My second Book

So Amazon has my second book on their site.

This is a very different kind of book. It will be interesting to see how it will be received.

Patti on Age of youth pastors

Patti of YMX fame is talking about one of the chapters of my books.

I want to get my youth ministry and church leadership audience to chime in on something, if you will. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been reading Mark Riddle’s new book Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors: A Church Leader’s Guide to Staffing and Leading Youth Pastors. I’m writing a review of the book for YMX, and Mark has graciously agreed to answer a slew of questions I sent him and make this humble blog a stop on his blog book tour.

I’ve been thinking a lot about one of the book’s shortest chapters (12), which addresses the elongation of adolescence and the resulting effect that should have on youth pastor hiring decisions. I asked Mark about it so we will eventually hear his input on this question when the blog tour interview appears.

Let me set the stage a bit. Mark, in Inside the Mind, cites research by Dr. Jeffery Arnett (Emerging Adulthood: The Winding Road from Late Teens through the Twenties) which makes a compelling case that, developmentally, the years from 18 to 25 should be considered late adolescence. The characteristics of this developmental stage, Mark argues, should be carefully considered in choosing to hire someone from this cohort as a spiritual leader for those in earlier stages of adolescence.

From Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors, Ch 12, p 82:

If, however, you choose to hire an emerging adult to lead your youth ministry, you must give significant attention to mentoring that person in leadership and discipleship. Teenagers need their youth pastors to have a strong sense of who they are, based on life experiences. They need youth pastors who have a sense of stability in their identities.

Certainly there are men and women in their early to mid-20s who fit the bill, but they are few and far between. Church leaders need to dispel the myth that younger is better for youth ministry leadership. It’s simply not true. In fact, entrusting spiritual leadership of your teenage children to someone who’s still working through the five characteristics [of late adolescence] listed earlier [in the chapter] is irresponsible.

While there is a lot of that which makes good sense to me - considering that car insurance and rental companies have considered this age group less capable of responsible decision-making and judgment in general, and have run their businesses accordingly for, well, ever. That doesn’t change the fact that the vast majority of youth pastors/minister/directors I have ever had contact with got their start in youth ministry as volunteers or staff as young adults in their early 20s.

So, I’m wondering what you think about this. And, if you agree, what are your constructive ideas for ways to bridge the time from the end of college to age 25 for those who have earned ministry degrees, but are not yet “adults” by this developmental measure?

Go over and see what others are saying in the comment section.
Link

Inside the Mind - Excerpt

Over the next few weeks I'll be throwing out some excerpts from the book for dialogue.

"When a church is in a hurry to hire a youth pastor, it’s a sign that something is wrong. If you learn to read the signs, you can educate yourself on what you’re getting into. A healthy church can wait indefinitely for a new youth pastor. If it takes a year, the church can wait. If it takes three years, the church can wait.

Hurry is a sign that something is wrong, because it suggests pressure from within the organization to take action more quickly than it naturally would. If, for instance, there’s a pressure to hire a youth pastor soon out of fear that students will stop coming, then you can read the sign that says, “The youth pastor is the center for all relationships with kids in our church, and we don’t have enough volunteers.”

If there’s a pressure from parents to find a youth pastor, you can research the origins of it by asking questions about what kind of leader the senior pastor is and what kind of authority parents have in making day-to-day decisions in the church.

Youth pastors and churches who take their time in the hiring process to get to know each other are more likely to be a healthy fit."

taken from Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors, Chapter 10 (Before you say Yes)

Inside the Mind: Blog Review

Dan Mayes reviews Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors.

He likes it and thinks it will be helpful for the church. Go to Dan's site and read what he says. The book comes out in January.

Here's the link.

Inside the Mind: Blog Endorsement

So the great John Frye, author, pastor and gifted teacher has written the first ever blog post (on a blog other than this one) about my new book Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors. The book comes out in January, but here's a part that stood out to me.

The genius of Mark’s book is his ability to go beneath the surface and locate and express the (often deadly) assumptions at work in senior pastors, parents of teens, potential youth pastors and whole congregations–assumptions that swirl around this thing called youth ministry.

Mark presents a vision for healthy youth ministry that seeks the spiritual formation not just of teens, but families; not just of departments in the church, but whole congregations. The rinky-dink view of youth ministry as “Christian” fun-and-games to keep teens from sinning is forever gone.

Thanks John!
Link

Periodicals and Church Leaders

Ok, so I'm working with a PR person from Zondervan. I began to wonder, what magazines, e-zines etc do you read as a church leader?

Book Cover

I'm pretty stoked about the final book cover for "Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors"
Due January 09.

Make a mental note that your pastor and youth pastor need one of these for 2009.

Full Plate

Things that I need to give attention to this week:
- Riddle Group (working with 4 different churches this week)
- New Church (impossibly long list of things to do)
- Writing - (Editing the second book is underway)
- Emergent Cohort (organization of)
-Family Stuff
What am I forgetting?

A Temporary New Look for the Blog

Over the next few months I'm going to be reorganizing my presence on the web.
The blog address should stay the same, but the look will change.
I'm overhauling theRiddleGroup.com site and adding two additional sites. One site dedicated to my new book, "Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors" another that is a hub for me (markriddle.net) Sometime in January I'll likely put up a new site for my other book that will be released in Sept. 2009. Oh, and I'll be developing a site for the new church we've started here in Tulsa. Ok. So I've got some work to do.

For folks who read the blog, nothing should change except the look and few more links on the side.

I'm hoping not to overwhelm folks with Book Release stuff when they come out, but rather point them to the book site. It's probably just me, but it bugs me when bloggers pimp there book every single day, every single time they post.

anyway. the new look is temporary and mainly so you can comment with ease. so feel free to comment!

Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors

"Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors" will be coming out in December and I'm excited about it! Because it's my first book!

The book covers a lot of ground and engages stories of church leaders from across the country as they relate to Youth Pastors.

For churches without Youth Pastors "Inside the Mind of YP" deals with staffing the position in ways that are sustainable for great ministry. This section is informed significantly from consulting with churches over the past several years. The first 14 chapters will help Senior Pastors, Executive Pastors, Search Committee's , Boards, Elders, and other Youth Pastors make informed decisions that rework the traditional ways of finding, interviewing and keeping youth pastors in a local church to make them more sustainable. Additionally it helps these church leaders remember (and sometimes rethink) why they hire youth pastors in the first place. One or two of these things will be refreshers for the average Youth Pastor, (though not for the average church leader) and several will provide a new framework for Youth Pastors on the values the already hold.

The second section (15 chapters) helps Senior Pastors and/or other church leaders to understand what a Youth Pastor is thinking and/or hoping for from them. (ie. Youth Pastor's want their Senior Pastor to have their back.. etc)

There is a discussion guide included so that it can be used for Senior Pastors (or supervising pastors) to engage in meaningful discussion with their Youth Pastor about each chapter. This way the Youth Pastor is able to speak for themselves on each issue. The discussion guide will also be helpful for search teams to discuss and do the ground work for hiring youth staff.

I'm pretty excited about "Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors".

more to come.

Congrats to Tony Jones

This is very cool. I'm very excited for Tony. I read the book last week and recommended it to several folks already. "The New Christians" is the book to read when it comes to learning about Emergent Village and what it is hoping to accomplish.

thanks to Doug for the pic.

Do You Hear that Sound?

Do you hear that sound? It's the sound of George Barna becoming increasingly irrelevant.
More later.

Born Standing Up

I was never really a Steve Martin fan, at least back when he did stand up, or of his SNL days. Frankly I was too young to watch it live, or to naive to appreciate what what happening at the time. Though, I suppose I really like "The Jerk". At least the parts I was saw. I don't think my parents wanted me to see that movie at the time. That being said, Steve Martin the writer is another story.

LA Story (1991) was brilliant.

I'm now listening to "Born Standing Up: A comic's life" by Martin. I don't typically buy books on itunes, but did this time because I wanted to hear Steve read it.

This book is great. Really great.

Saying Steve Martin can write is an understatement.
Pick it up or listen to it. I love this book.

Out of Print

My friend John Frye has written another book. This time it's fiction.

The book is titled, "Out of Print"
Here's what's it's about (from the website)

“A world with no Bible.”

Luci Dykstra sat on the edge of the bed fearfully pondering these words from the television news report. . . Professor Harold Johnson and his class of students watched the Greek words from John’s Gospel disappear from the chalk board. . . . The Vatican’s Council on Biblical Studies scrambled to create a message for the Pope to deliver to a frightened world: Why is the Word of God vanishing?

Out of Print: A Novel ignites the imagination as a mystery in which the Bible as we know it is no longer available. Fearful people, confused scholars, surprised reporters and a watching world struggle to make sense of the cataclysmic event.

• Where is God when the Bible goes “out of print”?
• What if the global church had no Bible?
• What if Jews, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants united to keep “the Story of God” alive on the planet?

In this provocative story the wonder and purpose of the Bible captures our hearts."

I'm looking forward to getting a copy of this book and reading it. John is a gifted story teller and a great scholar. In a world that often worships the Bible more than God, it's an intriguing concept for a book.
He even got Scot McKnight to write the Afterword even though Scot doesn't read fiction.

Go here to the site.

Go here to buy it. You can only buy it on this site.

Tim Keel's Intuitive Leadership

I'm really digging Tim's book on leadership. I'm not done. But I like it so far.
It reads like a familiar voice.
It feels like someone is writing the words I've felt for sometime.
Some of the things he's writing I've put words to.
Some I haven't.

There are some chunks of the book that are rich. Think the quadruple cholocalate cake rich. Think intensity of flavor.

It's a book on leadership that a lot of folks won't read unfortunately. The reason they won't read it?

Because the first two chapters are simply Tim's Story. This breaks the mold of traditional leadership books. Hearing the author's story to some will feel as if the author is self-indulgent. they will be looking for principles. 21 irrefutable principles. or 7 habits or maybe a purple cow.

Leadership is always subjective. It's always contextual. principles are fine. but today's pastor's need to learn to listen to their lives and their context.

Tim doesn't come out with principles blazing.
He starts with his story. Then he talks about being a leader out of your story.

I'm going to keep reading.
Go buy it.

Harry Potter update

Ok. I just finished the 6th book of Harry Potter.
Wow. that last one hundred pages fly by. I ended up staying up until 1:30am last night just so I could finish last night. What an amazing story.

I am now ready for book 7... which conveniently comes out 4 days from now.

Harry Potter update

Ok. so last night I finished Order of the Phoenix. It was a good read. A better story, but it was 200 pages too long. it would have been better in the 650 range and it wouldn't have lost anything.

I'm 75 pages into the 6th book and I'm going to wait to finish it during vacation.

Harry Potter

I'm currently on book 5. I read book 1 in june and have been reading through them since then. I waited for a few reasons. I wanted to wait until Zach could read some of them with me, though he's done for a bit after finishing book 3. Book 4 - Goblet of Fire is a bit over the top for a nine year old, or at least my nine year old. so i'm hoping that I'll have the next 700 pages of book 5 done soon so I can read book 6 by the time the final book seven comes out later this month.

I'm enjoying the story.
It's interesting to me how little magic there was in the first three books. But when wormtail cuts his hand off to put into a potion for the bad guy in the end, it's more than I'm interested in Zach reading.

For those who don't know, there's a bad guy in the book named Voltemort, who is also known as Tom Riddle.

That's why all those middle school boys were always a bit scared of me when we first met a few years ago and they would ask,"Is your name really Riddle? Do you like Harry Potter?"

I figured it out years ago... but it's fun to read now and remember those guys faces.

Organic Community by Joe Myers

I should start by saying I consider Joe to be a friend. Our relationship has mainly consisted of being at the same place at the same time and enjoying the opportunity to tell stories about our lives. I met Joe face to face back in 2000 or was it 2001? We had exchanged emails and both of us contributed to the beginning of theooze.com way back when. Joe is a story teller. Joe is a great story teller.

I find myself telling one particular Joe story on measurement a couple times a month. Joe loves conundrums. His ability to see the world from a different perspective allows him to give insight into the everyday.

I have several stories that are favorite stories he tells.
- the time (years ago) he led a seminar at the Willowcreek conference and was frantically shouted down by the WC volunteer at the conclusion because in her opinion WC was against everything he said.

(interesting that both the forwards in his new book are staff at Willow)

- His asking the question. "Did Jesus tell his disciples to steal the donkey?"


Joe tells amazing stories that make things that happen in your church every week, make sense.

Joe previous book The Search to Belong should be required reading for every pastor, youth pastor and church leader in north america.

Joe's new book takes up where the other left off.

Read it. Soak in it. He is giving us all direction toward healthy ministry.

Writing Two Books

I sent the signed contracts Sat back to Zondervan for the two books I'm writing for them. Both books are currently untitled but here is the lowdown.

A book for Senior Pastors and Youth Pastors.
My hope for this book is to help Senior Pastors understand Youth Pastors, youth ministry, and the unique role a Senior Pastor has related to the Youth Ministry of the church. The more I write for this book the more excited I get. Youth Pastors will dig this book too for reasons I'll describe later. But this has the potential to be a paradigm shifting book for the local church, especially related to helping church leaders clarify their expectations for youth pastors and themselves and give some clarity on what a relationship can be like between a Senior Pastor and a youth pastor.

A humorous guide to Youth Ministry.
This is something of a field manual for facing the unique challenges a Youth Ministry leader faces. A few of my working entry's are:
How to talk an 8th grade girl down from a sugar-high.
How to make a Scary Bible Costume for the Church "Harvest Festival" on Halloween.
How to Survive a Teen Prank
How to Return a Phone Call

I'm currently writing both books and will have them done before January. Then they will be release in January 2009. Seems like a long way off, but it's really not. There's a lot to do between now and then.

I will be inviting some folks to read drafts in the early Fall to get some feedback from both Senior Pastor and Youth Pastors so that this book will reach it's intended audience.

What I'm Currently Reading

Einstein - Walter Issaccson

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Rowlings

Management of the Absurd - Richard Farson

Presence: An exploration of profound change in People, Organizations and Society - Peter Senge

Mavericks at Work - William Taylor and Polly LaBarre

The Missional Leader - Alan Roxburgh

Seeing What's Next - Christensen, Anthony and Roth


And Todd, one of the Riddle Group Consultants told me yesterday that I need to read Joe Myers' new book Organic Community. So I'm wondering if Joe or anyone from Baker ever reads this blog and if they'd like to send me a copy??? Joe or Baker Rep? I'll even review it.

Management of the Absurd

Chapter titles from Richard Farson's "Management of the Absurd"

Nothing is as invisible as the obvious

Once you find a management technique that works, give it up

The opposite of a profound truth is also true

Effective managers are not in control

We think we want creativity or change, but we really don't

The more we communicate, the less we communicate

The better things are, the worse they feel

Planning is an ineffective way to bring about change

Morale is unrelated to productivity

My advice is don't take my advice

The Spider and the Starfish

Yesterday I picked up this book. I've had several people refer me to this book over the past few months. So I finally bought it.

I'm a big fan of rethinking our (north america's) understanding of leadership. When consulting with churches, we implement a far more decentralized leadership structure that allows for higher involvement from the congregation, managed expectations, and clarity of calling for everyone involved.

Maybe I'll post more on this later.

A New Kind of Youth Ministry

So I recently received a copy of "A New Kind of Youth Ministry" by Chris Folmsbee from my friend John Raymond. (Thanks John!) I read this book in a few days and after reading it I feel like I need to say some things.

Disclaimer: I know Chris and consider him a friend, he is a very generous guy who has helped me out often bringing insight and support into my life.

So here are my thoughts:.

You need to read this book! This book is not simply good because of what it says, it is good because of where it is leading us. It is the first book pointing us to doing youth ministry differently. It is the first book I've read that is actually talking about taking us somewhere new. There have been plenty of books who talk about different kinds of youth ministry, not the least of them "Contemplative Youth Ministry" or "Practicing Passion" but they lack the idea of actually reculturing our church.

If you've been doing youth ministry less than 10 years, you need to read this book because it will put words to thoughts you've had about ministry.

If you've been doing youth ministry more than 10 years, you need to read this book, because you will want to pass it on to others. I'm starting to use this book with the volunteer teams I consult with.

Chris' thoughts on student leadership, missional thinking and reculturing are helpful in explaining how to move your church forward.

This book isn't great because it says it all or answers all the questions. This book is great because of what it has started. There will be hundreds of other books published rethinking youth ministry over the next 10 years.

If you've read it let me know what you think.