I haven’t listened to it yet, but Doug, Josh, Jana and Matt just finished taping a podcast yesterday- actually, it’s kind of a big deal since they’ve been scattered lately. Check out Simply Youth Ministry’s Episode 62 hitting iTunes later this week. I think they’re talking about senior pastors…it should be interesting.

I just talked with a youth worker who noticed that a lot of our conference leaders and speakers were from big mega churches, and wondererd if there was anything in the event geared for small ministries. GREAT question to address.

NYMC is absolutely NOT geared towards a bigger-is-better mentality and we’re not interested in playing the “how big is your youth ministry” game. Our goal is simple–meet youth workers’ needs for deeper training that they can genuinely use in their ministries, and feed them with ideas, encouragement and authentic interaction. We’ve asked all of our track & workshop leaders to take some time in each session to specifically discuss applying ideas for various ministry settings. We’ve also launched an affinty group specifically for small churches (called Small but Mighty) that will meet throughout the entire conference for connection, idea sharing and debriefing of what they’re are learning through a small church filter. Stephanie Caro (one of NYMC’s speakers) is excited to be the leader/ministry mentor for the Small but Mighty affinty group, this is her ministry sweet spot.

Tim Timmons is our conference worship leader, and he’ll be opening each evening general session, as well as the closing general session on Monday. He also leads worship at Mariner’s Church , and is another one of Doug’s youth group legacies. Tim’s so talented, and has one of the most authentic, humble spirits. It’s so cool to see all of these guys grown up and passionately leading different ministries because they were so impacted by their youth ministry experience as students. We’re excited that Tim’s bringing his whole band this year.

Chris Tafalia (Taffy) is also part of our conference worship team. He’s the student ministries worship pastor at Saddleback, is absolutely hilarious, and has an incredible heart for leading students in worship. He’s bringing his student worship band to NYMC–a bunch of 15-18 year old kids that share this passion. They’ll be leading worship in the morning general sessions. Taffy is also doing a workshop on Leading Students in Worship at the National Youth Ministry Conference.

We had another meeting today about some more worship ideas, including a “worship unplugged” feature each day where we’d have some stuff going on outside of the general sessions. (late-night, etc.) We’re also talking about adding an affinity group for youth workers who are also involved in student worship. More on all of that soon…

If you know about Simply Youth Ministry (Doug Fields’ youth ministry resource company), you probably know Andy Brazelton.  Andy was one of Doug’s youth group kids from a decade ago who stuck around to run SYM. Andy’s also a part of our National Youth Ministry Conference crew, and he’s organizing a whole series of practical, hands-on, how-to media/technology workshops at NYMC, along with Chris Davis, the tech master behind  from youthministry.com. (Chris was also kind enough to set up this conference blog for us)

Andy’s actually visiting us in Colorado this week for some meetings at Group, and brought along his wife, Julie, and son, Carter, for company.  Since my husband, Tim, oversees the youth ministry resource area at Group and works closely with Andy, I thought a home-cooked dinner would be a nice way to include the whole family while we talked about the media workshop series at the conference.

Shortly before Tim and the Brazelton family showed up for dinner, I discovered disturbing evidence that our 85lb Golden Retriever puppy, Molly, had officially “entered into her womanhood.” Since Molly is a gregarious attention-loving beast, I couldn’t just lock her outside the patio door and spend an evening trying to talk over her frantic barking. A quick trip to PetsMart and some disposable dog diapers was the only solution. With the help of my mortified 12 year-old daughter, and 10 year-old son, we manged to wrestle a pamper on her and have a nice little impromtu, illustrated discussion about adolescent body changes. Problem solved.

When Andy, Julie and Carter arrived at our home, Molly barrelled into them with a super-hyper greeting. Her not-so-fresh doggie diaper exploded right off and launched at them as well. Welcome Brazeltons! Andy and Julie were kind enough to assist me in round 2 of the dog-diapering rematch. (it’s hard to put a wagging tail through the pamper tail-hole.) We proceeded to hang out for awhile and talk about some new workshops that need to be added to the NYMC website when Andy noticed Molly was trembling, graciously mentioned something smelled bad, and asked if the diaper allowed her to go to the bathroom if needed.  An a-ha moment for all of us. The sanitary pamper effort had taken an unfortunate 180 degree turn. I’ll stop the story here. We tried to enjoy our dinner conversation, but it was really hard to hear over the barking.

Thanks for being a great sport, Andy! 

Besides Doug Fields, Rick Lawrence, Sherri, Karen and myself (Kami), there are a few other folks who make up our conference team. Our little blended family includes a few others from Simply Youth Ministry (SYM) and Saddleback Church.  

Josh Griffin–Has what looks like one of the most fun jobs in the world doing youth ministry at Saddleback, PDYM community stuff, and hanging out with his buddies at SYM. When he’s not doing this (or playing video games or eating), he’s working on the programming for the National Youth Ministry Conference evening general sessions, which he’ll be emceeing. Josh also has one of the best blogs in youth ministry.

This is “us”—the ones who work on the conference all year. We’re not the youth ministry legends you recognize, and we won’t be doing any main-stage hosting at the conference. If you happen to see us at NYMC ,we’ll be the ones greeting you at registration, making copies for the workshops, and ushering you to your seats for general sessions. But what you don’t know is that we have been preparing for you all year long. From the marketing to logistics, arranging talent and coordinating speakers, we’re just behind the scenes trying to bring this event to life. But we also pray for you and your ministry every day (OK–we forget some days) We know who you are.

So we’ll introduce ourselves…and the rest of the conference team in the coming weeks.  

Sherri–our spreadsheet-loving-task-master-of-operations and all things logistical. She makes a killer chili dip, and really hates it when airport security snags her expensive hair gel.

Karen–Affectionately known as “the legs on every good idea.” She probably does more work than anyone ever, but that’s just part of her great nature. She has a huge candy jar with seasonal-colored m&m’s on her desk. We love her for that (and all of the hard work she does, of course.) 

Kami–that’s me. I like to dodge official job titles (and formal office hours) and I’d rather be on the phone talking with youth workers than filling out paperwork. I’m always late, and lose my keys at least 3 times a week. (but Karen helps me finds them)  My most significant legacy in youth ministry is still most likely linked to the youth pastors I scared away as a teen. I’m working on making up for that now.

more on the rest of us later.

There’s a little handful of folks at Group who work year-round on the National Youth Ministry Conference. Planning this event is much more than a job for our crew, it’s a ministry that we’re really passionate about. Part of our passion comes from working alongside people like Doug Fields (the Saddleback/Purpose Driven Youth Ministry and Simply Youth Ministry guru of youth ministry) and Rick Lawrence (executive editor of Group Magazine)–who constantly amaze us with their depth of understanding, heart and vision for youth ministry. We’re also fueled by the conversations we have with other youth workers–hearing their stories, struggles and dreams for this generation. And the rest of our inspiration comes from the times when God just shows up–in significant ways, and in the little details.

We’ve realized that the process of creating and planning a big youth ministry conference has just as much significance as the event itself. Our ministry isn’t contained within a four-day period; it’s all wrapped up in the journey to get there. That’s why we’re starting this blog–to invite you along for this wild ride to NYMC 2008 in Cincinnati , to know the real people behind the scenes, to share the stories and conversations that shape the event, and to hear from you along the way.