Category: The Church
An Update from New Jersey…
Jason Reed is the synod staff person for youth ministry in the New Jersey Synod of the ELCA. He lives in Mount Holly, New Jersey. Jason is a member of the ELCAYMNet and the SYMBOL (Synod Youth Ministry Band of Leaders) Network, and a strong advocate for young people within the congregations of his synod. ...
Network Board Gathers Today
Today, members of the Network’s Board of Directors are traveling to Denver, Colorado for their annual fall meeting. The vision, direction and policies of the Network are overseen by this Board. Seven individuals are called to serve in this role, and meet for prayer, discernment, visioning and policy setting three times a year. The Network ...
CYF Internships: A Snapshot
In the past 6 weeks or so, we’ve done an online survey of Network members asking about how people use interns in their children, youth and family ministry. The results of these surveys, while I wouldn’t call them ‘statistically significant,’ have been interesting and seemed worth sharing. Please note that this survey was not referring ...
TEDTalk: “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”
A brilliant TED Talk that is too good not to share. My killer line: “There are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders are persons of authority. Those who lead are persons of passion.” Worth watching. Interesting implications for our ministry. I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on this below… Thanks to ...
Thinking about Vocation: ThinkMinistry.org
Part of our call as adults who work with young people is to watch for those who we think might have gifts to serve in ministry, and then to assist them in discerning their call, and encouraging them to develop their gifts to serve. Having just experienced the ELCA Youth Gathering (more about that later), ...
The 800 Pound Gorilla
I was talking with a friend who serves in a different congregation in a different state earlier in the week. He said that he was looking forward to the next couple of weeks with a sense of dread. “Why is that?” I asked. “Because it’s all going to be about the ELCA Youth Gathering. The ...
Kickstarter: Lost and Found
I received a note today on Facebook that made me catch my breath. Lost and Foundis Michael and George. They travel the country, performing and leading music in congregations and at events. They are good friends of the Network. The notification I received was about a new Kickstarter project that they are starting to help ...
Leadership Week
Network Leadership week is next week. Every spring, we link two of of our primary leadership teams together for back-to-back meetings. Beginning Sunday night, our Network Board will begin meeting in Chicago. They will finish up on Tuesday at noon. On Tuesday, our Regional Facilitators will begin meeting and will finish up on Thursday at ...
Praying
It is a simple word. Praying. But it means a lot. There was a another tragedy today, this time in Chardon, Ohio. A school shooting left (last I heard) 5 people wounded, one of whom died from the gunshot wounds. To be honest, I was in meetings today from 8:30am almost straight through until ...
Institutional Control
I have been wanting to write something about the crisis/fiasco at Penn State University for a few weeks. However, to be honest, I needed to give myself some time to get my mind wrapped around the strong emotional reaction I had when the details about the allegations began to surface. I react very very strongly ...
Network is a Verb 