Here are the most popular blog posts from the month of February 2011:

Also, of note, were Sing it and Sustainable Mobs.  And, thanks, this was the third highest trafficked month on the blog, more amazing during the shortest month!

So, this morning, I find myself in Ohio, visiting Bob Rice’s youth ministry class at Franciscan University in Steubenville.

Usually, this class comes to visit Baltimore in the fall. That didn’t happen (really, it wasn’t changes in staffing in our office!)due to complication of schedules..

So, I jumped at the invitation to come and visit… and since the students were going to miss hearing from our ArchBalt youth ministers (who are truly the awesomest!), I gathered some FUS alumni for a lunch and a quick video shoot.

We talk about the FUS experience, the first months as a youth minister, and we make a recruitment pitch for the ArchBalt.

If you are thinking about moving, catch the last third of the video… we would love to have you. And, feel free, to  contact me about what is available!

Oh, and there is a bonus clip telling a Bob Rice story!

Randy Raus, over at LifeTeen’s www.catholicyouthministry.com’s blog, recently wrote about Three Things That Youth Ministers Do That Drive A Diocesan Director of Youth Ministry Crazy. He wrote from the perspective of over two decades “of hearing from both parish youth ministers and from diocesan directors of youth ministry about strained relationships and a desire to work together.”

He lists out:

>> A Lack of Humility suggesting that if you don’t respond to emails, letters and phone calls, you might be conveying a “better than thou” attitude.

>> Not Being Loyal Randy says he often hears that relationships are strained because

(more…)

A prayer from the Scriptures of the day:

Lord, you have entrusted us to be stewards of the mysteries of Your ways.

You bring to light what is hidden in darkness. You are our hope.

Yet, we worry about tomorrow – what we will eat or drink, about our image.  Our worry only takes away from our lives, not adding a single moment to our life-spans.

Lord, we should not be disturbed at all. We should seek first Your kingdom of God and Your righteousness and trust tomorrow will take care of itself.

It is only in You that our souls are at rest. You are our rock, our stronghold, our very salvation. Like infants who have suckled from their mother, we pray that You never forget us, Lord. <image source>

from The Far Side

“(This) further illustrates the demands of the Great Commandment which contains the whole Law and the prophets.

The Japanese tell the story of a man who lived in a beautiful home on the top of a mountain. Each day he took a walk in his garden and looked out at the sea below. One day he spotted a tsunami on the horizon coming toward the shore and then he noticed a group of his neighbors having a picnic on the beach. The man was anxious to warn his neighbors, he shouted and waved his arms. But they were too far off, they could not hear nor see him. So the man set fire to his house. When the neighbors on the beach saw the smoke and flames some said let us climb the mountain to help our friend save his home. Others said: ‘That mountain is so high and we’re having such fun, you go.’ Well, the ones who climbed the mountain to save their neighbor’s home were themselves saved. Those who remained on the beach having fun perished when the tidal wave hit the shore.

The Gospel of Christ is about love, sacrifice, forgiveness, hope and salvation. The burning house on the top of the hill is the Cross, and it is (found in those who are) the suffering… Climbing the mountain, we are not doing God a favor, we are saving our souls.”

Cardinal Séan O’Malley, Boston
from Sunday’s Liturgy of Repentance in Dublin’s St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral

Brian Dodd has recently been looking at the protests in Egypt, Wisconsin,and Libya and wondering if, culturally, that the “groundwork has been laid that we could see similar things happen at local churches across America, albeit on a smaller scale.”  He suggests that many have become “so disenfranchised that (they) feel organized mass protests in public venues are the primary method for facilitating change.”

While he has suggestions as to how to avoid this in your local church (and cites good youth ministry as a preventative,) I’m wonder how the local church might better empower (and “franchise”) leaders to facilitate change…? <image source>

There are times when everything seems to come off the rails and the hindsight perspective on those moments are “I should have seen it coming.” Doug Fields recently took a look a the missing indicators of impending doom and suggested that three major warning signs might include:

> Chronic busyness
> Superficial friendships and/or isolation from “truth tellers” 
> A unusual display of pride

For me, I’d add lack of quiet time (which is a sub-bullet for chronic busyness) and a lack of consistent prayer (another possible sub-bullet for unusual display of pride)

Moments before the crash that leaves a cloud of dust and someone broken, what are the warming signs that you have seen?

Was back on Relevant Radio this morning, visiting again with Sean Herriott on the Morning Air show.

We were talking about Millennials. 

Listen to the Streaming Broadcast or Download for later listening!

(Previous interviews occurred in January, early in the month and then from the March, and also November, October, September, August, July, and June.)

So, whatever it is you are doing in ministry can certainly be analogous to a business sales call… so, every now and then it is important to attune to what is being said in the business world.

If kept quiet, the other person would fill the silence.

Everyone has a story to tell, if only you have the patience to wait for it and not get in the way of it.”

It takes patience to shut up, but it takes something more than just what to me seems like a simple word called “patience.” Shut up means allowing embarrassing silences to take place upon occasion.

If we truly believe each other is created in the image and likeness of God, then we need to willing and able to hear how God might be speaking through the other.  Of course, to do that we need to…

Shut up!