Hit the Back Button to Move Fwd by Gavin Richardson

telling stories on missions : sharing experiences with congregations

how to use social media to share your ministry story with home congregation & ministry partners from Gavin Richardson

one of the things that social media has allowed myself & you the lay web designer to do is easily share missions, event, and other ministry experiences with our congregations and ministry partners. i know folks are starting to do this more & more, so here's some of the set up & tips that i've used in the past.

• site: have a website that you can do quick updates to. this might be a special wordpress site or typepad/blogger are all formats that give you ease in telling little stories or updates without having to know code or ftp information. you can even use twitter if you need. i also like to use flickr for posting pics & videos. so much easier to upload a batch than to put into a blog posting.
• connections: ask ahead if you can get wifi in the area or cell service, and which kinds of services. if you can get wifi (which is surprisingly much more common than not) its wonderful. next best is cell service & you can probably spring for one of the broadband connecting cards depending on your provider. next, if you can only find cell service you might tether a connection, or just plan to use a smart phone application. my iphone has applications for all kinds of blogging updates, or i can just surf the web browser.
• ahead of time: depending on my anticipated needs i'll set up a posting ahead of time. example: our experience up into appalachia last summer i knew there was no wifi options, so i set up a blog post with a twitter widget that i could send updates to. i gave a shortened url link to the one of the ministry secretaries that she could put into the prayer chain emails.
• hardware: if you have a wifi connection bring your laptop. if you do this right you can stay up a few minutes after lights out, do what you need to do and then close shop and move into the next day. one of my key hardware pieces is a universal card reader. the best 30 bucks i ever spent in ministry. if you don't take the pictures, no worries, borrow someones camera card download theirs and use them to upload. same thing with video. if you have one or more video cameras (we used a sony webbie flip camera and a harddrive camcorder for our bahamas trip this year) bring what cables you need for charging & downloading. if they use flash/sd cards then you just need your universal reader..
• mobile upload: most social media sites have mobile upload options. you need to have them in your back pocket. twitter has an email to post option, as well as twitpic (which will post to your twitter). so if you can send pics or video through your cell service you are good to go. flickr also has an email that will post to your account. have your mobile apps tested out and ready to go before hand.
• choose your portal: life on a missions or other ministry experience is generally filled with little downtime. if you are like me you don't want to spend your every minute telling others and not living into the moment you are in. so, choose what your portal is for sharing. do you want to write out stories? or, like we have done, take the photos and put them out there to tell our story. this year we went more immediate video doing some little one or two minute update videos. since we are photo/video heavy this year, we just used flickr. set up a trip set and gave out the shortend url then populated it as the week went on. boy have we ever populated that... most likely too much. if you want to just have the youth or adult participants write stuff for blogs, give them a heads up. sometimes though its hard for people to sit down and write, so you either need to tell them what to talk about or give them the whole week to work on writing to get into a flow. some folks though, write very easily, well & quickly, look for those folks, but not at the detriment of the experience.
• clean it up: once you get home, clean up some of the url updates, spelling errors, add captions, edit finished versions, add more content, etc. people don't need everything, they love to get a taste or idea of what it looks like & what is happening.

disclaimer/distribution: i've been asked before if i've gotten permission for posting photos and such. yes & no. i've put in our release forms that this is part of our group & i tell parents that this is what we do, so if they have issue we can remedy the situation. most of the times our parents are exstatic to see what's going on. how often do they get frustrated with their kid going to camp, only to return & asked "what happened?" responding "nothin.." with this, they know something did happen. now, we do take some precautions of not putting in names, certainly not full names. we generically name photos most of the time. i don't do uber tagging so it falls into the greater searches, but is usable for my own search. with flickr you can protect download of pics to just your contacts/friends/family which is helpful if you can get people to get a free account and 'friend' you.

technology & youth ministry : my chippendales life

one the youth within our youth ministry had a little fun with some of our youth leaders and jibjab. enjoy!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

songwriters night at hfumc : come help a youth ministry out

if you live around the hendersonville tennessee area i want to invite you to our songwriters night tomorrow evening to benefit our youth ministries missions for the summer. it will be at hfumc in our youth lounge area.

Multi-Award winning songwriters Larry Cordle, Carl Jackson & Jerry Salley (Cordle, Jackson & Salley) will be performing this Thursday night, April 16, 7:00pm at the "Songwriter's Night at Hendersonville First United Methodist Church (HFUMC). The Grammy, Dove and IBMA award winning trio have written songs that have collectively sold over 100 million records, which includes songs recorded by everyone from Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Ricky Skaggs to The Oak Ridge Boys, Steven Curtis Chapman and many, many more. This event is a benefit fundraiser for the Youth Missions ministries of HFUMC. Door cover will be $15.00 with further donation support welcomed

nashville allies : nashville area youth worker network

brian senecal & i have been developing this dream/idea to put efforts in building up a nashville area network of youth ministers in collectively building the kingdom. it'd be a three time a year kind of gathering for volunteer, newbie, oldie, paid, intern, etc. youth workers. we are calling it 'nashville allies' and we hope to start in the fall. if you are a nashville area youth worker and want to jump in on this & help us out. start by signing in with our network hub we are using & follow us at nashallies on twitter (if you are already on twitter)

business cards & youth ministry : the green business card

i've been in youth ministry for going on 15+ years now. in those years i've possessed maybe two business cards, all bought for me by someone else. never in those 15+ years has a teenager asked me for a business card. so why have them? i never saw the need.

now, in this new day of my youth ministry career i find myself doing more networking within the larger church & most recently the nashville (soon to be hendersonville) tech community. i am feeling the need to get some business cards. here are my two options i'm going with.

1. i've put together the sms contxt card. all you need to do is txt 'gavoweb' to 50500 and you will receive some of my basic business card info. this is paperless, which is an excellent 'green' usage. wasn't technology & the computer supposed to get rid of the need for paper?.. right.. well, here is atleast a spot to try something new out that is paperless. not to mention, if you are a youth leader like me, your primary audience is one of people who txt like mad seems logical to use.

2. i am ordering "mini-cards" which are small, baseline essential versions of business cards. now, i don't know if they prove to be something more effective than a stack of traditional business cards, but i like the concept and the coolness factor of being smaller. i might not call this 'green' i don't know the ins and outs of paper product to say that just because this is smaller means it uses less paper. it probably does.. but really i think its cool, not to mention the cool mini card holder.

what about your volunteers : setting up youth ministry infrastructure

i didn't realize, but i'm not surprised, that chris folmsbee has started attending and helping out with the youth community at church of the resurrection. so it is interesting to read some of the 13 ideas he shares about getting plugged in as a volunteer in youth ministry now.

I think I would assign a veteran volunteer to show them the ropes for a few weeks in a row.  There is nothing like the feeling of standing in a room all by yourself.  Crazy awkward.  Remember how you felt as a teenager when that happened to you?  Yep.  It still feels the same.

I know I’d do a better job following up with new volunteers.  An email or a phone call asking, “How can we make your time better or make you feel more comfortable?” can go a long way with a newbie.

being familiar with the folks at cor, i know one of their staff's core questions is how effectively did they provide people opportunities to be in ministry. so it is not a surprise they do this part well. we can all learn from that. if you didn't know they have some great little reads that i keep with me, one on youth ministry & another on recruiting volunteers.

anyways, its a good list to check out. i do mention in comments that there is some need to 'say' that some of those items will happen natuarlly in a smaller environment. but the principles there are solid.

brick testament : an idea for visual

 
i make assumptions that everyone sees and thinks the same things that i do. with that, i assume everyone has seen 'the brick testament'... just imagine, lego meets biblical narrative, with some excellent photography to boot.

anyways, for our coffeehouse youth gathering yesterday our teacher asked for some images to go with the scriptures of Jesus cursing the fig tree and turning over the temple. i decided to use the brick testament and the young ones really enjoyed it. but mostly i did which is all that matters haha!

so in case you didn't know, you too can use the brick testament for some scriptural images in teaching.

archie carver jr. : may you rest in peace

this morning i received word that one of my dads, archie carver jr., passed away after his long battle with liver cancer. he didn't talk about his cancer battle much, but i believe this was his third onset that he had to take on treatment for. he passed away this morning, march 9th, 2009, around 8:30am with friends and family with him.

i will alway remember archie jr. for his quiet michievous-ness about him. in the big crowds of friends we'd find ourselves in at church he'd be the quiet one with this sneaky smile on him. telling jokes in his head, laughing at the rest of us trying one up each other,.. i'm not really sure, but that smile was always there. i know he wasn't always the quiet one, but i'll always see that face, that michievous smile and i'll smile myself.

archie was beloved by his friends. he was an active part of the cancer society in hendersonville, and many joined the cause on his behalf. last years relay for life was held in his honor as a survivor even. he was getting treatment in tulsa for the last 6 or so months. as is liver deteriorated and prognosis became grim a number of their friends left for tulsa to be at his & terri (archie's wife) side. yesterday his sunday school, at first united methodist, class spent the whole hour plus in prayer for their friend. they joked it would have been archie's favorite class to spend it in prayer without any real lesson.

you will be sorely missed in our church family archie. take rest & hope that you have been a part of something special in your friends & family. your children are wonderful extensions of yourself and terri, tiffani, archie III, and william.

may the Lord Bless you and Keep You. may he Heal you and Hold you. may he allow you to help cook some great eats for that communion of saints. until we meet again. shalom

update:

visitation is set on thursday, march 12th from 1-2pm, with celebration service beginning at 2pm and food afterwards, at hendersonville first united methodist church.

seen it all : life of a youth pastor

i can resonate with much of this. how bout you? tip from emergent journey

introducing youthminblog : collaborative youth ministry blog

i am very excited to be asked to participate in a new youth ministry blogging initiative. this is a portal youth ministry blog that is taking in some of the most noticeable blogging & tech youth pastor types.

pretty stoked to be considered in the group as many i've met and almost all i have followed for some time now.

the basic idea, brainchild of chris szulwach, is that we are all going to be posting on some similar/coordinated topics our best thoughts, ideas and perspectives. so plug this into the rss feader, there is sure to be some great discussion on youth ministry practice.

swimming with the characters of nashville : the polar plunge

Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

participated in the polar plunge today as fundraiser for special olympics. it was supposed to be a mission thing we were doing as part of our senior dudes small group. but it ended up just being us adult leaders as our youth wigged out, forgot to get out of work, or had some state hockey tournament.. all very lame excuses if you ask me.

todd's daughter, bailey, was our photographer for the day. so hopefully i can share some other pictures.

sending off the teens : one of our ministry ideas

one of the things that we do as part of our youth ministry here at first umc in hendersonville is that we try and put in ads to each of our hs yearbooks. this can actually prove kinda tricky cause the leadership of the yearbook changes frequently, but when we can do it its a good thing. we do a page/half page graphic highlighting our graduate seniors from that high school.

our idea behind it is that this is piece of memory that will walk with the graduate well into youth and adulthood and putting together a picture collage of sorts to give some remembrance of the story of their time with this particular church community is a great reminder. not to mention, if it looks cool everyone else who gets a yearbook will see our name & we are supporting relationships with the school.

the trick is trying to find pics of those seniors who don't come around a whole lot or using those old pics of someone who kinda wained off their junior or senior years, but with facebook or myspace its a little easier to make that work too. here is our standard looking page for hendersonville high school` class.

warmth in winter : retreat highlights

i know you all might be bored of seeing all this warmth in winter stuff by now, but this was my life for the later part of last week. not to mention the 5 or so months leading up to the event. this was our retreat highlights video shown saturday night. i'm a proud papa in that the youth team we assembled shot it, cut it up, and produced the video all in the weekend. i will probably add a bit to the end of the video to put in the saturday night experience. i gave everyone the morning off (except shane who had to do song slide duty) so we don't have video captured of that.



Warmth in Winter '09 : Retreat Highlights from Gavin Richardson

warmth in winter : story in photographs

i had many folks from my team of youth taking photos of warmth in winter. here is a bit of the story in photography

warmth in winter : glimpse into a retreat

this is partially a mobile test post

This is a pic of a core part of our design team for warmth in winter jumping around dancing at the end if another great retreat. they worked harder than ever before to make this one happen and it turned out great. view more photos at our conference flickr & my own flickr set.

where i've been : warmth in winter

wondering what i was up to last week (with only one posting and all)? well, here's a little glimpse as i was doing my normal stuff, but getting ready for our largest youth retreat, warmth in winter, we participate in. this is our friday highlights video my team of youth put together as part of the retreat.

Warmth in Winter '09 : Friday Highlights from Gavin Richardson.

caption contest & freebie : in recognition of inauguration day

inauguration day is always an great day. i know people have their reasons for this year being more special than others, but to know that we have a complete change of government leadership without violence or war is something to behold. so, in recognition of inauguration i've got this caption contest. cool thing, my completely subjectively chosen winner (and you can vote for who you think is best) will be sent a copy of my worship feast prayer stations cdrom project & maybe some more stuff, but i promise that one.

let the captioning begin!

dear gavin : what to do with sunday school

one of the latest emails

Hey if you dont mind me asking, what do you use for Senior High Sunday School? Trying to find a good resource/curriculum to use.

we started doing a coffee house worship for the traditional sunday school hour. so its a bit different. before that i developed a master plan curriculum for our sunday school classes.

the ileadyouth website has (or had, they did a redesign recently) a 'master plan' of curriculum which covers a wide range of topics & the bible thoroughly. they had 2 and 4 year curriculum to work with that would be classified as 'bible' or 'life'. we put together a 2 year master plan (before we did the coffee house thing) which we had set up as 7 week segments that the 7-8th graders choose between two classes, the 9-11th had two choices, and the 12th graders had their own dedicated class.

i find it a good idea to get into developing a long term plan so that you can say that your youth are getting a full picture of life & theology. have this in place will help keep your teachers from winging it on a consistent week to week basis. in recruiting teachers it is good points to show them some of the things you would be asking them to teach. teachers can preview items that they are going to be teaching & thus be more well equipped. its gives parent cred to show you have a plan for their child's theological upbringing.

don't know where to start or have the time? that's cool. here is the one that we developed. you can use it as is (even fill in your own teacher names) or use it as a starting point. note: since we put this together a few years back some of the curriculum pieces are on closeout prices, which is cool, you can get for like 2 dollars.

• Download Sunday_School_2_Year_Master_Plan (pdf)
• Download Sunday_School_2_Year_Master_Plan (rtf)

so you want to volunteer : how to recruit your youth workers

okay so it's not the sustainable way to get your peeps together, but it is pretty accurate how it gets done & probably a more realistic look. comes courtesy of dave walker & cartoon church developed for national charter for youthworkers. if this doesn't work try herding cats.

sustainable youth ministry : the book i've been needing

i consider myself to be a pretty capable youth pastor. i've got some skillz! but i also lack some skills. one seems to be that i get lost in my own creative self. i can imagine up new youth ministry ideas and models, but when it comes to implementation i miss stuff, and i know it too. problem is that i can't, or take forever to, sort through making a better way.

this is why i'm super stoked to be reading sustainable youth ministry. not only does the title speak to me as i've been doing this in some form or fashion for over 14 years but i find myself in a larger church context that takes more skills than i even possessed. i am a super fan of contemplative youth ministry practice and even believe in what youth ministry 3.0 is presenting, but when it comes to implementing to a point where you & your youth community you've been blessed with are healthy then this is a book for you & your staff.

i haven't finished it, but i am already feeling energized by it. it's what i've been needing for probably the last two years.

stupid part of it, mark devries is a friend of mine and i'm gonna have to pick on him next time i see him for holding out on me for so long.

what has me pee'vd : back to the war metaphor

i could not help it. i got burned up inside by some prooftexting comment on adam walker cleaveland's posting about inappropriate youth ministry curriculum. i've gotten on my war metaphor bandwagon before and it's not that i'm some pacifist (i admit to struggle with pacifism). but as i see it, youth need new metaphors and new words to bring inspiration of the gospel message. otherwise we just get a lot of the same. here was a bit of my comment.

thanks for the prooftexting, i think we know there is a bunch of war in the bible. but if you can honestly say war is what God wants then get away from my youth. my youth want nothing to do with war, it stresses them and contributes little, except loss and heartbreak to their lives. we have adopted what Jesus told Peter, to “put down the sword” & “get behind me devil” for picking up the sword and weapons and power tool of the empire which creates widows & orphans. may we all turn our gun & war metaphors into “plowshares” so that we cultivate things that grow, not destroy..

update: adam's posting was picked up by the youth specialties blog, asking if military imagery is needed in youth ministry?

youth ministry 3.0 : emerging youth ministry observation

i was given youth ministry 3.0 by the folks at youthworker movement and asked to give a recommendation on whether it is a must read, okay read, and on down the line.

knowing mark oestriecher through some mild interactions and consistent reader of the marko blog, even read the precursor postings that lead up to the writing of this book i was very excited to get a hold of a copy and start reading.

some of my thinking points

• i read this book in one sitting.. not sure, but i think that is a first.. it isn't a long overly drawn out book, which i can appreciate. the basic framework of the book goes through a basic understanding of adolescent development then history of youth ministry leading into the futurist thoughts on where this new phase we will be finding ourselves in regards to youth ministry. i call it futurist in that some of the basic methods for analyzing the future trends is looking at the historic path and the consistent behaviors of the target group.
• some of the voices that marko uses for giving language to this future are the like of kenda creasy dean and many from the emergent/emerging/missional church generative friendship. so if you are familiar with what they are saying then you will probably find threads you already resonate with in y3.0.
• the adolescent section dragged for me. being an early childhood and human development person in college all the adolscent stuff was basic.. but, for those who have no training or education in human development and/or life stages then its a good primer to get you started in the know. i've leaned on my adolescent development knowledge for years and still have my text books (which might be in need of some updating).
• the history of youth ministry is brief and very general. it basically covers the evangelical spectrum and grazes a few thoughts on mainline christian practice. now, this could be attributed in part to that evangelical contexts were the first to be doing a 'youth' ministry. if that be the case it should be explored what spiritual formation when a youth was immersed into a full life of the church instead of being separated out. some of this could be hashed out reading four views of youth ministry
• i cannot express how much i support some of the ideas that marko shares in being ready to deconstruct the old forms of youth ministry. he doesn't put out what youth specialties will be doing next as the next form or youth ministry, as he confesses he doesn't even know, but that a change is happening and to ignore it will only lead you aimlessly into the wendy's black hole (you'll have to read the significance on that one). marko's greatest gift to the youth ministry world is giving some language to those are feeling frustrated that what you have been doing does not work to bring about some change. change is not hard within a church context, but you need to be able to speak to it.
• i was super pleased to see the word 'discernment' in the book. as i was reading and hearing marko say 'i don't know how this will turn out' or 'can't tell you what it will look like for you' i was sitting saying, you need discernment.. a few pages later, that is what marko suggested (and i was well pleased). the practice of discernment with your adults and youth alike is a powerful time of reshaping and anticipating the needs of your youth community. the youth minister will/should become more of a spiritual director in this regard cultivate a community that is intune with their cultural context. i would suggest additional reading of practicing discernment and the art of spiritual direction
• i like the idea of encouraging folks to become a youth culture anthropologist. its not hard to start into things like that. getting on the ypulse email list, cpyu email list, using google reader to subscribe to some blogs (like mine, haha) and news outlets, then using google news to send you news articles on keywords (ie. youth culture) is an easy way to observe some of the trends. beyond what i have mentioned personally subscribe to wired magazine, which throws out gems like snack culture. i also pick up a futurist magazine every now and then. a cheaper thing i do is watch my youth cruise through youtube and their behaviors.
• the "communional" idea is worth more discernment. the best part is that marko gives his own language spin to it. language will take you far in moving forward in shifting sands of youth ministry.

so as the folks who gave me the book asked. would i say this is a must have? no.. conditional that you are reading a whole lot from other places. is this a good read? certainly.

is it worth your time? if you are feeling that you are not making a dent and wondering if there is a different way? for sure. if you are looking for some language to help reshape some change this is a good starting point.

tennessee conference position updates : what a long strange trip its been

our conference office sent this announcement out just last evening via our listserv.

The new Directors of Children and Family Ministries and Director of Youth and Young Adults will be announced in January. Before that announcement the CCOCM Personnel Committee wanted to update the conference on the procedure.

The 2008 Annual Conference voted to have the job descriptions approved by the CCOCM before the interview and hiring process could begin. Prior to the development of the job descriptions, listening sessions were conducted with the existing Children's Council, Youth Council, youth, workers with youth, young adults, and interested persons. These listening sessions refined the direction of the CCOCM and lead to the development of the job descriptions approved on September 25th.

A national search was conducted for both positions. Ten resumes were submitted for the Children and Family position and the Personnel Committee picked four applicants for interviews. The President and Vice- President of the Youth Council were added to the Personnel Committee and were valuable participants in the selection and interview process. Thirty-eight resumes were submitted for the Youth and Young Adult position and five persons were selected for interviews.

Opal Ransom, Chair of the CCOCM Personnel Committee, said, "We have sought to be fair in the hiring process and I am very pleased with the candidates we have selected."

i am pretty close to these situations, so i was at first confused.. why give an announcement that you are going to announce seven days (at least) from now? especially when holding off information got in the way of the original process that has led us all the way to here.

for those that do not remember, i became the face and an undermining voice (in some opinions) with my position at conference youth coordinator and this blog here, not to mention all the various social networks that i am a part of or created, when our conference office terminated both our youth & children's positions at the conference level for a joint position. part of that firestorm came because communication was not in a timely manner, ie. now. people were not getting information from the office so they talked to whomever they could, and sometimes just created stuff. i have taken some responsibility for some of the information that went out, partly because i wasn't being called or communicated with either. i did, as i do, tried to convey as much information without telling people what to think. i never told someone what to write or call and say,.. anyways, thats old news i care not to relive. i have pissed off some people, made some new fans, become fan of many people, and all in the name of holding together our conference youth ministries. since we went from a joint ministry person to a full-time person (which is actually an improvement from where we were) i consider our groundswell of people to have some element of success. but as with anything like this, no one wins happily.

back to my initial confusion.

what is in this news alert is true. i can speak for the youth portion of this process. myself, opal, loyd, brad (the new incoming youth coordinator back during all this) and an assortment of youth, young adults, and youth leaders got together a number of times to talk about ministries in the conference area. we dreamed up some big stuff and challenged each other. we then produced a document based on that which contained some plans, a description of sorts, and some goals to hit for an incoming person. no one asked me to be on the personnel group to go over candidates, knowing my track record with some of the people, i didn't expect to be invited either. i know who we hired and i am very content with that decision. i have also known who we hired for the children's position, which i am indifferent about that. from the children people i've communicated with, they know too.

what our conference leadership needs to learn from this (and i know you read this), is that appropriate communication is needed. now 'appropriate' is a perception term, so let me share that the perception is 'now' or like yesterday. no, its not fair all the time, but with people finding out that there was a plane crash or terrorist attack via hyper news outlets as twitter acts frequently, people are only going to be more expectant of information they care about quickly. going days weeks, months, without saying anything is giving your audience license to create and say whatever they need to fill their information gaps. you allow people like me to speak & give words to others opinions, which may or may not be a good thing. bad communication undermines peoples confidence in you and your mission.

a great case in point in the obama campaign using various tools to keep people, in the know. their only slip up seemed to be when the txt updates for vp candidate were lost in a huge database of people that the news got to burst the story before millions got their message. he's keeping to that communication commitment by doing weekly 'fireside' chats via youtube talking about what/why of some of his decisions. wonder if he will share why he's chosen rick warren?

this process has gone on for over 9 months now, its time to say something. name people and lets move on.

things on tab : stories sex religion church teens and technology

as part of my new integration of lifestream stuff into my blogs newer look. i've been plugging a lot of stuff into my gavin del.icio.us account. so you can track back to these and other links of interest long after this posting (and others) have cycled out of view. i'm working on figuring out how i like stumbleupon or digg.

• simply my favorite story of a teenager & faith that i've read in a long time. here is his official website & a powerful youtube video testimony
• in similar news, jolly blogger announces he has cancer
• a big deal with the episcopalian church break up is, what to do with the property? the umc has the same set up, so this is interesting news for me.
• the wifey wanted me to read this.. its true, i have bad sleeping habits. sage advice?
• i'd say this is pretty darn cool for perkins school of theology
• poor pastor, at least he's got his congregation
• muslim teenagers growing up in america. not so easy to keep to traditional rules
• 10 questions that separate girls from women.. how do you answer?
• some united methodist churches talk merger
• inside of the bernard madoff's 'scam of the century' (though, this century is kinda young)
• phyllis tickle and peter rollins talk emergence shop
• a lot of folks upset or happy about rick warren doing the invocation. this one caught my eye though. ben witherington always has a thorough thought on the subject
• if you missed my sex week challenge article
• reverend mommy's prayer musings and her last supper lunch box
• locking down your own data
• turbulent cleric on reimagining the world a sermon of sorts
• asbo jesus at it again
• sky lowe mccracken highlights the troubles of a methodist university
• chris brogan on the distinctions of a blog post versus twitter post & how to see that in the whole social media spectrum
• is a green shift in home ownership going to save economic times?
• jason's many hats
• newspapers are still figuring out the whole conversation thing, by techcrunch
• top 10 photography tips and tricks plus why you should shoot in raw format
• josh's guide to God blessed college football bowl games

youth marketing trends : ministry still applies

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: teens kids)

the part that caught my eye first was #4, marketing is no longer something that you do 'to' youth but 'with' youth. sounds like relationships, which should be at the heart of ministry.

last minute toy store : getting filmed by the news

Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

i am actually amazed this photo turned out so well. took with my cell phone which is not the best of cameras, while standing on the front steps doing crowd control.

this is one of my senior hs and college guys getting filmed by fox news helping to take items to peoples cars who were helped by the last minute toy store. i'll be heading back there again today. i'm just running a little late.

i don't know if it made it onto the news or not. this was the article they have online about the last minute toy store.

family heirloom : prayer station video

this is a prayer station idea that didn't make the cut onto my worship feast prayer stations cdrom. this features my bud jonathon with a few kids talking about 'family heirlooms.' i think it didn't make the cut cause jonathon's voice got lost in the space, so volume might have to be turned up. you can still hear clearly enough, promise.

Family Heirlooms : Prayer Station from Gavin Richardson.

you can purchase the worship feast prayer stations cdrom amazon : cokesbury

prayer stations slideshow : a photo share

for a workshop i did yesterday with our youth ministry institute participants i shared this slide show of some of the prayer stations i've constructed over the years. i have more ideas in written form at my prayer station index. i will also be working in the next few weeks to clean up my data so i will probably run across some other 'pre-blogging' experiences that i will post.

warmth in winter : our undignified promo

i am moving most of my video stuff over to vimeo. the quality seems to be better in replaying videos than youtube and since youtube decided to throw in the search bar (lame) it seems an okay time to go elseware. this particular video is a promo video we threw together for our upcoming massive youth retreat, 'warmth in winter,' its the largest event of the tennessee conference of the umc.


Warmth in Winter 2009 : Undignified from Gavin Richardson on Vimeo.

david crowder band : national youth workers convention

David Crowder Band : NYWC '08
Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

its been a busy day, we had a run on walk-ins at the labyrinth so i missed out on mark yaconelli and the morning session. its okay, he forgave me.

been uploading some of the photos from last nights session, this is one from david crowder band that i liked. you can check out more from the national youth workers convention here.

labyrinth : nywc '08

Labyrinth : NYWC '08
Originally uploaded by gavoweb.

just a quick posting of a photo of the labyrinth where i am working a bunch for this national youth workers convention. at the moment it is quiet as folks are at the first general session. business will pick back up in a little while. till then, get gander at more of my photos from nywc '08 in nashville.

you can follow the crazy twitter action as well, or live general sessions if you like.

national youth worker convention : day one, set up day

today was set up day for much of the national youth workers convention. i was part of the labyrinth team, which is a first for me. i'm pretty excited to be a part of what folks experience within the lines of the labyrinth. this particular one is called the 'prayer path' which has guided audio. i don't particularly care for that part of it, i'm a classical labyrinth guy. this one is considered a contemporary labyrinth as well. i went though this labyrinth for the first time some 6 years ago & it was a powerful experience.

after finishing up with most of the labyrinth we got our lunch on, nothing major there. we did a major exploration of the various sauces available to you at chick-fil-a.

once we were back it was sanctuary set up time with lilly lewin. this proved more difficult than imagined. the room was sorta ordinary but with a bunch of doors and angles it was hard to make some focal points that didn't look out of place. some rigged up drapes & a few moves of our main altar we think we found a spot that evokes a little bit of the spirit for the many contemplative practices and hours of prayer.

ran into some great folks today, which is the highlight from getting to set up & prepare sacred spaces. eli roogles & i got reacquainted. we first met last year after being like the only two peeps who twittered the convention at that time (there are a lot more now). i got to meet jenn roogles too who mistakenly thought i was the drummer for the david crowder band last year (he must get mistaken for jack black too). finally, after i don't know how many years, i got to meet andy thompson when he & adam mclane stopped by the labyrinth to say hi. ran into old tennessee pal john stephens on the street, then in front of the ys store. on the way out i got a quick chat & hug with mike king as he was doing his traditional 'walk the crowd.' lastly, but who i didn't get to spend time with was chad crawford who is from the baptist church in my church's town. the neat story with chad, is that he & his family were displaced from hurricane katrina & he was the youth leader that was brought to nywc and given the royal treatment by the ys folks last time the convention was in nashville. he's a cool guy, but i needed to meet with some other folks to get my car out of a parking garage. there are other fine folks i ran into and met,

home now

check out my flickr set from the nywc '09 nashville for some more images of the convention

national youth worker convention : tweet it up

today starts the national youth workers convention for me, or for short nywc. its here in nashville and i am helping out with the labyrinth though the week. i am pretty excited for that one. i will be twittering my time there as well as live blogging what i can. put in here in my twitter feed, but you can also check out the twitter feed from everyone else.

nywc tweet up

follow me on Twitter

for those visiting here check out my post on places to eat.

national youth worker convention : places to eat

andy, is doing the live blogging for the ys blog, and has posted some nashville eat spots. here are some of my places i would suggest to go for those stopping in for the week for the national youth workers convention here in nashville.

• there is Provence up the road on Church street, near there is a Quiznos and Subway for the quick bite.
• go to the Arcade at least once while you are in Nashville, http://urlzen.com/38a (don’t mind the loop, these are driving directions. you can turn right and walk down the alley)
• If you are driving around, I suggest stopping by Nicks Italian Deli on 5th, its up the road behind the area from the convention center. http://urlzen.com/38c
• for a truly unique lunch visit. Visit Alektor Cafe & Books to Paradise. Be blessed by the an orthodox pastor & his family, not to mention some great food and atmosphere. http://urlzen.com/38d
• those would be some suggestions i have in addition to andy’s.
• check out old music row, i suggest The Tin Roof, their quesadilla's are really good. pressed sandwiches are equally good. http://urlzen.com/38e
• beyond that, just walk around 2nd ave and broadway sticking your head into places. i prefer Mulligans Pub on 2nd. get something different, plus they have live music at nights. http://urlzen.com/38f

belonging 2.0 : thoughts on community & technology with andrew zirschky

i was trying to get kenda creasy dean for a speaking engagement some time back. turns out we have all kinds of circles of friends but never met. in our conversations she mentioned that i needed to get to know this guy named andrew zirschky who is one of princeton theological seminary : institute on youth ministry's phd students. he was into tech stuff as you might have notices that i am as well.

in the latest cloud of witnesses cd, which is a free resource youth ministry folks need to get plugged in with, andrew has a section called belonging 2.0: youth, technology, and community. he has some well framed thoughts that, i feel, are valuable to follow. its about 12 minutes long and is almost 15 megabytes in size.

Belonging 2.0: Youth, Technology, and Community

some time ago : reminiscing the blog

as part of my forth year of blogging i'm digging into the archives..

apparently four years ago i really discovered the joys of wireless, so strange to think of life without wireless now.

some three years ago jonathon and i put our monastic worship'y skills to the test with a service for the general board of discipleships young adult summit. best part about that, when we did the dramatic 'slam' and cut off the music someone put out gasping 'oh s%#!.' that was a worship first for me.

i finally finished 7 days with thomas merton and his complexities of war & peace. i don't remember that being a very popular post series, but it sure was fruitful in my spiritual life.

cooler still, three years ago i was blogging my days at the last national youth workers convention in nashville. day one i helped set up prayer stations with lilly lewin and others. day two was finishing up prayer stations and then overall observations of the conventions. day three i played hookie & day four was more about personal prayer time and my buddy eric coomer. day five continued a trend of skipping things, but was more centered around my day with spiritual director.

two years ago this might have been the coolest collaboration in a long time

youth room remodel : story of a pew

we are finishing up our third phase of our reimagine project at hendersonville first united methodist church. what started out at remodeling some of our space became 'thecorner' our reimagined youth ministry.

we are excited about the changes and lots of good things are happening. yesterday we had an open house for the greater church community and our elder pastor told a story about the pews we had. we bought these pews from beersheba assembly grounds. they were sitting in the basement of their old chapel on the property.

as the story goes, a pastor in that area built these as a start to having a school up on the plateau. so not only is it neat to use some old furnishing and give them new life, but to have something that reflected the church's mission to reach out to those in need is pretty cool to me.

more photos from our reimagined project & finishing up youth room remodel

youth room view : almost there!

youth room view from the stage
Originally uploaded by hfumcyouth

we are in the closing stages of our 2nd to last phase of our reimagining project for our youth space and youth program. its been a longer road than i hoped but its coming together nicely. today we received our new chairs, which i'm stoked about. i wasn't so stoked having to haul them into the building and up three flights of stairs, but its hard to get help at 8am in the morning on short notice. its done now & my sweat is starting to clear away. off now to get photos for our walls. we have black & white gallery going in and then will also have photos from our last year of ministry.

shades of a youth room : new carpet

New Carpet
Originally uploaded by hfumcyouth

so today is the start of new carpet in our youth room. tomorrow these guys should finish it. as you may see, it's a drastic change from before. we are using a commercial grade recycled carpet. commercial in that it is low pile (thin) with a hard rubber bottom. it only needs to be vacuumed regularly and steam cleaned once a year. the recycle part comes that it uses recycled carpet materials. next week get our chairs, which i am excited about.

playing around : president 2028

we were doing some lighting things for an eventual (hopeful) video. johnathan & i thought this looked like a campaign poster.. so we made it one.