Youth Specialties Blog
The end of the landline?
By YS on September 18 2008 | 6 Comments
The study concluded what parents have known for years -- teens like to gab and text, and the cooler the phone, the better. According to the study, mobile devices are the No.1 status item among teens, followed by jewelry/watch and shoes/sneakers. Teens currently represent a $100 billion market, making them some of the most prized subscribers on the planet. Other findings: • 79% of all teens have a mobile device. • About 15% own a smart phone. • Almost half say they would “die” without their mobile phones • 90% text message; about half said they could text blindfolded. (Without texting, “a significant portion of teens say their social life would be ruined,” the study noted.)Are you seeing this same trend? Share your theory as to why you think its happening.
By YS on September 18 2008 | 6 Comments
New Stuff in a New Venue: Sanctuary
By YS on September 17 2008 | 0 Comments
It’s all about you and God and exploring different ways to connect the two. We know that what you do is beautiful. You are important to God’s world. You spend your time loving, listening to and trying to point young people to God. And you are important to God even if you don’t do a thing, even if you just sit there. In fact, ‘just sitting there’ might be exactly what you need to do to remember your importance to your Creator. You are God’s beloved one. Here’s something you can experience in the Sanctuary at the NYWC that might become a helpful way to stop and remember in your busy schedules back home. The Divine Hours also known as Fixed Hour Prayer has been around a really, really long time. We’re talking Old Testament times. These are daily, set times when believers stop what they are doing in order to “bend a knee” to God in the midst of their daily routine. In fact, I’m going to stop right now (at this coffee house) and say my mid-day prayers… …its 5 minutes later, and no I didn’t rush through it. What I’ve done is just participate in one of the oldest disciplines in Judeo Christianity that ties me into both the church universal (people are stopping to pray some of these exact prayers all over the world right now) and the church historic. I carry a little book around called Hour by Hour taken from the Book of Common Prayer (Episcopal). There is a Catholic resource that I’ve also used and loved. I’m a book person, but there are also online versions of the same thing. During the National Youth Workers Convention a group will gather in the Sanctuary three times a day for Lauds (Prayer at Dawn), Midday, and Compline (Prayer at the end of the day). The services are short and significant. A little scripture, a little silence, and some spoken prayers. Just enough to pull us away from all the surrounding distractions and those inside of our heads and center us on the larger reality of God. If you’re like me, I find these interruptions of stopping what I’m doing and getting to a prayer service, or opening my little prayer book in the midst of some project very difficult. And yet, I am always grateful after my gears have shifted and I am reminded of my deeper love. In fact, I would even venture to say that the days I stop to “bend a knee” are more productive than the days I march through with my to-do list ever in front of me. I invite you to come explore these glorious interruptions and see if they don’t help you find more of God in the midst of your day.By YS on September 17 2008 | 0 Comments
What’s right in youth ministry?
By YS on September 16 2008 | 23 Comments
With all the deconstruction going on around youth ministry blogs, we wondered what was going right? What's going great in your student ministry? What trends do you see that are effective? Where have you seen a major breakthrough?
Share your opinion! Highlight what you think is going right. Either leave us a comment here, send us a trackback to this post, or email your thoughts to adam@youthspecialties.com.
1-2-3... GO!
By YS on September 16 2008 | 23 Comments
Walk Their Walk
By YS on September 13 2008 | 18 Comments
This morning several YS staff and their families will be participating in Walk Their Walk. This 12 mile fundraising walk symbolizes the distance many children in rural Zambia travel each day to attend school.
In 2007, Team YS helped Walk Their Walk raise $27,000 which was used to build a small school including furniture, teaching housing, soccer equipment, and a playground. This year funds will be used to build two fresh water wells in the community.
It's not too late to help Team YS raise money for this project. Visit our team page and make a donation.
By YS on September 13 2008 | 18 Comments
Seven September’s Ago
By YS on September 12 2008 | 2 Comments
It was a gorgeous morning in the north east. The children were back at school and summer was fading into the realm of memories. The business day was beginning and everything seemed so normal. It was a new day.
High overhead, however, there were three places where normal was already gone, where the world as we knew it had already been upended. The rest of us would not apprehend the change for some time yet, but soon all would seem surreal, then excruciating, then numb as the unimaginable reality settled with the dust, debris and ashes.
Is this a joke, a fiction of dark imagination? Will there soon be a disclaimer scrolling across the screen? Was this really possible? Who? Why? Unspeakable grief crept over the watchers as the repeating scenes seared into the national consciousness. It seemed like everyone longed for a connection as phone lines jammed and the internet buzzed and dusty souls wandered dazed through open church doors looking for something to answer the emptiness. What is ’safe’ really? Does it even exist? Fear fed anger, the ranks closed, the flags flew, the questions raged. Fingers pointed. Freedom changed. Hate was proclaimed as righteousness by the authors of destruction, their infamy achieved. We will not forget. It is a new day.Patti Gibbons is a survivor of 20 years in youth ministry who doesn't like pizza. She writes and speaks about youth ministry, blogs a bit about youth ministry, and helps out with the YMX and YM Women forum communities. Patti, a police officers wife, lives in Albany, NY, where one of the hijacked planes flew over head on it's way to the World Trade Center.
By YS on September 12 2008 | 2 Comments
Talk about your tough speaking engagements
By YS on September 10 2008 | 1 Comments
My dad just emailed me about a difficult speaking engagement that’s rapidly approaching. He got booked to fly to Anaheim and go deliver a keynote to a national organization working with ADHD kids. All of the people who will be attending recruit people to work with ADHD kids, but… get this… they are all ADD or ADHD themselves! Talk about your tough gigs! My worst speaking experience by far was an event I did on New Year’s Eve. The guy who booked me explained the event to me. “The gym will be full of kids we draw from local neighborhoods. They’ll be playing basketball, dodge ball, hanging out, eating, etc.” I asked, “Well, how are you going to pull them together for me to speak to them?” He was silent. He hadn’t even thought about it. I clarified, “You do realize that we don’t want to just stand up on stage and say, ‘Hey everybody… drop your dodge balls for a second, I want to tell you about Jesus!’” He agreed and I gave him suggestions of some fun up front activities and videos that would help him transition everyone into a seated position with their attention on stage. Fast forward to 11:28 New Year’s Eve. I’m on at 11:30. Kids are smattered around the room everywhere playing, talking, eating… fornicating… So I ask him. Are you ready to pull them all together. He nods quickly and runs up on stage. He grabs a mike and after a quick squeak of feedback, he says, “Hey everyone!” Three kids stop and look… 597 keep doing what they were doing. He tried again. “Hey everyone!” Nothing. He looks a little frustrated at this point. Then he looks at me… just like Judas did before he kissed Jesus. He lifts the mike up to his lips. “I want to introduce you to someone who’s going to speak to you this evening. You’re gonna love him. Let’s bring up our speaker, Jonathan McKee!!!!” What would you have done? 
Jonathan McKee will be teaching two seminars at the YS conventions this fall, including the workshop, Using 10-Minute Talks: Speaking to a Generation with a Short Attention Span. President of The Source for Youth Ministry, Jonathan is the author of numerous youth ministry books, including 10-Minute Talks, Do They Run When They See You Coming?, and the award winning Getting Students to Show Up. He speaks and trains at camps, conferences, and events across the U.S., and provides free resources for youth workers around the world on his Web site, TheSource4ym.com.
By YS on September 10 2008 | 1 Comments
Crazy Office Knickknack Winners!
By YS on September 09 2008 | 4 Comments
We received lots of great entries for this contest. Thanks so much for your pictures! After a lot of deliberation here at the offices we've picked these two as the winners. [gallery] That's right, we couldn't pick just one. The Chuck Norris cutout kind of told us that if we didn't pick it we'd get a round house to the face next time we saw Sarah. And the rubber ducky Jesus... that's just brilliant on so many levels. I think my life has been changed Molly. Both Sarah and Molly will be recieving one of our famous "boxes of fun" in the mail. These boxes are specially flavored with books from YS founder Mike Yaconelli as well as some other goodness we find in our prize closet.By YS on September 09 2008 | 4 Comments
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