~Following Him!!!~

It is that time again to recap the past year, so as I usually do I went back and looked at the first post of every month and provided a link to them below with a little commentary.

January – The year started off with me debating whether I watch Football or Hockey. Hockey won out because for the first time in pretty much my lifetime Michigan was not playing in a college football bowl game. Sadly the same thing happened again this year. I sure hope that Coach Rod can turn it around this next year. Progress was made but not going to a bowl game 3 years in a row is unacceptable.

February – The month of February found me unemployed and in the state of Texas hoping to land a job with a church in Texas. So my first post of the month was a Texas Recap. I ended up not getting the job, which was very disappointing but we have always asked God to close the doors that we were not supposed to go through.

March – I started of the month with a reflection on the Funny Things We Say. Many people have noticed how much I talk about how much I love my wife and find her beautiful. There is a reason behind it besides the fact that it is true. This blog post explains why.

April – Once again I came to the realization that I Need to Grow Up. Nothing more needs to be said.

May – In May I had grown tired of being asked, “Why Are You Selling Your House?” and so I answered the question publicly for everyone. Sadly, we are still trying to sell our house because Chase Bank sucks and has taken so long on the 6 offers we have given them for our short sale that all 6 buyers have walked away. Hopefully, it will sell in 2010? Especially since we don’t live there anymore.

June – I found myself once again reflecting on the fact that Love Wins. The news of the abortion doctor, Dr. Tiller, being murdered by a “pro-life” person while Dr. Tiller was attending church was the biggest news of the day. I added my own thoughts to what happened in my blog post.

July – The crazy roller coaster ride that I call my life began a new phase this month and all I could do was echo the words of Mike Yaconelli, What A Ride! While we were up in northern Michigan camping I got the call that The River Church wanted to bring me down as their youth pastor, so we began to work towards that with the elders there. It is so weird to think that it has only been a few months that we have been here, because it feels like we have always been here. We love our new church and friends here in Cincinnati.

August – We said Goodbye, No See Ya Later to our home state of Michigan. With all that was going on with packing, moving, unpacking and then settling into the new youth pastor job at The River I didn’t blog other then this post.

September – I was looking for Someone to Pinch Me, because I was (and still am) amazed at how blessed me and my family are to be here in Cincinnati and to be a part of The River Church community. I look forward to the many, many years that we will be here.

October – I started off the month of October warning people that I Am Going to Step on Some Toes and I know that I did, but I also hoped that I inspired some people to make some healthy choices.

November – The month of November had me asking, Porter Family Snowball Fight and then talked about the Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas controversy.

That was my year in a nutshell. Now I need to get busy with my goals for 2010. Should it be twenty-ten or two thousand and ten? What is your preference?

You will be missed. I have to admit that I was not very familiar with YS or NYWC when Mike Yaconelli was at the helm. So I never felt the great sense of loss and wonderment about the future of YS when Yac died.

However, I get that sense now. There seems to be a difference in this case though, because when Yac died Marko was already in place as President and kept the spirit and heartbeat of Yac’s dream for YS alive.

Now YS seems to be a ship with no captain. Zondervan, who bought YS back in 2007, has always been quite a bit more conservative then YS. I always wondered how that relationship would work out and it seems like we may be seeing that it really hasn’t. I had a friend say to me that it is like those cute little quirks that your fiancee has, but then when you get married you realize they annoy you. It appears like Zondervan has gotten annoyed with those quirks, which is the only reason why I see in them getting rid of the person who not only had the heart and soul of YS but was also it’s leader.

I think that this will be a huge win for Group and Simply Youth Ministry along with the SYM Conference. I think that a lot of people are going to jump to there products and to their conference, because they feel that YS is just not going to be the same.

However, I think that this could be a loss for youth workers. We will now no longer have that place where we can all gather together and be stretched in our think by the speakers. One of the hallmarks of NYWC is that we were able to hear from a broad spectrum of people and so it forced us out of our comfort zones and made us think. I just don’t see Zondervan continuing with that and I hope that I am wrong.

In the meantime I will be praying for Marko, and I agree with Len that “YSMarko now stands for You’re Special Marko”. Of course, Marko was always special. I look forward to what Marko does to bless youth workers in the future, even if it is just a return to blogging.

But I will miss his antics like this….

And this….

Mike Yaconelli was the founder and owner of Youth Specialties as well as the pastor of what he dubbed “the slowest growing church in America”. I never really knew much about the man until after he passed away in 2003. About a year ago I bought and read his book Messy Spirituality, which I coffee shop talking with you. There is no doubt that Mike not only loves Jesus with his whole being, but that he also loves God’s people as well. That is really the heart of what Mike is saying in this book.

Mike encourages you to jump first and fear later. He also doesn’t want people to forget that Jesus tells us to become like a child and Mike explores that idea in this book. I found myself at times getting into some very mischievous moods, because he would talk about playing and having fun like children do and then being reminded of the importance of fearing God. There is such a healthy balance of that that needs to be maintained. It reminds me of what Rick Warren likes to say about not taking ourselves serious, but taking God serious.

Mike does another great job of writing and I would encourage you to pick up this book and give it a read. You won’t regret it and you might just find yourself indulging in a little irresponsible passion. I posted a YouTube video below that is a tribute to Mike Yaconelli that will give you a little bit of an idea of his message to youth workers.