The kind folks at OpenBoston posted up my PowerPoint presentation from last weekend. (Other presentations can be found here.) Our topic Saturday was the Theology of Communication.  We did a little Lection Divina (leave it to a Catholic to pump the Scripture card in front of a group of Protestants) and took a look at our communication as well as social networking. It was a good conversation.

It’s funny, but I am often considered a technology native because of the website and my collaborations with ReBuildMyChurch… but I often feel like a tecjnology immigrant who often shows up to the table a little late.

If you have not checked out Google+ yet, please take this as an encouragement to do exactly that.  The hangout function allows you to meet without the mileage. This will not replace the value of face-to-face meetings, BUT can bolster contact over time.

I have been watching the Youth Cartel’s coaching program from afar, and wondering how that model could work locally.  I’m still noodling it, but will be intentional about understanding google+ hangouts with the stratagy of making it a component of such an effort.  And, if you are about supporting others in ministry, you might consider the same.

Here is the second run of Blueprints from earlier today.

Great discussion, great panel, but you missed great chat amongst the live viewers as well.

Here are some additional resources for you related to the topic as well…

> Sample Volunteer job descriptions

> Before Firing as Volunteer

Next up in February… Transitioning

Calling all New England friends!

reBuild partner Tony Vasinda was among the speakers for Open Seattle, the Youth Cartel’s inaugural Open event which will be winding it’s way towards Boston February 2.  Tony could not stop saying enough nice things about his experience and so I am packing up towards New England.

Open YM is unlike most youth ministry training events. It is built upon the conviction that some of the best ideas in youth ministry come from everyday youth workers who are in the trenches of ministry. These events are purposefully designed for interaction. These events as ecumenical, we need to continue to work on our collaborations as “church” with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Not unlike the internet, there is a democracy of platform available here.  It intrigues me, excites me, and entices me to the following:

  > I’m in as a speaker.
  > I’d like to sponsor four folks to the conference.  The conference is cheap as it is… Only $25 for a days training, but if you are one of the first four to respond that you would like to go and bring a friend, spouse, best volunteer, or yourr mom…  Well, I will match your own registration with scholarship for your plus-one. Just register for 2 and use the code TEA PARTY. First four in, get in!

Please plan now to join me and many others like you at Open Boston,

So, you are sitting at your desk or at home and checking in on the blog…  This is a likely indication that you have not / are not travelling towards Orlando this day for the National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry.

If it is any consolation, I am home as well.

Nonetheless, all general sessions held at NCCYM will be streamed free of charge from Orlando. General session times are listed in Eastern Standard Time. To watch, go to the NCCYM website.

> Thursday, November 29, 7:30-10:00 pm EST—General Session featuring emcees Judy McDonald and Jesse Manibusan with keynote by ValLimar Jansen
> Friday, November 30, 8:30-10:15 am EST—General Session featuring Jack Jezreel
> Friday, November 30, 5:00-6:30 pm EST—Keynote featuring Monsignor Ray East followed by Liturgy with Fr. Miguel Gonzalez
> Saturday, December 1, 8:30-10:15 am EST—General Session featuring Sr. Anne Bryan Smollin
> Saturday, December 1, 7:30-10:00 pm EST—Closing Program with Bob McCarty and Liturgy featuring Bishop John Noonan followed by the Presentation of the National Youth Ministry Awards.

I will try to catch as many as I can.  “See” you there?

We love our re:Build Conference. They are a great chance for voices from around the globe to come together in unity and share new thoughts, ideas, and challenges. As a matter of fact the only downside for us is that we wish we could dig in a little deeper and dialogue about the issues more. So we have created a second type of event called Blueprints to do just that. Blueprints is a monthly panel show that will feature 4-6 ministry professionals in a round robin conversation around issues and topics that challenge our field. They will also be answering questions directly from you. This event is also free and will be broadcast completely live using Google Plus hangouts. They will also be archived after the fact for youth ministers or volunteers who can not join us live. We are just starting this new process so as always we want your feedback.

The event will broadcast straight to our YouTube Channel, and you can let us know you are coming by signing up on our Facebook Event.

Our main hope it to provide a space where those passionate about the young church to have an open dialogue about what works, what doesn’t work, and what needs to change. If you would like to be part of our Blueprints as a speaker, participant, or in some other way please drop us a line at rebuild@perpetualministry.com

See you for the first broadcast of Blueprints on December 11th @ 2pm Central Time

A few weeks back, we had a webinar on Pastoral Care regarding Bullies, their victims, and bystanders.  It was pretty solid stuff and was led by Dr. John  Mojzisek, a youth minister in one of our ArchBalt parishes.  He does a great job of connecting scripture and faith into the challenges of bullying.

We are still on the learning curve on Webinars but are excited about the technology possibilities for training (and, therefore, here is a reminder about ReBuild My Church on November 6)

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Hope that you find this useful!

Last week, Fr. Robert Barron initiated his new role as Rector at Mundelein seminary by offering the Rector’s Address.  He outlined the Seven Great Qualities of a New Evangelist and synopsized it in this YouTube message." His seven qualities?

> Be in Love with Jesus Christ
> Be Filled with Ardor
> Know the Story of Israel
> Know the Culture
> Love the Great Tradition
> Have a Missionary Heart

Father Barron insists that this is our time to be like Samuel, this is the call of our time. A great call because it is hard, a privileged call because it is difficult. This is a great time to be a new evangelist.

We tried something different for the next part of the youth contact meeting.  We invited four voices from outside our meeting space into our gathering.  They each spoke briefly – three to five minutes and then small groups broke out for discussions afterwards.  This was an invention towards continuing to prompt good conversation. 

Bob Rice has always been a partner with some many of our young people attending FUS summer conference and many FUS graduates serving as co-workers in the vineyard.  ValLimar (and Frank) Jansen will be with us for Pilgrimage this year and Steve (but not Jenni) Angrisano will be with us for BYCC. 

Mayra Seitz was this summer’s co-coordinator for European Catholic youth Conference for US military kids.  She is a US Department of Defense teachers in the Netherlands.

These were taped SKYPE calls using supertintin (and sometimes the synching of audio to face doesn’t always match up.)

Videos below.

We held our youth ministry contact meetings over the past two weekends.  As is our annual practice, we will be posting up videos from the training over the next few days.

Margaret Brogden is our Coordinator of Youth Ministry Formation in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.  Our presentations revolve around the first three chapters of Duffy Robbins’ book Building a Youth Ministry That Builds Disciples.  The first chapter is entitled Tarzan Christianity.

<We will be a little off schedule from our usual early morning posts this week as we are working in video editing when and where we can.>