saw this on dan’s blog.  a powerful reminder…that we are all quick to judge why a person is doing what they do.  to be honest earlier this year when we took a group of EVO students and adults for ServeFest 13 at Building Hope in the City I was duly reminded…that words we use to describe others matter.  check this out.

get this now…click here.

In today’s culture, offering advice to young men about what they should know about growing into manhood is one of things I find myself doing a lot.  Over the year’s I’ve led dozens of men through studies of John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart.  It has been transformational for them.  There has been a void in addressing the masculine journey for teens.

For teens there hasn’t been many books that I’ve found that addresses the issues so many teen guys have today….things that author Donald Miller talks about at length in his book  Father Fiction and his own masculine journey:

I wasn’t sure how to manage myself, how to talk to a woman, how to build a career, how to—well, be a man. To me, life was something you had to stumble through alone. It wasn’t something you enjoyed or conquered, it was something that happened to you, and you didn’t have a whole lot of say about the way it turned out. You just acted out your feelings and hoped you’d never get caught.”

So I was delighted to learn of this book from my allies in the trenches of student ministry – Jeff Wallace, Mike Hammer and Matty McCage.

I actually conducted a not-so-scienitific conversation that was incredibly engaging and attention holding with several different groups of male teens over the past week to gauge the worth of this volume.

With each group I explained the concept and the focus of the work.  And then asked the young men to randomly call out a number between 1-99.   We turned to that “thing” and read it.  We covered the gambit – Dating & Sex, Relationships, Acceptance, Finances, Spiritual Growth & Disciplines, Leadership , Identity, and Legacy.

The collection of 99 things is an incredible springboard to conversation and truly the answers the authors have penned are dead-on and quick to the point.   Though the context of my conversation was with mostly un-churched youth, the validity and guidance from the authors was well received and has actually generated several follow-up conversations.

I heartily endorse this volume–BUY IT!  It’s writing is witty, focused and concise.  It fills a void in helping to give answers to the questions that every young man takes on the journey to adulthood.  With a little bit of effort, each chapter could be developed into a great conversation for a young men’s small group.

There is definitely a hunger among today’s young men to better…navigate relationships, success and life’s other big stuff…Jeff-Mike & Matty have gotten us closer to giving thoughtful answers.   Just click the book cover above to order your copy today.  I’d be interested in your thoughts once you had an opportunity to read it.

(editor’s note: I received a complimentary electronic version of this book for this review).

only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful.

This video truly captures the truth about beauty…and offers amazing insights on how women should see themselves.

special thanks to mamamia

by the way…there is another video, that i’ve used over the years that is equally powerful to help young women (and the young men) see that what is perceived is NOT real.

The Right Honorable Baroness Thatcher and I – November 1995

Been thinking abit.  not sure what all the pieces are as the number of them keeps growing.  but have had numerous conversations today about the legacy of Lady Thatcher (LT).  Having gotten the news early today that she had died of a stroke.

It was more than 20 years ago, that i worked diligently to secure a positive response to an invitation that had been extended for her to visit our community.  She left office in late 1990 and i began working on the details of what I hoped would be a 10th anniversary celebration of then President Reagan’s visit to our community.   There were many reasons why LT would be the most logical appropriate guest for such an occasion.

I remember distinctly when the phone call came in late January, 1993, her scheduler said LT had gladly accepted the invitation and was looking forward to visiting our community.   What transpired over the next 9 months was extraordinary and adventure-filed.  More details on that later.

Over the next three years I was privileged to host and organize  three other visits by LT.

But for now, I’m going to ponder a bit more her legacy and give thanks for what she risked to be and do.

An old friend, Bill Kristol, at the Weekly Standard offered this thought about her death today in the context of being the last of the three, Thatcher/ Reagan/Pope John Paul II who basically won the Cold War.  Personally this end of an era suggests to me one more time the difficulty of preserving Liberty. and what is required from each of us.  Kristol quotes from a letter to Wm F. Buckley from Whittaker Chambers (a soviet defector), the task of each generation is reminded:

So each age has to find its own leaders for an eternal task—the defense and renewal of civilization.

I’m reminded daily that this “renewal” is so desperately needed.  My privilege to have interacted with LT only confirms the task that remains…and further encourages me in my calling.

Grateful for the good work of the Governor and school choice ohio but also for the good work that is being done at Mansfield Christian School.   Impressive. Well done all! This video is worth your time.  Truly bringing the Kingdom.

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Returning home i learned of the tragedy of Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins.  Pondering the “why” as we all do i stumbled on Kevin Powell’s column on CNN entitled  Manhood, football and suicide

I think Kevin is right on point.  He says we have to teach men to find ways to cope with life’s challenges…

For the past several years, I have privately advised and counseled several professional and amateur athletes, and entertainers, all men, all grappling with very warped definitions of manhood. The recurring theme over and over is fear of expressing themselves fully, fear of letting others down, fear of not being the tough and rugged men they were told they had to be. And on the inside so many of them are damaged as a result. The very definition of manhood they’ve embraced is more an emotional prison than anything else.

There is so much confusion in our culture and the crisis is spreading.  The tension of what I was privileged to at the weekend and the reality of such a tragedy is disconcerting.  I was greatly encouraged by the hearts and minds of those men who attended the weekend.  I was particularly blessed by four young men that were in my small group.  Yet, the tragic event reminds that there remains much.

I want to echo Kevin’s closing thoughts… they are critical here…

We must struggle, harder than ever, as men, as boys, as a nation, to reach the point where a heart-to-heart conversation is the first and only option, not a gun, not gun violence. The lives of Jovan Belcher and Kasandra Perkins will have been in vain completely if we do not go deeper within ourselves to teach and show our sons, our husbands, our boyfriends, our fathers, our men and boys, that there is another way.

I watched a room full of men, over 3 days, move towards “another way”. Hearing stories of how God had saved marriages, restored relationships and brought healing. There is hope, but it will come one man and family at a time. the common theme as we wrapped up was a deeper gratitude for a new sense for some and a restored sense of “freedom” for others.

hat tip to cory and brett

“For some the thinking is “once we are married things will finally change!” That is true, once people are married things DO CHANGE! They stop trying to put their best foot forward and behavior diminishes. Getting married NEVER makes things better all by itself…usually they are more challenging.”

i’m grateful to be connected to a Kingdom outpost that continues to lean in to the hard things. there is not one week that doesn’t go by where I see and sometimes feel the reality (and consequences) of folks who rush headlong into the most serious of commitments and get stuck. you can check out the whole post here…

I”m a evidence-based activist
your heart is not the most important thing…it helps but if your heart hasn’t found a rhyme with your head its of no use.
it’s not charity that fires…its justice which is a higher tougher standard
if you want to change the world it’s not going to take a minute or an hour or a day, but your whole life

aide is just a stopgap – commerce is the future : it’s not aide…its trade.

keeping faith with an idea…America is an idea: we are all created equal. 

life is not endured but enjoyed.

you see something you can’t unsee  this last one, is a phrase that came up in a similar way on the IJM ride…You can’t unknow what you know.  which forces one to ponder what impact you’re going to make.

Bono closes with this quote….“The power of the people is much stronger than the people in power.”- Google executive Wael Ghonim who began a Facebook page that galvanized protest in Egypt’s democratic revolution.

click on this image to go to the Georgetown webcast site. Bono’s talk begins around the 14 minute mark.

In short, it was a three-day conference in a camp setting…thus the name, “Campference”. It was an amazing amount of fun with an incredible group of folks who walk alongside middle schoolers.

The Youth Cartel is doing it again this year, October 26 – 28, 2012 ~Friday dinner-Sunday lunch at SpringHill Camps in Seymour, Indiana. I wanted to offer a couple of reasons why it would be worth your investment.

1) It’s middle school specific.  Hanging out with others who live and breathe ministry to middle-schoolers is  more than fun.  The conversations are serious and engaging and your hanging with some of the best practitioners out there…Scott Rubin from Willowcreek, Kurt Johnston from Saddelback and many others.

2) The host,  Marko is the smartest guy alive (along with Adam’s good help) on understanding the mind of a middle schooler…i’ve been in several long dialogues with him – his heart and head are full of amazingly good and important thoughts about what ministry needs to look like to and for middle school students.

3) Since the event is happening at a camp…you gotta know camp is even more fun when you’re with adults with students hearts.  It’s all the fun of being at camp without the worries of being “on task” with our students.  Ever wonder what that would be like?

To be truthful, I’m not sure I’m going to be there as I’ve got to choose between this and something else the Youth Cartel is doing in November called The Summit (and like growing up you have to make choices!) But if you were wondering if it’s a worthwhile event…I could not offer you a more solid recommendation…you won’t be disappointed.  Here’s a short video I shot at last year’s event.  P.S. Didn’t hurt either that I won the “super prize” worth about $1,000 of student ministry material for being the dude with the longest tenure -volunteer and/or staff in middle school ministry in attendance. (Sometimes your maturity can pay off…you can read about that here.)

You can learn how to register by clicking here.

visual story telling is something i’ve always loved to do. from my days in high school as a still photographer using “film” i learned quickly to communicate my perspective on the world. So here’s the take from our 10 day – 500 mile journey.
i’ve attempted to chronicle the various aspects of team formation and the bike ride itself. Our orientation at the Freedom Center and our final arrival at the Lincoln Memorial. I’ve got a couple more to edit and produce…but this youtube playlist gives the viewer a good overview via the use of some creative technology of a gopro video camera. Not to be lost in our effort is something intangible and unseen…but is foundational to this story…the estimated 27 million individuals who are being held against their will…enslaved…not free. The story of the IJM Freedom Tour is to raise awareness by our having invested physically. To date we’ve raise more than $30,000 for the work of International Justice Mission. That is very modest considering their annual budget is 100x that. But we know it can make a difference. Your watching our efforts via this playlist and hitting the “like” button will help to raise that awareness even more.