Ellen says...


Seeing the message of Plan B impact so many lives around me, I am convinced that this really affordable, high-quality DVD study is a proven winner. Pete Wilson is a great, fresh communicator. Highly recommended for older teens / young adult and youth leader studies!


About the resource...


Putting Plan B into Action
Pete Wilson
Trade Paper w/DVD • Thomas Nelson •9781418546076


What do you do with a shattered dream? Or an unmet expectation? How do you accept your Plan B when God doesn't show up the way you thought he would? With powerful real-life stories of disappointments and tragedy along with biblical stories and teaching, Pete Wilson leads study groups through the process of discovering the Plan B for your life, accepting your story, and embracing it as your reality. The Plan B DVD-based study offers you the chance to share with and embrace a community of believers as you begin a journey of real healing and change.



More free resources:
Putting Plan B Into Action with Pete Wilson - Session 1
Free Church Resources for Putting Plan B Into Action: A DVD-Based Study

In the 100 hours between Friday evening at 7pm and Tuesday evening at 11pm, I attended a Matt Maher/Third Day concert (and got a quick tour of their tour bus!), went to a Conference, helped facilitate a First Communion Mass, ran a meeting for youth ministry coordinators, co-led a Confirmation Retreat for grade 7 students, and assisted with Confirmation at my home parish of St. Paul's.

I felt extremely blessed to have these opportunities and it reaffirmed my hope for the young church of both the present and the future.

However, I didn't get to spend a lot of time with my family during the 4 days. Sure, we went out for meals for Mother's Day on both Saturday and Sunday and Gail came with me to the concert on Friday night, but I felt a tad unfulfilled amidst the busyness.

I do my best to limit how much I'm away from home but it's always a challenge given the frenetic world of youth ministry.  I constantly need to remind myself that youth ministry, as much as I love it, is my job.  It's my career (for now).  One could even say it's my calling.  But it's not my vocation.

My primary vocation is husband to Gail and father to Sean, Jacob and Kayla.

My job is youth ministry.

As my good friend and mentor Mike Patin always reminds me:  when it's my turn to give an accounting of my life as I sit face-to-face with Jesus, he's not going to ask me how many teens came to my office's latest youth rally, how many people I spoke to at the last conference, or how many people read my blogs and watch my videos.

He's going to ask me about the 4 people at home that he gave me to love.

He's going to ask me if they knew who he was.

I pray that my answer will be a resounding YES.


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.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo

Spiritual Practice of the Week:  Bring Many Names

Today is the day we honor Mothering and this morning I'm preparing an afternoon worship service:  Honoring the Day of Mothering by exploring the Feminine Face of God.
Human beings have always tried to find words to express the unfathomable mysterious image of God.  The image of a mother hen gathering her chicks, the image of our soul's resting in God like in a Mother's arms, the nurturing and sustaining love of God, and Holy Wisdom (Sophia) the Spirit are some of the ways scripture has described this path of seeing God as we see a Mother.  For some this is their truth and as there are as many paths to God as there are people in the world, we can share openess and understanding around how people see God in our programmes with Youth.  Our human limitations to understanding ask us to name things, even to name what is un-namable.  This practice brings us into awareness of the many names of God.  It asks us:  Who do you say that I am? 

Repeating God's name:This practice is a meditation that uses repetitive mantra, or words that focus on the names of God. In some traditions, the repetition of God’s name is done with prayer beads or a prayer rope with knots in it. As each bead or knot is touched, the name of God is repeated by the one who prays. In calling God’s name, we are in a sense seeking God. Our calling out for the Holy One reminds us that God is here,with us no matter what.
Repeat the mantra below this practice three times. You may get your group of youth to brainstorm a list of words they use for God and create their own prayer. This practice may be one station in a spiritual practices experience or may be chanted as a whole group when you are exploring who God is.

Here’s a sample to try out:

This is a prayer to One of Many Names.
God, Creator, Spirit, Jesus.
Wise One, Holy One, Deep Mystery.
Universe Creator, Holy Spirit, Father.
Everything, Everywhere, Brother Jesus, Allah.
Ruah, Oneness, Being of Light.
Mother, Bringer of Truth, Sheltering Tree,
Breath, Music, Holy Three.
This is a prayer to the One of Many Names.
We call your name and know you are here.

The benediction for this afternoon's service:
Go in Peace, mothering all you know into a life of wholeness, joy and love. 
Go in Peace knowing that God our Mother, nurtures us to choose life and love. 

Amen.

© This prayer practice and all of those on the Sunday Morning Blog Post can be found in:  "Go Deep: Spiritual Practices for Youth Ministry" Wood Lake Publishing.
Doris is the Youth Director for the United Church of Canada in BC and the Director of World Pilgrim: Global Education and Awareness Travel.

I spent all day on Thursday at a retreat centre.  Like a lot of retreat centres this centre is also a monastery housing Franciscan Monks.  It's such a quiet, peaceful place.  Without all the distractions of home (and even church) it was so nice being in a place saturated in prayer and contemplation.

I always encourage people to bring as little as possible on a retreat and do as little as possible but sometimes I forget to take my own advice and I bring too many things to do like reading.  But this time I brought very little with me so I allowed myself a 2 hour afternoon nap which I haven't done in several months and really needed.

I went on an 8 day silent retreat almost a decade ago and for the first 3 days I slept almost 14 hours a day - twice my usual average!  As the week went on I dropped down to 12 hours then 10 hours and by the time I was ready to go home I was back down to a healthy 8.  My body so desperately needed rest, not to mention my heart, mind and soul.  The only person I was allowed to talk with once a day was my spiritual director who, like a broken record, repeated the same phrase to me over and over again each day; "Rob, listen to your body, honor your body, listen to your body..."

Our culture does not encourage us listening to our bodies.  We push our bodies well into the evening to watch various TV programs and squeeze in more work.  We wake up unnaturally to alarms to rush off to work or school rather than naturally waking up when we're ready.  We push ourselves day after day to work hard, eat food that's not good for us, drink coffee and energy drinks, pop various pills, and other things which are not necessarily good for our bodies and do not make us feel good.  But we just keep going rather than taking time to listen to the signs and messages our bodies give us.

There are many advantages for of slowing down for our heart, soul and mind and also for our bodies.  Take some time to slow down not only to pray, read, journal and so on but to listen to your body and see if you're taking care of it.  If you pay attention your body will either say, "Thank you" or "I could use a little more ______ or a little less ______."

Take care of your bodies so you'll have more energy and strength to serve God and others.

How are you celebrating the mom's from your youth ministry/church this weekend?

Ellen says...


Is the North American church overprotective, repressive, and shallow? "UnChristian" looked at outsiders and their perceptions of the church, and what we could do to respond to these very real concerns. With "You Lost Me", Kinnaman examines young insiders who have left disconnected from the church, giving them a voice and an opportunity for the church to respond in love.


About the resource...


You Lost Me by David Kinnaman
Paperback and Hardcover • Baker Publishing Group • 9780801013140

Millions of young Christians are disconnecting from church as they transition into adulthood. They're real people, not just statistics. And each one has a story to tell. The faith journeys of the next generation are a challenge to the established church, but they can also be a source of hope for the community of faith. Bestselling author of "UnChristian", David Kinnaman, with the help of contributors from across the Christian spectrum, offers ideas for pastors, youth leaders, parents, and educators to pass on a vibrant, lasting faith, and ideas for young adults to find themselves in wholehearted pursuit of Christ.



An excerpt... 

A generation of young Christians believes that the churches in which they were raised are not safe and hospitable places to express doubts. Many feel that they have been offered slick or half-baked answers to their thorny, honest questions, and they are rejecting the “talking heads” and “talking points” they see among the older generations. You Lost Me signals their judgment that the institutional church has failed them.

Whether or not that conclusion is fair, it is true that the Christian community does not well understand the new and not-so-new concerns, struggles, and mindsets of young dropouts, and I hope that You Lost Me will help to bridge this gap. Because of my age (thirty-seven) and my position as a researcher, I am often asked to explain young people to older generations and advocate for their concerns. I welcome the task because, whatever their shortcomings, I believe in the next generation. I think they are important, and not just because of the cliché “young people are the leaders of tomorrow.”


The story—the great struggle—of this emerging generation is learning how to live faithfully in a new context, to be in the world but not of the world. This phrase, “in but not of the world,” comes from Jesus’s prayer for his followers, recorded in John 17. For the next generation, the lines between right and wrong, between truth and error, between Christian influence and cultural accommodation are increasingly blurred. While these are certainly challenges for every generation, this cultural moment is at once a singular opportunity and a unique threat to the spiritual formation of tomorrow’s church. Many young adults are living out the tension of in-but-not-of  in ways that ought to be corrected or applauded, yet instead are often criticized or rejected.

In the vibrant and volatile story of the next generation, a new spiritual narrative is bubbling up. Through the lens of this project, I have come to understand and agree with some, though not all, of their grievances. Yes, we should be concerned about some of the attitudes and behaviors we encounter in the next generation of Christians, yet I also find reasons to hope in the best of what they have to offer. Apparently they are a generation prepared to be not merely hearers of doctrine but doers of faith; they want to put their faith into action, not just to talk. Yes, many young dropouts are stalled in their spiritual pursuits, yet a significant number of them are reinvigorating their faith with new ideas and new energy.

From this generation, so intent on reimagining faith and practice, I believe the established church can learn new patterns of faithfulness. You Lost Me seeks to explain the next generation’s cultural context and examine the question:

How can we follow Jesus—and help young people faithfully follow Jesus—in a dramatically changing culture?

Excerpt from You Lost Me by David Kinnaman. Copyright 2011, Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Used by permission.


DVD Resource coming Oct 2012

More free resources:
Video Interviews on New Day TV
Video Interviews on 100 Huntley St
Publisher's Page
Tables and Charts from the book

Graphic by Faye McCreedy, Archdiocese of Vancouver

We (the Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver) held our annual high school youth rally this past weekend and it was a wonderful weekend of faith and fellowship.  The theme of Youth Day was "Rejoice" based on Philippians 4:4 and the keynote speakers, musicians and guest presenters helped the participants explore joy as being at the heart of Christian living.

The theme was inspired by Pope Benedict XVI's message for the annual World Youth Day celebration of the Catholic Church.  In his message of March 2012, he speaks about the joy of faith and points out:

1. Our hearts are made for joy;
2. God is the source of true joy;
3. Preserving Christian joy in our hearts;
4. The joy of love;
5. The joy of conversion;
6. Joy at times of trial; and
7. Witnesses of joy.

Read the whole letter to young people here.  It's a wonderful read.


"Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Phil 4:4)



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.  Learn more about him at http://www.claytonimoo.com or follow him @claytonimoo