Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

give to who was there, because they will continue to be there : desparate times in haiti

received word the other day that one of my high school buddies was taking a team of doctors down to haiti for relief efforts. there was quite the bit of news coverages because, since our time in high school he's been able to wedge into the media market place. i saw another news article where a number of children who were up for adoption to american families were rushed to their pennsylvania homes with the political people showing smiling faces as if patting themselves on the back.

no slack on my friend & his medical team, they will do a lot of work and a lot of good work i am sure. but it had me wondering. slight slack to the political players who lord over visas and all these international adoptions.. it had me asking, "why now?"

sure, there was an earthquake & it is devastating, but long before that, there was extreme poverty & suffering... where was the anderson cooper's & media police alarming us to the worlds ills? chasing tiger woods?

i share my thoughts to say this one thing. as you are compassioned to give to help with relief efforts, give to the people who were already there, because, they are most likely to be there long after everyone is gone.. and they will be dealing with the aftermath of not only a physical earthquake, but a systemic poverty.

this is why i am so pleased to say that i am a part of the united methodist church & its continued work under the UMCOR banner. they were there before the earthquake, sadly some died in the earthquake, and will be there long after the earthquake. i applaud & more with the folks at highland park umc who have kept a long standing clinic in haiti since the 70's, but lost one of their church members in the earthquake.

learn more about the stories happening in haiti, long after the news vans leave & continue to help those who will be there long after cameras turn off and go home.

visit: www.umc.org/haiti

top tech trends of 2009 for youth ministry : new day in @ymtoday

i was asked to write a, shorter than this, article for ymtoday on the tech trends of 2009. this is my unedited & proper use of capitals article for your review.

Gone are the days where spent calling everyone on the youth phone list, cutting clip art books and taping graphics to papers for making posters, and sorting slides into a projector carousel. Today's youth ministry is full of early adoption to new technologies to communicate and build relationships. It seems to be 2009 amped that trend of leaving behind the those things we used to do so routinely in the early 2000's.

Here's a little list of technology trends from the past year used, being used, or to use for your youth ministry. Not all were created in the last year, but they did seem to pick up more steam.

1. Facebook: Do you remember MySpace? I do, and I thought it was pretty cool. Facebook though is just a fabulous youth ministry tool where MySpace wasn't. Create a group or fan page for the ministry you are a part of, easily send messages to the whole group, create events, post pictures & videos. It is easy to do, takes less time, and its where your teenagers are hanging. Have you watched your teenagers spend time onFacebook, it borders on problematic. If you have some cash, you can invest in ads on Facebook , the metrics for adverts is amazing, not terribly expensive either, plus it shows who are 'fans' in your ad extending the trust relationship. You can even get on board with a free mission trip via the social media network.

2. Twitter: People are up in the air as to whether Twitter is a usable youth ministry tool. My teens many follow a few friends and a bunch of celebrities. I don't have a youth who would create a twitter based newsletter for us like Adam. Twitter for me is brain trust & community of other youth and ministry leaders. Have a question, need prayer support, want to celebrate, need consolation after loosing a job, and more you can join into the community of youth workers on Twitter. I sought help developing this list via my Twitter community.

As a program, Twitter is a mobile based application, so it has txt and alert capabilities. Which leads us to our next item.

3. Mass Text Services: If you think it is going to be a pain to get all your people onto Twitter and then to enable the cell phone alert tweets for your twitter account, just set yourself up for one of the many mass text messaging services. If you are like me, youth gathering times are their normal loud and crazy, but now its all that with the teens staring at their cell phones. They have entire conversations overtxt . I've even caught teens not answering their phone calls but then answering text messages. Tap into that behavior with some of the paid services like txtsignal or a free service like broadtexter.

Note: Txt services use two basic formats: One is where message is more like an email going thru the system. Different cell companies handle that information differently, so a txt service will have you indicate what type of provider the corresponding phone number is. Other services are more like a phone to phone communication, big difference with those is you do not need to know service providers, but they will most likely charge by the number oftxt's and phone numbers (ie. each txt to 1 number is 5 cents, so one mass txt to 50 people is $2.50).

4. SmartPhones: I was told once that 'there haven't been any new inventions, only inventions making everything smaller.' This is certainly the case with the fusion of computer & cell phone. Whether you are iPhone, Blackberry, or now Droid the day of a phone being just for talking is gone.

The smartphone as it continues to become more affordable & builds in development will become the youth workers greatest tools (might even out do the guitar,haha!). As new applications are being developed from YouVersion's Bible app, Youth Specialties Tough Topics, productivity apps like Evernote, GPS directions, to even creating your very own phone application more & more will administration and communication will be done through the phone. I can be sitting at an sports match and send out emails & text messages to the whole group or just our leaders, make notes for the next days to-do list, take pics of the game and load them up to ourfacebook group or flickr page, and then post new information to our website.

5. Flip Cameras: Video used to be the toughest thing in the world. Cameras cost a bunch of money and then you had to edit the videos. Chances are your computer was not powerful enough to deal with all the resources needed for video, so it took many days to put together and render videos. Those days are gone.

With the advent of YouTube being the quality standard and the destination for most created video content the Flip Camera is the new video must have. Not only are they extremely cheap ($100-180, for a decent one) they shoot really good quality video, transfer extremely easily (digitally, so you don't have to do the tape playback recording), and portable so they can always be on your person. You can purchase one, two or three of these gems & hand them out to youth during events to capture footage for a highlights video. Pull out a camera when you are out on the town and inspired to do a little devotional for a video podcast. Get some of the youth to create a news/announcement video. Have a bunch of cameras to do a scavenger hunt and post stuff immediately to your presentation software or to the web.

So what's on your list of big trends for the year? Leave a comment or two, I'm sure there is something I'm missing or maybe my numbering is off.

Honorable Mentions:

• Digital Photography: Every youth event I go to seems to have youth & youth leaders in tow with high quality cameras. Bye bye disk camera & slide film.
• Digital Publishing: All those pictures & graphics can be printed into beautiful books & posters for affordable prices & effort. Forever keeping the narrative of that ministry
  
• Netbooks: Though I'd say that might be more for the college scene
• Google: From Google Voice, Docs, Earth, Ocean, Maps, Latitude to the beta test of Wave there's something for everyone
• Affordable Presentation Equipment: Doing the projector thing was a huge ordeal (not to mention projectors were HUGE!) now the hardware & software is small in size and price
• Collaborative Tools: Maybe its Basecamp, could be Google Wave, we all are using stuff to help us collaborate with our team of ministers & cohorts.

naming the paradigm : rob bell on youth ministry

i've often said when working with other youth ministry leaders, 'you can get anything done if you can speak to it well.'

my thinking behind that is, my observation, that much of youth ministry actions are intuition/gut moves (some may say Holy Spirit leading, which i'm cool with). those movements are done with great intentions and well meaning, but just as i have a hard time telling folks why i am a 'nice guy' (something i've been accused of on occasion) it is hard to explain intuitive actions. coupled with, many 'professional' youth leaders are quite young and haven't had a great deal of experience working with & coaching adults sometimes twice their age. but, if you can speak to people why this or that is necessary, they are more apt to go with your leading, even if they do not completely agree. thus, an importance to speaking well of what you are doing in ministry.

with that in mind, i was quite excited to read some of rob bell's thoughts on youth ministry in this interview with youth worker journal. he speaks so well to some of the issues i feel at hand for our current crop of youth growing up in youth ministries around the country.

YWJ: OK, the magic bullets, if you don't mind.

RB: The dominant paradigm in churches is production, not discipleship. It's about how to keep kids coming—how are the numbers? In the gospels, whenever there were large crowds, Jesus gave a difficult teaching that thinned out the crowd. Over and over, He chose those moments: John 6—Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood. Nice. Very accessible for kids. There is a certain pattern where He's trying to find out who is serious. Youth workers are put in this position where their paychecks are based on how many people they can keep in the place. When they read the gospels, they realize this whole system seems to be going the other direction. Many youth pastors I've met are promoting something they don't believe.

YWJ: Like what?

RB: They're told by the senior pastor to encourage the students to attend the service where there's a seven-part sermon on raising funds for a giant building, and kids don't really buy it. At the same time, the kids are wearing a red bracelet and becoming passionate about AIDS and water in Darfur. So the youth pastors and the kids sit in a system that says the preservation of this system is the first priority, and they look around at these giant issues of justice that are demanding a generation to step up and do something about it; and guess what they do?

this excerpt i pulled basically because it shares two tensions i feel in youth ministry, 1. the need to have top notch programming & 2. the culture of preservation (something i feel is paramount, not in a good way, in my mainline tribe). those two things are just not part of the Kingdom of God that i envision.. now, can #1 be a gateway, sure.. can #1 help in discipleship, sure.. but at what cost are we going so overboard that we loose sight of our goals.. living at Christ lived, loving as Christ loved. to me that isn't grounded in a program or an institution. those are ground out in relationships beyond human measures and being remarkable because you have been inspired to be that way.

anyways, check out the interview i could go on and on with the various questions & answers.

pondering : when in the soul of the serene disciple

When in the soul of the serene disciple

When in the soul of the serene disciple
With no more Fathers to imitate
Poverty is a success,
It is a small thing to say the roof is gone:
He has not even a house.

Stars, as well as friends,
Are angry with the noble ruin.
Saints depart in several directions.

Be still:
There is no longer any need of comment.
It was a lucky wind
That blew away his halo with his cares,
A lucky sea that drowned his reputation.

Here you will find
Neither a proverb nor a memorandum.
There are no ways,
No methods to admire
Where poverty is no achievement.
His God lives in his emptiness like an affliction.

What choice remains?
Well, to be ordinary is not a choice:
It is the usual freedom
Of men without visions.

by thomas merton, selective poems of..

photo by paul stevenson creative commons

#10yearsago : what i want back & what i'll gladly leave behind

so all my rowdy twitter friends are doing this #10yearsago tweets. i thought i'd actually create a little list and see what i can remember from the last decade.

• i moved to nashville and began "my career" in youth ministry the first days of january 2000. since then i've staffed at three churches, one secular hiatus career, and a stint at rei.
• i might not have owned a cell phone 10 years ago.. its hard to say. my first phone was some sprint flip open phone. i'll have to do some investigating on that one.
• 10 years ago, socially, i wasn't married and didn't have a child.. so that stuff is relatively new
• in the last 10 years i've had my work published in a few books, a cdrom project, and a number of articles.. i think that's pretty cool for someone who needed spell & grammar check to get out of university
• i actually graduated from college 10 years ago. i wasn't finished with my degree when i left the university of alabama. i told them i was going to nashville to finish up (my internship) and take a job offered to me. they told me my gpa wasn't high enough to leave town for my internship, i said tough, i'm going.. a few months later & a lot of paperwork, i had a college degree. (i didn't do the graduation walk for another year when little bro got a grad degree)
• 10 years ago Coe was my companion.. she was younger then and a little more spry & mischievous. she would open the gate to the house i lived in at that time and would go rolling in the dirt at the mulch company behind our house and thru some woods. would also take my brothers corgi with her. bath's were a regular occurrence in our house.
• 10 years ago darren & i would pontificate the deepest theology for some 25 yr old dudes over cigars and cheep beer in our backyard..
• 10 years ago my house had an answering machine... i suppose it also had some phone attached to a wall with like 500mghtz of power where you can walk down the street talking. big time!!
• 10 years ago i was thinner... care not to expand on that further.. 'expand,' sorry, wrong wording
• 10 years ago i remember watching the millennial celebrations all freakin day long
• 10 years ago i watched the music city miracle on a fuzzy tv that didn't have cable hooked up yet (remember, check out #1, just moved to nashville)
• 10 years ago had no idea what blogging, twitter, facebook, were (cause they weren't invented silly).. but i did build a kick-ass youth group & website with a bunch of java script enabled games

so the many things that did happen the last decade will have to wait for another posting.

what were the things you were doing 10 years ago?

a heretics advent : how do you give thanks

A Heretics Advent from Gavin Richardson on Vimeo.

i read this little parable for our youth the first sunday of advent. we were coming off the thanksgiving holiday and it seemed poignant. i share with you to ask the same thing i asked of our teenagers. 'what are you doing to not live into this parable.

here's what i am encouraging you to check out.

• 61st Avenue umc & the last minute toy store: little ole’ 61st ave umc is putting together its annual “last minute” toy store to help families in hardship provide some toys, food, and sometimes a christmas tree for over 3,500 children here in nashville. toy store starts at noon on friday and goes thru Monday. join me on friday by driving yourself over. volunteer orientation starts at 12. The Toy Store will stay open till around 6:30pm when the last shoppers go thru.
• send a message of hope to our growing church in cote d’ivoire, west africa. there is a lot of need, and when there is need a little hope goes a long way. send some encouragement.
• check out advent conspiracy, get yourself aware of the conditions people live in outside your world. spend less, give more, love all!
• maybe you are just a cool person who cares
• volunteer at the community care’s fellowship or nashville rescue mission
• become aware of local and global issues.. maybe the world AIDS or water problem

making a splash in social media : its okay to loose control

i liked this little ted talk presentation on social media, in part, because it is short and tells a simple story. the learning point that i would suggest my church tribe needs to take a hold of is, "its okay to loose control" and that "no longer does the message come from the top down."

we can all think about how 'the world is flat' and everyone has an equal voice to traditional media institutions and powers & that was really scary to them a number of years ago (might still be). but if you embrace that others are talking maybe not just about you, but with you, then they are people to lift up and share the genuine voice/face of your ultimate cause.

but, the control factor comes into play.. 'what will they say next?' etc.. well, as someone who comes from a religious background, we say that one needs to have 'faith'.. yes, novel concept, but a good concept when one practices it. my experience though is that people really only have faith as long as it falls within their boundaries of human control. with that, we miss out on the possible beauty bound up in the mystery of individuals and community. i hope for a day when my tribe's structural institutions that helped it to get a certain status and size, see the way to get out of the way and have faith in its community to do something remarkable.

churches doing twitter wrong : churches can do twitter well

i am constantly frustrated with church folks who extol their social media use for their churches. one such statement is the proverbial "our church is on twitter." i am not sure what that means? how is a church on twitter? church, can be there if we are looking at church as a verb, chronicling the interactions of the congregation with the community, but most of what we see is same thing we see so many times with church websites.

1. church twitters often rehash their inner content creation and just throw it out there as if people who haven't graced their walls are all of a sudden interested. much like marshall mcluhan says we do.
2. the face they always show is the church building or fancy logo. again, it works for the people in the church, but doesn't do anything for establishing a relationship with others outside your congregation

so how does a church community use twitter?

1. use it just like you probably are using twitter: making church announcements, posting links to your website/sermons/etc. i am fine with that, just know that you are only talking to the audience that is already invested into your church body. there is value to that, so its okay to do, just don't talk about your media use as something getting outside your church.
2. get personal by:

• make a formal twitter background with images of your church people, not your steeple
• change your avatar to some people. folks want to see how they will fit into your congregation, give them faces (often changing avatars) that help them see themselves as part of your church
• use pictures a plenty
• interact, don't just follow people from your church, but all over your community
• give out helpful information for community events, family building, parenting, schools
• affirm what others are saying
• talk about your people
• be ready to use direct messages to invite folks & let them know where to meet you
• be willing to show weakness/struggles/frustrations as a church body. authentic is the word
• start some helpful "lists" for your followers to plug into (this would involve knowing who to follow and what are important topics for your community)

sorry to the folks at highland park umc for picking on them with my chosen image.. it was just to easy.

return to church : a few chuckles at ourselves

i had some great giggles today watching these videos on 'return to church' (tip from ian at youthblog). it had me thinking of some of the tricks that we are used to get people 'in the door' and that when presented with a disingenuous invitation people run quickly. reminded me of a nice quotable, "what you win them with is what you win them to." i will give this vicar some props, he's not just letting his church become a museum.

i am all a twitter about the news : bud adams gets me air time

so i was rather surprised last night when i get a call from one of my youth. i apparently was on the news.. or rather, my twitter was on the news. yup, christian who does the social media & news coordination for channel two read off one of my twitter postings about the whole bud adams show of guns. not sure what i'm talking about.. well, just watch the story here.