There was an old Heinz Ketchup commercial that offer Carly Simon’s “Anticipation” as a soundtrack to the thick red sauce coming out of the bottle.

We just wrapped up a virtual blogcation and will be returning soon from a real vacation… And I struggled with planning a vacation this time around. Where to go? What to do?  What will be a good, healthy change of pace?

There was a study on vacation and happiness and it showed that our level of happiness during vacation actually has a lot more to do with the planning, preparation and anticipation preceding vacation, more so than the actual vacation.

In youth ministry, do we provide experiences… or do we fully engage others in the sweet anticipation of the planning, producing or performing of experiences?

(h/t ChurchMarketingSucks)

Yes, the bloggcation continues… and has actually become a real vacation as well… I’m writing from Southern California where it is sunny and the local temps are in the 80’s.

Anyway, I’ve spent part of my morning here reading Kenda Dean’s Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church.  It is a follow-up on the NSYR research but has a clear sense of Dean’s analysis and diagnosis.

All of this is to say that CNN did a profile story today on Dean and the book and I wanted to break the self-imposed silence to share it with you.  For me, the money quote of the article addresses: “What can a parent do then? Get ‘radical,’ Dean says.

She says parents who perform one act of radical faith in front of their children convey more than a multitude of sermons and mission trips. A parent’s radical act of faith could involve something as simple as spending a summer in Bolivia working on an agricultural renewal project or turning down a more lucrative job offer to stay at a struggling church, Dean says.

But it’s not enough to be radical — parents must explain ‘this is how Christians live,’ she says. ‘If you don’t say you’re doing it because of your faith, kids are going to say my parents are really nice people,’ Dean says. ‘It doesn’t register that faith is supposed to make you live differently unless parents help their kids connect the dots.’”

Kenda Creasy Dean was recently interviewed regarding her new book, Almost Christian: What the Faith of our  Teenagers Is Telling the American Church.

The interviewer concluded asking why she left the research for the book “strangely hopeful.”  She responded “(What) gives me hope is all of the people who are committed to kids in the church. Youth ministers are an irrationally hopeful breed. I have the privilege of working with youth ministers all the time, and they are constantly ignoring what’s impossible and doing it anyway, and that’s the “one radical thing” that keeps the church alive. God shows up under conditions like that.”

God bless Youth Ministers, one and all!

World Youth Day – - We are one year (or so) away.

Seemingly, this site is reasonably noteworthy enough to have been sent this notice – - three times

Dear Sir, I’m Miriam, web manager of the official website of World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid.

I’m writing to you as I saw you had the link to the WYD 2005 in Cologne official website on yours. I would like to kindly ask you to include the link of our site: http://www.madrid11.com.  This is the link to download banners.

Feel free to contact me with any question about WYD 2011.

Best wishes,  Miriam

With under 400 days remaining before the World Youth Day celebrations open in Madrid, the organizers of the event are reporting that over 600,000 pilgrims from countries outside Spain have pre-registered to take part in the week-long encounter with the Holy Father. See the Catholic News Agency article.

Oh, and pass the word along… everyone leave your vuvuzelas at home, please.

<<This posting today is dedicated to a friend starting a new ministry as a campus minister at a Jesuit college.>>

And those wacky Jesuits, who knew?

Here’s a simple prayer method, not only for yourself, but for the volunteers and young people with whom we work.

Thanksgiving, Light/Gratitude, Examine, Sorrow. Hope for the ‘Morrow.

and we end up with hope for the future… this is what prayer is about, this is what faith is about, this is what our discipleship with Jesus our Lord is about.

Thanks, St. Ignatius!

(h/t Catholic School Chronicle)

In a recent article for Sower magazine, Bob Rice uses agricultural references to make connections among the components of youth ministry as stated in Renewing the Vision.

The ministry of advocacy is the work of tilling the soil. The core ministries of evangelization and catechesis are, respectively the the root and the trunk of the tree. Growth occurs because of the watering of prayer and worship. Weeding must take place so that the tree can receive the nutrients it needs. This is the work of pastoral care. The ministry of leadership development is compared to the work of pruning. While community life is likened to the leaves; justice and service is suggested to be the fruits of the tree.

It’s rare that poetic imagination is attached to a church document.  Please consider checking out Bob’s article to re-cognize (see again) the vision of youth ministry.

Here a quickie video if you find yourself in the middle of volunteer recruitment season (and, really, does that season ever end?)

The stats are taken from Teen Voice 2010: Relationships that Matter to America’s Teens, a national study of 1,860 15-year-olds in three cities across the United States exploring the importance of teen motivation and engagement in civic life. To view the full Teen Voice 2010 Report please visit www.at15.com

Of course, the faith side of this all is that we need adults working towards discipleship to share that journey with young people. Nonetheless, these tips from teens to adults on building relationships is a pretty good resource.

(Surely, you have figured out how to download a video, if needed, right)

Recently, youthworker.com re-ran a four-year-old article from Steve Case which offers a biblical metaphor of the man who was healed after being dropped through the roof from Mark 2: 1-12.

Case suggests “(though there is no biblical evidence to support this) that the four men on the roof were probably youth ministers and the man on the mat was probably a teenager. This event encompasses many classic youth minister traits: going out on the roof, demolition of private property — and if  they took a sick kid away from his house, it was most likely without a permission slip or even his parents’ knowledge. Most of all, they went to creative (albeit destructive) means to get a teenager to meet Jesus.”

But, he goes on to make a case for re-imagining relational youth ministry over programs. And, I’d like to suggest we re-imagine even further. The teenager in the scriptures was cared for by FOUR others.  This should be goal!  We don’t set up ourselves as the end-all, be-all source of support for young people in our community, but we ensure that every young person has AT LEAST FOUR adults committed to ensuring that a teenager meet Jesus.

Do parents a favor.

It’s already been a long hot summer in most of the country and we still have got more to go.

E-mail or place in the parish bulleting this video link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wKw75lmjDk

and encourage parents to encourage kids to break out of the ‘nothing to do” rut.

I’m off to do #65!

Because we are often so academically calendar year based, you are likely about a month out from beginning to sweat the recruitment season and two-three months from truly PANICKing about it.

Meanwhile, I found this great “to do” list (which seems designed for recruiting the elderly but is good anyway.)

1. Decide on the characteristics you want your volunteers to have. 2. Develop a checklist of the most important requirements. 3. Know the barriers that may deter people from volunteering. 4. Think about what could motivate people to volunteer for your program. 5. Have a recruitment message that "sells your program." 6. Make recruitment materials that will catch people’s attention. 7. Plan presentations that put a personal "face" on your program. 8. Use a range of recruitment strategies to reach volunteers. 9. Start with what’s in front of you. 10. Cast a wide net. 11. Target your recruitment efforts. 12. Recruit more people than you actually need. 13. Pay attention to timing. 14. Be sure your agency is ready to provide good customer service. 15. Avoid the first "warm body" syndrome. 16. Be patient and persistent.

Get going, folks!