lots of down time, but I'm not down

One of the upsides of this whole accident is that I can't do much. I can't drive. Therefore, I can't go to baseball practice (I coach the JV team at State High), can't go to the office. I can't go out to run, can't go rock climbing or paddling with buddies, can't play guitar.

OK, so that doesn't sound very positive.

One good thing is that I have had SO MUCH time for reading the Bible, praying, and reading some books that I've been meaning to get to.

This week I read Chris Folmsbee's A New Kind of Youth Ministry, Mike King's Presence-Centered Youth Ministry, Lewis and Wilkins The Church of Irresistible Influence, and started Alan Hirsch's The Forgotten Ways.

I've met Folmsbee and King at YS's National Youth Worker Conventions, and I dropped them a couple of emails. I am so encouraged by what I read. We are seeing a shift in the philosophy of ministering to students that should move us closer to a Biblicall expression of ministry to the whole person, away from a "Hey come to youth group, and bring your friends to the cool outreach thing" and to a renewed focus on spiritual formation.

I don't want to throw away the efforts and the lessons we've learned from the past 20 years of ministry with students. We stand on the shoulders and the work of those who have gone before. But I believe that we discovering new/old ways to help this generation connect with God, the Ancient of Days.

If we are to embrace the mission of God, we must be willing to learn, to grow, to stretch, to remember that this life, this kingdom is not about us...