Canadian Youth Worker Interview with Danny MacKay

Danny is a youth worker associated with www.iamsecond.com. Listen as he shares stories about mission, Canada, youth workers and also takes part in our Great Canadian Youth worker Quiz.

Enjoy!!

Precision

Not very often we hear about precision in our business. For a surgeon, yes. For a diamond cutter, yes. For a tree feller... A tree feller?

Discipleship does not happen by accident. Too many ministries keep busy and have lots of fun, but aren't very intentional or precise when it comes to the real Christian maturity process.

Dave Brotherton now lives in Sauble Beach, Ontario and Pastors Sauble Christian Fellowship. Dave was a youth pastor for 20+ years, taught youth ministry at Ambrose University in Calgary for 8 years, and was the National Youth Director for the Alliance Churches in Canada since 1999. Now Dave leads a church and speaks into youth ministry from the Senior Pastor's perspective.

Canadian Youth Worker Interview with Geoff Stewart

Geoff Stewart stops by to share about all things Canadian, BC, youth ministry & so much more. Listen to his story, have fun and enjoy some creative interaction on CanadianYouthWorker.com

The Letter

The letter was one page and hand written. It was filled with Encouragement. Hopes. Dreams. Goals. Direction. Questions.

As I read this letter the penmanship was familiar but I could not place it at first. It was a very personal letter as it asked very detailed questions that obviously had intimate knowledge of my life.

It was an encouraging letter in my work with Toronto Youth for Christ, my leadership, vision and direction moving forward into a new year. Was my staff feeling encouraged and valued in not only their work but in their lives.

It then moved into asking me how my commitment to my wife as her husband and best friend or even how I am setting an example to my son as a man, husband and father.

The challenge came when it asked me about specific books that I had just read and they knew the books on my "too read" shelf. Had I been challenged, provoked to action or action from what I read?

At this point I knew who had authored this letter.

This was a letter that I had written to myself 5-months earlier.

This was a fun exercise and allowed me to refocus, remember, challenge and encourage myself based on intimate knowledge of my life.

Even if you actively journal throughout your year, to receive a letter from yourself is like having the image in the mirror talk back to you about your life.

Come Aboard the Bandwagon

This is a slightly-modified version of a post I did for Canadian Catholic earlier this year.

This Sunday's FIFA World Cup final features two soccer powerhouses:  Argentina and Germany.  The Catholic social media world has been all over the fact that its our current Pope Francis' country (Argentina) vs. his predecessor Pope Benedict's Germany.

The heavy interest in this Sunday's match reminds me of the hoopla surrounding another sporting spectacle:  the Super Bowl.  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 coast neighbours on (it has 160,000 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 40 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?

It got me thinking:  how do we get people on the bandwagon for Christ?

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 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, Christ has plenty of room on his 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

Canadian Youth Worker Interview with Graeme Watt

Join us this week as Graeme shares his story about serving, youth ministry, Canada and his organization Loveworks.

Finding Kindred Spirits

Choosing teams on the playground during elementary school recess is essentially a childhood rite of passage. There are two team captains, typically the kids who have the appearance of being natural leaders (i.e. they're bigger and louder) while the rest of the potential players line up and the ritual begins. If I ever found myself in the rare position of being the captain, I typically took a posture well-known by the other kids: I would pick my friends first. It didn't matter if they were good at the game or not; they were my friends. Some captains picked the strategy of choosing the biggest, most athletic kids, regardless of relational equity or quality of character. They just wanted to get the most points. But I found myself drawn to the people I liked, the people I knew I would have fun playing the game with, the people who gave me joy, the people I trusted. Even if we didn't win, we'd have a blast doing it together.

We choose the teammates we love to do games with.

Now as a pastor, I have the task of hiring for three different positions for my church's youth ministries leadership team, including a full-time young adults pastor. It's been an enlightening, exciting, and daunting endeavor as a leader. Choosing a leadership team requires a great deal of discernment, humility, patience, and a knowledge of one's vision and values. Finding the right team chemistry is vital, and I've been blessed to be a part of some incredible church leadership teams where the team dynamic is defined by mutual trust and shared values. I know what I want in a team because I've experienced it before.

A few weeks ago, I attended an evening lecture at Regent College featuring author and pastor Mark Buchanan. He shared that he would choose leaders based on what he called the "Numbers 11 Principle." In Numbers 11, the people of Israel are complaining to Moses so strongly that he eventually pleads with the Lord to kill him at once rather than continue to face the criticism and whininess of the people. Instead of killing Moses, God gives him the following command:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone. (Numbers 11:16-17, ESV, emphasis mine)

God takes some of the Spirit on Moses and places it on these trusted leaders. It's interesting that God doesn't just give His Spirit directly; He gives it through Moses, a sharing of His Spirit that mingles with Moses's spirit. This is more than just team chemistry or synergy or alike personalities--these are kindred spirits, shared hearts, what Buchanan called "deep calling to deep." There is something mysterious and beautiful and complex here, a sharing of the Spirit of God to stand together and bear the burden of the people. Buchanan encouraged his listeners to seek out these kindred spirits and do ministry together.

One of my youth ministry friends, Brian Berry, uses the language of locking arms or stacking hands together. I love the image of interlocking limbs as teammates, the intertwining partnership it embodies. And when people on the same team or project aren't kindred spirits, there is an underlying tension behind every decision, a fumbling of locked arms and an awkward de-stacking of hands. It's akin to the feeling of going for a high-five with someone and completely missing; we're not fully with each other in this.

Kindred spirits. Stacked hands. Locked arms. Partners in the Gospel. Whatever the phrasing, these capture something I've experienced in the past decade of ministry: there are certain people you just love doing ministry with. It goes beyond personalities or interests--this is the experience of shared values, shared hearts, shared minds, and a spiritual connection permeating it all. It's the reason I moved to Arizona years ago--I was following the call of a kindred spirit, someone I loved and trusted. It's the reason I came to British Columbia--I found kindred spirits here that I didn't even know existed until the Spirit of God brought us together. It's the reason I married my wife--she is a kindred spirit, a person I eagerly want to do life with, no matter where God leads us together.

We choose the people we love to do (fill in the blank) with.

As I'm hiring for positions and looking to build a team, I'm looking for kindred spirits. I'm looking for people to do ministry with for the long haul. That withness is essential for any team, whether on the playground, together as parents, or a pastoral team.

Who are the kindred spirits in your life? How do you know?

(This post originally appeared at The Mayward Blog here)

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B.C. Youth Workers: Open Vancouver is coming to Trinity Western University on September 26-27. Check out the Open manifesto, send a proposal to be a presenter, and contact the organizing team with any questions!

REVIVE US REFLECT: What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?

Have you been in a discussion or an argument with someone and these words came out of your mouth, “That’s not what I said!” Frustration is usually not far behind those words. It’s a brutal feeling when someone takes what you said out of context or interprets what they heard through their own filter on life. It’s exasperating when you believe you explained something so eloquently and you were careful and intentional with your words, only to have the hearer translate it into something like, ‘You hate me!’ Or ‘You don’t think I’m good enough.’ 
“Aaagh, that’s not what I said!” have you been in that place as well? What about when people make negative assumptions about you, and they don’t even know you or have a relationship with you.

“Your prophets have said so many foolish things, false to the core. They did not save you from exile by pointing out your sins. Instead, they painted false pictures, filling you with false hope. Lamentations 2:14

 As I listen to this passage on my audio bible, I become very aware of how frustrating that must be. Time and time again throughout Jeremiah and Lamentations, God is warning Judah and Israel of what is to come, calling them to repent, or do as he says, and someone from some other place is speaking to the king or the influencers in the community declaring, “God said…” and it was the opposite of what God was communicating. I visualize God with His mouth open screaming, “I didn’t say that!!”

                           Tired of you tellin' the story your way

It's causin' confusion

You think it's okay…

Make Me Wanna Scream.

Michael Jackson - Scream

I took a moment to look inward and I urge you to do the same; Have you ever put words together or prepared messages or themes or spoken to individuals quoting God, but that was not what He wanted to say?

Camp season has begun. Some of you like me will be speaking at camps. Are you speaking what God wants you to speak?  Maybe you are camp chaplain, or the camp director and will be leading devotions for the counselors. Are you speaking what God wants you to speak? There will be junior counselors and senior counselors made up of volunteers, students and camp interns who will have opportunity to speak to campers one on one or in their cabins. Are they speaking what God wants them to say?

You can only speak what He is saying, if you have a relationship with Him and you take time to hear what He is saying. God told Jeremiah exactly what to say, and then he spoke it.

I had already written most of today’s blog earlier, but once I got down on my knees and asked for clarity, Holy Spirit shared with me what He actually wanted said and it was different from what I originally had. As I listened, I gently heard Him speak to my heart saying, “They are telling students what I have to say when they have no relationship with me.”

I Didn't Say That.

Youth worker. Is this you? Have you been caught up in the duties of life but have not personally heard from God for yourself in a long time? STOP! Stop speaking. START. Start listening. Holy Spirit cares about you. He’s got your youth, He’ll take care of your family, He wants you! You’ve been so far away from Him and you know it in your heart. You’ve got this whole itinerary this summer that you set up. He wants you to stop going, slow down and sit for a while. God cares about you too much to lose you. He can help you get back on track, but it starts with Him. Please it’s time for self-care. As a fellow youth worker, we all are a team. And when one is down and out of the game we feel it. I watched Costa Rica and Greece play in the world cup. One player on Costa Rica received a red card and was out of the game. These teams went into overtime and Costa Rica was exhausted. The goalie was hurt in so many places, yet they couldn’t sub him out because they used all of their substitutes. I felt for them. Look if you need to sit on the bench for a while to rest up so you’ve got legs again, then please do it because we want to keep you in the game! When you get a red card, the team is down a person, but when you have a sub, someone else comes out in your place. Do you need a break?  God will provide a substitution for you. I know you can’t see who it will be, but someone will come. Take a break and spend time with Him. 

If you are working with a team this summer, and you see that a student or counselor doesn’t have a relationship with God, please pastor them and have them take a time out for self-care which starts with God. Be watching for them so that there are no young counselors or parents that are creating confusion speaking a message that is contrary to the one God is giving.

Stop talking. Start Listening. Let Him speak to you. Allow time to resurrect your relationship with Him. Students need to hear what God is saying to them. As ministers of His word, we need to be clear so that our hearers can walk in clarity.

I’m praying for you. To whom this concerns.

Youth Speaker & Founder of the Young Woman of Power (YWOP), Alison hosts conferences and develops programs that are designed to build the confidence of youth such as the YWOP PivotFWD workshop which she delivers in Calgary’s Youth Judicial System and the citywide Young Women of Power Conference. She considers herself to be a pastor to those who don’t want one or don’t know they need one. For more info or to book Alison as a speaker visit www.ywop.ca 

Canadian Youth Worker Interview with Jason Ballard

Jason Ballard works with Alpha Canada. He's in love with his wife Rachel, their son Hudson and Jesus. Jason spends his time creating resources and helping local youth workers learn to use Alpha to create spiritual conversations in their ministry setting. Watch our interview as we talk about all things Canadian and all things youth ministry.