NYWC – Pittsburgh

OK, so my bloggin of this event was REALLY lame!  Since I was not in the mood to write out my posts and then go later to post them, I was pretty bummed that there was no wireless access within the convention center.

Anyway, after thinking back through all that I saw and experienced I wanted to make sure I took the time to relay a few of the bright spots from this exhausting trip, maybe you’ll be interested but I want to make sure I don’t forget

I would have to say that my favorite / most challenging speaker from the general sessions was Francis Chan (author of Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God.)  Francis spoke about looking to Jesus only for our example of how we should be doing ministry.  Francis challenged us to be solely concerned with the quality of our “salt” instead of the size of that “salt pile.”  Francis brought up questions like “Why did Jesus make it difficult for his followers to understand his message while we try to make it so easy?”  The conclusion that I came to is that Jesus wanted to make sure that following  him would always be about being with him. 

That was some pretty convicting stuff!  All I could think about was all the time that I have wasted with teenagers because of losing my focus on being with Jesus and spending my time trying to break down and communicate the “lessons” from the Bible.  Yeah, they are important but they aren’t the end!

Out of all of the seminars, I have to say that far and away the most practical, entertaining, & real was Andrew Marin (of The Marin Foundation & author of Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation With the Gay Community.)

Andrew just has a contagious passion for building bridges with people that are the most disconnected from the Church, the gay and lesbian community.  With an attitude of authenticity Andrew spent his time in the seminar session giving real, practical help so that youth workers could give some real, practical help to their students.  I seriously hope that the other youth workers that attended these seminars see the tips that Andrew gave for their overarching principles.  Andrew always speaks of “elevating the conversation” or simply changing the conversation.  This all about not simply answering closed-end questions because the point of asking a closed-end questions is to illicit a yes or no answer which immediately puts you into one camp or another on the issue at hand and the conversation is now over.  Developing the ability to “elevate the conversation” is key to building relationships and leading people closer to Christ.