Cool Website / Youth Ministry

Run, don't walk, over to this new site called NetVibes. I can't tell you much about it since I just started using it, and won't really configure it until tonight but it looks really cool, and it's FREE. I read about it in Slate (article here).
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An excerpt from a post that Kenny sent my way called Why I've Given Up On Youth Group:

I've always been frustrated with my youth group and youth groups in general. Am I completely knocking the youth group model of ministry? No. But, I do believe that it too often and too easily becomes a place to entertain. Youth group morphs into a social club disguised verbally as "fellowship time", exclusive cliques form, and God ceases to be the obvious focus. Once this happens, it's terribly difficult for the people deeply invested in the group to acknowledge.

This came from a blog written by a teenager growing up in the Methodist Church. The blog is called Take My Hand and it's author is named Natalie Stadnick. You might think that the post above, and quote in-particular would be discouraging to me. It isn't, but it is still convicting.

This post, and infact her entire blog is a reminder to me that there are young people out there who are capable and desire to have a transformative relationship with God. My struggle when I come in contact with those kids is that I generally feel like they will be ok if I don't end up being as focused on them as other kids who aren't as engaged. So I guess in someways I play to the lowest common denominator in an effort to not alienate those kids who aren't so keen on Jesus. Maybe that should be different. Maybe I should raise the stakes more not less. Perhaps the kids like Natalie have more power to pull those kids up than I ever would by playing down to them. Definitely something I am going to ponder.

The fact that this post came into my life is interesting in light of the fact that his weekend MCOC, Stamford, and Shiloh are co-sponsoring an event called Revolution. We are going to have some great worship time, a Christian illusionist, and a whole host of other activities. It's definitely not a Taize service, but it will be presenting the Gospel of Jesus in a way that kids will soon not forget. But after it's over I will definitely reflect on it through the lens of the post above and see if what we did was in-fact effective in bringing Jesus into the lives of these kids.