(taped by phone 01/13/07)

BIO: Mark Oestreicher (Marko) is the president of Youth Specialties. For over 30 years Youth Specialties has worked alongside Christian youth workers of just about every denomination and youth-serving organization by providing publications, training, and leadership. Marko has a thoughtful, well-hyperlinked, funny/rude, personal blog which is found at www.ysmarko.com.

QUOTE TO NOTE: This is an area where a lot of youth workers and churches, in general, go wrong in terms of discipleship and that’s they just treat it (discipleship) as a program or a component of their youth ministry rather than the goal of the ministry. The command of Christ is that we go into the world and create disciples. And that’s what the whole point of youth ministry is about.  . . . Discipleship is what we should be all about.

OBSCURE FACTOID: During the conversation, Marko talks about the challenges of “attractional” ministry.  Since the taping, he expanded on these thoughts in this blog entry.   Days later, Dr. Leonard Sweet also addressed this theme at Baylor.  This line of discussion should NOT be obscure in any youth ministry field, let alone Catholic youth ministry.

BEHIND THE SCENES:  Ahhh, an editing confession – When this was taped, my Baltimore Ravens and Marko’s home team, the San Diego Chargers, both looked as if they were might be NFL playoff rivals. Therefore, the call started off with some trash talk, mostly on my part. Unfortunately, both teams lost their home games during next weekend.

BLOG REFLECTION: can be read here for Feb. 21.