Open Vancouver is coming in September!

I'm so excited to officially announce that Open Vancouver is happening on September 26-27. It's a new and innovative youth ministry gathering meant for youth workers, volunteers, and anyone interested in dialogue, idea-sharing, dreaming, and learning about what Jesus is doing in the youth ministry world around Vancouver, BC.

Here's the Open manifesto:

There aren’t many places in the church where all ideas have the same opportunity to be presented. Everything is editorialized, shaped, and packaged. Every idea is filtered through a lens.

We think something is wrong with that. Deep in our souls we know the solutions to the problems we face today are already out there, waiting to be discovered.

Open is just that. Open. The Youth Cartel sets the table, plays host, and invites anyone and  everyone who has an idea to the table for a day where we all have equal value for our ideas. Whether you are a big dog with 20,000 people writing down your every word, a college student with some crazy ideas, or somewhere in between, the table is open–we will give you your shot and equal time to share your idea.

Now that doesn’t mean you will automatically be appreciated or celebrated. It’s an open table and you have the chance to play with the big boys. There will be winners and there will be less-than-winners. Just like everyone has the same shot, everyone undergoes the same scrutiny. The point isn’t that everyone will be equally received, the point is that anyone can have the platform.

No one gets paid to present at Open. Why? That wouldn’t be fair, would it? Those making presentations submit a proposal and chances are good that if they’ve got something to say that’s on topic, they will get a shot. Their only compensation is the chance to present their ideas, and free entry to the day.

So what does it cost? We’ve kept it as simple as possible. Tickets start at $25 for the day. If we sell out early then that’s it. But as we get closer to the day, tickets will naturally get a little more expensive.

True to the premise of Open, we aren’t out to make a lot of money. We are splitting any proceeds for the day equally with a local organizer and a local ministry recipient. We think that’s fair, and we will be 100% open about the money so you know who has made what.

From top to bottom we want Open to be a different type of event. We set the table, invite all, and provide a day where the best stuff filters to the top. Why? Because we trust you. We are in this together. We care deeply about impacting the Kingdom and we know you do too. And we know that low control, high trust openness is the way to get there.

Join us. Bring your ideas, bring your voice, and let's dream.

I love this manifesto! Contextualized, approachable, affordable, idea-sharing, and more than just megachurch pastors and well-known authors on the platform. Imagine shorter, TED-like presentations--around 20-30 minutes--with time for dialogue and questions afterward. Imagine extra time to chat in the hallways and foyer with a new colleague in ministry. From theology to program ideas to brain development to technology to social media, and everything in between: if it's youth ministry and happening in BC, we'll have fruitful discussions about all of it.

Here's what makes Open Vancouver a uniquely awesome youth ministry event:

It's local. The content is firmly focused on ideas, concepts, and best practices for developing a youth ministry for your context. The presenters and conversations will be from youth ministry practitioners in the Vancouver area. We want to have dialogue about what's happening in the youth ministry world right here in British Columbia. We want to have a distinctly Canadian Open event; this isn't about an American organization coming (though I'm admittedly American), it's about local Vancouver-area youth workers gathering to equip and encourage each other.

It's informal. While some events have special rooms for big-name speakers or large stages that put people at a distance, Open is...well...open. You'll have opportunities to ask direct questions and have conversations with speakers. The presenter you saw in a session might be learning in the seat to you later in the day. It's low-key and informal; we're all peers here.

It's inexpensive. This doesn't mean Open is cheap or shoddy. It just means we're hosting a fantastic event and we're not in it for the money. For $25, you get an all-day gathering on Saturday which includes a catered lunch at Trinity Western University. Yeah, we're gonna feed you.

I've participated in Open Seattle for the past two years and have greatly benefited from the conversations and relationships that grew from those gatherings. I love the organizing team we have for Open Vancouver in its kingdom diversity: Clay Imoo is a Catholic youth ministry leader and huge Canucks fan from Richmond and Matt Wilks is a lead pastor and Barefoot ministries guy from Calgary, AB. They're also both awesome leaders of the Canadian Youth Worker team, and we're striving to make this a distinctly Canadian youth ministry gathering.

Pastors, community youth workers, volunteers, parents--anyone who wants to share and grow, you're invited to Open Vancouver.

Check out the Open Vancouver website here. More info and registration will become available as the date approaches, as well as blog posts about Vancouver-area youth ministry. Registration will begin on July 1.

If you want to submit an idea for a presentation for Open Vancouver, click here and propose your idea! There are no speakers currently on the website, because we haven't picked them yet. Keep checking back at the website, as we'll be adding speakers as we get submissions.

If you want to be a sponsor for Open Vancouver, click here and contact us! We need a few awesome organizations to sponsor each of our session tracks.

Share this blog post and/or the Open Vancouver weblink with your youth worker friends in BC: vancouver.openym.org

Changes in Leadership

Today, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver announced its annual pastoral appointments.  Basically, every July some priests changes parishes: head pastors move churches, some assistant pastors become head pastors, and other priests move into specialized roles, move out of the archdiocese, or retire.

At my home parish of St. Paul's, we are once again affected by the changes, as we will be getting our 3rd assistant pastor in 3 years.  It's not a bad thing, as our church is looked at as one of the most dynamic in our archdiocese and a great place for priests to hone their ministry.

In reflecting on this transition, I started to relate it to youth ministry (surprise, surprise).  In particular, it underscored for me the importance of having a good transition plan in place when a parish youth ministry coordinator or youth minister moves on…for whatever reason. 

(As a side-note, It's neat that this blog comes a day after Jason's post of transition.)

It’s happened before:  a popular, highly-competent and highly-effective youth ministry coordinator leaves a parish and youth ministry seemingly leaves with her.  The parish is apparently caught off-guard (even though it knew this day was coming) and youth ministry has a hard time recovering, if at all.  All because the church’s youth ministry efforts were tied directly to its leader and not to the community.

Part of my role is to aid in this vital transition period so youth ministry doesn’t fall off the map in both the eyes of the pastor and the church community.  Thus, I offer three ways to ensure that youth ministry doesn’t leave with the outgoing youth minister.

1.  Mentoring.  Youth ministry is a prime opportunity for solid mentoring and leadership development.  Even the best youth ministers know that they aren’t going to be around forever; the smartest ones will realize this before it’s too late.  A strong leader should be able to identify and perhaps even groom one or two people to take his spot…without feeling threatened.  Leadership always needs to be evolving….otherwise our ministry isn’t growing.

2.  Create a Job Description and Procedures.  You might be turned off by reading this one thinking that it’s way too much work.  Realize that I’m not talking about lengthy, complicated, air-tight dissertations here.  But I am talking about concise, pointed documents that will bring consistency and transparency to the ministry.  Thus, I encourage you to spend some time creating some of these documents.  The last thing you want to happen is for someone to leave and to take all of the “trade secrets” with her.

3.  Know what you are doing and why.  If we are truly doing our job as youth ministers of leading young people to an encounter with Jesus Christ, then it shouldn’t matter just who on the team is doing it.  Ideally, young people will relate youth ministry to a multitude of people rather than to just one person.  Youth ministry is more than one pastor, one priest, or one youth minister.  We’ll know we’re doing it right when a prominent leader leaves yet the young people stay.

I pray that all of our youth ministries are designed so young people relate their leaders to youth ministry, and not the other way around.  That way, when it’s indeed someone’s time to move on, young people will be able to see that it’s a natural part of growth and evolution.

Then it won’t be so hard to say goodbye.


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      

Transitions

What is our response when things change? In this short film I had the honour of creating alongside some work mates, we explore the hope that surrounds transitions.

Plums and Pills

(This post originally appeared on The Mayward Blog)

I was recently chatting with a great ministry friend about an upcoming transition for him into a new pastoral role. He's headed to a church where my wife and I are quite familiar with the church's history, and he found it fascinating and enlightening to hear the stories of leadership transitions and cultural dynamics of the church. I remember having similar conversations with leaders of my church, learning about the history behind programs and roles and values.

The past is always present. 

I'm learning this truth both from a personal and leadership perspective. History matters. You see this in families as generational habits, health, and dysfunctions are passed down from grandparents to parents to children. Every individual person is a chronicle, a composition of events and encounters and experiences and moments in time, captured in memory.

So it is with church systems.

Every church system's history has shaped its present ethos, culture, habits, and practices. You and I recognize the impact a person's past has had on an individual, but often overlooked is the long-term impact of a organization's past, going beyond the immediately previous generation of leadership. Our connections to the past are long and deep, and institutions don't change easily. Roots can run deep, for good or ill. Organizations have personalities, too.

In his exemplary book on leadership, A Failure of Nerve, Edwin Friedman identified two types of systems present in clergy:

1. Churches that maintain the same happily content pastors/leaders for 20+ years are plums. 
2. Churches that churn out (and burn out) leaders every few years (or months) are pills.

Friedman claims that every church leader who stays around long enough in the area or denomination knows which churches are which. Plum means "a highly desireable attainment, accomplishment," something marvelous and first-class. Pill refers to something tedious or unpleasant, particularly a painful necessity.

Friedman writes: "I know of no hierarchical executive (bishop, district supervisor, executive, placement coordinator) who has ever succeeded in changing a pill into a plum." He continues: "The leadership lesson for a new clergyperson or executive is that without well-differentiated leadership, the past dysfunctions of a 'pill' congregation can make a newly arrived leader ineffective as well."

Whether serving at a plum or a pill, any new leader in an organization must grow in self-differentiation to have a deep sense of self in the midst of a swirling organizational history. Your successes and failures may have less to do with your own leadership capacity and more about the organizational history of your church system. If you're currently leading in a "pill" church, knowing where your identity begins and ends is vital to staying in long-term ministry, particularly when everything feels like an uphill battle.

Here are a few conversations you can have to grow in understanding the history of your church:

• Ask the lead pastor, elder or deacon board chairman: what have been three significant positive moments in our church from the past 10 years? Three significant negative moments?
• Ask the person who formerly had your job: what was most life-giving and most life-draining about being in this role? Describe two or three stories that capture a snapshot of your experience in the role.
• Ask volunteers in your particular arena or department: if you describe our ministry as a human being, what characteristics, traits, and values would they have? Create a personification of our ministry.
• Ask two or three local ministry leaders outside of your church: describe your perception of [your church] in three words, positive or negative.
• Ask two or three local business/school/community leaders outside of your church: describe your perception of [your church] in three words, positive or negative.

Do you know your church's history from the past 5-10 years? Are you aware of past leadership struggles and successes? Do you  the origin of prominent programs and sacred cows? What are the pills and plums in your context?

Parent Ministry Resources

One of the most forgotten elements of youth ministry is the focus on parents as it was the focus of last week's post, parent ministry.

Connecting church and home is a very difficult and daunting task for youth workers.

If you are like me, you need a parent ministry plan that will set you on the right course. Other youth workers can design their own plan based and use various resources for support.

Need a Parent Ministry Plan
ParentMinistry.net
This is a great service that allows your kids ministry through youth ministry keep the same branding, messaging and resourcing. Cost: $25 per month.
What you get:

• one video, two emails, and 10 tweets/texts that you customize and send out to the parents in your youth ministry each month.
• give parents resources on a right of passage each year from grade 6 through grade 12.
• parenting toolbox that gives you the resources to build an effective parent ministry.
• event kits on creating impactful parenting events.
• community resources that connects you to other youth workers ministering to parents.

Need Resources for your Parent Ministry Plan
SimplyYouthMinistry.com
Youth Cartel.com
Group.com

Knowing my weakness in parent ministry I would set aside $25 per month from the youth ministry budget and recruit a communication team to run this for me.

What is your parent ministry plan and what resources do you currently use?

Stop Developing Leaders????

For the last 15 years, North American Christianity has been fixated on developing leadership. Don't get me wrong... this has been a fantastic thing! The resources and training available is brilliant! 
But, think for a second. As great and as important as leadership development is, I have problems with this crazy level of emphasis we are putting on it.

(pic is from google images)

I want my people to be followers. 

What has happened that we put more emphasis on training leaders than we do on training people to be great followers of Christ? This is called discipleship. Did Jesus train his 12 to be leaders? Yes, but I think primarily, He was training them to be followers. Am I wrong? We sure use that discipleship word a lot, but I see a heck of a lot more intentionality in leadership development than I do in followership development. I want my people first and foremost to become examples of Christ in character, attitude, purity, thoughtfulness, depth, boldness, prayer, listening to God, service, humility, etc, etc.  

I want my people to understand and step into who they are in Christ. 

We constantly look for up and coming leaders, we call for leaders, and we encourage people into leadership. Leadership, as I see it, is ONE of the many gifts of the Spirit. Isn't it true that as people become good followers, as they understand themselves and the way God has wired them, gifted them, and placed them, then we will begin see who the real leaders are? What if we gave 'giftedness' that the crazy level emphasis that we give to 'leadership' development?  As people live out their own followership; the God-gifted leaders will be discovered because they will naturally rise. THEN, once we determine who the Holy Spirit has gifted that way, let's focus on training them to be great leaders AS WE train the hospitality people to be great hosts, the shepherds to be great shepherds, the evangelists to be great evangelists....  Should we treat leadership as equal to the other gifts? In the church tradition I grew up in, we criticized others for putting too much emphasis on some specific gifts; now, I think we are doing the same.

Spend the same intentional time and energy in training all people in their giftedness.

So, I actually don't want all my people to become leaders. I want them all to be great followers of Christ.

Will this era go down in history as the one that spent so much time and energy on leaders that we left the rest in the dust? Will people leave our churches in droves because they feel that there is no place for them if they are not leaders? If there is no place for thier gits to be used? Jesus took rabbi school rejects (young men not culturally designated for leadership) and made them into great followers. These followers became.

I know that this is overstated. I simply want to make us think. 


In youth ministry, I have only seen a few situations where students are really trained in the areas of their gifts (in a real breadth of gifts). I do see lots of places where kids are challenged towards leadership - and in most of those places, leadership means "be my slave, finish these tasks, run this game..."    

Let's not be known for developing great leaders. Let's be know for calling out God's uniqueness in each kid, recognizing the gifts of the Spirit, and pouring into them in "the way they should go"... they won't depart from it. 

Stop training leaders??? No. But let's put it back into its proper balance.


Dave Brotherton was a youth pastor from 1984-2006 and now teaches youth ministry at Ambrose University College in Calgary. Dave is also the National Youth Guy for the Alliance churches in Canada, the director of Legacy Youth Conference, and a junior high volunteer in his church. Dave is married to Lisa and they share 2 of the greatest kids in the world. Fishing, camping, and cheering on the Leafs are some of his favorite things. 
This summer, Dave is transitioning to lead the ministry of Sauble Christian Fellowship, Sauble Beach, ON. 
twitter: @oldbrotherdave 

Youth Day 2014: Our Hearts Burning Within

This past weekend, our Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Vancouver hosted Youth Day - our annual event youth rally for high school teens.  It was held on Saturday, May 3 at Archbishop Carney Regional Secondary School in Port Coquitlam.

Youth Day featured Chris Padgett as the Keynote Speaker and Jackie Francois Angel leading music. At over 450 participants, it was the largest Youth Day event since 2010.

The theme for Youth Day was "Our Hearts Burning Within" based on Luke 24:32 (The Road to Emmaus).  Throughout the day, we explored how our hearts can burn stronger for Christ and encouraged the young church to indeed develop positive healthy relationships like Jesus did with his disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Enjoy some of the sights (and implied sounds...haha) of the event.



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