The "Dangerous Wonder" of Mike Yaconelli

Mike Yaconelli was killed in a car wreck on October 30, 2003. I've never met anyone who was quite like Yac. Co-founder of Youth Specialties and creator of the Ideas Books, he is considered by many to be the father of modern youth ministry- a title which he would have hated. He was much happier with his own description of himself as a man who had been kicked out of Bible College and was for the last few years of his life the pastor of the "slowest growing church in the country." I first met Yac at the YS National Youth Workers Convention in 1982, and I was immediately overwhelmed by his passion and his personality. His early morning bible studies at those events were legendary, and I seldom missed one. Over the years I fortunate enough to attend numerous seminars which he led, and we sat and talked on several occasions. His heart for Jesus was enormous; his love for youth workers knew no boundaries. Seldom does a day go by that I don't think of Yac.


I remember his stories about youth ministry and the ever-present Jones Memorial Carpet. I think about the time I was standing at the front desk of a fancy hotel that was hosting the NYWC, only to feel a finger-blaster go whizzing by my head and hit the clerk. I turned to see Yac laughing hysterically- having fired the shot! His story about serving communion using orange juice and stale hot dog buns inspired me to use OJ & Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I remember spending 2 days with him as part of a small group in a spiritual renewal seminar just soaking in prayer and scripture, being reminded how important it is to be still. No one who ever encountered Yac will ever forget him. Just before his death I made arrangements to have him deliver the Sunday message at the Tampa church I served at the time the following February. I couldn't wait to see the wild, messy and totally unpredictable Yac blow the roof off the place. That day was never to be...


Today, I want you all to understand that Mike Yaconelli was all about a dangerous faith.  He challenged everyone he encountered to step outside of their comfort zone and follow the radical teachings of the Christ. This passion often made him a critic of the institutional church and of corporate student ministry. The 3 quotes below are from his book Dangerous Wonder. They tell you a lot about Yac. They tell you even more about what is should mean to follow Jesus. Read them. Re-read them. My hope is that you will be overwhelmed by his words just as I have been- over and over again.  If they make you uncomfortable...GOOD!  Then I know I have used them well.  I have said before that I have known 2 men in my life that I know really "got" Jesus.  Rich Mullins was one.  Yac was the other.  I was blessed to have known him. Enjoy his words.


If Christianity is simply about being nice I'm not interested... I'm ready for a Christianity that "ruins" my life, that captures my heart and makes me uncomfortable. I want to be filled with an astonishment which is so captivating that I am considered wild and unpredictable and.. well... dangerous. Yes, I want to be "dangerous" to a dull and boring religion.  


How did we end up so comfortable with God? How did our awe of God get reduced to a lukewarm appreciation of God? How did God become a pal instead of a heart-stopping presence? How can we think of Jesus without remembering His ground-shaking, thunder-crashing, stormy exit on the cross? Why aren’t we continually catching our breath and saying, “This is no ordinary God!”?


It is time to find the place where the dangerous wonder of faith can be discovered—a place landscaped by risky curiosity, wild abandon, daring playfulness, quiet listening, irresponsible passion, happy terror, and naive grace. In a day when most of us are tired, worn-out, thirsty, and starving for life and joy and peace, maybe it is time to become a child again. Maybe it is time to quit college and take a year off to go to the mission field, or give up a secure job and go back to school, or leave the corporation because the work is killing our souls, or give up the possessions that are possessing us. Maybe it is time to live this dangerous wonder of faith, take our shoes off, roll up our sleeves, and have such a romp as no one has ever seen. Maybe it's time to play in the snow once again.


Because of Jesus,

#TBT: Remebering Yac

Mike Yaconelli was killed in a car wreck 11 years ago today. I've never met anyone who was quite like Yac. Co-founder of Youth Specialties and creator of the Ideas Books, he is considered by many to be the father of modern youth ministry- a title which he would have hated. He was much happier with his own description of himself as a man who had been kicked out of Bible College and was for the last few years of his life the pastor of the "slowest growing church in the country." I first met Yac at the YS National Youth Workers Convention in 1982, and I was immediately overwhelmed by his passion and his personality. His early morning bible studies at those events were legendary, and I seldom missed one. Over the years I was fortunate enough to attend numerous seminars which he led, and we sat and talked on several occasions. His heart for Jesus was enormous; his love for youth workers knew no boundaries. Seldom does a day go by that I don't think of Yac.

I remember his stories about youth ministry and the ever-present Jones Memorial Carpet. I think about the time I was standing at the front desk of a fancy hotel that was hosting the NYWC, only to feel a finger-blaster go whizzing by my head and hit the clerk. I turned to see Yac laughing hysterically- having fired the shot! His story about serving communion using orange juice and stale hot dog buns inspired me to use OJ & Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I remember spending 2 days with him leading a small group in a spiritual renewal seminar just soaking in prayer and scripture, being reminded how important it is to be still. No one who ever encountered Yac will ever forget him. Just before his death I made arrangements to have him deliver the Sunday message in February of 2004 at the Tampa church I served at the time. I couldn't wait to see the wild, messy and totally unpredictable Yac blow the roof off the place. That day was never to be...

Today, I want you all to understand that Mike Yaconelli was all about a dangerous faith. He challenged everyone he encountered to step outside of their comfort zone and follow the radical teachings of the Christ. This passion often made him a critic of the institutional church and of corporate student ministry. The 3 quotes below are from his book Dangerous Wonder. They tell you a lot about Yac. They tell you even more about what is should mean to follow Jesus. Read them. Re-read them. My hope is that you will be overwhelmed by his words just as I have been- over and over again. If they make you uncomfortable...GOOD!  Then I know I have used them well. I have said before that I have known 2 men in my life that I know really "got" Jesus. Rich Mullins was one. Yac was the other. I was blessed to have known him. Enjoy his words.

If Christianity is simply about being nice I'm not interested... I'm ready for a Christianity that "ruins" my life, that captures my heart and makes me uncomfortable. I want to be filled with an astonishment which is so captivating that I am considered wild and unpredictable and.. well... dangerous. Yes, I want to be "dangerous" to a dull and boring religion.  

How did we end up so comfortable with God? How did our awe of God get reduced to a lukewarm appreciation of God? How did God become a pal instead of a heart-stopping presence? How can we think of Jesus without remembering His ground-shaking, thunder-crashing, stormy exit on the cross? Why aren’t we continually catching our breath and saying, “This is no ordinary God!”?

It is time to find the place where the dangerous wonder of faith can be discovered—a place landscaped by risky curiosity, wild abandon, daring playfulness, quiet listening, irresponsible passion, happy terror, and naive grace. In a day when most of us are tired, worn-out, thirsty, and starving for life and joy and peace, maybe it is time to become a child again. Maybe it is time to quit college and take a year off to go to the mission field, or give up a secure job and go back to school, or leave the corporation because the work is killing our souls, or give up the possessions that are possessing us. Maybe it is time to live this dangerous wonder of faith, take our shoes off, roll up our sleeves, and have such a romp as no one has ever seen. Maybe it's time to play in the snow once again.

Because of Jesus,

Unbridled Passion

I have been thinking about the late Mike Yaconelli quite a bit lately.  The 10th anniversary of Yac's passing was October 30th, and a blog post I wrote 2 years ago - The Dangerous Wonder of Mike Yaconelli - has received a lot of attention over the past few days. As a result of that post, my friend Sabrina purchased Mike's book, Dangerous Wonder, and dove straight into it. We have spent a lot of time on the phone chatting about the book and about Yac himself, and my personal memories of that amazing man. There is one word that keeps popping into my mind as we talk- and that word is PASSION. Mike was all about passion, and Sabrina is also full of that zest for life that comes from loving Jesus. So I have been wondering about what living a passionate life would look like for me. What does it mean to be passionate about living, about relationships and about following Jesus? What does it mean to truly give yourself up for something, to go all in, to have unbridled passion?  Today I want to share a few thoughts on the subject...

I always thought that the primary enemy of passion was apathy. Passion is caring deeply about something, while apathy is not caring at all. And there is some validity to that thought. But when it comes to living with unbridled passion, I believe the thing that "pulls the reigns" in most of our lives is FEAR.  We fear failing. We fear looking silly or stupid. We fear judgement. We fear rejection. There are so many fears that enter our hearts and minds that many times we fail to "go for it" in life in the fear that we will fail. Too many of us...and I do mean US...end up pretending to be passionate, when in fact we lack that burning desire to live the abundant life that Jesus says he came to bring us (John 10:10)! Just think of all the times in scripture that God, His angels and His son speak the words, "FEAR NOT!" before revealing news that will change lives and bring joy to the world. Fear is very much the enemy of passion.

In my own life, fear kept from so many things. In fairness, fear often kept me from being too reckless, but it also kept me from trying new things, experiencing great adventures and enjoying life to the fullest. It kept from loving as recklessly as I should have. And it kept me from following the radical, wild, unpredictable Jesus of the scriptures instead of being satisfied with the tame, shrunken, boxed-up version of Christ our society prefers to see. Far too often in my life, I chose safe over adventure. I chose tameness, sameness and lameness over passion. And when we do that we miss so much! I love this conversation between an aging mother and her adult son in the movie Parenthood:

Grandma: You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpa took me on a roller coaster.
Gil: Oh?

Grandma: Up, down, up, down. Oh, what a ride!

Gil: What a great story.

Grandma: I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together! Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing. I like the roller coaster. You get more out of it...

Mike wrote that "Passion is the roller coaster that can happen when you follow Jesus. It is the breathtaking, thrill-filled, bone-rattling ride of a lifetime where every moment matters and all you can do is hold on for life dear. Most people believe that following Jesus is all about living right. Not true. Following Jesus is all about living fully." For too long I settled for the merry-go-round. I had fun. My life was filled with wonderful people and seemingly endless activity. I appeared to be living life with zest and excitement. The problem was I was too tied up in "looking holy" to let the passion flow.  Fear was keeping my passion reigned in. It wasn't until I passed through the worst time of my life that I realized that fear had kept me from the abundant life. And it was at that point in time when I realized I had nothing left to fear. All of the masks were gone. It was time to jump first and fear later. All of visible facades I had surrounded myself with for all of those years had been torn down for me. The only thing left to define my life was the love of God whose name is Jesus and His grace poured out on me by so many people I love. How can you not respond to that with passion? When you are loved beyond all measure and have done absolutely nothing to deserve it, the only response must be to return that love with great zeal and great abandon. No more fear of failure or appearing silly. Instead, living like Peter. Always jumping first, never caring "what will people think if they hear that I'm a Jesus Freak..."

I do understand that the society we live in frowns upon such things. I this world, we should be careful, always looking before leaping and thinking before speaking. We should always make the safe and sane choice. Take the steady job with good money, not the risky one you absolutely love. Act your age.  Don't trust people, they will only hurt you. Don't get too "into" the whole Jesus thing, people will think you are nuts. And there are plenty of well-meaning people surrounding us who are anxious to remind of these things. Yaconelli referred to these people as "dream stealers." In scripture they were known as Pharisees. They want us to make the normal, safe and traditional choices in life, regardless of what it is that truly gets our hearts beating. I encountered one just the other night. A 7th grade girl was telling a group of us that her passion is dance, and that she wants to be a dance teacher when she grows up. Her mother, who loves her daughter and was seeking to be helpful and pragmatic, proceeded to poop all over that dream. The young lady was informed that maybe she could teach dance on the side of her real job someday, but that she couldn't really expect to make a living as a dance teacher. Dream Stealer! It is something we all have done, and we do it out of this fear- "But what if it doesn't work out? She might get hurt." How will she ever know unless she pursues her passion? Life is filled with pain and disappointments (valleys), but without them how can we fully recognized the joys (mountaintops)? We do need to jump first and fear later, because fearing first will often prevent us from jumping at all.. When we deny our passions, a part of our hearts decay. God created us to be passionate, to live abundant. And our passions come from him. Sabrina reminded me the other day of the great line from Eric Liddell in the movie Chariots of Fire: "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure."  Our passion FOR our earthly passions come from the Creator.

Yac wrote in Dangerous Wonder that he hoped when he reached the end of his roller coaster experience that he would not look back with regret, but instead would be shouting out "What a ride!!!" I believe he certainly did just that. It is my prayer that I will be able do the same. How do we accomplish such a thing? By loving others the way God loves us. No restrictions or conditions, no expectations of conformity, no condemnation for failure. Just wild, radical, grace-filled uncontrollable love. We can have passions for many things and many people in this life. But the only way to LIVE passionately is to embrace the madness that calls on us to love those who hate us, pray for those who wrong us and follow the One who loved us enough to die for us. That seems absolutely ludicrous to the dream stealers, who will tell you all about the rules and precautions we must all abide by to survive. And they may be right. But you know what? I don't want to simply survive. I want to live with an unbridled passion. There is only one source for that. So keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle and hold on tight. It's going to be a wild ride. full of huge highs and massive drops! But we'll be riding with Jesus. What could be better?

Because of Jesus,

"Getting Fired For the Glory of God"

With the third birthday of this blog now only a week away, I continue to look back at some of my earliest posts.  This one originally appeared in December of 2009. It still rings very true.

I have received a few e-mails asking me about a phrase I have used a couple of times over my last few posts.  The phrase is "getting fired for the glory of God."  This is not original with me- I learned it from Mike Yaconelli (pictured at left). His article by that name first appeared in Youthworker Magazine (I believe) and was included in his posthumous book Collected Writings. I was never fired for the glory of God- I was fired for my own sins and stupidity. I was, however, persecuted by churches for the glory of God, so I do have some thoughts on the subject. Today's post will mix Yac's words with my own thoughts, so to keep it simple, his words are blue and mine are black.  Red is still reserved for Jesus!

Mike begins by saying "there is no question in my mind that our calling to youth ministry and the current condition of the institutional church are on a collision course.  I am beginning to believe that if those who are called into youth ministry follow the lead of the One who called them, getting fired is inevitable."  I think this is more true today than it was when Mike wrote it.  Youth ministry is becoming more and more about "fixing a hole" in the church and less and less about the needs of the students the ministries are supposed to reach.  It is more about "church" and less about Jesus.  The principles below actually apply to most positions in a church, volunteer or professional.  "You disagree?  Why don't you try these seven suggestions, and see how long you keep your job."

1)  Keep Jesus #1- Dare to make your relationship with Jesus the most important thing in your life and in the lives of those you serve.  More important than programs, or money, or numbers, or anything else.  When you gather to do church business, who takes center stage? Your church?  Or Jesus?  The Quakers have it right- you can't separate church business and worship. 
2)  Be Still- Learn to value silence, meditation, prayer and  time alone with God more than you value the "busyness" of your ministry.  Take time to "soak" in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
3)  Ignore Corporate Values-  Don't worry about size, efficiency, productivity or success.  Worry about worshipping the Good Shepherd and taking care of God's people.  David Stone taught me a long time ago that "we are called to faithful, not successful."
4)  Think Small-  Tell your church it's all about quality, not quantity, and see how long you last!
5)  Be Real-  Let the youth and the church see your struggles and realize that everyone you work with (and for!) has their own issues.  Everyone needs grace.
6)  Put Your Family First.
7)  Seek Kingdom Values-  What are kingdom values? 
* Time- Always make time for the people you are in ministry to and with.  Be available one on one even when it seems a program or meeting might be more important.  There is no substitute for this.
* Awareness- sensitivity, empathy, noticing
* Audacity- risk, courage, resistance
* Intimacy with God
* Humility
* Grace- We live in a world where people, even Christ-followers, look at their neighbor and ask "How can I forgive them?"  Be the person who looks at what Jesus has done for you, and so asks "How can I not?"

Notice from Yac:  You don't have to confront the system.  You can just get close to Jesus, seek intimacy with God, follow kingdom values...and it won't be long until you are out on the street.  And guess who will be there with you?  You got it...Jesus.

If your situation has you choosing between being a faithful worker bee for your church or being a radical follower of the Christ, is there really any choice?  Choose unemployment- choose Jesus!

Because of Jesus,

"The Jones Memorial Carpet"

From the very first moment I ever heard him open his mouth, I knew that the late Mike Yaconelli was a leader of the Jesus Revolution.  He said things, did things and believed things that made it clear he was no friend to "organized religion," yet he and his ministry partner Wayne Rice were in large part responsible for organizing student ministry as we know it.  You can read more about Yac on my post Influences: Mike Yaconelli.  Today I want to focus more on one of Yac's signature phrases.  It seemed he never spoke about youth ministry without uttering the phrase "the Jones Memorial Carpet."  He was not talking about a specific carpet, or even a carpet at all. He was talking about an attitude of the church. And since I am a Jones...let's just say it has real meaning to me.



Pirate Night @ Wesley Memorial

 Yac generally used the phrase when speaking about how churches want young people around, they just don't want them to act like teenagers.  They want youth ministries to be clean and neat.  Nothing too wild should go on.  Keep the music turned down.  No piercings or tattoos.  And don't spill anything on the Jones Memorial Carpet.  Anyone who knows anything about student ministry knows that is not how it works.  It's messy pretty much all the time- both physically and spiritually.  Yac (and Tic Long) also used to say that if there is not at least one rule at your church that exists because of YOU (the youth pastor), then you are not doing your job.  I have seen those rules.  No playing kick-the-can in the cemetery.  No playing Sardines in the John J. Blair Class- since those "youth" destroyed their coffee pot.  No red Kool-Aid anywhere.  No dodgeball in the Sanctuary (OK- that one is legit) and no pie-throwing in the Fellowship Hall.  To Yac, all of those messes and all of those stains were cause for a celebration- in his words, "WHOOO-HOOO!"  They simply meant you had kids in your church.  But churches seldom see it that way.

One church I served, which had a real heart for student ministry and the messes it can create, decided to install new carpet in our youth room.  The old carpet was covered in massive stains and there was money to replace it.  I was excited until I went to a Trustees meeting and began to hear all of the things we could no longer do once the new carpet was installed.  No more food in the room.  Seriously?  No food in a youth room?  We ate supper there every week.  No more messy games.  Really?  No more Jell-O Nights?  No more Honey Bee Club?  C'mon, man!  And the list went on.  When I complained, they asked me for suggestions as to how to keep from messing up what was quickly becoming the Jones Memorial Carpet.  I gave them the following suggestions:

1. Purchase a carpet that was pre-stained or tie-dyed so no one would ever see the stains.
2. Forget about carpet and just use drop clothes.
3. Install tile instead.  Easier to clean, but extremely slippery.  A law suit is better than a stain any day!
4. Purchase a light colored carpet, then stage a pre-emptive spill with red "Bug Juice" and cover the whole area.  Oops!
5. Just get it over with and shut down the youth program, because teenagers are just not your thing.

OK, so I didn't actually say any of those things.  But I did remind them that in youth ministry we are always at work in a mission field, and to reach our target audience requires us to be different, messy and sometimes outright revolutionary.  We want to give them Jesus, but we have to have a relationship with them first.  I told them about the Jones Memorial Carpet.  And I gave them a "WHOOO-HOOO!"  The new carpet and some new furniture wound up in THE PARLOR.  I didn't even have a key to that room...

My long-winded point today is this- both student ministry and the Jesus Revolution are not likely to be successful if we only think it terms of "this is how we do it at church."  The people impressed by our "church piety" are already at church.  It's the lost and the hurting we need to connect with and show love to.  And that will always be messy.  It may involve the homeless, the unclean, the HIV positive and the criminal.  It will definitely mean that people who don't know (or care) "how we do it at church" will be coming through our doors.   If they do, I'm willing to bet you they will leave stains on the Jones Memorial Carpet.  And I think you would hear Jesus crying out- WHOOO-HOOO!  Viva la revolution!

Because of Jesus,

A Moment With Mullins

Who's that man?  He thinks he's a prophet

I wonder if he's got something up his sleeve...

Where's he from?  Who is his daddy?

There's rumors he even thinks himself a king...

Of a kingdom of paupers, simpletons and rogues

The whores all seem to love him and the drunks propose a toast

And they say surely God is with us...today.

This weekend in Nashville Youth Specialties will be holding another of its National Youth Workers Conventions (NYWC).  If you have followed this blog or know me at all then you know how important the NYWC was to me, both in my spiritual journey and in my professional life as a youth pastor.  It is among the things I miss tremendously since my sin cost me my ministry in 2007.  There will be more of my friends in Nashville this weekend than I can possibly mention, but I pray that they will have the same type of experiences I did every time I attended the NYWC.

I never encountered Rich Mullins at the NYWC, but his spirit was always alive and well at the event.  The YS staff through the years- people like Tic Long, Wayne Rice, Mark Oestricher and the late Mike Yaconelli (Yac)- were all people who helped expand Rich's teachings in my life on the radical nature of Jesus Christ.  They didn't see denominations or doctrine or divisions- they saw Jesus.  They didn't see failure, they saw grace.  The worship in the general sessions of the convention was always powerful.  If growing up Quaker taught me to appreciate silence, pacifism and prayer, the NYWC taught me to appreciate and love emotional worship.  I found that I could express my faith by worshipping in silence and by lifting my hands to a Chris Tomlin anthem.  I always left those worship times with the knowledge that "surely God was with us in that place."

I have said before that Yac and Rich were birds of a feather, just oozing grace and the love of Christ everywhere they went.  Yet they were very different.  Rich was soft spoken and very laid back.  Yac was a wild man, often loud and boisterous.  They both fit the descriptions of Jesus found in Rich's song Surely God Is With Us. You can hear it in the description of Jesus found in the lyrics at the top, and in these words:  "Who can move a mountain, who can love their enemy; who can rejoice in pain and turn the other cheek?"  Both of those men had that kind of faith.  They were imperfect sinners (as are we all) who fully grasped the unyielding grace of God and the radical nature of Christ.  To have spent time in their presence is a blessing I will never forget.  Both are with Jesus now, and I have no doubt He greeted them with open arms- and in Yac's case, a big WHOO-HOO!

Today is the last of my regular posts featuring Rich Mullins; I am certain he will make more appearances somewhere down the road.  As for Mike Yaconelli, Youth Specialties and the NYWC, I will spend the next few days sharing some of my favorite memories of my 18 conventions.  Come along for the ride!

This recording is from The Jesus Record demo's.  It is Rich and his guitar recorded with a hand-held tape recorder just weeks before his death in 1997. The song speaks of the radical nature of Christ and how hard it must have been for those around Him to understand his message.  Jesus was always an "outsider" to the established church of His day- and so were Rich and Yac.  The picture is of Tim Vestal, myself,  Yac, Jerry Hanbery and Ray Luther at the NYCW in Anaheim in 1996.  Enjoy.

Choose Jesus

I have received a few e-mails asking me about a phrase I have used a couple of times over my last few posts.  The phrase is "getting fired for the glory of God."  This is not original with me- I learned it from Mike Yaconelli.  His article by that name first appeared in Youthworker Magazine (I believe) and was included in his posthumous book Collected Writings. I was never fired for the glory of God- I was fired for my own sins and stupidity. I was, however, persecuted by churches for the glory of God, so I do have some thoughts on the subject. Today's post will mix Yac's words with my own thoughts, so to keep it simple, his words are blue and mine are black.  Red is still reserved for Jesus!

Mike begins by saying "there is no question in my mind that our calling to youth ministry and the current condition of the institutional church are on a collision course.  I am beginning to believe that if those who are called into youth ministry follow the lead of the One who called them, getting fired is inevitable."  I think this is more true today than it was when Mike wrote it.  Youth ministry is becoming more and more about "fixing a hole" in the church and less and less about the needs of the students the ministries are supposed to reach.  It is more about "church" and less about Jesus.  The principles below actually apply to most positions in a church, volunteer or professional.  "You disagree?  Why don't you try these seven suggestions, and see how long you keep your job."

1)  Keep Jesus #1- Dare to make your relationship with Jesus the most important thing in your life and in the lives of those you serve.  More important than programs, or money, or numbers, or anything else.  When you gather to do church business, who takes center stage? Your church?  Or Jesus?  The Quakers have it right- you can't separate church business and worship. 
2)  Be Still- Learn to value silence, meditation, prayer and  time alone with God more than you value the "busyness" of your ministry.  Take time to "soak" in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
3)  Ignore Corporate Values-  Don't worry about size, efficiency, productivity or success.  Worry about worshipping the Good Shepherd and taking care of God's people.  David Stone taught me a long time ago that "we are called to faithful, not successful."
4)  Think Small-  Tell your church it's all about quality, not quantity, and see how long you last!
5)  Be Real-  Let the youth and the church see your struggles and realize that everyone you work with (and for!) has their own issues.  Everyone needs grace.
6)  Put Your Family First.
7)  Seek Kingdom Values-  What are kingdom values? 
* Time- Always make time for the people you are in ministry to and with.  Be available one on one even when it seems a program or meeting might be more important.  There is no substitute for this.
* Awareness- sensitivity, empathy, noticing
* Audacity- risk, courage, resistance
* Intimacy with God
* Humility
* Grace- We live in a world where people, even Christ-followers, look at their neighbor and ask "How can I forgive them?"  Be the person who looks at what Jesus has done for you, and so asks "How can I not?"

Notice from Yac:  You don't have to confront the system.  You can just get close to Jesus, seek intimacy with God, follow kingdom values...and it won't be long until you are out on the street.  And guess who will be there with you?  You got it...Jesus.

If your situation has you choosing between being a faithful worker bee for your church or being a radical follower of the Christ, is there really any choice?  Choose unemployment- choose Jesus!

Because of Jesus,

Influences: Mike Yaconelli

There was only one Mike Yaconelli.   Mike Yaconelli was the co-founder of Youth Specialties. He spent 43 years of his life in ministry to youth, and 20 years as a pastor of a small church in Yreka, California (Mike called it "the slowest growing church in America").  Mike and his wife, Karla, split their time between Yreka and San Diego.  He helped found The Wittenburg Door, a magazine of Christian satire. His work with Youth Specialties not only changed student ministry, in many ways it created youth ministry as we know it.  If your life has ever been touched by a youth pastor or a youth ministry you owe a debt of gratitude to Yac.

Mike and his partner Wayne Rice were responsible for the Ideas Books, the National Youth Workers Convention and many other tangible ministry tools.  But for those of us who knew him, it was his constant support, love and inspiration for those in student ministry that truly changed our lives.  He was constantly reminding us of God's love for us.  He never backed down from the concept that student ministry was important- just as important as anything else the church did.  I remember so well his rants about the "Jones Memorial Carpet."  This was his phrase for any scared cow that churches would try to "protect" from youth.  The stories would always go something like this: The church board is freaking out because a student spilled a Coke on the Jones Memorial Carpet.  Mike always said the church should be shouting "WHOOO-HOO!  We have youth in our church!"  I remember him each year at the opening of the NYWC going over the schedule and telling some of us that we needed to skip all the workshops, grab our spouses, a bottle of wine, and go spend the weekend in our rooms, because our marriages needed more work than our ministries.  Mike had a way of cutting through the BS and speaking God's truth.  He believed and trusted in the grace of Jesus Christ, and had little patience for Pharisees in the modern church.

Mike was nothing if not unconventional.  He was a major Christian leader who had been kicked out of Bible college.  He launched "Fingerblasters" in the lobbies of some of the nicest hotels in USAmerica (once hitting a desk clerk in Denver while she was checking me in!).  He cared deeply for "the least of these," and is a hero with the folks at World Vision.  He once forgot the Communion elements at his church in Yreka and served frozen hot dog rolls and orange juice instead.  His rants on "getting fired for the glory of God" were controversial- and right on the money.  He was a member of the evangelical establishment, yet one of its strongest critics.  To anyone who ever shook his hand or got a pat on the back from him, he was immediately your friend.

Mike was killed in October of 2003 in a car wreck.  We were never close friends, yet it always felt like we were.  I think of him everyday.  I think of his rants, his smile, and his incredible heart for Jesus.  His books Dangerous Wonder and Messy Spirituality are still among my favorites.  Shortly before his death, I had arranged for him to come speak at Wesley Memorial UMC in February of 2004.  I regret never having the chance to have him to myself for a day, just to pick his brain and soak in the Light of Christ that just beamed from him.  My feelings for Mike and the impact he had on my life an thousands of others can be summed up in the following statement:  There are only two people I have ever met who, upon their deaths, I think made Jesus yell "WHOO-HOO!  He's finally here!"  One was Rich Mullins.  The other was Yac.  Heaven's gain was certainly our loss, and I feel it everyday.

Because of Jesus,