Check out "Role With It" and the picture will make sense!

Jon Hill sent us this picture of some students that showed up at CIY in Tennessee this week. It completely cracked me up. This is AWESOME! They watched the Youth Group 101 "Roll With It" video and then came in character. Yet another reason why I love Youth Ministry!

5 Chinese arrested in enslavement case - Yahoo! News

5 Chinese arrested in enslavement case - Yahoo! Newsday'

This is such a crushing and devastating article. This issue is near to my heart right now. We are talking with a fantastic group called the International Justice Mission about doing a documentary on human slavery. We are specifically going to look at sex traffic with adolescent girls in Asia. It is totally overwhelming to see how God's children are being abused.

This year we had the chance to turn the hearts of students toward the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. My dream is that next summer we can really turn our attention to this issue of slavery. I hope we can call the church to make an impact. I can't imagine what it will mean when over 25,000 students mobilize in prayer and action.

What are your thoughts on CIY hitting this issue next summer?

Happy Father's Day from Indiana

My day started off great with a little gift from my kids. They got me a 4-pack of Starbucks frapucchino to start my day off. I like that a lot! What concerns me as I type this is that blogger doesn't recognize the word "Starbucks" or frappuccino. This 4-pack is yet another contributor to the demise of my six pack...along with an 18 oz. steak, blackberry cobbler, good ice cream, and my favorite candy.

I guess when I get back home I'll have to keep riding the new Father's Day bike to the office to make up for it! I hate the 24 miles (roundtrip)...but I love the money I'm saving on gas and the workout that I get! I've had some great conversations with the Father. I've also enjoyed some time with Mark Driscoll, Rob Bell and John Piper. Thank you iPod!

Last week here in Indiana was pretty amazing. It was humbling to see the Holy Spirit at work. I can't wait to see how the Spirit works this week. I think the hardest part is the silence after everyone leaves. I enjoy the break and the nap...but I hate not getting to see life change play out in students. I miss not getting to see the stories unpack. That will always be the hardest part. I love the local church and it will always be hard to not be engaged with the students as they grow.

We will start registration here in a couple of hours for the next week. It's pretty quiet here right now...but it won't be for long. We have a huge group coming in this week. I wonder if they will go as nuts for the video of the Indian/Punjabi guy as the last group. We did find the lyrics to the song. It was nuts. I saw this stupid video roll and I almost told the tech guys to pull it...by the end of the week entire youth groups had a full blown choreography to the song. High School students crack me up.

I get to hang out with Chad Brown this week. I'm sure that he will try and get me up on stage to do the dance or some sort of stupid impersonation. Chad basically has a great time at my expense...he knows that I tend to stink at any sort of impersonation...so he is always trying to get me going. All of my impersonations sound like Apu Nahasapeemapetilon off the Simpsons. It doesn't matter if I'm trying to be Irish, English or German...I always sound like Apu.

Hey...if you get a chance you've got to check out the Youth Group 101...they are SO, SO true. Yet another time to poke fun at the entire culture of Youth Ministry...I love this job. You can check them out on our website, on YouTube or through iTunes on the CIY Summer Conference Podcast. Enjoy!

My sons are staging a hostile takeover

We just got the link put up for our new program called SuperStart!. My son Justin was totally pumped to see his face on the front page of the website.

Patrick and his crew do such a great job with SuperStart! Now that I've got a pre-teen myself, I have a whole new respect and understanding of that age group. My son is usually rocking me with some random and abstract question that I feel totally unprepared to answer. Justin tends to floor me with his wisdom. Even at 11, I can honestly say that I respect my son. I'm falling in love with pre-teen ministry. I wish I had really understood how critical it was before. I had that typical Youth Minister attitude. It's all about Jr. High and Sr. High students...and even in that world...the Sr. High group is always trump. Man...I wish I could go back and do my Youth Ministry days in the local church all over again. I would change a lot. I know that I would invest much more heavily in our Children's Ministry.

It's interesting seeing both of my sons this year at conference. I'm seeing elements of myself coming out in both of them...and I'm not sure I like it! Here at summer conference Levi and Justin keep coming up to me offering suggestions on how to make the program better. They are 8 and 10 and feel the need to come up and take my job.

Levi has already told me that I have his dream job. He has decided that he will have my office and my job someday. I think I'll have to give the smack down and make him wait just a little bit longer. They are both cracking me up. I've got them on my left and right during the event telling me that we should change the way we do elements. They are making suggestions for video. They've got lighting ideas.

Man...it's going to be a long summer. Who knows...by the end of it...they may actually have my job.

Closing in on Indiana 1

It's creeping up on midnight and our interns and Bible College staff are all still hard at work. We are putting on the finishing touches on what looks to be a great week.

I love conference. I've been waiting all year to come back to Anderson University. It just seems like we get such a great group of Youth Ministers and students at these two weeks. I'm looking forward to catching lunch with some of the guys to hear what has been happening in their churches lately. I'm really looking forward to connecting with Ben Walker and Todd Jefferson and a slew of other quality youth ministers.

This theme has really been hitting my heart. I think that the whole concept of community is needed within our churches. I really think that our issues and difficulties with unity is the biggest obstacle realization of the gospel in our culture. Our inability to love one another is crippling the church.

I can't wait to see how things play out this week. I can't wait to see what the Holy Spirit will do in the lives of students.

A special thanks to our interns and Bible College staff. They are doing such a great job. We couldn't do this ministry without their help. We are so very grateful for your Kingdom service.