Take Ctrl

Lord, give me humility so I may not judge my worth by the number of friends I have on Facebook or the number of times people like or comment on my posts. 

Help me see that it doesn't matter how many followers I have on Twitter, and that it's truly okay if the number of people I am following is greater than the number of people following me. Give me creativity so my tweets are actually interesting to read, and not just what I'm going to eat for lunch or stating that I'm going to bed.

Grant me wisdom so that I won't correlate my self-esteem to the number of views my videos have on YouTube. Help me realize that it's okay if I get a few dislikes.  And help me differentiate the constructive comments from the destructive ones.

And lastly, whatever You do, please stop me if I ever decide to create a personal website.  I mean...come on...who has their own personal website?

Whoops...too late.

Amen.


Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie.  He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years, helping parishes develop their own youth and young adult ministries.  When not doing ministry, Clay enjoys spending time with his family, playing music, playing sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs on topics such as family, faith, and the Vancouver Canucks.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo     

Celebration - the role of the extended family

I grew up in a small town and what was unique about my childhood is that the majority of my extended family lived within 20 minutes of one another for these early formative years. We'd gather together regularly for special holidays, feasts and crazy family experiences.

At this young age I never really understood the value or privilege it was to share in these experiences. To be honest, there were times I didn't want to be a part of these experiences. I felt like too many people knew me for who I really was, and I wasn't sure if that would ever be enough for them.

Kind of sounds like what some people have to share about connecting with a community of faith, no?

As a father of three young children, I'm being inspired to return to the practice of celebration. There is great value when we support, protect and honour these shared experiences.


1. Support/Love - Families are designed to support and love each other. Both of these habits aren't always easy to create or achieve. There are internal and external pressures that affect the context families exist in. A family doesn't always represent a biological connection. Families are clusters of people of different ages who consistently commit to living out life together....families are meant to be people who love one another no matter what.

I long for my own children and for teens/leaders/parents under my influence of leadership to know that they matter. Do I shape the elements of my parenting and pastoring around the postures of love and support, or do I allow productivity and measurables dictate rhythm, pace or design?

2. Protect - Families are designed to protect each other. It's true that those who are closest to you have the most influence to harm or to help you. As an extended family, gathered around a set of values & principles (like a community of faith), do we fight for things that truly matter, or do we reserve our physical efforts to creating chaos within our familial connections? When people connect with your extending family (community of faith and/or ministry) do they understand that they are being welcomed into protection, or do they live in fear of being seen for who they really are?

Only one person ever lived a perfect life...Jesus. And we still found a way to make fun of him, hurt him, betray him while ultimately killing him. For the rest of us who are less than perfect, maybe we should invest our energy into developing health and growth in one another instead of always focusing on why we might be sick. Would people flourish if they knew they were worth fighting for?

3. Honour - Families honour each other. In my world, to honour means to celebrate. I honour those who are older than me because their lives have helped to shape the current reality that I benefit from. I celebrate my own kids because we all need people who believe in us and will cheer us on. Honouring doesn't infer that we completely agree with everything that has transpired over time, but it demonstrates that we are willing to overcome our differences and recognize that diversity isn't meant to polarize us, it's meant to inspire us. As leaders, parents and people, is our posture one that speaks to defiance, or one that speaks to celebration?


What other roles do you see an expression of the extended family playing in the lives of people?




About: Jason has lived in Calgary, Alberta Canada since 1995, and been a youth pastor since 2001. He is married to the love of his life, Bonny, and together they have three incredible children: Saydie, Cannon and Deklon. Jason possesses a desire to see youth, parents and families become who God created them to be through loving and living like Jesus. He currently serves on staff at Centre Street Church in Calgary. He loves hockey, playing guitar, writing and creating environments and opportunities where others can realize their potential in Jesus while experiencing the full life He promised to those who follow Him!

Proud Pink: The True Meaning of the Colour (In Honour of Pink Shirt Day)

David Shepherd and Travis Price started Pink Shirt Day seven years ago in their Sr. High Year. 

I use to hate the colour pink because it was such a girly, girl colour. I’ve often wondered who decided that pink would be the colour to best represent females. Personally I associated the colour with weakness and being soft. That was not the colour that best represented this ex-military girl.

Today is Pink Shirt Day, the day that you will see hundreds of guys and girls wearing pink shirts down the school corridors making a symbolic statement for Anti-Bullying. It all started with a grade 9 boy wearing a pink polo shirt to school. He got picked on and bullied because of the colour of his shirt. Why? Perhaps it was because those who taunted him viewed the colour pink as I did, soft, weak and extremely feminine.

But is that really what the colour pink represents?

When compared, the colour pink is not as strong or as bold as red, it is not as bright or vibrant as orange, in fact it does not even go well with any of those colours! That’s because it stands alone. What does it take to stand alone? True confidence, being okay with who you are AND what you are not.

When a guy wears pink people say, “He’s obviously secure with his masculinity." or “He’s not afraid to show his vulnerable side.” What are people speaking about? Confidence. The colour pink goes beyond external confidence ie. walking tall or a firm handshake, you can fake that.  Pink reveals character making it is a colour that reflects what lies within and that cannot be faked.

True confidence is being okay with who you are AND what you are not.

Earlier I questioned the person who chose pink to represent females, now I personally think that decision superseded human understanding, that it was divinely chosen, a Godincident. Could it be that the colour pink is a prophetic declaration of true confidence that God himself chose to be the colour that represents his ladies, yet females like myself and many males have despised it because of a distorted view on this colour.  Is it coincidence that confidence is an area that so many women struggle with?  

David Shepherd and Travis Price two grade 12 students bought pink shirts and handed them out to their classmates to protest the bullying that took place the day before with the grade 9 student. These boys had the inner confidence to stand alone and stand up for what was right… That’s Pink. For every girl who wars against her mirror but still chooses to be proud of her frizzy hair or makes big feet look cool…That’s Pink. Youth Pastor, when your weaknesses are revealed by the strength of others yet you genuinely celebrate and praise their abilities…That’s Pink. Pink represents True Confidence, being comfortable with who you are and what you are not.  That is Pink.

Are you looking around wishing you were somebody you are not? Look at what you’ve got, Think Pink. When you are aware of your weaknesses, as a declaration of true confidence Wear Pink. And do me a favour, tell your girls to Be Proud Pink.

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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

Next Saturday, March 8^th is International Women’s Day. Why not surprise your girls at your next youth event and do something to celebrate them. For ideas of what you can do, see my previous blog about developing a healthy sense of female pride.

If you are in Western Canada, organize a trip to attend the Young Women of Power Conference for Teen Girls April 25-26. See website for more details www.ywop.ca

P.S. Plan to celebrate your wife, your mother, your co-workers and sisters next week.  

The Founder of the Young Woman of Power (YWOP) Conference, Alison develops programs that are designed to build girls confidence such as the YWOP PivotFWD workshop which she delivers in Calgary’s Youth Judicial System. Alison’s heart for young women is to see the statistics of violence against women decrease and to see females become counter culture/culturally dangerous by growing in true confidence. For more info or to book Alison as a speaker visit www.ywop.ca 

Good Leaders Serve Twice

This past summer, our youth ministry had a bit of fun with slip-n-slide kickball and lots of laughter. The setup for an afternoon of fun always takes far longer than the fun itself; like waiting in line for the rollercoasters in a theme park, there's a long lead-up to a brief period of enjoyment.

As I tracked muddy tarps and picked broken camp pegs out of the dirt, I was deeply frustrated by the janitorial role. Soaked and tired, wet grass all over my hands, slowly picking up destroyed kiddie pools. This was nasty work. Was this really what I had signed up for when I chose ministry as a vocation? Then I remembered a phrase uttered by a college prof years ago: good leaders serve twice.

Leaders serve once in their calling and strengths and passions and vision. This is the leadership I signed up for--the vision-casting, the teaching and preaching, the brainstorming and dreaming, the praying for students, the life-giving conversations, even the messy counseling situations. I genuinely love my job and the tribe of youth ministry folks I get to interact with on a regular basis. Even on the hardest days, I just have to remember my calling and the lives being changed through Christ.

Leaders serve twice in their willingness to serve outside their "job description," strengths, and desires. I don't feel called to pick up water balloon scraps, or carry muddy tarps around a field, or pick up the half-eaten breakfast off the youth room floor. There's little in those activities that I find enjoyable or fulfilling, but they've gotta get done, and I'm the one in charge. A few students and youth leaders will help serve alongside me, but I'm leading them in the serving, not directing them to do the jobs I don't feel like doing.

In ministry, most of us didn't sign up for setting up the chairs, or throwing away students' half-drunk soda cans, or fixing blown tires on the church van, or any number of seemingly mundane and insignificant tasks. But we are called to serve, and true service means getting down and dirty. 

Jesus both preached magnificent sermons and washed people's dirty feet. He did both with the utmost willingness and humility. I'm still learning how to serve twice, to have an attitude of grace instead of resentment for the dirty tasks of ministry.

An earlier version of this post appeared on The Mayward Blog here.

Joel Mayward is a pastor, writer, husband, and father living in Langley, British Columbia. He’s been serving in youth ministry since 2003, and is currently the Pastor of Youth and Young Adult Ministries at North Langley Community Church. A writer for numerous youth ministry publications and author of Leading Up: Finding Influence in the Church Beyond Role and Experience, Joel writes about youth ministry, film, theology, and leadership at his blog, joelmayward.blogspot.ca.

LIVE INTERVIEW: MARK BUCHANAN

Friday February 28th at 9:30 mountain time, Dave Brotherton will interview Mark Buchanan on our YouTube Channel.
We will discuss:

• Youth Ministry from the Sr. Pastor's perspective.
• Approaching the Sabbath.

From Hate to Hope: Deconstructing Society activity

This resource comes courtesy of my wonderful @WVYouthCanada co-worker and friend, @JobinSam. Jobin is one of our awesome Student Coaches and does a rad job mentoring student leaders on social justice actions. This is a super simple but intense activity that will easily get every kid in the room talking - especially that quiet "thinker" kid.

Overview

Age: Jr. Hi/Sr. Hi/Uni-College (intensity of discussion & issues will vary based on age)

Time: Approx. 30 min.

Group Size: 12-30

Materials: The game Jenga (or another knock-off tower block game works too)

Purpose of the Activity: To move from hate to hope. Deconstructing the hurtful/negative things in our world and rebuilding the world we want with hope/positive suggestions.

How to Engage

Before participants enter the room, make a circle of chairs around a table, with the table located in the centre of the circle. Build a tower with Jenga blocks in the middle of the table. Use a few more blocks than there are participants. 

Get participants to sit in the chairs around the table. Explain that we will be doing an activity that will require our imaginations and respectful silence. Encourage everyone to share at least once. However, participants who do not want to share do not have to. If going around the room, a participant can say ‘skip’ if they do not want to share. Encourage participants to take the activity seriously and share what is close to their hearts.

Tell participants that everything they know about the world is here, in the Jenga tower before them. The tower represents our earth and all that is in it- the environment, all peoples, all forms of education and health, all cultures, all systems of justice and injustice, war, violence, peace, community, pollution, every kind of hope, and every kind of hate…

By either going around the circle or in popcorn style, explain that students will first go up to the tower and remove a block. When they remove a block they must name what they HATE/what they wish was not in the world and what they want to remove from the world.

Ideas for "What I hate about our world…":  war, violence, divorce, addiction, homelessness, hunger, lying, barriers to Education, etc. (Encourage students to give more then just a one word answer, you can start this by explaining your response).

Once the participant has taken the block and named what they want to remove from the world, they can sit back down. Tell participants to keep their blocks because they will need them soon. Tell students that all the blocks must be removed, with no tower existing, before we can move to the next stage.

Once the tower collapses and all the blocks are gone, debrief the experience with participants:

• How did it feel to deconstruct the world?
• Was it hard to think of things you don’t like in the world? 
• Anything else anyone would like to share?

Now tell students we are now going to rebuild the tower. We're going to recreate the world we want with the blocks in our hands. Each time they add a block to the growing tower, participants will say what gives them HOPE about our world! What is the world they want? 

Ideas for "What I hope for our world...": love, joy, helping one another, culture, God, clean water, healthy ecosystems, strong families, health/doctors/hospitals/vaccinations, justice, art/creativity, dreams, etc.

(Note: Facilitator should save one of their blocks until the very end when everyone has gone. Then place your block on the tower and say “Hope- because each one of you is on the planet”.)

Once the tower is rebuilt and no one has any blocks, debrief the experience with participants:

• Did you like this activity?
• What will you remember about this activity?
• How did it feel to recreate the world?
• Was it hard to think of things you want to see in the world? 
• Anything else anyone would like to share?

Want someone from World Vision to come and facilitate this activity for you and learn more about Jesus Justice? Check out yourmovement.ca or reach out to one of our coaches:

• Eastern Canada/Quebec: Leanne_Prescott@worldvision.ca
• Central Canada: Jobin_Sam@worldvision.ca
• Western Canada: Alexandra_Hayes@worldvision.ca 

Isaiah 1:17 (NIV) "Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless;plead the case of the widow."



About me: I live a pretty simple life... trying to love God and treat others as good as myself... I epically fail at this but mercifully God loves me anyway... different cultures inspire me... the outdoors is my passion... I'm pursuing my MDIV / Masters in Counselling at Tyndale... I spent 22+ years in the skate / snowboard / entertainment / marketing / retail industry at the executive level... led the charge at West 49/Billabong for 12 of them... I've worked in youth ministry leadership roles for more years then I can count.. after many moons in the corporate world I switched to the dark side and am currently the Manager of Youth & Student Campaigns at World Vision Canada... but more then anything I love giving my heart to mentoring and helping youth! #lovelife #dreambig #keepitreal #socialjustice #jesusjustice I/T @cindymielke  facebook.com/cindymielke

Come Aboard the Bandwagon

Source:  Canucks.com

This post originally appeared on Canadian Catholic.

On February 2 the Seattle Seahawks trounced the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 48. The highly-anticipated match-up between the NFL’s best defense (Seattle) against the league’s best offense (Denver) started off poorly for the Broncos and went downhill from there.

As part of the pre-game hype, I took a break from making Vancouver Canucks music videos to do a song for the Seattle Seahawks, cheering our southern west coastneighbours on (it has 140,000 hits on YouTube).

Here in Vancouver - given our proximity to Seattle – there was a lot of chatter about Vancouver adopting the Seahawks as their NFL team.  As well, there was a lot of back-and-forth between the loyal Seahawks fans and the newer fans leading up to the big game.  The “diehard fans” drew their line in the sand and warned the “bandwagon fans” to stay on their own side. 

It didn’t make sense to me.

I’ve been a diehard and loyal Vancouver Canucks fan for practically all 39 years of my life.  I have fond memories of listening to the games on the radio with my father and my brother.  With the small number of games being televised back in the day, we were forced to use our imagination in visioning what the play on the ice looked like.

In recent years, and especially during the Canucks’ Stanley Cup run of 2011, I heard a lot of backlash against the bandwagon fans.

“I’ve been following this team through thick and thin for 30 years!” was a common mantra for the diehards.  “Where were you when the team was struggling?”

The short-sightedness of these comments was quite amusing to me. Many bandwagon fans are our future diehards.

I’ve always argued that bandwagon fans don’t cause any harm, and that diehard fans should actually encourage them, embrace them, and welcome them. Who am I – as a diehard fan – to judge the level of fandom in a person?  Is it based on how many trivial facts and stats you know?  Or maybe how long you’ve been following the team?  Is it how many games you’ve been to?  Or perhaps how loud you scream at the TV or how many beers you consume while watching?

So how do we get people onto to the church bandwagon?  

I’m currently investing in my next-door neighbour Mike. He’s my “evangelization project”.  His mother is a CEO Catholic (i.e. attends Mass at Christmas, Easter, and occasionally) and he had a pretty rough childhood as he lost his father when he was a teen. 

We hit if off immediately upon meeting as we are both avid sports fans.  Whether we are coming home from work at the same time or taking out the garbage on Sunday night, we always make time for neighbourhood sports talk.  I understand him and he understands me – namely my love for my family and my faith (along with my love of sports).

In 2013 I challenged myself to invite Mike to Mass with me, and thankfully he accepted. He recognized a lot of my friends from hockey parties and other social gatherings and they were all happy to see him there. During Mass, I took the time to explain certain things to him – especially why we kept switching postures from standing to sitting to kneeling. Like sharing the intricacies of a sport, I communicated the meaning behind what happens, while trying not to come across as a know-it-all. 

Mike was curious, inquisitive, and respectful. 

This is at the core of the New Evangelization. Are we inviting fallen-away or potential new Catholics to experience the life of our church and faith? Are we doing everything we can to answer their questions?

I want people to see how passionate I am about my faith that they ask me about it. I want to exude joy and have them want to experience it too.

Back to Mike. Since December, he’s asked a couple of questions about what happened, and I’ve tried to answer them the best I can. I plan to bring him to Mass with me again in the near future. I know that my role is to walk with him and be there for him, much like Jesus on the Road to Emmaus.

Let’s go beyond accepting bandwagon fans; let’s be intentional about filling the bandwagons with our friends and acquaintances. After all, the victory parade we’re anticipating is way beyond anything you’ve ever seen, bigger than the Super Bowl and Stanley Cup put together.

So tell your friends to climb aboard, there’s plenty of room on the church bandwagon. 

Question: Do you have a “Mike”? Who are you trying to bring on the church bandwagon?

Clayton Imoo is husband to Gail and father to sons Sean Isaiah and Jacob Isaac and daughter Kayla Marie.  He has served as the Director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver for the past ten years, helping parishes develop their own youth and young adult ministries.  When not doing ministry, Clay enjoys spending time with his family, playing music, playing sports, playing naptime, and writing blogs on topics such as family, faith, and the Vancouver Canucks.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo