Competency
Commitment
Character

These are the three C's. They are 3 very important words. They are important in a marriage, a family, a business and especially in youth ministry. Think about it, everyone who works with students probably went through some sort of "evaluation" or "job interview" or something. As formal or informal as it may have been we all go through something. And I am willing to bet that one, two or all of the three C's (though maybe not mentioned by name) came up in the conversation.

I am down with the three C's. However, I am very much zealous about the order of priority we give to them.

In my experience of being interviewed for youth jobs (been through many of them in the last 12 years) to now doing more of the interviewing I have found out something that is giving me pause. The normal order of the 3 C's seems to be (though I doubt we intend this to happen):

#1 Competency
#2 Commitment
#3 Character

As I reflect on my many job interviews I can not recall more than one (yes...only one job interview) in which many character questions were asked. However, every single one of the jobs focused on competency as a primary point. Which communicates to me that competency is more important to that church and to God than character. Again, I do not think we mean to do this and I am also guilty (is this a confessional blog? If so, you are not allowed to share my confession of sin with anyone!).

For example, many of the questions where, "What and how do you teach? How did you grow the youth group? What was your strategy? How do you train and recruit leaders? What is your vision? " etc....

Commitment was not far behind. "How long are you planning to stay? We want a commitment of 3-4 years. We want you to take the kids here...or there..." etc....

Notice what the questions where not. "How is your relationship with God? What do you do to strengthen it? What can we do to help? Here is what we think can help you....does that sound good? Do you have a spiritual director or mentor? Do you have someone outside the church who is a safe person to vent to and talk through things? How do you handle gossip and divisiveness? If you have a problem with a coworker how do you handle it? Here are some resources and training items we have to help you...would you be willing to read these?" And that is just all off the top of my head.

The 3 C's re prioritised.

I think they should go like this:

#1 Character
#2 Competency
#3 Commitment

I would rather have someone who is ok on competency and great on character than someone who has average character and great competency. And I would venture to guess that any of you who have been bit in the butt by a coworkers or an adult leaders poor character would say "AMEN!" Not only that, as I look at my own life it is my lack of character from time to time that has most hurt others as opposed to some of the many bone headed decisions I have made in youth ministry.

Finally, a big fat thank you to Ryan Hofacre for putting words to much of this stuff that has been bouncing around in my brain for many years.

Labels: Leadership, Training

I miss them. I think the Lord is spooling them back up again.

We had two really good ones last year that we turned into articles. One with Mark Yaconelli (youth author and speaker) and another with Mark Oestreicher (President of Youth Specialties). For the Fall/Winter I am hoping to do a bunch with such notables as:



Walt Mueller with cypa.org
Dr Chap Clark
Mark Oestreicher (focusing on his upcoming book "Youth Ministry 3.0")
etc...

So stay tuned.

I hope to make them into podcasts as well.

Labels: Book Review, Leadership, Miscellaneous, nuts and bolts, Parenting, Training, Youth Culture, Youth Specialties

Hey gang!

We will have most of our yamia team present at the youth specialties conference in Nashville (Nov 21-24th...check out www.youthspecialties.com for more info) this November. We will also have a special room and meeting time to connect. We would absolutely LOVE to meet you. Please stop by and say hey.

Our hope is that we can meet a few of our fellow youth workers in the Anglican World and hear what God is doing.

Postcards should be coming to you shortly if you are registered on our site:)

Labels: Training, Youth Specialties

This is a phrase I have stolen from Gahndi.

My prayer is that EVERY youth minister in AMiA owns this phrase. We become what we are calling our students to be...

Let me burst the bubble here really quickly...We all struggle with the tendency to call our teens to things that we ourselves, if we are honest, are not modeling. We must close this gap with God's help. Whether they tell you or not, teens see right through it. Authenticity, which is the arm to reach teens in the Lord, demands it. You must practice what you preach. You must not walk to preach if your preaching is not in the walking. You must....be the change.

Be the Change->translation->be formed into the image of the Trinity...character formation...Christ likeness...

This relates in many, many ways to teens and youth ministry. Here are a few...

1) Your youth ministry is usually a reflection of your overall church ethos.
2) Are you at home in your youth ministry? Teens connect to a youth group because they feel at home more than if they like the games etc...
3) There is not a teen problem, there is a human problem. Be transformed. You can only take teens as deep as God is taking you.

Labels: Formation, Training

One of the blogs I read is that of MarkO, President of Youth Specialties and friend of yamia. Here is a cut and paste from his latest blog (www.ysmarko.com):

soul searching, a documentary. Starring: Christian Smith Director: Michael Eaton, Timothy Eaton.

christian smith is the director of the national study of youth and religion. he spent a dozen years as a sociology professor at unc chapel hill, and is now at notre dame. chris is widely regarded as one of the leading sociologists in the US (particularly in the area chris co-authored, with Melinda Lundquist Denton, the important, research-based book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers.

the documentary is an excellent overview of the book (which is handy, since the book is really long!), and, as movies tend to do, adds faces and real life stories. the stories of real kids are so fantastic (and not all predictable and neat). i found myself teary in more than one spot, as the teens and youth workers in the film share with an amazing level of honesty.

smith and lundquist denton have added a phrase into the lexicon of youth ministry: moralistic therapeutic deism, the term they use to describe the faith system most widely adopted by teenagers in america, including those who are active in youth ministries. this is an unarticulated faith system that includes the notion that the goal of life is to be happy, that religion is about being good (and that good things happen to good people - kind of a karmic religion of sorts), and that god is distant, but willing to problem-solve for us when we have therapeutic or other needs. these ideas are unpacked in a way that’s really helpful in the film (but, of course, not with the depth the book covers).

one thing that really stood out to me was a minor bit in the film. they found, across various faiths (particularly conservative evangelicalism, mormonism, and judaism — religious streams with more clearly defined boundaries and behavioral codes), that students who attend church on a weekly basis, as opposed to something like twice a month, are strongly predictable to be less involved in various at-risk behaviors. in one sense, this isn’t surprising, but i found the difference between regular-but-not-weekly attenders and weekly attenders to be interesting.

i highly recommend this movie for all youth workers and parents. it would be a fantastic film to show for a youth ministry volunteer training session, or a parent meeting.

I wholeheartedly agree with Marko's assesment and I recommend this resource for all pastors, youth workers and youth leaders in AMiA.

Labels: Training

I wanted to blog about something that is not yet out in the open...but it will be soon enough.

I am leading a team of folks (some from our group here at yamia and some from Youth Specialties) to do yearly training for youth leaders in East Africa. That is, for Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo, Burundi and the Sudan.

More info will be coming, like dates and those who will be teaching etc...

As I sit here and type this I am stunned. I feel like I am actually having a surreal experience. I wanted to be the guy who was the best. I wanted to be famous. I wanted to be noticed, loved, approved...by others. Then the one who loves me the most. ..He...he began a deep, no, really deep and painful/joyous work. He began to rip that out of me. He began to transform me.

I am sitting here typing this years from the beginning of this work begun by the one who loves me. And it is surreal. Why? Because instead of a sense of accomplishment or pride I feel...thankful...and a lot of other stuff I suppose. Things I cannot verbalize. You know how that goes. I am thankful to have the opportunity to help and to serve and to know a God who loves me so much that He changes me for the better.

I love you Lord.

Labels: Africa, Training, Youth Specialties