Loving God

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

To love God is “the first and greatest commandment,” so one would think that this is would be, alongside loving others, the most important priority we have in youth ministry.

But what does it actually mean?

When I met Christ, and was starting to grow in my understanding of what that actually looked like, I remember singing songs and even memorizing verses about loving God. And, frankly, I don’t remember feeling very comforted by much of it.

I wanted to love God, but I didn’t know how. I loved my parents (especially in retrospect), and I (kind of) loved my siblings. But that was sort of under the radar of the “supposed to” kind of love I was learning about in church.

What I did know is I loved my dog, I loved to play drums and basketball. I loved the feeling I got when a girl paid attention to me, or when a coach noticed that I had done something right for a change. I also loved driving fast with John Tuttle (and, truth be told, I loved my friend John, but, again, it wasn’t something I thought about… it just felt good to hang out).

But “love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind?” Although I wasn’t that great at English, I knew that this was something it was my job to do.

As I’ve gotten older I have a little more understanding of what love is and means and looks like (I’ve been married to my only love for 31 years, and that’s been a great theological laboratory). And I also have come to recognize that my loving God is actually as organic and natural as breathing, as we seek to know and trust Jesus. It is not so much about me and us loving him, but that he has first loved me, and us. Perhaps we need to help kids to see this, and to learn what it means to rest in this truth.

I am so glad we’re talking about loving God in this issue of Youthworker Journal (coming out in January, 2012). I hope you will be, too.

Youth Specialties Convention San Diego 2011 Chap Clark, "Hurt 2.0"

This is the seminar I presented at the Youth Specialties National Youth Worker Convention, San Diego, 2011 of the title based on the new book, Hurt 2.0: Inside the World of Today's Teenagers.

To see Chap Clark's bio and publications go to chapclark.com

The Rise of the New YS

Today marks The Return of Tic!

Youthworks, the non-profit mission group from Minnesota, finalized their purchase of Youth Specialities (YS) a few weeks ago. The first order of business, announced today, is the hiring of Tic Long to come back and lead the New YS.

Youth Specialties has been the central gathering place for men and women around the world who share two deep convictions: Jesus Christ and kids. For over 30 years, first envisioned by Wayne Rice and Mike Yaconelli and a handful of youth ministry leaders, YS has been a home for those who see their calling to love Christ and kids where we could be encouraged, trained, sharpened and reminded that our work with kids is first and always God's work that we get to somehow share with him. What we call YS has been a family, a community, a church.  Over the years there were substantive changes, but when Mike died in 2003, so many of us felt like our mast had been shattered. The leadership, both the paid staff and those who saw YS as their calling as speakers and writers, hung on, stayed together, and did what we all could to preserve the original Youth Specialties, or at least where we were post-Nouwen through the 90s and into the early 2000s (see Mike's Dangerous Wonder for descriptions of the Nouwen influence on so many of us). 

When YS struggled through the economic realities of 2008 and 2009, and so many of our family members were let go, ultimately leading to rumors of the sale of the event side of the "company," many felt that this was the end of Youth Specialites, at least the YS we had known for 30 years. I blogged about it, titling my remarks a eulogy. Well, Youthworks took great pains to ask significant players, both past and present, their opinion of what YS was, is, and could be. They listened, and listened well. They brought an energy, passion and excitment for the mission of YS, not just the product of YS. And now they've hired Tic, formerly "Czar for Life" (I'm not kidding - there are still some of those letterheads around), then "President" of YS, "President of Events" for YS, and finally a year ago laid off when the bottom line went south.

I don't know what Tic's title will be, maybe Czar again, since it had so much clout two decades ago. But I do know that both Youthworks and now Tic are back in the game, committed to doing whatever they can as God leads to maintain the core mission of Youth Speicalities for all these years: Jesus Christ and those kids he loves.

I wish Tic and Youthworks Godspeed, and my friendship, partnership and prayer. I hope you do the same.

YS and the end of an era

This week marks the end of an era: the final Youth Specialities National Youthworkers Convention of the Rice/Yaconelli era. For more than 30 years YS has been bringing together the most recognized leaders of youth ministry so that vocational and volunteer youthworkers could have the chance to be trained by, challenged by, and influenced by those who have been deeply invested in ministry to kids. As of the 2009 Atlanta Convention, this run will come to an end.

Youth Specialties is not dead, for they are being bought by a group of great people who plan to morph this movement into viability for the coming future. But the YS that Mike and Wayne began and passed on to Tic Long, Jim Burns, Rich Van Pelt, Bill McNabb, Duffy Robbins, Chap Clark, Marv Penner, Helen Musick, Doug Fields, Laurie Polich, Marko Oestreicher, and lots of others is coming to what some may see as a screeching halt. I envision that the future will be bright for the "new" YS, but the "old" YS is about to breath its last.

Most of us old timers call this a family. People who have come out of the influence of YS, like Walt Mueller, Tiger McLuen and Kara Powell, have also been an integral part of YS and are feeling the effects of the slide. Since Mike and then Karla Yaconelli saw the need to hand off YS to a new ownership group, the writing has been on the wall. The economy made this inevitable, at least according to some, but the passage of time and the consequences of choices have brought us to this place.

I will miss YS. I have obviously missed Mike since he died, but I especially miss his heart for youthworkers and for Jesus, and his style and humility and humor. I will miss the chance to argue with Tony Jones and Brian McLaren alongside Duffy, and listen to Mark Yaconelli and Shane and the godfather himself, Tony Campolo, while standing in the back making snide comments about "the old days". I lament the chance to visit for hours with veteran youthworkers who are trying to hold onto their job, and volunteers who have been hanging in there with kids for decades, and YM profs who are trying to find that middle way between academics and practice. I will miss YS.

Yet I also have hope. I believe that God has led us to YS - all of us. I know firsthand that what Doug Fields' "Simply Youth Ministry" partnering with GROUP has meant is exciting and contemporary. I believe that what Reggie Joiner and Jared Hurd are doing with the Orange conference is creative and powerful. And I do believe that the new "owners" of YS (those " " are intentional, by the way) are committed to the best of what YS has been.

But I still will miss YS for a long, long time. YS has raised me. YS has taught me. YS has nurtured me. YS has loved me. Goodbye, my friend. You will be missed.

Chap Clark