back on July 5th

It’s the perfect storm…  I’m training for the next two days, have a series of meetings after that, have four major writing projects due this week, have been doing some major end-of-year filing, have a need to take holiday time, and, and, and … nothing in reserve for the blog. Something must be freed up for other things to get done. So, folks, I’m taking a break.

We’ll resume blogging on Sunday, July 5th.

In the meantime, celebrate your freedom this week as well and give yourself a break somewhere in the midst of everything.

On Monday and Tuesday, I conducted our Methodology class.  Here’s the links:

Session 1:  Kia Soul, Power Point, Sean Reynolds, Kenda Creasy-Dean (there is a charge for this one)

Session 2:  Power Point, Tom Groome,

Session 3:  Mike Horan, Power Point,

Session 4:  Scrubs

As a daily blogger, it helps to get into some rhythms – On Tuesdays, we look at news items featuring Catholic Youth Ministry.  On Wednesdays, we’ll often post a video that offers some level of training.  On Saturdays, we often we’ll post something a little bit on the lighter side.  I’m going to add to these patterns starting today.  Sundays are for the ArchBalt celebration of the Year for Priests.

We are indebted to Patrick Donovan from Wilmington for the concept.

It is hoped that this series of videos will not only serve as a support for vocations but will also convey that the “youngchurch” is proud of their priests, loves them, honors them and admires them.

Today, Connor starts of our year-long celebration discussing what a difference Father Steve Hook has made in his life.

Please feel free to use the share button below and share these videos with others.

Too often, we find ourselves judged by our lesser moments. Whatever else was a part of the story, Michael Jackson was phenomenally blessed with his talents. And he did use them for some good.

The radio has placed MJ’s music into high rotation. We are the World has not seemed to have been part of that playlist, but should have been as it helped give pop culture a social conscious.  Black or White was a celebration of diversity before we really celebrated diversity.

But, Man in the Mirror has been in the back of my head these last few days. In this video, he transforms the the 1988 Grammy Awards into his own neighborhood congregation with a Gospel Choir. “Change! You’ve got to move.  Stand Up, somebody.  Make a change!”

Conversion looks like this: I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways. And no message could have been any clearer: If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and then make a change.

In many youth ministers’ offices, there is a chair.

It sometimes serves as a coat rack.

Occasionally, it serves as the alternative to that empty cabinet over in the corner.

The chair is also a great place to dump one’s bag, lunch, umbrella, gym shoes, etc.

Oh, and, yea, every now and then, some unique characters will come in through your door and sit in that chair.

God bless the youth ministers who have that chair in their office.

God bless each and every one of those “unique characters” who have sat, are, and will sitting in that chair.

God bless the chair, a sacred place within our offices.

(Video is from the Skit Guys, runs 16 minutes but is worth it!) 

ª “Honor Tradition, Inspire Change” is the theme in Baton Rogue for this summer’s Christian Leadership Institute.

ª Springtime peer ministry training has been filing Alexandria’s calendar.

ª This fall’s Junior High Rally in Shreveport has keynote Cooper Ray – October 10, 2009  looking at the theme Saints, Our Holy Heroes. “

OK, Louisianans, that’s your state!  Anything we are missing parish sites or blogs that we need to see?

Where did the 1970’s go?

This evening, there is a commemoration for the lives of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson, both of whom passed into the night this day.

At 62 years old and 50 years old, respectively, there is both a loss of the icons of youth as well as a reminder of the transience in achieving a certain age.

It’s a generational thing happening this week, folks. Be gentle with one another.

I’ve been reading Tony’s Morgan’s Killing Cockroaches and other Scattered Musings on Leadership.  The book is about how we can lose focus in the job/ ministry and forgetting that we are the ones who build our schedule and determines our own tasks. “You get to decide where your time goes. You can spend it moving forward. Or, you can spend it putting out fires. You get to decide. If you don’t decide, others will decide for you. Then you, too, will be stuck reacting to the urgent.”

Tony tells the story of how the title came about:

I was a city manager–kind of like the CEO of a business. I was responsible for leading an organization with a $20 million budget and 150 employees. I was the man. I wore a suit. Everyday.

One day I was working at my desk, and I heard a woman scream from the other side of the office building. Just a few seconds later, the screaming woman ran into my office. She explained that she needed help. She had found a cockroach in her office. And, for whatever reason, she thought this was a problem for the “CEO.” Remember, I was the guy who wore a suit. Everyday.

I’m not sure why I did it, but I slowly pushed my chair away from the desk. Stood up. Walked down the hall. Entered the screaming woman’s office, and proceeded to kill the cockroach. I was wearing my suit, which, of course, I wore…everyday.

It’s been about eight years since that incident. I don’t wear suits anymore, but there are still days when I come home a little mopey. I guess the frustration is all over my face. (My wife) Emily will take one look at me and ask, “Did you have to kill cockroaches today?”

Even great leaders get sucked into Killing Cockroaches. Four days before Lincoln wrote and delivered the Gettysburg Address, he has to deal with such “issues.” The Washington Post tells the whole story here of a presidential memo which “seems a startling distraction to a president embroiled in a cataclysmic and bloody war. Thus it neatly illustrates one of the immutable laws of presidential politics then and now: Individual imbroglios fester at will, anytime, without regard for the deeper national crisis.”.

ª A trivia question in Houma – Thibodaux’s newsletter asks “what fruit is depicted in Leonardo’s Last Supper, even though it did not arrive into the Holy Land until after Jesus’ death?” Anyone? Anyone?  Bueller?  Bueller?

ª Contact info is available on the Lafayette and …

ª … the Lake Charles sites.

ª They seem to be revising the site for New Orleans.  Hope they complete it soon.  It’s a full and rich site.

ª Could I possibly mention Louisiana and not acknowledge Mike Patin’s blog?  Guess not!

So, Pelican Staters, share the joie de vivre for a moment and point out great parish sites or blogs, won’t you?  Comment away!