Author: revkevjr

“Hey guys I’m Jacob Tucker and I just finished up my senior year of basketball at Illinois College. This video was made in an attempt to get in the 2011 NCAA dunk contest. I’m 5’11” with a 50 inch running vertical…. I want to send a special thanks to everyone that has helped this grow! This has been incredible!“

Another hilarious video by my buddy Jake Rutenbar, made for the Simply Youth Ministry Conference 2011.

Stay Classy from arielamaro video on Vimeo.

On Friday night I invited my dad (who lives just 2 miles from our conference location here in Chicago) to come by and enjoy a bit of the conference. I knew Dad, having been a youth pastor in the 1980’s, would enjoy meeting several of the youth ministry icons present, many of whom I have come to know as friends. It was so fun introducing him to some of the new faces in youth ministry like Josh Griffin, Matt McGill, Jake Rutenbar, Andy Brazelton – people he’s come to know through their YouTube videos, as well as people like Kami Gilmour and the Skit Guys. My favorite was introducing him to people like Doug & Cathy Fields, Duffy Robbins, Rich Van Pelt, Tic Long, and Walt Mueller – people who were pouring into my him when he was a youth pastor in the 1980’s.

I just want to extend a huge thank you to those people in particular who have been faithful to God’s call for all of these years, and who have reached multiple generations of youth leaders. It was a tremendous privilege to stand there looking at these guys with my own father and to realize that they influenced my dad who influenced me in terms of understanding the value of, importance of, and call to youth ministry. Thank you for decades of faithfulness to the calling!

This book title will no doubt turn some heads. I just finished reading the very excellent book called The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation. It is a very helpful understanding of the often misunderstood book, addressing the many misconceptions about the end times and the dangerous conclusions that are wrongly formed when the book is misinterpreted. It then offers an interpretation which is seeks to be true to the genre and context of the book and a clearer picture of the deeper, fuller, biblical meaning offered therein. I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated it!

3,000 Youth Workers in one location can only mean one thing … Simply Youth Ministry Conference 2011 in Chicago, IL. I arrived in Chicago yesterday, took the train downtown where I met up with my dad at his office at Moody Bible Institute. We had a nice lunch together, then after he finished work, he drove me to my hotel where I got checked in, caught a brief nap, then joined about 200 people for our conference leadership dinner. Every time I come to these gatherings I know more and more faces and names, and it’s so great to be reunited with wonderful youth ministry friends. I’ve already had several great conversations, and I am glad to be moving beyond just attending to serving. Back in October I was in Colorado for a week of conference dreaming and planning, and arriving yesterday to see so many of our ideas being implemented was invigorating! I had the privilege of writing the pre-conference devotions, and already several people have said how much they appreciated them. I am also serving on several panels during breakout sessions during the next few days. Excited for what God is going to do!

Last week I read a neat little book called The Accidental Anglican: The Surprising Appeal of the Liturgical Church by Todd D. Hunter. Hunter is Bishop of the Anglican Mission in the Americas, is the founding pastor of Holy Trinity Church, an Anglican church in Costa Mesa, California, and an adjunct professor of evangelism and postmodern ministry at George Fox University, Fuller Seminary, Western Seminary and Wheaton College. Earlier in his career Todd was President of Alpha USA, Church Planting coach for Allelon Ministries and the National Director for the Association of Vineyard Churches. I was also intrigued to discover that, like me, he holds an M.A. from Regent University.

Hunter’s subtitle: The Surprising Appeal of the Liturgical Church is what really caught my attention. I have many friends who were raised either Catholic or in liturgical protestant churches and are quite happy to have moved away from such a style of worship, opting for more modern forms. I, however, was raised in typical evangelical churches my entire life, and in the last few years have had the opportunity to discover a bit of liturgy, finding much of it to be very rich. As my friends who came out of liturgical backgrounds to discover the richness of more modern forms of worship, so has been my experience in the other direction.

I believe that this should not be an “either/or” scenario, pitting one style against the other, but a “both/and” one in which the best of both worlds can be experienced and celebrated. The phrase “ancient future” comes to mind – finding roots in the ancient biblical roots and connecting it with our present day practices for a fuller experience. Richard Foster’s book Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith does a great job of exploring the best of the various traditions of the Christian faith.

The book is autobiographical and was comprised of Hunt’s journey out of evangelicalism per se and into Anglicanism. If you’re interested to reading books of people’s spiritual pilgrimages, it’s a quick and easy read.

Monday night at PI-678 (our middle school program), I had the students get together in small groups and come up with their Top 10 Characteristics of a Good Friend. After having them share their thoughts I gave a talk on friendships.

The Big Idea was: “I have to be the kind of friend I want.”

When I got home I compiled their lists. Here are the Top 10 overall qualities they look for in a friend (in order):

1. Kind
2. Respectful
3. Honest/Truthful
4. Caring
5. Trustworthy
6. Loyal
7. Encouraging
8. Common Interests
9. Helpful
10. Good Listener