So you’ve watched the Reload 1.2.3 general sessions and waited with baited breath for the featured workshops to be posted online as well. Wait no more.

For more information on Reload 1.2.3, the first multi-state, multi-site urban youth ministry training event in the country that featured adult youth workers and more than sixty “plus-1 proteges” that occurred in New York and New Jersey on June 12, 2010, visit the Reload 1.2.3 homepage.

Featured Workshop 1: “Student-Led Student Ministry: Pipe Dream or Possible?”

It’s trendy for youth ministers to say, “Youth ministry is not about ministering to youth, but about empowering youth to minister,” but what does youth-led youth ministry actually look like? Experience youth ministry by young people as NYC students discuss recent student-led ministry models including God Belongs in My City, Kickin’ It Old Skool, Generation Xcel, and World Vision’s Youth Empowerment Project.

Facilitated by Enid Almanzar (Avenue of Hope Fellowship, Manhattan) and featuring student leaders: Eden Martinez (Abounding Grace Ministries, Manhattan), Johnny Navarro (No Limits International Church, Staten Island), Vanessa Medina (God Belongs in My City, Brooklyn), and Christopher Cortes (World Vision Youth Empowerment Project, Bronx)

Student-Led Student Ministry: Pipe Dream or Possible? from UYWI on Vimeo.

Featured Workshop 2: “Youth Ministry Beyond the Walls: Overcoming Injustices and Rebuilding Communities”

“I the Lord love justice” (Isaiah 61:8). How then can youth ministries lead the struggle to overcome injustices such as poverty, crime, institutionalization, and educational inequity that conspire everyday against urban youth and erode urban communities? What role can youth ministries play in restoring the shalom of our cities by advocating for and manifesting Biblical justice in the communities beyond our church walls?

Featuring Ruben Austria and Rachel Carrion, Community Connections for Youth

Youth Ministry Beyond the Walls: Overcoming Injustices and Rebuilding Communities” from UYWI on Vimeo.

What? You missed Reload 1.2.3? Never heard of a “Plus-1“? No worries. The general session videos are now available to watch online for FREE, and the featured workshops are coming soon. Enjoy the general sessions here.

Special thanks to our local Reload 1.2.3 sponsors American Bible Society, Nyack College Manhattan Campus, the YouthWorks Foundation, and 20/20 Vision for Schools for making the multi-site webcast possible. Thanks also to sponsors: Coalition of Urban Youth Workers, Urban Kingdom Youth Ministries, Revelation Generation, World Vision, DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative, and Here’s Life Inner City.

General Session 1: “Homegrown: The Leader”

Featuring: Jeremy Del Rio and Ryan Schlachter, 20/20 Vision for Schools; Mitchell Torres and Esmeralda Castellon, Harvest Fields Community Church; Efrain Figueroa and Reginald Renier, Glad Tidings Assembly of God; Larry Acosta, Urban Youth Workers Institute

RELOAD123 General Session 1 from UYWI on Vimeo.

General Session 2: “Hand-Off: The Legacy”

Featuring: Efrain “Brother E” Alicea, Elements Church; Joseph Henry Cortese, Crossroads Tabernacle; David Ham, Evangel Church; Andy “C-Lite” Mineo, Sin is Wack; Jay Cabassa, Elements Church; and the Reload 1.2.3 Worship Team

RELOAD123 General Session 2 from UYWI on Vimeo.

Here are just a few of the new or recently updated articles and resource pages in the Encyclopedia of Youth Ministry:

Education:  What causes schools to fail?

Religion:  Can the decline of faith among youth empower churches?

An updated Youth Ministry Resources Page, with two new great resources for those looking for training in Youth Ministry:

Updated bullying resource page:

New “health care” topic and overview page:  Universal health care or increased debt?

Nigerian Youth:  What causes violence?

How can we help youth adequately deal with grief?

“Crime/Criminal Justice” programs:  Does the DYS work?

Uganda and Homosexuality:  How far should we go to uphold Biblical principles?

Bullying Overview:  What is bullying and how can we respond to it?

A new bullying intervention program:  How can teens help counteract bullying?

Why must bullying be stopped?

“Subcultures”:  How far will teens go to express themselves?

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Updated resources page under the topic Troubled Youth:

Cyberbullying:   Is Technology Hurting our Youth?

What is Urban Youth Violence?

A Model of Program for Fighting Youth Violence:   Is Rehabilitation An Alternative to Prison?

Get updates when the Center for Youth posts new articles:  http://centerforyouth.blogspot.com/

UYWI was recently contacted by a representative of a new show & volunteer opportunity in the LA area.   This might be a fun service project to do with your youth group that would also allow you to connect  in a tangible way with the community.  Here’s how they described it:

“We are a new show that is very similar to Extreme Makeover, but instead of making over homes we are renovating public schools. We are going to be renovating 2 different public schools this summer in Los Angeles and we need A LOT of help. We need people to paint walls, pass out waters, move furniture, etc. We have room for everyone. The dates when we will need volunteers are June 30-July 7 when we will renovate the Los Angeles Center for Enrichment Studies and August 22-28 when we will renovate another school in Los Angeles (will be revealed tomorrow). All volunteers sign up online at www.schoolpridevolunteers.com.  To see a preview of our 2 hr special visit www.nbc.com/school-pride”

If you missed the national broadcast of Reload 1.2.3, here’s a flavor of the opening general session, introducing both the technology innovations and the concept of plus-1′s.

Broadcast Intro

Emcees: Ryan Schlachter & Jeremy Del Rio

[VIDEO INTRO: River Rush]

Ryan:

“Welcome to the national broadcast of RELOAD 1.2.3. My name is Ryan Schlachter and I’m a Plus-1. Yeah, I am contagious.

Whether you’re joining us live in Manhattan, Jersey City or watching online around the country, you’ll meet many other Plus-1’s today.  Hopefully, we’ll infect a lot more of you before the day is over.

What’s a Plus-1?

We are the next generation leaders, the fruit of the seeds planted by urban youth workers. That’s right. A chosen generation. A royal priesthood. Empowered by God to represent God’s Kingdom Legacy.  Wow…I like that.

We’re the future of youth ministry, and our future is NOW.

The Kingdom we represent upends convention and transcends what’s normal.  It proclaims good news to the poor and sets free the captive. It restores what’s been stolen and populates empty streets with homes that flourish. It mends broken hearts and fixes broken systems.

And it trusts people like me to change the world.

My generation has already changed the world.  That’s why this year, we have revolutionized Reload.  Here’s how.”

[VIDEO 2: Social Media Revolution]

Ryan:           

Thank you for helping us make youth ministry history today!

RELOAD 1.2.3 is the first multi-site, multi-state youth ministry training event ever.

One Conference. Two States. Three venues that marry the energy that comes when people of like mind and heart convene face-to-face … WITH the real-time interactivity social media provides when face-time isn’t always possible.

The Christian Post reported on Reload 1.2.3 last Monday. Here’s an excerpt:

Youth are being empowered in gangs and dying in the streets, yet Larry Acosta of Urban Youth Workers Institute finds many churches giving teens nothing more than the role of passing the offering plates every fifth Sunday.

“Are you kidding me?” he said during the institute’s youth worker training event, Reload 1.2.3. in Bronx, N.Y.

“You need to empower youth to lead with real ministry opportunities,” he exhorted. “I’m talking next generation leaders empower[ing] youth to teach Bible studies, to lead small groups.” …

“We want you to know that we believe in you,” he told next generation leaders. “We need you … to rise up and lead the church into the future. You’re alive at this time in history at such a time as this. We need you to help us complete the Great Commision in the cities, in the … neighborhoods, in the projects, in the parks, in the places where too many from my generation are afraid to go.”

Full article here.

One of the workshops during the national broadcast of Reload 1.2.3 examined four student-led youth ministries from New York City. Facilitated by Enid Almanzar (Avenue of Hope Fellowship, Manhattan) and featuring student leaders Eden Martinez (Abounding Grace Ministries, Manhattan), Johnny Navarro (No Limits International Church, Staten Island), Vanessa Medina (God Belongs in My City, Brooklyn), and Christopher Cortes (World Vision Youth Empowerment Project, Bronx), the workshop demonstrated what student-led ministry looks like. The following video captures some of the highlights, and concluded the session.

Why not here? Why not now?

Student Led Student Ministry: Possible from Jeremy Del Rio on Vimeo.

So you’re intrigued by the first ever multi-site youth worker training event in the country, and the interactivity it offers an audience, but traveling 3,000 miles from SoCal or 1,000 miles from Miami or X miles from your city to the Bronx, Manhattan, or Jersey City isn’t within your youth worker budget.

NO PROBLEM!

Join the conversation for FREE online, via the first UYWI conference to be fully webcast.

Free Live Webcast of Reload 1.2.3.

June 12th, from 9:30am – 3:30pm (Eastern Time) ~ 6:30am – 12:30pm (Pacific Time)

Go here for the live broadcast link Saturday morning

Engage the general session and featured workshop speakers with -

• Real-Time Q&A
• Survey Questions
• Live Twitter Stream (hashtag: #R123)

Jay Cabassa
Plus-1 Protege of Efrain Alicea (Reload 1.2.3 General Session Facilitator)

C-Lite
Plus-1 Protege of David Ham (Reload 1.2.3 Music Director)

Engage them all at RELOAD 1.2.3 June 12.

Related: What’s a Plus-1?

Meet Rachel Carrion, Board Member of Community Connections for Youth and “Plus-1″ protege of Ruben Austria. Rachel recently testified before Congress regarding the challenges girls face in New York State’s juvenile justice system.

Rachel and Ruben will co-lead the featured workshop, “Youth Ministry Beyond the Walls: Overcoming Injustices and Rebuilding Communities” at Reload 1.2.3 in New York and New Jersey on June 12. They describe their session:

“I the Lord love justice” (Isaiah 61:8). How then can youth ministries lead the struggle to overcome injustices such as poverty, crime, institutionalization, and educational inequity that conspire everyday against urban youth and erode urban communities? What role can youth ministries play in restoring the shalom of our cities by advocating for and manifesting Biblical justice in the communities beyond our church walls?

As a featured workshop, Beyond the Walls be be live in the Bronx and simulcast to the venues in Manhattan and New Jersey — meaning no matter where you experience Reload 1.2.3 you can hear more of Rachel’s story and even engage with her during the session using technology like Twitter, text message questions, and live surveys.

You’ll meet lots of Plus-1 proteges at Reload 1.2.3. Plus-1′s are emerging student leaders who have been empowered by their adult mentors and the Reload 1.2.3 Host Committee to demonstrate real leadership on June 12. Every adult involved in the Reload 1.2.3 program, whether as speakers, worship leaders, or trainers, will integrate Plus-1 proteges into the program in an attempt to model what students empowered for ministry actually look like.

Thanks, Rachel, for showing the way!

June 8 is the last chance to pre-register for Reload 1.2.3 online at a discount. Register today.

With live workshops at three locations simultaneously, featuring adult trainers and Plus-1 proteges, RELOAD 1.2.3 promises to include more trainers than any RELOAD ever.

Below is the just released RELOAD 1.2.3 Workshop Speaker List, by venue. For Workshop Descriptions, go here.

Remember, each workshop will include fully integrated Plus-1 proteges. Why? To show, not tell, what empowered youth leaders look like.

REGISTER ONLINE

FEATURED WORKSHOPS
Live in the Bronx and simulcast to other venues

• [101]  Student-Led Student Ministry: Pipe Dream or Possible? Facilitated by Enid Almanzar, youth pastor Avenue of Hope Fellowship and senior manager, Outreach Programs, American Bible Society
  
• [101]  Youth Ministry Beyond the Walls: Overcoming Injustices and Rebuilding Communities: Ruben Austria, executive director Community Connections for Youth

CROSSROADS TABERNACLE, BRONX
1320 Castle Hill Avenue, Bronx, NY 10462‎ – (718) 904-0202‎ (Map it)

• [101] Reaching High-Risk Youth, Dimas Salaberrios, senior pastor Infinity NY Church and NYC director Youth for Christ
• [101]  The First Two Years of Urban Youth Ministry (2-Part), Larry Acosta (workshop author), president Urban Youth Workers Institute
• [101]  Don’t Waste Your Creativity: Writing Inspiring Lessons that Challenge the Heart, Anthony Perez, youth pastor Friday Night Life and creative director Atone of Hip Hop
• [201]  Prophetic Youth Ministry: A Holistic Model for the Urban Context, Din Tolbert, youth pastor Greater Allen Cathedral
• [201]  Stress in the City: Beating Burnout in Urban Ministry, Nicole Baker, executive director Boro Pregnancy Counseling Center
• [301]  Youth Ministry = Team Ministry: Keys to Building Local Youth Events and Regional Coalitions, Joel Sanabria, president Youth Outcry
• [301]  Moving From Youth Ministry to Community Transformation (2-Part), Louis Carlo, associate pastor Abounding Grace Ministries and adjunct professor of urban youth ministry Alliance Theological Seminary
• [301] Mission Critical: Reaching a Generation One School at a Time, Edwin Pacheco, associate pastor Gateway City Church and director Youth Rock
• [401]  Youth-Adult Partnerships:  Mobilizing Your Youth as Agents of Change (2-Part), David Serrano, youth development specialist World Vision NY

FOUNTAIN OF SALVATION CHURCH, JERSEY CITY
324 Communipaw Avenue, Jersey City, NJ‎ – (201) 435-0009‎ (Map it)

• [101]  Reaching High-Risk Youth: Daniel Sanabria, youth pastor Crossover Youth Ministry and co-founder God Belongs in My City
• [101]  The First Two Years of Urban Youth Ministry (2-Part): Ken Bobe, senior pastor No Limits International Church and veteran youth minister
• [101]  Don’t Waste Your Creativity: Writing Inspiring Lessons that Challenge the Heart: Luis Fernandez, youth pastor Fountain of Salvation Church and regional coordinator of Especialidades Juveniles
• [201]  Prophetic Youth Ministry: A Holistic Model for the Urban Context: Efrain Mercado, youth pastor Soul Purpose Youth Ministries
• [201]  Stress in the City: Beating Burnout in Urban Ministry: Jacob Burgei, youth pastor Faith Gen Youth Church
• [301]  Youth Ministry = Team Ministry: Keys to Building Local Youth Events and Regional Coalitions, Jack Redmond (workshop author), youth pastor Christ Church and founder Fourth Generation Ministries
• [301]  Moving From Youth Ministry to Community Transformation (2-Part), Pastors Michael and Maria Westbrook, Greater Life Community Center Newark
• [301] Mission Critical: Reaching a Generation One School at a Time, Rohin Beach, youth pastor St. Luke’s Baptist Church of Paterson
• [401]  Youth-Adult Partnerships:  Mobilizing Your Youth as Agents of Change (2-Part), Matthew Belgie, World Vision US

NYACK COLLEGE MANHATTAN CAMPUS
361 Broadway, between Leonard and Franklin Streets, New York, NY 10013 (Map it)

• [101] Reaching High-Risk Youth, Andre Jones, youth pastor New Greater Bethel Ministries
• [101]  The First Two Years of Urban Youth Ministry (2-Part), Paul Coty, New York City director Young Life
• [101]  Don’t Waste Your Creativity: Writing Inspiring Lessons that Challenge the Heart, Chris Durso, youth pastor Youth Explosion Ministries
• [201]  Prophetic Youth Ministry: A Holistic Model for the Urban Context, Dr. Fernado Arzola (workshop author), dean Nyack College of Arts and Sciences
• [201]  Stress in the City: Beating Burnout in Urban Ministry, Greg Lucas, youth pastor New Light Baptist Church
• [301]  Youth Ministry = Team Ministry: Keys to Building Local Youth Events and Regional Coalitions, Kevin Young, New York City director Student Venture
• [301]  Moving From Youth Ministry to Community Transformation (2-Part), Jose Humphreys, MSW, pastor Metro Hope Church and Mayra Humphreys, MSW, professor Nyack College
• [301] Mission Critical: Reaching a Generation One School at a Time, Walter Sotelo director New York Gospel Outreach
• [401]  Youth-Adult Partnerships:  Mobilizing Your Youth as Agents of Change (2-Part), Denise Hykes, youth development specialist World Vision NY

REGISTER ONLINE

RELOAD 1.2.3 HOME PAGE

LOCAL SPONSORS

• NYACK College
•  American Bible Society
• YouthWorks Foundation
•  The Coalition of Urban Youth Workers
•  20/20 Vision for Schools
•  Urban Kingdom Youth Ministries
•  World Vision
•  Here’s Life Inner City
•  DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative

To all my youth worker friends and colleagues in Greater NYC/NJ/CT:

Help give every youth worker in the tri-state area a meaningful opportunity to attend Reload 1.2.3 — the best value for their training dollar — by insuring adequate info with adequate notice. Here are 10 simple ways you can help spread the word.

EMAIL: Everyone should be receiving weekly RELOAD 1.2.3 emails from UYWI. Each week, the emails have a different focus.

• ACTION 1: Forward those emails from UYWI to our own email groups so that people we are connected to will also receive the information about RELOAD.
• ACTION 2: If you are not receiving Reload 1.2.3 emails from UYWI, please email your name, email address, and zip code to Julie at UYWI dot org.

WEBSITE: The event website has a wealth of information at http://uywi.org/reload123 including the RELOAD schedule, workshop descriptions, directions, and more.

• ACTION 3: Please direct people to the website to print a brochure and to get complete information.
• ACTION 4: Download printable fliers, animated GIFs, and more to empower you to help promote as well.

Social Networks: Leverage Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc. to get the word out about RELOAD 1.2.3. Social networking gets information out quickly and many people.  Direct people to the information by sending them links back to http://uywi.org/reload123.

• ACTION 5: Tag yourself on the Reload pics at FB page and use one as your profile pic
• ACTION 6: Invite FB and MySpace friends to the Reload 1.2.3 event
• ACTION 7: “Share” FB event details by posting on walls, tagging friends in Notes, etc.
• ACTION 8: Re-tweet Reload 1.2.3 tweets (or create your own) and use the Twitter hashtag #R123 to catalog them

MAILINGS: The final print mailing was shipped on Friday (5/7/10).  Extra brochures have been sent to to the host venues for redistribution. Arrange pickup from the nearest venue. Or

• ACTION 9: If you would like to arrange additional printing for your own distribution, please email kunstruct at gmail dot com.

VIDEOS: Post personal endorsement videos online at youtube, vimeo, FB, Myspace, etc about why Reload 1.2.3 is important, what RELOAD is all about, youth ministry networking, etc.

• ACTION 10: After posting videos to your personal pages, email links to genxcel at gmail dot com AND andy at uywi dot org so we know where to find them.  We may post some to the RELOAD New York website.

The May 2010 issue of Charisma magazine features “The Gospel and Marvin Gaye” about the intersection (or too often lack thereof) between worship and justice. Co-authors Jeremy Del Rio and Louis Carlo are both featured trainers at UYWI’s upcoming Reload 1.2.3 event in NY and NJ on June 12, and Pastor Lou is also leading worship (and justice!) at the Bronx venue.

Here’s a taste of the article.

The soundtrack that accompanied heaven’s greatest lyrics—the Word made flesh (see John 1:14)—bears little resemblance to popular songs we sing in our churches. When Jesus came and lived among us, His manner of doing so invited shame and ridicule, not material bounty.

He lived among us as a child of poverty (born in a barn); political refugee (in Egypt); social pariah (survivor of a capital crime: unmarried pregnancy); ghetto immigrant (“What good comes from Nazareth?”); and blue-collar worker (carpenter) who was a subject of an imperialistic colonizer (Rome). …

Jesus’ mission to bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind and liberty to the oppressed should define our worship, be it expressed in music or lifestyle. Music, because we feel it, penetrates our hearts and stimulates a response. It ennobles ideas, emotes passion and defines eras. Gaye’s opus reminds us of that.

Reflecting Christ’s purpose through our lives will require the courage to break free from convention, perceive the new things God is doing in our midst and zealously pursue them.

Read the full article here.

Register for Reload 1.2.3 here.

The greatest value for the youth ministry training dollar returns to the NY/NJ metro area June 12.

Greater NY youth workers are already familiar with Reload, the best-of-class, one-day training experience offered by Urban Youth Workers Institute (UYWI) in 20+ cities each year. Metro New York has hosted Reload for 4 of the last 5 years, in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Each of the last 3 years the region has set the attendance mark for Reload nationally, with more than 900 gathering last year at Christ Tabernacle in Queens.

This year, Greater New York and New Jersey will innovate Reload 1.2.3.

In UYWI’s ongoing effort to make quality training accessible to grassroots youth workers close to where they minister and at a price they can afford, NY/NJ will host the first multi-site, multi-state Reload conference on June 12, 2010. That’s right:

* 1 Conference
* 2 States
* 3 Sites

Even more exciting, Reload 1.2.3 will demonstrate what empowered youth leadership looks like as emerging leaders will be integrated into every aspect of the day.

Register today. $20 in April. $25 in May. $30 at the Door.

Download the E-blast flier

WHEN & WHAT?

Saturday // May 15
Join 1,500 students in prayer walking the schools near you.

Sunday // May 16
Invite your congregation to adopt 1 school within walking distance of the church for regular prayer and service.

Monday // May 17
Commission students to return meaningful, student-led prayer and service to schools.

FOR MORE INFO AND TO REGISTER

Register for I Am My School here.

If you had trouble registering for RELOAD Houston or Minneapolis, please try again now. Some problems were brought to our attention but they are now fixed.

www.uywi.org/reload-houston
www.uywi.org/reload-minneapolis

Tomorrow, Thursday April 15th, is the Early Bird Deadline. The conference cost is $79 right now, but after Thursday it will go up to $99. Are you coming?

The Encyclopedia of Youth Ministry continues to grow.  Here are just a few articles and pages that have been recently added or updated (3/27/2010).  

Browse the full Encyclopedia.

Articles

• Think Adults are the Only People Affected by the Economy? Summer Employment Opportunities for Youth are Also Greatly Diminished.
• How can Christian Ministry to youth happen outside church walls?
• Can film and other forms of media be used to highlight issues of race and racial tensions

Violence

• Think Domestic Violence only Includes Physical Abuse, and that it Only Happens to Adults? Think again
• How Can we Work to Prevent Violence in our Streets?
• “LA Gang Tours to Offer Gritty Exposure to Inner City’s ‘ground zero.’” from the Los Angeles Times.

Family

• Can You Remember The Last Time your Family had a Meal Together? Book Discusses The Positive Influences of Sharing a Meal.
• Is coaching a viable alternative to family therapy?

Education

• Do Charter Schools Work? An Innovative Approach to Education in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
• Think Chronic Absence in Public Schools is Only an Issue in High School? Think Again. A study finds the Importance of Addressing Chronic Absence in Early Grades for Later Learning.

Injustice & Slavery

• Will slavery ever stop?   (Book Review: “Not for Sale:  The Return of the Global Slave Trade and How We Can Fight It”)
• Is there a need for modern-day abolitionists?
• What can be done to put an end to the gross mistreatment and murder of females in cultures which place a high value on males?
• Is Reconciliation possible in the wake of such atrocities as the South African Apartheid?
• “Girls Rescued from Sex Trade Have Few Options” from the Los Angeles Times.

New/Updated Topics

• A Domestic Violence Resource Page
• Trauma topic (overview) /  Trauma Resources
• Texting
• Fatherhood Overview (updated)
• Relationships Overview

Country-Specific Information

• India Overview Page /  Indian Youth
• Ghana Overview Ghanian Youth
• Honduras Overview / Honduran Youth
• Mexico Overview
• Sierra Leone Overview / The Sierra Leonnian War and its Effect on Youth
• Mozambique Overview

Did you miss today’s Webinar? Watch the recorded broadcast here:

By Leneita Fix

About four years ago a good friend of mine from The Acts 2 Ministry in Roanoke, VA called me with a proposition. “Do you think that I could bring a couple of our inner city youth, to serve in your city for a week?” She had this brilliant idea to help students to see that often times the city, is just that the city. In order to move her youth beyond themselves, she thought that it might help to get them serving somewhere close by.

It worked!! They came and helped out with a program that we were running in a local public housing project.

I remember one afternoon some of the small kids were teasing another “friend” for being poor. They were taunting him because he didn’t have any food to eat. He was dishing “their business” right back at them as the other children probably didn’t have much more. They were just better at hiding it was the reality. That night the youth from Roanoke and a couple more of us were sitting around the table. They were recounting the story and how they didn’t really know how to “break it up.”

Without really paying attention, I just started to sort of “get on my soapbox.” about how so many are just trying to survive. Rather than genuinely helping each other, they are taught to “protect” themselves by not letting “anyone know their business.” If they could just share in each other’s needs then maybe they wouldn’t feel so alone. I looked over to find one of the teens sitting stoically with a single tear rolling down her cheek. Compassion overwhelmed me. “What’s wrong?” I asked. She replied, “There have been so many times when I have gone to bed hungry too. I know how they feel. I have to help them.”

This same young woman went on to spend two summers with my family. She raised support and came down to serve by working in local days camps in inner city Florida. Next fall she will go to college. She wants to work in urban ministry with children. She wants them to see that Christ is bigger than their problems.

Aslan Youth Ministries in Red Bank, NJ has been taking urban youth to Haiti for missions’ trips for over 13 years. There is story after story of youth going to the country and coming back radically changed. One young woman said to me once, “I used to think it mattered that I didn’t have the right sneakers. Then I met people who have no shoes at all. What I love about Aslan is the time that they take to prepare the youth for the trip. Understanding that these are youth who have often never left their city block, much less ride in an airplane, they help to get them ready physically and emotionally for the trip. Everything, right down to the reality that they will be hot and eat goat meat is covered. They take youth to help with building projects, work in day camps with children, serve in small medical clinics and work with children in a local orphanage. Youth who have gone on this trip have returned inspired to be Army chaplains, nurses and missionaries.

These are two examples of ways that you can help your youth to physically go and do something. Try partnering with a city to see if you can switch off taking youth to serve in another location. Youth Works takes youth to serve on building projects in rural areas, and internationally as well. Contact Aslan, as they are familiar in taking urban youth international. Even if you are not interested in Haiti, they can help you with fundraising ideas and ways to prepare your students to go abroad.

The key to remember is that the problems of the world are not going to be solved overnight. Don’t panic. Slow down. The goal is to help students to think about the world beyond their front door. Really, it as an issue of the heart. Poverty usually has little to do with economics. Helping them to move from “survive” to “thrive” will help to shape them truly into the next generation of leaders taking the world for Christ. Go “glocal!” Help your youth to be local while caring on a global level. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is life and joy.” Proverbs 13:12 (NLT) In a world so full of hurt part of seeing dreams come true is to show youth that the Lord has a purpose and a plan for those all over the world.

In UYWI’s ongoing effort to make youth ministry training resources more accessible to urban youth workers, we forged a partnership in 2009 with “Jesus, Justice, and Technology” innovators Techmission to digitize all of our available training content dating back to 2001 and include it in their growing UrbanMinistry.org resource library. As of this month, 700+ resources are available for FREE to anyone wishing to grow in their youth ministry capacity.

Thanks to Youth Specialties for celebrating this resource with us. Here is the case study they published as part of their “Free for All: A Leap Forward in Training Youth Leaders” article. Read the full article here.

A Case Study for Training Innovation

In February 2010, Urban Youth Workers Institute (UYWI) reshaped the landscape of youth ministry training in collaboration with faith-filled technology innovators TechMission.

UYWI has been training leaders of young people in America’s largest cities since 1997. Birthed by Boomer and Gen X youth workers convened at a series of summits in the mid-90s, the early days of UYWI looked programmatically like most other youth ministry training organizations except packaged and formatted for a distinctly “urban” audience. Conferences and training events defined UYWI’s program model. Excellent production and reliable content, combined with subsidized pricing that considered the economic realities of largely volunteer youth leaders, quickly propelled UYWI as the leading brand for urban youth ministry training.

But youth ministry is an inherently transitory profession, so Millenials began swelling the ranks of youth workers in the early 2000s. Combined with the economic downturn that began in 2008, UYWIembraced the need to innovate a low-cost, scalable training delivery system once again.

Enter TechMission, a Boston-based technology firm that exists to unite “Jesus, Justice, and Technology” since 2000. At first their mission focused on overcoming the digital divide that existed through the first several decades of personal computing and throughout the 90s. But as technology became cheaper and more accessible in the early 2000s, they turned their attention to building a low-cost platform to connect like-minded urban leaders to share resources, ideas, and best practices for scalable Kingdom results.

To that end, they launched UrbanMinistry.org in 2008.  Over the last two years, UrbanMinistry.org has grown into the largest digital library of holistic ministry training content anywhere in the world. With TechMission’s leadership, partners such as Christian Community Development Association, Salvation Army, World Vision, and others have emptied their shelves of formerly proprietary content to build a 70,000 volume (and growing) library of resources freely received and freely given for Kingdom impact.

This month, UYWI became the first urban youth ministry training brand to invest in TechMission’s open source training delivery system, digitizing all available content dating back to 2001 as part of the UrbanMinistry.org library. Their shared conviction: Why leave the content packaged in obsolete formats and mostly unused in archived storage facilities when it could be digitized and utilized at relatively low-cost for generations to come?

For those who worry that freely giving away the goods is not financially sustainable, consider Google, iTunes, Facebook, YouTube, and thousands of Web 2.0 business models that give freely far more content than they sell. Quality services freely distributed to meet felt needs generates credibility that allows providers to monetize specialized services.

Kudos to Larry Acosta of UYWI and Andrew Sears of TechMission and their teams for pioneering what it means to share ideas and training resources in the Information Economy. Here’s to hoping other youth ministry trainers follow their lead.

The tragedy in Haiti as well as others around the world is very real and large. We have been working for the last couple of weeks on teaching our students how to care. We are now ready to help your students to respond, what do we do?

A ministry that is very close to my heart is Urban Youth Impact (UYI), in West Palm Beach Florida. This organization recognized that we must take the time to first acknowledge the hurts of the students of our city. Then they began to help them see how to care. Once this had been accomplished they started by helping students to see the needs in their own community.

This began with simple things like:

1. Taking students on day to “clean up the streets.” Helping them to care about their own city block and keep it clean of litter and debris.

2. Their choir would visit local nursing homes and others to sing and bring some cheer.

3. Bringing meals to shut-ins.

4. Making gift baskets, cards and crafts for others in their community.

5. Helping to fix-up the home of a neighbor.

The goal was to begin on that “glocal” level. This meant that they cared locally and began to help students see that the rest of the world is not so far away. The world has become “flat.” This means that we live in an age unlike any other when it is possible to give our youth practical ways to genuinely bring help to the rest of the world. With technology like television, the Internet and the “3G” network we are able to see and respond unlike any other time in history. We are without excuse to help our students see the rest of the world.

Before the tragedy in Haiti even happened, UYI had begun to help their students see the world. It began small and tangible by asking students to help bring in money and supplies to “adopt a shoe- box” for Operation Christmas Child through Samaritan’s Purse. Many of the students at UYI would be without Christmas gifts if it were not for an annual “Christmas Store,” that they provide for the community. However, when they talked of stories of children around the world who might only get a box full of baubles for Christmas, they began to respond. The youth were shown videos of actual children around the world and the stories of them getting these shoe- boxes for Christmas. Even the poorest at UYI could feel and touch this need. Many of the youth knew how it felt to be without. They wanted to help. Money and supplies for 15 boxes poured in. The youth put them together themselves. Several of the youth helped to drop the boxes off.

When the tragedy in Haiti hit, their hearts were ready to respond. The natural reaction by the youth was, “What can we do to help?”

Here are some of their ideas as well as others taken from local ministries who are responding from the city to Haiti and the global need:

1. Start small: The night that you teach on what they should care take an offering.

2. Keep a jar in your youth room that students know they can always bring coins or more in for your efforts.

3. Make it personal. Contact a missions organization like, Aslan Youth Ministries out of Red Bank, NJ that is working in Haiti and ask if you can get letters and pictures from them about what is going on there.

4. Have students pick something “tangible” that their money is going towards, like food supplies or medicine.

If you are thinking the little money that my kids bring in is not enough try some of these ideas:

1. Hold a brainstorming meeting with your youth who are leaders or with your group as a whole to come up with ideas to respond. This way you get their by in and they are often more creative than we are.

2. Have students make crafts like jewelry or something else that they could sell at a local flea market.

3. If students make something to sell ask local businesses (especially those that think globally like Starbucks) if you could set up a table to sell the youth’s merchandise.

4. Good old standards: Bake sales and car washes

5. Have students get permission to sell candy for a special holiday at school.

6. Set up a snack stand during youth times or at church on Sunday with all proceeds going towards Haiti.

7. Have students make cards to send with missionaries for those recovering hospitals.

8. Have students bring in some items like crayons and hard candy and put together small Baggies of “care packages” for children recovering.

9. Have used clothes drive and find local drop off locations for those who are getting supplies to Haiti.

10. Host a “30 Hour” Famine through World Vision with all of the proceeds going towards Haiti.

Help your students to see that they CAN help and that what they do does matter. They begin to care as they see that it matters that they care. Next week as we wrap up our time we will be taking our final moments to talk about some larger scale ways that your group can respond.

In an ongoing effort to bring training resources closer to where urban youth workers actually serve young people, Urban Youth Workers Institute began implementing various training and mentoring initiatives regionally beginning in 2009. After launching offices in the Southeast (Atlanta) and West Coast (Los Angeles) Regions under the leadership of Anthony Flynn and Dr. Gabe Veas respectively in Summer 2009, UYWI announced its Northeast Region at the Bizarro World conference in Brooklyn in January 2010.

The Northeast regional roll-out strategy begins by connecting, training, and mentoring youth workers in the Greater New York area in 2010 with the goal of expanding to eventually include the entire Boston – Washington DC corridor beginning in 2011. Please join us in praying for youth workers of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut as they initiate learning communities; produce the first ever multi-site, multi-state Reload; coach local network leaders; and decentralize training opportunities throughout the region. If you are from the NY Metro area, contact Jeremy Del Rio via email or online at JeremyDelRio.com.

Urban Youth Workers Institute is proud to announce Jeremy Del Rio’s hire as part of the UYWI Team. Specifically, beginning in October 2009, Jeremy has designed and launched UYWI’s Northeast Regional Office. Here’s an update from Jeremy’s personal blog where he describes his work with UYWI and other strategic partners in the region.

__________________________

So what do you do exactly?

Even my friends and family are fond of asking, so if you’ve wondered what I actually do for a living these days, no worries. Hopefully this brings both clarity to that question and an update about the future.

The short answer is: for almost four years I have worked as a strategist advising non-profits on organizational leadership issues, and designing youth and community development initiatives for clients such as Latino Pastoral Action Center, World Vision, Student Venture, Christ Tabernacle, and others.  Some call this being a “hired gun.” I call it fun and suited to an entrepreneurial preference for designing and re/building new things rather than managing what’s already been. I also write and speak and teach as often as possible.

The more nuanced answer relates to my current assignments, four initiatives that together empower me to connect, train, mentor, and collaborate with city youth workers with the goal of benefiting two million New York City young people and five million in Metro NYC. Yeah, that’s a mouthful, and somewhat overwhelming to type, but taken collectively create possible synergies. Here’s an overview of each assignment:

• 20/20 Vision for Schools (New York, NY). After architecting the 20/20 Vision for Schools education reform initiative as a consultant beginning in 2007, and coaching its leaders through its 2008 launch and first year of operations, the 20/20 Vision partners (The New York City Leadership Center and the Coalition of Urban Youth Workers) asked me to lead 20/20 beginning in January 2010 as its (part-time) executive director.
• Urban Youth Workers Institute (Santa Ana, CA). Urban Youth Workers Institute has been training youth workers throughout the country since 1997. My association with UYWI began as a trainer and speaker in 2004, and expanded to include serving as a National Advisory Board member since 2006 and curriculum writer since 2007. Beginning in October 2009, I have designed and launched a Northeast regional presence for UYWI’s training and mentoring resources.
• DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative (Grand Rapids, MI). Equal parts graduate school, boot camp, and retreat, DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative is a best of class training experience for urban youth ministry practitioners in six cities a year. Since September 2009, I serve as the City Coordinator for the 2010 New York cohort.

Making each of those initiatives possible are local networks of youth workers convened and facilitated primarily through:

• The Coalition of Urban Youth Workers (New York, NY). Since 2003, the Coalition of Urban Youth Workers has been the primary connector and collaborator for scores of metro New York youth leaders. After serving the Coalition in a supportive role as a consultant for almost three years, I was honored when they asked me to return to leadership as their Chairman beginning January 2010.

I also adjunct teach for the Fuller Youth Institute at Fuller Seminary (Pasadena, CA) and serve on the Boards of several non-profits. Together, my work feels like a convergence of my passions for youth, leadership, cities, and justice.

It’s an unconventional way to make a living, I guess, but I’m loving what I do.  Thanks for your continued friendship and support, and special thanks to the strategic partners in my life who empower such possibilities.

by Leneita Fix

Two summers ago in a day camp for inner city Middle School students we decided to do a little experiment to help the youth see the world. Part of our programming was to feed them lunch every day. So every day for a week, they ate rice with a little bit of beans in it for lunch. We wanted to show them that many nations around the world only have this food, if anything at all, to eat everyday. There are no choices, just rice every day. One morning, I walk into the kitchen of program to find a young man waiting for the start of camp. “Miss Leneita,” he asks, “Why are you making me eat these rice and beans EVERYDAY.” (It was Thursday at this point.) I asked him if he remembered why. He responded with, “I know you want me to care about the hungry people in Africa, but Miss this is the only food I get all day and I don’t want any more rice and beans.”

This is a great example of how, in our well-meaning intentions to help students move to action, they still are stuck in the same place. I believe this is because poverty, more often than not has little to do with the economy. Instead, it is teaching our youth to really love their neighbors as themselves. Unfortunately, many times they are in want of so much that they live in this place of survival. The earthquake in Haiti hits and we want them to care. The reality is that they don’t know how. They are sad that people are dying, but in their minds their own bellies are empty or families falling apart or their boyfriend just broke up with them, so they can’t see the true needs.

Our mission as the youth worker is to help them see why the second greatest commandment of Christ was essentially to think of those around us. James 1:27 tell us that true religion is to care for the widows and the orphans in their distress. We need to help them see.

This is where we begin. It can be easy to think, “What can we do to help Haiti?” The issue is beyond Haiti; so before you start brainstorming ideas, take a moment to teach your youth, “WHY?” They should care. Understand that many times pictures of the rubble and stories of those trapped don’t touch them. Should they? Yes, but that doesn’t mean that they will. To them it is still a world away. Many urban youth have experienced a lot of tragedy at young ages. Think about that place of “survival” that we talked about last week. Their lives either genuinely are full of drama, or it feels that way to them. So we begin by taking the time to talk about the hurt in their own lives and how important it is to not get stuck there. This will help them to start to see the world around them.

I once conducted an experiment with a small group of high school urban females. There were 11 girls in the group. I asked them to close their eyes. I asked them to all put their hands in the air (both hands.) I asked them the following questions. If they answered yes to any of the questions they were asked to put a hand up. If they answered yes to a second question they could put their remaining hand in the air.

How many of you have never lived with your father? 10 hands went up

How many of you have not seen your father in the last year? 5 more hands went up.

How many of you have never met your father? 4 different hands came into the air.

How many of your Mom’s have never been married to your Dad? The rest of the hands became raised.

I then said to them. “Do you know that biblically an orphan is defined as someone without a father? A widow is a woman who has been abandoned by the man who should be helping her care for her children. You are orphans and your mothers are widows.”

We all sat drinking this in for several minutes. The girls stared at me in stunned silence. I watched them physically unload a burden. Once we acknowledged where they were at then we talked about how the Lord has called for those that love Christ to care for them in their distress. I explained it is why I and the other leaders love them and spend time with them. I asked, “Have you thought about the other orphans in the world? There are others who live in other parts of the world with no clean drinking water…” We went on to talk about the rest of the world. When we started by acknowledging their own hurt and need, then they were able to care about the rest of the world. This is merely, my example of how I approached it. However, the problems of the world are not going away. Don’t be afraid to take the time train your students in why we are selfless.

Remember those in your group who are not saved. I love the expression, “The lost act lost.” This means that you may do everything that you can to try and get them to care. However, recognize that sometimes telling them that we should care because Christ wants us to can ring hollow. However, the tangibility of feeding the hungry, bringing water to the thirsty, and visiting those in jail and in the hospital is very real. Ironically, these are the very words of Christ of what he wants us to do, but don’t be hurt if some of your youth doesn’t care that Jesus wants us to. However, when that need is real in their own lives and they hear of others around the world living in worse conditions then the empathy to respond kicks in.

If we start by recognizing the place our youth are in, we can now begin to take the action. This helps them to move out of this survival mentality. It isn’t that their needs aren’t important. It is that we are called to respond beyond ourselves and “Love our neighbors as ourselves.

“Hope Lives,” a curriculum put out by Compassion International and Group Publishing is a great place to start in helping your youth to really think about the world as a whole. It is written in response to youth leaders teaching their youth to respond globally. I have also included a sample lesson that I have written to help teach youth in this way.

Next week we will be ready to engage is my ideas in how to teach youth to respond locally and globally.

(Join the conversation around this topic in our Live Webcast Thursday Feb 18, 2010, at 5:30pm Pacific / 8:30pm Eastern at  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/uywi)

Here is what teens ranked as their favorite commercials.

Nielsen Mobile: average teen gets 191 phone calls and sends 2,899 text messages. Article Here

Artrticle here.

by Leneita Fix
“How often have I heard the phrase: “Think Globally, ACT locally!” This is a way that we are asked to think about the world around us. It helps us to take account of the issues at hand in our own backyard.

Yet, for those of us serving with youth in the urban context it can feel like the local concerns are so overwhelming that we don’t even know where to begin in helping the students that we work with to see the broader picture. Many of our youth, or their families have barely seen beyond the area in their “hood” that is within walking distance. The four corners of their world can end at the edges of public transportation. It is not uncommon to find violence, rage, neglect, hurt, poverty, hunger, no running water, orphaned children, hopelessness and despair on the streets where our youth live. At best the very nature of being between the ages of 12 and 17 is to be self-focused and unable to see beyond the end of our nose.

Our world is their world. The weight of helping our own seems to be a load we could never bear. So, when the world wakes up on January 12, 2010 to find a tiny nation off the coast of America literally shaken to it core we don’t know how to respond. As the church, the body of believers, we know that we are compelled to help in some small way. The same God, who sees the hurt on our corner, weeps with the people of a nation covered in dust and rubble. As the news unfolded in Haiti, each of us broke down as we watched the horror of this broken island nation. For many of us this was very close to home.

These are the moments when we feel the deep urgency to teach our youth to take action. Our hearts are crushed and so theirs must be too. All of a sudden it hits us that if we are to see these students truly as the “next generation of leaders” it is too small to allow them to be stuck in their tiny world. Watching the disaster we are moved to do something. As our lives are intertwined with our youth it is only natural that, we want them to do something also. For while today the tragedy is in Haiti, it was just yesterday that it was literally in our own back yard of New Orleans in the form of a hurricane. We live in a fallen world, and tomorrow another corner of civilization might fall due to manmade or natural disaster. Then we are reminded that every day around the world there is hunger and disease and people fighting to survive. It is our responsibility, I believe, as the shepherds of these next generation leaders, to help them to see the larger whole. This world needs the light of Christ and the youth of the city are called to be the light on the hill.

Looking at the litter in our own front yard and the dust settling half a world away, the question becomes then, “How do I care about it all? How can I help my youth care about the world around them?”

The answer comes in the form of a word a couple of my friends coined: “Glocal.” In my definition of this word it means that we do not ignore one for the other. We recognize the deep need of the youth of the city, while helping them to see beyond themselves and their own needs. We can engage globally from our own city block.

For a variety of reasons urban youth overall tend to live in “survival “ mode. This makes them stuck not only in local thinking, but unable to even see or dream about their own lives. They don’t know how to think about the world around them, because they don’t always believe that it matters that they care.

We begin by admitting that we must address the issue on a “glocal” level. It counts that they see the great needs of the world. We have an attitude of moving our youth from “survive” to “thrive.” This means that, before we can truly move our youth to action, we must show them that their contribution is not only important but also vital.

Next week, we will talk about how to help our youth to move out of this place of survival so that they can truly meet the needs of the world.

We just posted the RELOAD 09-10 USB Audio Pack in our online store.  It features MP3 audio recordings of all eleven of the RELOAD core curriculum from the 2009-2010 tour.  It also has PDFs of the class handouts, so you can follow along.  All this content is packaged on a 1GB USB drive so you can listen on your computer, or transfer to your iPod or music player.

Maybe you attended RELOAD but could not possibly attend all the workshops you wanted to hear.  Maybe you know a youth worker who could benefit from the training provided in this curriculum.  Click the link above to see  detailed descriptions of the workshops.

The average young American now spends practically every waking minute — except for the time in school — using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Beloved Urban Youth Workers and Kingdom Leaders,

This month we are excited to bring you our new and expanded UYWI e-Newsletter with more than just links to coming events. For January 2010 our theme is Reaching the Fatherless Generation. Working with urban youth you get to see the effects of what happens in real time to families with an absent or disconnected dad. I know this very well as my “father wound” has fueled my pain and brokenness as a person and leader. But on the positive side, it’s what drives my passion to work with urban youth workers across the US because you are a voice of hope and healing for youth who are deeply pained by their own father wound.

- Check out my video on Reaching the Fatherless Generation. We will be uploading Part 2 next week.
- Join us for a live conversation and Q&A on Growing and Leading through your “Father Wound” on January 19th.

Look for more and more resources each month and I can’t wait to see you at a RELOAD conference near you see uywi.org for upcoming dates!
And for those of you on the West Coast – our conference is BACK! I’ll see you May (13) 14-15 for this amazing gathering of next generation urban leaders!

Believing in You!
Larry Acosta

The Encyclopedia of Youth Ministry contains thousands of articles on ANYTHING you could ever want to know about Youth Ministry.  The following sections have recently been added or updated:

• Sexting and Young Adults (sending and receiving sexually explicit photos or videos electronically)
• Apologetics Resource Page
• “Online Churches Draw Believers, Critics” – article review Child Witches in Nigeria:  edited article review by Daniel NOK :
• Country Overviews:  Afghanistan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, France, South Africa,Khazakstan, Kenya
• Asian American Ministries
• Korean American Ministries
• Korean American Youth
• French Youth
• Filipino Youth Overview (demographics updated)
• European Youth: “The Death of Marriage” – article review &  updated demographics

Efrem Smith and Larry Acosta – Teleseminar
Dec 10th
6pm PST / 8pm CST / 9pm EST

How to join:

Live! Monday, November 23, 2009
Free!
6:00 pm (Pacific Time)
30-minute live interview with brief Q&A to follow

Dial-In: 800-868-1846

Participant code: 29643222#

Following an amazing message shared at Los Angeles RELOAD, Albert Tate joins Larry Acosta for a phone conference interview…and we want to share it LIVE with all of you!

Please join us for this dynamic interview as we talk about the practical side of how to lead, live and love from a healthy place.

Follow Albert Tate on Facebook

No budget + high profile hostility
+ lousy weather + despondent adult leaders
+ inspired student leaders + 2 weeks notice
+ a community greatly loved + supportive adults
+ viral technology + a God idea
= one of the most amazing youth ministry experiences of my 23 year youth ministry career.

Best of all, for a veteran youth worker: I had nothing to do with organizing it.

All I had to do was show up, with a faith-filled heart and eyes to watch it happen.

In case you missed the memo (or the 100s of #GodBelongsInMyCity Tweets last week), 1,500 people marched through the streets of Manhattan on Saturday, November 14, from 96th Street in the North to Battery Park in the South, with shirts that proclaimed, “God Belongs in My City.”

“March” is actually a misnomer. There was no hostility or militancy. It was more of a walk with a purpose: to radiate love and affection for God and neighbor, while praying that God would be glorified in our City by lives that love others well.

The catalyst for the day was a dismayed youth pastor who asked some of his student leaders why Christians were publicly silent after atheists launched a citywide ad blitz claiming 1 million New Yorkers reject the existence of God. They responded as only youth can — by launching a movement.

Despite a Noreaster bearing down on the Northeast, with flash floods forecast throughout the day, a 1,500 person Flash Mob showed up at the two rally points at 9 am.

God smiled on them. The sun began to shine, and the rains held for four hours, just long enough to convene on the TKTS steps at Times Square for an impromptu worship service followed by a silent prayer meeting beneath the Zodiac mural in the Main Lobby of venerable Grand Central Station.

In the process, adults like me experienced the awe-inspiring joy that can happen only after we have gotten out of David’s way long enough to watch Goliath topple.

Some of the highlights (a sampling of play-by-play tweets from the day, with links to photos):

• The largest silent prayer meeting ever at Grand Central because #godbelongsinmycity http://twitpic.com/pixo7
• At 110 1500 teens will pray silently in Grand Central for 5 minutes because #godisinmycity http://twitpic.com/pi91r
• A choir of angels, a/k/a youth, because #godbelongsinmycity: http://pic.gd/96e3ad. His Kingdom belongs to them
• http://pic.gd/c91920 “they all have God on their tshirts” because #godbelongsinmycity
• Overwhelmed wat happens when youth lead #godbelongsinmycity http://pic.gd/48d618
• http://pic.gd/a049a0 who are these people? #godbelongsinmycity http://tinyurl.com/viralcity
• This is why @mikebloomberg closed the streets to cars http://pic.gd/e66ae4 #godbelongsinmycity
• Thanksging Parade comes early to Macys because #godbelongsinmycity http://pic.gd/9c1a7d
• Hark the Herald (Sqare) proclaims #godbelongsinmycity http://pic.gd/172690
• Hustler: you da bloods they da crips? Nah u got God on ur shirts #godbelongsinmycity
• At Madison Square #godbelongsinmycity http://pic.gd/0c6bd5
• Unity at Union Square because #godbelongsinmycity http://pic.gd/37d0bd
• Three generations wear it proudly because #godbelongsinmycity http://pic.gd/90eb1e
• Mr Mayor: #GodBelongsInMyCity http://twitpic.com/phkln
• We will never forget: #GodBelongsInMyCity. Esp at Ground Zero http://twitpic.com/phiyw “Buried in the rubble r the seeds of revival”
• Even on Wall Street #GodBelongsInOurCity. http://twitpic.com/phhl3 Romans 5:20
• #GodBelongsInMyCity Battery Park rally prayer http://twitpic.com/phg6i
• In case you missed the memo #godbelongsinmycity. Some of the student organizers http://twitpic.com/phg0w

For More info on GBIMC: Web // Facebook

Viral Videos

Google Video is picking up new “God Belongs in My City” videos each time I search. Here is a sampling.

From the South Route

From the North, Featuring the GBIMC Anthem

God Belongs In My City (NYC) from Calvary Christian Fellowship Inc on Vimeo.

One Youth Group’s Journey

Sights and Sounds from Times Square

RELATED

+ Goliaths Fall When Students Lead
+ Embrace the Mess: Why Youth Must Lead Now
+ Confessions of a Youth Pastor Hypocrite on Loving the Least of These: Meeting Jesus on the Lower East Side
+ Young People are NOT the Future: Embracing the YW8? (Why Wait?) Generation

A couple of weeks ago, a Brooklyn youth pastor asked a several of his student leaders why NYC atheists could launch a massive subway ad blitz with nary a public peep from local churches when, as he mused, “God belongs in my city.”

Their response to his dismay was a viral blitz online asking area students to mobilize for prayer. They created a website and a Facebook group and a YouTube video, composed and recorded an anthem, designed a simple T-shirt, and began tweeting that “God Belongs in My City.”

Finally, they organized a silent prayer walk throughout Manhattan that will take place this Saturday, November 14. More than 1,000 teens are expected to participate, wearing T-shirts that proclaim “God Belongs in My City,” and blanketing the borough from 96th Street to the Battery. My eight-year-old son and I will be following their lead.

If you cannot join us, please say a prayer for what God is stirring among New York City’s two million young people this weekend.

Web // Facebook

UYWI would like to let you know about a great educational opportunity offered by one of our partner ministries, Fuller Youth Institute. They offer a Certificate in Urban Youth Ministry, and are currently accepting applications for their 2010-2012 cohort. Hurry! There are only 10 days left to apply for this cohort. Fuller Youth Institute is a department of Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, CA.

Watch the video then click here for more information.

Applications are accepted until Nov 20th.

Elevating Urban Youth Ministry from Fuller Youth Institute on Vimeo.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=514552606829

Kara Powell of the Fuller Youth Institute talks about the stress faced by Urban Youth Workers in this video.   What kinds of stresses do you face in your ministry?  Do you have any stress-relief tips to share below in the comments?

If you’re going to be at CCDA, join the UYWI staff for a Youth Workers reception!

Friday, October 23, 4:30 – 6:30 pm

Location: West Meeting Rooms Prefunction Area

FREE FOOD and BEVERAGES

UrbanFaith.com published an article today, co-written by Pastor Louis Carlo of Abounding Grace Ministries (New York) and me, that confronts an all-too familiar challenge for youth group worship leaders: what to sing, if anything at all?

… Too often our church music is directed inward as a distorted, selfish facsimile of worship. We long for God to meet personal needs and mediate justice on our own behalf, radically reducing our songs to individualized laundry lists of wants.

… How can worship leaders help navigate oceans of justice within congregational gatherings? First, in the music and expressions of worship we embrace; and second, by facilitating worship as lifestyle, not just musical ritual.

Marvin Gaye’s opus reminds us that music ennobles ideas, emotes passion, and defines eras. Because we feel it, music penetrates hearts and stimulates a response. Combine inspired notes with well-crafted lyrics and the results can be liberating. Or lethal.

In Call and Response, a 2008 documentary about sex trafficking, Dr. Cornel West describes music’s power to accentuate and ultimately eradicate injustice: “Music is about helping folk … by getting them to dance. Getting them to move. Getting them to think. Getting them to reflect. Getting them to be themselves, to somehow break out of the conventional self that they are.”

As musicians use that power to draw attention to injustices, people cannot help but get involved, West contends, because “justice is what love looks like in public.”

How do youth group worship music sets promote justice or social indifference by the signals they send each week? The article suggests ways to help worshipers capture a multidimensional view of God. What say you?

The comment below was published along with a feature article called “Going Public” in the Sept/Oct 2009 issue of Outreach magazine, and challenges churches and youth groups to think differently about Campus ministry. How is your youth ministry engaging the public middle and high schools nearest your church this year?

(Download the article pdf here.)

In September 2008, Jeremy Del Rio launched 20/20 Vision for Schools in New York City with one idea in mind: What would happen if church leaders activated the people in their churches for “good deeds” within public schools?

Since then, the ministry has connected with nearly 200 churches throughout NYC boroughs, mobilizing them and community groups to come alongside public schools for meaningful advocacy and service.

Here, Del Rio shares how 20/20 Vision has succeeded and why he believes churches are called to this backyard mission field.

If the moral test of a society is how it treats children, America has failed the same test year after year for decades. Specifically, we have failed to educate the urban poor despite promising equal access to quality education for all. This educational inequity–where the place of one’s childhood determines the quality of one’s education–has been called our nation’s greatest injustice and the Civil Rights issue of our day.

And churches have watched it happen.

As we looked at what it would take to accomplish comprehensive reform, we knew it would require multi-sector, collaborative strategies led by men and women willing to commit. And churches are uniquely positioned to lead this effort.

First, the God we preach requires us to care about justice (Micah 6:8, Isaiah 61:1-8). The prologue to Proverbs 31’s Wife of Noble Character describes the Bride of Christ at her most noble: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:8-9).

Second, Jesus activates us as salt and light, that the world “may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16). Salt that loses its preservative and flavoring effects–or remains inside the saltshaker of our churches–is useless.

20/20 Vision is bent on activating churches. Our vision is that first graders of September 2008—the graduating high school class of 2020—would reverse decades of chronic underperformance and graduate in record numbers, equitably across demographics and neighborhoods, with the skills and character necessary to achieve in life.

Mobilizing congregations for scalable engagement requires a plan, and 20/20’s school adoption paradigm moves congregations from no relationship to holistic, transformative relationships. It begins by committing to pray for a specific neighborhood school as often as the church prays. If America’s 300,000 evangelical churches actually prayed for its 100,000 public schools, dare we expect God to answer?

It continues as congregations overcome generational mistrust by cultivating personal relationships at the school. Next, churches become answers to prayer by responding to felt needs with meaningful acts of service such as beautification efforts or event sponsorships. Then they develop an ongoing presence by volunteering as coaches, mentors or tutors, or coordinating leadership clubs. Finally comes the credibility to affect policy both at the school and district level.

To date, nearly 200 New York churches have adopted schools through 20/20. Together, these churches have open-sourced a multi-sector effort to transform education in America. Because the problems are too vast for one person, group or community to overcome on its own, sharing ideas, best practices, funding solutions, evaluation methodologies and reform strategies represents the best way to engage the best minds in transforming public education in this country.

If it’s “about the kids,” 20/20 reminds us to share.

And to lead.

–Jeremy Del Rio

As Urban Youth Workers, discipleship and spiritual development are crucial elements to the development of our ministries and programs.

This day is dedicated to in depth conversation and training on the topic at a house on the water in Seal Beach. We are taking the first 25 to register so jump on it. Larry Acosta will be joining us to BBQ at the end of the training as you ca relax on the beach or jump in the pool.

Workshops/Discussions:
• Nurturing the Spark: Research on Youth Spirituality
• A Glimpse Behind the Scenes: The Lifestyle of the Discipler
• Stories from the Field: Discipleship Forum
• Discipleship Up, Close & Personal:
What it Can Look Like Week-to-Week

Speakers:
Gabe and Karina Veas – Authentic LA
Abner Ramos – Intervarsity
John Lewis – Urban Youth Workers Institute

Date: Saturday, August 29th 2009
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM (Training-Discussion)
3:00 PM – 6:00 PM (BBQ-Beach-Swim)

Cost: $20

Location: Upon Registration You Will Receive Address in Seal Beach, CA.

Registration: Click here to register.

“Four One Day Trainings for Executive Directors”

The economic crisis that our country faces is affecting all us and especially those of us leading in the Non-Profit world. UYWI has developed four one-day trainings to help prepare you to lead your organization forward. You can attend all of them or just the ones that fit in your schedule or area of need.

Strategy As Leadership

Harambee Ministries
1609 Navarro Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91103

Thursday, July 16, 2009

9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

click here to register

• Assessment
• Anticipation and Planning
• Taking People With You – Team Development
• Understanding Organizational Life Cycles
• Creative Destruction

UPDATE, 5/20

I’m overwhelmed at the early response to the “Love is an Orientation Virtual Book Club” experiment. In 36 hours, more than 125 people have already joined! That’s a little larger than any book club I’ve ever participated in. On second thought, I’ve never actually been in a book club before, so that’s a bad comparison. Let’s just say, it’s a lot larger than I expected. Should be fun.

The first two discussion topics were posted today, and neither one requires that you have actually read the book yet. Let’s call them preliminary topics, generated solely by the invitation to join.

1) What Conversation?
2) Is “Agenda-less” even possible?

If you haven’t entered the fray yet, please do so here.
________________

ORIGINAL POST

Call this post an online experiment, but I can’t remember anticipating a book as much as Andrew Marin‘s debut, “Love is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community” (InterVarsity Press). So, for me at least, the book’s release is worthy of experimentation.

My anticipation mounted for at least two years after meeting Marin through Urban Youth Workers Institute and hearing first hand his passion for reaching a community most Christians dismiss as unreachable. Add to that the timeliness of the topic — gay marriage, anyone? — and the opportunity to wrestle with a fresh perspective on it, and the book’s release feels, well, fresh. The book’s cover, for its part, promises no more of the pungently stale entrenchment of cliche Christianity/ese, which by itself is worth celebrating. *Grin.*

So here’s the experiment.

Create a virtual book club wherein interested Christ-followers and non can wrestle with the topic together.

Who should join?

Anyone willing to read and discuss the book, who also cares about:

• Advancing the Kingdom of God by loving sincerely the most marginalized among us.
• The hyper-sexualized culture young people engage everyday, and that culture’s affect on already hormonally changing teens.
• The confusion, pain, and challenges created by increasingly visible homosexuality and the backlash against it.
• People, period. But especially those we struggle to love.

Who Should Stay Away

• People with a political, religious, or other agenda besides seeking understanding.
• Know-it-all’s who want everyone else to see how smart they are.
• Narcissists. It’s not about you.

Where?

The Love is an Orientation Virtual Book Club will meet on a semi-neutral platform — Facebook — so YS Blog friends, UYWI blog friends, JeremyDelRio.com blog friends, UrbanMinistry.org members, CCDA associates and more can all engage easily.

Format

Again, this is an experiment. I took the liberty of initiating this particular conversation about elevating The Conversation (i.e. creating the group), but I do not own the dialogue. I reserve the right to remove hostile notes and comments (and will recruit other contributors/editors to assist), but otherwise any Group member can feel free to initiate a discussion topic or engage another topic.

Ground Rules

• R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
• Check hostility, if not your agenda, at the door.
• Foul or otherwise derogatory language will be removed by an administrator.
• Discussion comments should relate to the discussion. Personal attacks or digs will be removed.
• Self-edit. If you think your own post might be agenda-driven, it probably is, so save it for your own blog or hit the delete button. And if you see something offensive, please notify the administrator.

Hopefully we won’t have to modify the ground rules much, but I/we reserve the right to do anything necessary to “elevate” the conversation, even in cyberspace.

Enter the Fray

I just began to read the book this morning, and will be wrestling through it along with you as I read it for the first time. Join the FB group today. Purchase the book. And enter the fray.

According to a recent CNN report, 36 children and teens have been murdered in Chicago so far this year — more than one a week — and local activists and faith leaders believe the slayings aren’t getting the attention they deserve.

Had 36 kids died of swine flu this year, “there would be this great influx of resources that say, ‘Let’s stop this, lets deal with this,’ ” Pfleger said.

Instead, because violence is driving the epidemic, “We’re hiding it. We’re ignoring it. We’re denying the problems,” he said.

The current US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, expressed similar disappointment in 2007, when Chicago recorded 31 murdered children during the school year and he was serving as the city’s CEO of public schools. Watch why the violence seems worse now »

At the time, Duncan said “all hell would break loose” if these killings took place in one of the metro area’s upscale enclaves.

“If that happened to one of Chicago’s wealthiest suburbs — and God forbid it ever did — if it was a child being shot dead every two weeks in Hinsdale or Winnetka or Barrington, do you think the status quo would remain? There’s no way it would,” he said.

This time, if a growing consortium of Chicago churches has its way, all hell will finally break loose from the city’s public schools. After learning about 20/20 Vision for Schools at the 2008 Urban Youth Workers Institute, a Chicago network of faith-based youth workers began exploring a similar anti-violence approach to education reform in September 2008. Five months later, Vision Nehemiah launched 20/20 Vision for Schools Chicago in February 2009. To date, over 40 Chicago churches have adopted public schools for meaningful prayer, advocacy, and service.

Fore more info, visit 20/20 Vision Chicago online here.

[Ed. note: UYWI Blogger Jeremy Del Rio was invited to contribute to the Youth Specialties Blog as well, and they requested a semi-biographical first post. Enjoy.]

Greetings from Brooklyn.

Not Brooklyn Lindsey, YS Blog contributor.

Brooklyn, New York, the most populous borough in New York City. Birthplace of Jay-Z and the integration of Major League Baseball. And site of the largest battle of the Revolutionary War. If Brooklyn were its own city, it would be the fourth largest in America.

My name is Jeremy Del Rio and I’m an addict — if you can call young people an addiction. Or if you can call city life addicting. Either way, I’m hooked.

I’ve lived more of my life in Brooklyn than anywhere else, with pit stops in Manhattan (the glitzy borough), Staten Island (the forgotten borough), and the greatest of NYC suburbs, New Jersey (sometimes called the Sixth Borough). My wife has lived nowhere else. Nor have our sons, both of whom were born here.

Our boys will soon discover the ABC’s of City Living. Multifaceted and textured, Brooklyn is:

• // Altruistic, artistic, and adventurous.
• // Boisterous and beautiful.
• // Cosmopolitan, creative, curious, conflicted, communal, and even cliquish.
• // Diverse and occasionally dangerous.
• // Energetic.
• // Fun.
• // Grandiose.
• // Hyper.
• // Inspired and invigorating.
• // Jubilant and joyful.
• // Kind.
• // Loud.
• // Maturing and sometimes mean.
• // Neighborly or nasty.
• // “Over it.”
• // Passionate.
• // Quite charming.
• // Restless, rowdy, and relevant.
• // Smart, sophisticated, and sometimes sullen.
• // Typecast.
• // Unbuttoned.
• // Vulnerable.
• // Wide-eyed and occasionally wild.
• // Xenos friendly but sometimes xenophobic.
• // Yours to love (or not).
• // Zestful.

So, too, are young people.

You may quibble with my list, and its applicability to youth ministry, but that’s part of the allure of cities. It’s OK if you disagree. We can still get along. We can still build community despite our differences.

Like many urban neighborhoods, mine is in perpetual flux, transformed for generations by successive waves of immigrants. For the last decade or so, Bay Ridge has has evolved into one of the largest Arab communities in New York, with Halal meat markets and Hookah shops now lining the streets. Sometimes the newer arrivals make the long-timers uncomfortable. And vice versa.

So, too, our youth ministries.

Youth ministry is an inherently transitory time. No matter how we define the youth in our ministries, they are bounded by age, grade, or some other time constraint that insures that they will move on, leaving empty spaces or replenished pews. How we build community with them while we can determines, in part, whether they leave behind a vacuum or a legacy.

Do we attempt to conform them to our standards of decorum and decency, or do we empower them to flourish in the uniqueness endowed to them by their Creator? Does our community celebrate their differences by loving them sincerely, without an agenda?

Teen life is an inherently tumultuous time. Bodies change and hormones start raging, even as teens begin to confront life’s big questions — the very same questions many adults haven’t answered yet, like: “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “Where do I belong?” But the uncertainty, curiosity, and ambiguity bring with them opportunity for exploration, adventure, and discovery. Do we embrace the unknowns that faith requires, or chase after the safety of what’s familiar?

When the transience and change feel overwhelming, I take comfort that Jesus gives youth workers an extra year with high schools students than he had with his disciples. Even more comforting: his prize student, Peter, still needed anger management after three years by his side. And his rag tag collection of unlikely followers — which included a political terrorist (the Zealot), a crooked bureaucrat (the tax collector), and a prostitute among other “ignorant and unlearned” devotees notable only for their least likely to succeed credentials — had to be at least as conflicted and petty as my youth group.

They were certainly (almost) as diverse as my neighborhood.

- A youth ministry veteran since age 13, Jeremy Del Rio consults churches and nonprofits on youth development and cultural engagement, and trains practitioners with Urban Youth Workers Institute.

If you can help us out by filling out 7 Questions in 7 Minutes on Discipleship the Urban Youth Workers Institute would much appreciate it. Thanks a bunch.
Click Here to take survey

Watch the 2008-2009 Reload Tour’s 20/20 Vision for Schools Workshop online now.

20/20 Vision for Schools: Transforming Public Education within a Single Generation of Students

“Adults promise children that if they stay in school they will be equipped to succeed in life, but we have failed to make good on that promise for generations — with high school graduation rates in some cities hovering at or below 30%. First-graders in Fall 2008 will graduate high school in 2020. Come explore how urban ministries can transform public education within a single generation of students by activating congregations, adopting schools, and becoming answers to prayer.”

+ Workshop written and presented by Jeremy Del Rio at Reload New York (1/17/09).
+ Download the workshop PowerPoint and lecture notes here.
+ Additional 20/20 Vision for Schools resources are available online here.
+ Recorded by Brian Coday of the National Network of Youth Ministries.

Leading In Turbulent Times

Four One-Day Trainings for Executive Directors

——————————————————————————————————-

Life Balance-Sustaining Your Leadership for the Long Haul

Friday, April 17, 2009

click for map

Special Guest Speaker: Andy Bales, Union Rescue Mission

9:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Topics:
• Life Mission: Articulating Your Call
• Managing Change – Overcoming Your Cultural Resistance
• Important vs. Urgent (four quadrants)
• Finances (personal and organizational)
• Changing Skill-Sets for Changing Roles
• Cross Cultural Competence (hip-hop and business)

——————————————————————————————————-

Strategy As Leadership

Location: TBA
Thursday, July 16, 2009
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
• Assessment
• Anticipation and Planning
• Taking People With You – Team Development
• Understanding Organizational Life Cycles
• Creative Destruction
——————————————————————————————————-

Leadership Excellence Through Good Governance

Location: TBA
Friday, October 16, 2009
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
click here to register
• Key Relationship: ED and Board Chair
• Role of Board Chair
• How to Lead the Board
• Purpose of Meetings
• Organizational Accountability (that is both safe and empowering)
——————————————————————————————————-

Strategic Resource Development

Location: TBA
Friday, January 22, 2010
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
click here to register
• Organiztional Leader will Initiate the Creation of a Strategic One-Year Plan
• Developing Multiple Income Streams
• Events and Event Planning
• When to Start a Business within Your Non-profit
• Building a Tool Box to move to a higher level of success in fundraising
and resource development
• Using Technology and Social Networks
• Budgets, Development Plans, Charts and Graphs – Tracking Progress
• Major Donor and Foundation Relationship Building – A Proper Introduction
——————————————————————————————————-

Cost:

$50 Per One Day Session

This will get you one six hour training session, a recording of the training, lunch and a follow-up phone consultation with the speakers.

$160 All Four Days of Training

This will get you the 24 hours of training, all session recorded, 4 lunches, follow-up calls per session and a one on one 4 hour consultation on the topic of your choice.

Dr. A.R. Bernard, Ron Luce, Larry Acosta, Virginia Ward, Patrick Pierre, Adam Durso
Sat, Jan. 17, 2009

(Click play to hear audio file)

[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/RELOAD08-09/NYPanelDiscussion.mp3]
download here

The CCDA National Conference will be hosted in Cincinnati, OH this year from October 21 – 25. They have a great deal running for an early bird rate of $99. This will be a gathering of about 2,000 urban leaders from throughout the country who care passionately about serving their communities. Please check out the website to learn more about CCDA and its National Conference.

UrbanFaith.com profiles Urban Youth Workers Institute today in a feature called, “The Future of Youth Ministry” by Jeremy Del Rio. Here’s an excerpt:

“Few national partners understand the realities that mostly bi-vocational urban youth ministry leaders, many without permanent space, budgets, and staff but drowning in uniquely urban challenges, confront every day. But UYWI gets it. From top to bottom, UYWI’s staff has been there done that, and their institutional commitment to making UYWI relevant, first-rate, and affordable is unmistakable. As a result, UYWI conferences, RELOAD training events, and learning communities consistently offer both an oasis from the stresses of urban life, and safe spaces for leaders to reassess, recalibrate, refuel, reengage, and regenerate for long-term effect. …


“UYWI is more than an institute. It’s a collection of sojourners endeavoring to understand the magnitude of 21st century urban youth ministry. We may not have all the answers, but we remain committed to walk, stumble, and grow together.”

Full article here.

The Latino Leadership Circle in partnership with Street 2 Street and American Bible Society offers ACTS to equip youth leaders, ministers, and volunteers through cutting edge training for those involved on the frontlines of Urban Ministry. Sessions will be conducted by professionally trained and experienced ministers, social workers and marketplace leaders.

Topics Include:
+ A Theology of Urban Ministry
+ Strategic Planning
+ Developing Leaders on Your Team
+ Knowing Your Leadership Style
+ Conducting a Community Assessment
+ Project Management
+ Developing a Holistic Urban Youth Program
+ Social Justice and Advocacy in Urban Ministry


Speakers Include:
+ Fred Arzola, Ed.D., Associate Professor at Nyack College
+ Rev. Jose Humphreys, MSW, Pastor of Metro Hope Church
+ Mayra Humphreys, MSW, Associate Professor at Nyack College and Pastor Metro Hope Church.
+ Lisa Sharon Harper, MA, MFA, Author, Co-Founder and Executive Director NY Faith and Justice.
+ Rev. Juan Carlos Morales, MAR, Adjunct Professor Spanish Eastern School of Theology, Pastor Hosanna Christian Church
+ Belinda Passafaro, MSW, Professional Consultant and Market Place Leader
+ Jeremy Del Rio, Esq., Professional Consultant and Architect, 20/20 Vision for Schools
+ Rev. John Acevedo, MAR, Pastor Open Door Fellowship
+ Rev. Orlando Crespo, MA, Author, National Director of InterVarsity La FE Ministry
+ Rev. Luis Alvarez, M.Div., Adjunct Professor Spanish Eastern School of Theology, Pastor Park Slope Christian Tabernacle
+ Rev. Maritza Ortiz, Ed.D. Candidate Fordham University
+ Rev. David Ramos, M.Div, MSW, Chancellor of Faith International Training School & the Director of Covenant Ministries International


Meets:
Wednesday Evenings
March 4 – May 27, 2009


Location:
The King’s College
Empire State Building
350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1500
New York, NY 10118


Cost: $45

Download ACTS2009.pdf (297.7K). For more information email: acts@latinoleadershipcircle.org.

We have a great problem as we are a key partner in hosting the Turn Your Campus 2009 event at Biola University this Saturday. If you are pre-registered thank you for helping break a record for attendance before the doors are even opened. You cannot preregister for the event anymore at this time! The UYWI team looks forward to seeing all of you out there on Saturday!!!

RELOAD hit the Bay Area and “Teens 4 Christ” is on the scene to cover it. Check out some interviews with the UYWI team and local Bay Area youth workers!! Click Here To View Interviews

- Republished from Jeremy Del Rio’s blog.

Since pictures tell the story better than I could, I’ll let my photo diary from Saturday’s Reload New York speak for me, for now.

If the PictoBorwser doesn’t work in your browser, view the full set and slideshow here (170 pics, including Harvey Carey, Dr. A.R. Bernard, Larry Acosta, Ron Luce, Virginia Ward, 20/20 Vision for Schools, Ambassador, Adam Durso, Bo Boshers, almost 1,000 attendees, and more).

Related

In between picture taking, I twittered notes and reflections. Here’s the Tweet-by-Tweet.

• Anticipating Reload NYC tomorrow. With 500+ preregistered as of Tues, anticipating a record turnout: http://tinyurl.com/ax3jdr #
• Overwhelmed by the response to Reload! Unofficially 1,000+ have packed every room at Christ Tabernacle. #
• “Enter the Matrix: the How To’s of School Adoption.” Download this and other workshops at http://2020schools.net. #
• Harvey Carey: If you’re not slaying giants you’re not doing youth ministry (my paraphrase). #
• Ralph Castillo: cheer your youth because without them, you don’t have a job (paraphrase). #
• Get out of student ministry (or repent and change) if you’re a lazy student. Model life learning. #
• Ambassador: Refined Hip Hop. “Gimme dat.” #
• Adam Durso: What up on a Saturday afternoon? #
• Dr. A.R. Bernard, Larry Acosta, Virginia Ward, Ron Luce, Adam Durso, & Patrick Pierre on the longevity of a youth worker. #
• ARB: fame comes in a moment, but greatness comes with longevity. #
• ARB: Don’t confusing calling and career. #
• ARB: blossoms don’t equal fruitfulness. Blossoms come & go quickly. Fruit take lomger to ripen. #
• Avg urban youth worker burns out within 18 months. #
• http://twitpic.com/13y4o – The longevity of a youth pastor panel. #
• PP: youth min cannot be perceived as a stepping stone. Before him, 36 youth leaders in 6yrs. In 12yrs, grew ym from 9 to 800. #
• VW: urban ym lack resource, time, training, and $. Day jobs, no budget, young families. Need to redefine ym. #
• LA: we heal in community so don’t suffer alone.
• AD: refuel and regroup during intimacy
• RL: be creative. Avoid religious ruts to regenerate.
• ARB: 3 elements to preserve longevity: relationships, honesty, and time.
• LA: more than 50% of world lives in cities. More than 60% of city dwellers are 18 or younger. #
• Larry Acosta: an acronym for FINISH WELL:
• LA: first things first. Nourish your soul.
• LA: integrity, integrity. Do what’s right even when it’s hard.
• LA: nurture your family. #
• LA: invest in you. Stay a learner. Stay healthy.
• LA: self-aware. Be real with your junk. #
• LA: (we are only as sick as our secrets) #
• LA: humility in leadership. Be refreshed in that. Check logos & egos at the door. Role like Jesus with humility
• LA: walk with others. Experience safe community.
• LA: (don’t assume I’m doing well.)
• LA: eliminate the things that enslave. If the devil can’t make u bad he makes u busy.
• LA: life-long learning. Leaders are readers and readers are leaders. #
• LA: lead through a team. Don’t do ministry alone. #
• LA: collectively, “Finish Well.” #
• Bo Boshears: protect home field advantage. #
• Bo: If it’s not going well, there’s no shame. Or cliche answers. Oppty to “be with.” Be faithful. #

Also Related

+ Download the powerpoint and lecture notes from my workshop, “20/20 Vision for Schools: Transforming Public Education within a Single Generation of Students,” here.

If you missed the Elevating the Conversation training in November or attended and want more of Andrew Marin. We have him back in town Wednesday, January 21. Come out for more conversations with Andrew Marin. He will be able to answer questions and dialogue more about the faith community and the GLBT community that has long been divided and lacking the love of Christ in the conversation.

When: Wednesday, January 21 from 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Cost: FREE

Where: Newsong Irvine
18842 Teller Ave
Irvine, CA

Facebook Event Page

Urban Youth Workers Institute is partnering with Youth for Christ and Biola University to bring you Turn Your Campus 2009 on Saturday, January 31 at Biola University. It is a STUDENT LEADERSHIP training event that has the goal of helping your kids reach out to their friends in their everyday community. It has over 30 workshops, 2 high energy sessions and over 800 kids. The price is right at $7 … yes only $7 and you get lunch with that!!!! Head to this website for more information and to register. I hope to see you all on January 31!!

As we close out 2008, I have some exciting news to share with you. Urban Youth Workers Institute is proud to announce that the demand for our services is increasing at an unimaginable pace. The culmination of our vision to establish transformational relationships with 20,000 urban youth workers by the end of 2010 is in sight. We have confidence that we are not only going to meet, but actually exceed our ministry expectations. Praise God!

As good as that news sounds, there are still countless numbers of Kingdom servants who are battling in the trenches, yearning for our support. We are exhausting ourselves daily seeking to meet their needs. In order to do this more efficiently, we have been in the process of creating a decentralized model for our programs that would give us leverage to create indigenous partnerships, expand our event capacity and provide more leadership and people development beyond our west coast headquarters to various regions of the United States.

While the current economic crisis has led to staff downsizing and budget cuts for many of us in non-profit work, it has also become for us at UYWI a catalyst for change that would otherwise have taken a year or two to implement. We are seizing this opportunity to amalgamate our RELOAD and our UYWI national conference for the purpose of producing multiple national events in the future. This shift will offer our constituents the same great features while providing training events that are more cost efficient, geographically accessible and locally organized.  This does mean that we will not be hosting the May 14-16 National Conference at Azusa Pacific this year.

We are excited about how these changes will allow us to expand and deepen our reach to urban youth workers across the country. We will keep you posted as we map out the details so you can get these new events on your calendar. Thank you for all your support!

Max Torres, an urban youth workers for over two decades died last night after a motorcycle accident. Jeremy Del Rio, on his blog said it so eloquently…

Max was an inspiration, a life-long youth worker and justice advocate who spent his time, treasure, and talent on behalf of the least, last, and lost.

Please be in prayer for his family as this is such a great lost for the Kingdom being built on earth as it is in heaven, but Max is with his King today that he had dedicated every step to while with us. pax.

- RELOAD Washington (12/13) info added,

- November SAMPLE added,

- new RVP episode added (Dean Borgman talks about the “whatever” mentality and how it comes out of a deep pain),

- RELOAD 08-09 audio (either on CD or USB) now available, and

- several updates to the Center for Youth Studies site and encyclopedia.

Previously unscheduled, RELOAD Memphis now has a date and location in the new year. RELOAD will again return to Crichton College on March 21st, 2009 with the 7 inspired new RELOAD workshops which hit Miami and Fresno the last 2 weekends. Also, expect additional workshops, good food, networking, great general session speakers and praise and worship RELOAD-style. We’ll put that information up as it becomes available.

UYWI has added a new video podcast to it’s arsenal. With some initial videos from an interview with Dean Borgman and promising others, trainers will share from their hearts on the topics you want to hear from them on. What they would say to you, what trends they see and how to address those trends, and what they would recommend. If you have a few moments each week to be encouraged and inspired, this podcast will be the one you will want to subscribe to and build into your weekly schedule.

Click here to subscribe on iTunes.

“Building Bridges Between the GLBT Community and the Faith Community”
What happens when Bible-believing Christians get together with gays and lesbians … or gay Christians? Can something peaceful and productive happen for the Kingdom or does this relationship always have to centralize itself around the same old fights, arguments and debates? This large-group, day long training will intentionally bring these topics to the forefront as we discover what it means to learn, listen and understand our way through the culture war of GLBT-Christian relations. While being able to recognize a difference in theology, Elevating the Conversation will teach you the theory, practice and application on how to effectively build a bridge between the gay and lesbian and Christian communities in order to make a significant in Southern California from this day forward.

November 15th, 2008
9am – 2pm

Evergreen Baptist Church
1255 San Gabriel Blvd
Rosemead, CA 91770

Cost
Pre-Registration $15
(Deadline – November 11th)
On Site Registration $20
(includes all training and lunch)

Register
online (new link) or by calling 800-734-8994

170 photos from Urban Youth Workers Institute 2008 have finally been added to the site. See if you can find yourself in the photos and see what all happens at “The Party at APU” by looking through the UYWI08 Gallery. Each photo is downloadable and you can click the image to see it open up in a new window at it’s larger size. But first, click here to see the gallery.

Urban Youth Workers Institute has been on a journey with Orange County Probation and the local faith community. The coalition is called Lives Worth Saving and is making a real difference. You may have seen the post earlier this year about the Faith Based Gang Summit hosted at Santa Ana College this past June. Lives Worth Saving has continued to move forward and is training churches to do street intervention work. The first class of 18 youth workers graduated last Tuesday after 8 weeks of classroom training and 3 weeks of work on the streets. It was a great success and Pastor Kevin Brown will be starting the next class on Tuesday, October 21. Here are the details below:

Lives Worth Saving will be offering a 12-week course on Gang Intervention, begining on October 21st and concluding on January 3rd.

Please contact Pastor Kevin Brown for more information at 714-321-5701 or livesworthsaving@hotmail.com.

If you are serious about being part of the solution, please consider taking this class. You can also keep up to date on all of the things happening with Lives Worth Saving at its website: http://www.lives-worth-saving.com.

20/20 Vision begins with the idea that New York City public schools can and must be transformed within a single generation of students, so that first graders in September 2008 — who are the graduating high school class of 2020 — reverse decades-long, chronic under-performance. 20/20 Vision mobilizes churches regarding educational justice and why they should embrace it in their own city and community. Your church likely has connections to your local schools and 20/20 Vision challenges your church to become the educational motivant in the community.

Join the movement to transform public education nationwide, and feel free to adapt 20/20 Vision experiences and strategy to your city.

For more information, visit www.2020Schools.net.

RELOAD New York is confirmed for January 17, 2009 at Christ Tabernacle, which is located in the Glendale community of Queens. Christ Tabernacle is Michael Durso’s church, where Chris Durso is the Youth Pastor of Youth Explosion and the UYWI trainer Adam Durso is the executive pastor of Christ Tabernacle. We are blessed to be holding New York’s RELOAD event at this church which is doing so much for so many.

Secret Scars: Understanding Self-Injury

by Chris Schaffner
Thurs, May 15, 2008
Self-injury, although it may seem temporarily helpful, is ultimately a dangerous and futile coping strategy which interferes with intimacy, productivity and happiness. There is no “safe” or “healthy” amount of self-injury. more

13 of the top-attended workshops from Urban Youth Workers Institute 2008 (UYWI08) have been added to the Resource/Downloads Library. Now you can listen, download and continue to get information and be trained on workshops from the practical ministry skills to addressing specific areas of youth issues. Below is our list of workshops that were just added:

Follow Me As I Follow Christ: Discipleship Through One-On-One Mentoring
by Gabe Veas

Communicating The Gospel With Impact To Youth Who Don’t Give A &^%!%
by Phil Jackson

Secret Scars: Understanding Self-Injury
by Chris Schaffner
update: this file linked to the wrong workshop. We will make the fix soon and update this blog when we do.

Leadership Development of Indigenous Leaders
by Jeremy Del Rio & Rudy Carrasco

Rap It, Tag It, Speak It, Flip It: Getting Kids To Experience God’s Word In A Fresh Way
by Fred Lynch

Un.orthodox Illustrations
by Tommy “Urban D” Kyllonen

Beyond Beasts & Rhymes: The History & Societal Effect of Hip Hop on American Society
by Dan Hodge

Creating Relevant Worship Experiences for the Urban Church
by Jonathan Decuir & Josh Chavez

Answering The Tough Questions On Sexual Identity
by Andrew Marin

Jesus For President
by Shane Claiborne

Creating An Exciting Youth Program That Kids Will Not Want To Miss
by Tommy Carrington

Building Bridges Into The GLBT Community
by Andrew Marin

Resurrecting Church
by Shane Claiborne

by Shane Claiborne
Sat, May 17, 2008
Amid the ruins of an abandoned cathedral where homeless families were living, Shane and his community caught a fresh vision of what it means to be the Church. Let’s move beyond complaining about the Church we see, and let’s start becoming the Church we dream of. With ancient stories of the early Christians and contemporary stories of ordinary radicals, Shane will invite us to re-imagine what it means to be the Body of Christ alive in the world.

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-146-ResurrectingChurch.mp3]
download here

by Andrew Marin
Sat, May 17, 2008
This workshop first takes the listener through the broader mindset of those within the GLBT community and their thought processes towards God and Christianity. We will then work our way through The Marin Foundation’s unique theory, practice and application on how to effectively build a bridge from an evangelical perspective with someone in the the GLBT community.

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-114-BuildingBridge.mp3]
download here

by Tommy Carrington
Fri, May 16, 2008
Many youth groups are “stuck-in-a-rut” of doing the same basic youth ministry format week after week. This workshop will help you develop an innovative, creative approach to youth ministry that will help to excite your kids so they will look forward to attending youth group every week.

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-071-CreatinganExcitingYouthProgram.mp3]
download here

by Shane Claiborne
Sat, May 17, 2008
A workshop to provoke the Christian Political imagination.

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-095-JesusforPresident.mp3]
download here

by Andrew Marin
Fri, May 16, 2008
When a youth tells you they are dealing with same-sex attraction and then asks you: “Do you think that my thoughts and feelings are a sin? What if I do not act out on them? What if I do because i feel like I am gay? Was I born this way? I believe I was born different and I don’t want to change. The Bible says I am an abomination and I should be put to death. Why? These are serious questions and can effect the rest of a person’s life. This workshop goes through each of those questions in how to productivity answer them so as to build a bridge for eternity

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-070-AnsweringtheToughQuestions.mp3]
download here

by Jonathan Decuir & Josh Chavez
Fri, May 16, 2008
Do you want to know why a certain approach to Praise and Worship works or doesn’t work in your services? This workshop introduces the basic “do’s and don’ts” of worship, particularly for an urban setting. You will learn what attitudes help or hinder the flow of worship, as well as how to engage the congregation.

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-049-CreatingRelevantWorshipExperiences.mp3]
download here

by Dan Hodge
Fri, May 16, 2008
Have you been wondering what this whole Hip Hop thing is really all about? Do you feel that this Hip Hop thing is just too dang “evil” and we should just leave it all alone? Well, then this is the workshop for you! We will be discussing the historical and cultural attributes of Hip Hop culture as it relates to ministry and the young people we serve. This class is for anyone wanting to know a deeper and broader historical perspective on Hop Hop and go beyond the saggin pants, long necklaces, Escalades, confusing lyrics, and the Bitch-Ho” industry. We will be discussing the last 25 years of Hip Hop and discover its deep spiritual roots and its connection to Jesus. Some come listen, you know you want to!

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-047-BeyondBeastsandRhymes.mp3]
download here

by Tommy “Urban D” Kyllonen
Fri, May 16, 2008
When are we communicating with the hip-hop generation we must be open to use new methods to engage them as we illustrate the text we are speaking from. Jesus was the master at this as he was an incredible story teller. In this session we’ll show you and talk you through several creative, out of the box illustrations that Crossover Church has recently used.

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-022-Un.orthodoxIllustrations.mp3]
download here

by Fred Lynch
Fri, May 16, 2008
As communicators of truth, one of our greatest tasks is to make the Bible come alive & be relevant to teens. Discover how to share the Word of God in exciting new ways. Learn new scriptures and recall scripture previously memorized. Become skilled at training students to think, speak and act from a scriptural basis.

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-035-RapItTagItSpeakItFlipIt.mp3]
download here

by Jeremy Del Rio & Rudy Carrasco
Friday, May 16, 2008
In communities blighted by absent fathers, incarceration, underperforming school districts, drugs, and other social ills, how can youth ministries come alongside individual youth to equip and empower them for leadership? Is developing indigenous leaders even worth the heartache and effort? Examine the myths, methods, and messages of effective mentorship.

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-031-LeadershipDevelopment.mp3]
download here

by Chris Schaffner
Thurs, May 15, 2008
Self-injury, although it may seem temporarily helpful, is ultimately a dangerous and futile coping strategy which interferes with intimacy, productivity and happiness. There is no “safe” or “healthy” amount of self-injury. We also believe that self-injury is not a compulsion which one is powerless over for a lifetime. People can and do stop injuring themselves with the right kinds of help and support. Self-injury can be transformed from a seemingly uncontrollable compulsion to a choice. In this workshop, you will learn the risk-factors involved with SE and develop an arsenal of coping skills to aid those suffering from SE.

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-019-SecretScars.mp3]
download here

by Phil Jackson
Thurs, May 15, 2008
To communicate with authority to this culture you must be a more powerful listener. This workshop will give you practical tools for communicating to this culture creatively and effectively. You will know how to prepare and deliver a great message to your students.

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-002-CommunicatingtheGospel.mp3]
download here

by Gabe Veas
Thurs, May 15, 2008
As we go through the process of developing leaders, the question will inevitably come up: What type of leaders are we producing? Ministries that are seeking to invest in communities for the long term must look to the New Testament for direction. Discipleship through mentoring relationships is not just our legacy, it my be our future.

(Click play to hear audio file)
[audio:http://uywi.org/files/Resource_Library/UYWI08/08-016-FollowMeAsIFollowChrist.mp3]
download here

Fuller’s Center for Youth and Family Ministry has been renamed Fuller Youth Institute, and today the transition became official. FYI brings with it a new logo, new branding, new website, and new quality content. All the things you’ve known and loved CYFM for, you will continue to look to FYI for. And if you didn’t know CYFM, you should find out more about FYI for their research and higher learning of youth ministry in your own context.

Here’s the link to their new site. fulleryouthinstitute.org

I personally would recommend some of their new resources, specifically the interview of Efrem Smith about ministry in the urban/suburban blend. I learn so much and am so inspired by that guy that even without hearing it, I’d recommend it.

For those of you who pack up the kids, pack up the volunteers, and fly, bus, or drive to the luxurious campus at Azusa Pacific university each year; this is news you will want to hear as you prepare and budget for 2009. UYWI09 will happen at APU on May 14-16, 2009. So now you can lock those dates, check the airlines, lock hotel accommodations, begin planning which of your volunteers you will want to include (and which to exclude) on this event, and look for discounts, early bird rates, and even terradactyl rates to save some dough on this amazing event.

RELOAD Miami will hit Miami Shores Pres. Church on October 4th. More information is available at the new RELOAD Miami page. Other city information will be coming through the next few weeks and we will update the RELOAd portion of the website with those changes as they become available. Stay Tuned.

A new CNN article brings to light with America’s preference to be segregated on Sunday morning (at church). Read through the CNN article to see how race is impacting individual church experiences and some good information about interracial church norms and where we as Christians can move from “they” to “we.”

- article link, Why many Americans prefer their Sundays segregated

Worth viewing. Smart advice especially for many of the kids we work with who may put themselves in legal danger just by talking to a cop about something they witnessed but may not have been a part of. It’s two 20-plus minute videos, but if you can watch the first dozen or so minutes you can grasp why speaking with the police about an incident never clears your name. An attorney speaks on the first video and a cop speaks on the second, and the cop agrees with the attorney’s advice.

If you have the time, watch it all. It’s very informative.

from CCDA:

“(John Perkins’) surgery went very well. John is doing great, resting in his room, and will hopefully be able to go home in 2-3 days. He was told to plan on a three week recovery at home and then he can resume his “peaceful” life.
Thank you, each and every one of you, for your prayers for John and his family these past couple of days. Please continue to pray for a smooth and complete recovery.”

Dr. John Perkins, the UYWI07 speaker and founder of CCDA has been admitted to the hospital with health issues. Dr. Perkins will be undergoing surgery went into surgery today at 2pm CST 8pm EST. We ask that you keep him and his family in prayer. Check at ccda.org for updates.

more JP links:
- The John Perkins Center at Seattle Pacific University
- wikipedia
- The John M. Perkins Foundation (JMPF) for Reconciliation & Development

The RELOAD tour will hit cities this fall and RELOAD cities and dates are starting to surface. Also, we are finalizing the titles and descriptions for RELOAD workshops. Pages with tentative dates and information can be found by clicking the above links. There are 2 RELOAD dates which are firm, however. RELOAD Miami will happen on October 4th and RELOAD Fresno will happen on October 11th. Revisit the RELOAD website in the coming weeks for updated information.

New Harvest Church in Norwalk, CA will host 116 Clique’s “Unashamed Tour” on July 26th. The tour features LeCare, Trip Lee, Tedashii, and Sho Baraka (see artists bios). Rob Pene (yes, THAT Rob Pene) e-mailed in to tell us the following: “We are hosting a Ministry Event 7.26.08 featuring one of your speakers from the last UYWI conference, Lecrae and his Reach Records artist. Would love to have UYWI get involved in some way, and get this information to the Youth Workers in the near counties.”

Rob, you got your wish. You can find out more about the tour… here.

and we have several other job openings posted from around the nation for urban-minded people who love Jesus and need a job doing what they’re passionate about. So click the link, read through the openings, and connect with the contact to move your career in urban ministry forward.

We’ve asked the UYWI staff a series of questions and put them online as extended profiles. So now if you wanted to know where Fred Oduyoye went to school, what John Lewis‘s most unusual job was, or what Julie Herrick does when she’s not working, now you can find out. Right now we have 13 of our 16 full-time staff profiles up, but hopefully we’ll eventually have them all up so you can get to know us all better.

I ran across this article today while researching fatherless and divorce fallout statistics in the midwest. It appears the National Center for Health Statistics has some recent national research to show some dramatic numbers in this area. These are the finding based on the Wall Street Journal article:

The nation’s out-of-wedlock birth rate is 38%. Among white children, 28% are now born to a single mother; among Hispanic children it is 50% and reaches a chilling, disorienting peak of 71% for black children. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, nearly a quarter of America’s white children (22%) do not have any male in their homes; nearly a third (31%) of Hispanic children and over half of black children (56%) are fatherless.”

read the full article here.

“During a typical week, teens spend an average of 12.5 hours, up from 10.7 hours last year. ‘Tweens spend an average of 6.5 hours online, compared to 5.2 hours last year.”

A June 19th study from research firm Youth Trends finds that mobile, web, and TV usage among teens and “tweens” is on the rise. Data is collected and reported on every 6 months and information from the winter is available here, and the recent report information were brought to light in a mediaweek article. The actual Youth Trends report is only available to subscribers, but many of the general figures can be found online in other recent articles.

here’s another recent article with statistics from a Nielson Online Video Census – “Teens Biggest Users of Online Video”

I arrived at Santa Ana College at 7 am this last Saturday to be a part of a year long collaboration between Orange County Juvenile Probation, Catholic and Protestant Detention, UYWI and some other gang specialist organizations. We hosted almost 200 leaders for the “Lives Worth Saving” Gang Summit. It was truly a day to remember for all of us involved. Our goal was to bring awareness of the gang issues facing Orange County and let the faith community here from our civic leaders that they are in need a help. The number of teenagers locked up currently in Orange County for murder or attempted murder is 73, which has risen from 50 when our collaboration started. The room was alive with energy as people shared best practices, challenged the faith community to partner with probation and laid out small and large steps to becoming part of the solution. This was a landmark day, but as a part of the faith community it is our responsibility to not let this end here, but to be determined to do what is necessary to reach out to save lives that are so worth saving before they become another statistic in the system and leave another family victimized in the community.

Next week, we host another training on working with gangs and are developing a network of gang specialists that will be offering practical classes and relationships to increase the number of people in the faith community who are equipped to make a difference. Please let us know if you are interested in more training on this issue as we move forward together.