. The vegetation has brought out a longing to live in this tropical kind of place again…
Char has reacted violently against the prolific marketing that is evidenced in the exhibits. It does seem gluttonous.
Mike Pilavachi spoke in the evening session. I have heard him before and honestly I was expecting that this presentation might be a bit weak. Not the case. Mike used the woman at the well to describe how we need to engage people in their own context. How Jesus loves and affirms the sinner. Cares for the one.
Everyone of the speakers have worked the theme ‘Reveal’ very well.
Shawn Groves was great. Check him out. His song Jesus was so good.
I cannot say enough positive about the music that YS has supplied for the conference. Thank you YS for choosing not to bring in the bullshit artists who just want to paint the fairytale versions of this thing we call faith.
I think I am getting a cold.
Oh yeah and I expect that my stupid human trick of putting a towel in my mouth might get up onto the big screen. I am such a sucker for that sort of junk. Thanks to Garry and Darren and Char for getting me into that…

day one

Day 1 of Convention
Main session was huge for me
Not sure that I have cried so spontaneously before.
Regulars here will know how much of a sceptic I am when it comes to these big production things so…
David Crowder: seriously here is dude who knows something about enjoying music. The way he engages the audience and interacts on stage communicates that he is not taking himself too seriously. At the same time what the band pulls of musically is splendid. At times his lyrics seem shallow and I catch myself doing the over-analytical thing with the theology Geiger-counter approach but I trust him – that’s huge.
Kenda Creasy Dean: although probably not the most flamboyant presenter, was awesome. She talked about welcoming youth into the sideways theological discovery that needs to happen in community. Made me remember why I feel such a strong conviction to advocating engagement of youth in the actual theological and doctrinal direction of the church.
Session 2: Effrem Smith – what can you say about black preachers – fun and intense! Great reminder of the need to be so full of God that he oozes out of us.
Can I tell you about Kendall Payne? Seriously, check out her music. She did a fab job in the opening session…

Dangerous Opportunity

Dangerous Wonder
Critical concerns course with Rich VanPelt and Jim Hancock
Some thoughts:
First of all the presentation is very thorough and like they said they have anticipated many of the questions that the material involves. The presentation seems a little too slick though. The way the two ot hem play off each other seems too scripted and precise. It’s clear to me that Jim and Rich are not disingenuous but I am thinking that in a context where their ministry experience and reputation was not assumed or well known they might come off as such. I also understand their intention with the presentation being as seamless as it is – the material will be covered (less time wasted on rabbit trails).
That said I have appreciated the material and the presentation a lot; especially in light of the recent Risk and Threat Assessment seminar I attended.
There were a few areas that I would have liked to push back on:
-with regard to referrals: they very strongly emphasized the need for youth pastors/workers to refer to outside sources. Now this is actually something I think that I do quite a bit of already. And for the most part I agree with the principals that they are teaching. But this is the statement that bothers me. Youth workers are not counsellors they are disciple-makers. Now I realize that we have many volunteer youth workers and other non professional youth workers and for these people referrals make sense as many situations of interpersonal interaction with kids are going to be out of their depths. But the statement seems to make disciple-making sort of an exclusionary function to counselling. Almost as if counselling is beneath disciple-making. And for me I guess this seems like a false dichotomy. How can we expect to be effective in disciple-making if we are not willing to deal with the baggage that kids bring to the table? We communicate a subtle but powerful message that Christian discipleship is about solved problems and issues when our response to kids baggage is to send them away to get fixed. Now Rich and Jim were clear that we were to stay involved in the kid’s lives but… …If we (youth workers) are the ones being approached with the complexities of counselling situations why is the is it that the best we can offer kids is a professional stranger. I guess I am wondering why there are not stricter demands (especially on paid youth workers) to have counselling qualifications in ministry positions. When we train our volunteers, we should make counselling strategies and objectives a part of the package. I think we only heighten the stigma of counselling by making it the kid of thing that only experts can do. Not only that I think we do communicate to kids that we have more important things to do than to deal with their problems.
That said I have and do refer a lot. I think it is crucial to give kids the best resources to deal with the problems that I can – and there are wonderful people who can deal with these things with greater expertise and experience. I wish there might be more collaborative work between various areas of counselling services. My aim is to find ways to ‘sit in’ on counselling sessions with experts.
I also think that this is an area where a severe disconnect has occurred between secular and ‘religious’ counselling. Because so much of religious counselling has been conducted out of ignorance and lack of training, I think many secular organizations (school counsellors, etc.) are suspicious of collaborating with pastors in counselling situations. With good reason they should be reticent of working with people who are going to be largely ill trained and inexperienced.
With regard to setting up a safe community:
One of the statements that came out was that we need to get rid of all sexual, gender, and racist joking. I agree. Here’s a place where I wish I could push back a bit. First of all they said that in order to create be the type of person who people will approach with problems you need to develop a sense of humour. Last spring I ran a wildly successful overnight trip to SABC with my senior high guys. I made a conscious effort to use the language and idioms that I hear from the boys informally in my teaching on male sexuality. The session proved to be quite funny actually. Now I didn’t make any sexual jokes directly but used all the terms and references that are often made in the joking context. What has been weird is that out of that talk alone I have had so much interaction with guys about male sexual issues.
My point is that we may actually benefit from dealing with some of these issues in a humorous way. Humour has a way of speaking truth and intention that ‘serous’ cannot. I am never interested in derogatory ridicule but I think there is a place to allow the power of humour to unlock the door for honesty, transparency and, actually, safety.
With regard to reaction:
At the R&T Assessment training, we told that you should and can never under-react to crisis. Jim and Rich thought that there might a place where an overreaction might be more damaging. That is an area that could warrant some further discussion/investigation. I realize that in the context of the R&T Assessment Training it does not seems reasonable to under react when the schools population is at stake.

A few other notes about the convention so far…
Hooked up with Darren and Judy and saw their offspring. There is a lot of personal pride I feel when I see Darren in ministry for 5 years now.
More tomorrow

we are here...

The trip was an extended process of unfettered fretting. First, was the freak out session at customs when Char’s Bible was too thick! Then we waited at Calgary terminal for 1 ½ hours to get boarded. This was mostly due to Jeff Gullacher’s rocket trip into Calgary. From Coalhurst to Calgary in 1.5
Hours!
But then at LAX we get on to this shuttle bus to get to our car rental company. Holy Hannibal Lechter I soiled myself. It’s hard to put into words but it nothing short of miraculous that we made the 4 mile trip in one piece.
But we ended up in this sweet Anaheim home. And there is banana tree growing over the back yard fence. Julie the woman of the house is a high school math teacher in a mostly immigrant public school here in Anaheim. I am going to try to get hooked up to make it into her classroom if I can.
Right now I am sitting in the lobby of the Hilton hotel across from the convention center. There is no doubt we are in USA – if you have any questions just check out the nearest gas station. American flags everywhere.
Had a Carls Jr. Burger for brunch I am off to register and get ready for my critical concerns course. Hopefully I run into Marv to thank him for getting me a discount on the registration fees….
10:52am November 2nd

Survey says...

Since I am also using the National Youth Workers Convention as a part of the requirements for my course work at Briercrest, I am required to do a little 'extra' work. One of the things that I need to do is conduct a survey. So I am throwing it out there to ya. Is there anything about youth ministry/youth pastors you would like to know. Here are soem of the questions I have worked on:
What five fashion trends are typical of youth workers?
How would you catagorize your physical fitness?
How does body 'shape' affect youth ministry?
And...
One day when all the politically correctionistas have stripped youth ministry of all it fun (wedgies, chubby bunny, and boxer runs to name a few), what methods will you use to release all of your pent up frustration and aggression?
any more?