Audio interview with Andrew Root, author of “Relationships Unfiltered”
December 7th, 2009 | Comments (4) |
| Relationships Unfiltered: Help for Youth Workers, Volunteers, and Parents on Creating Authentic Relationships |  |
Last Friday I had the privilege of spending some time with Andrew Root (@RootAndrew on Twitter) on the campus of Luther Seminary in Minneapolis, where he serves as Assistant Professor of Youth and Family Ministry.
In addition to hanging out and attending one his classes, I was able to interview him about his newest book, Relationships Unfiltered. Relationships Unfiltered is sort of like a condensed, more practical, and less scholarly version of his first book, Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, which I have called the “absolute best youth ministry book out there right now”. Although less heady than Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, Relationships Unfiltered definitely doesn’t disappoint.
Anyway, you can listen to the interview below and/or download it for listening on portable devices. Enjoy.
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Click here to download the interview in mp3 format [39 minutes | 17.1mb]
Click here to download the enhanced interview in m4a format [39 minutes | 34.5mb]
Dead simple group texting for ministry with Tatango
November 4th, 2009 | Comments (13) |
A while back I wrote a gushing blog post about a company called Tatango, whose aim is to make it dead simple for anybody to harness the useful technology of mass or group text messaging. Those of us involved in youth ministry are undoubtedly aware that text messaging is an indispensable tool for effective communication with our students, so I wanted to give another push for Tatango and the services they offer. And because I love you so much, at the end of this post you will find a code for 15% off of any plan Tatango offers.
Below is a short tutorial video that covers the basics of Tatango. Since the service has recently gone under a moderate redesign/update, I’m sure that current users will find the video helpful as well:
Let me say a few quick words regarding other youth ministry texting options.
If you’ve bought into Doug Fields’ Simply Youth Ministry Simply Txt, then I laud you for knowing that texting is important, but I promise you that Tatango is a better bang for your buck. Just compare Simply Txt’s $30/mo plan with Tatango’s $20/mo plan. For $10 less per month, you get 280 more group messages, unlimited more contacts, and two keywords (which, as far as I can tell, Simply Txt doesn’t offer).1
I’m also aware that TXT Signal was all the rage in youth ministry circles for a while, but it simply can’t keep up with the services Tatango offers. A quick comparison of pricing plans for TXT Signal and Tatango will convince you more quickly than I could here.
Anyway, if you’re still on the fence about whether or not Tatango’s group messaging service is a good fit for your ministry, try it out free for 30 days. When your trial is over, the good people from Tatango have offered readers of JakeBouma.com a code good for 15% off any plan (The 15% is continuous, and is good for the lifetime of the plan). Just enter K7D0TRCL when you check out and enjoy the savings!
If you have any questions about Tatango’s services, be sure to check out their Frequently Asked Questions page, follow them on Twitter, and/or leave a comment below.
- Keywords allow you to choose words that users can text to join the group. For example, I have “EIKON” set up as the high school keyword ↩
- MailChimp, an email marketing company, recently announced that their free account, which formerly cost $10/month, now lets you send out 3,000 emails a month to up to 500 subscribers. If you’re not using this communication tool for your ministry, you no longer have a valid excuse. Here’s an example email I sent via MailChimp last year. 09/01/2009
- Countering conventional wisdom, a brain-imaging study finds that, in risk-taking teens, the brain’s white matter looks like that of an adult. “After reviewing all of the neurodevelopment stuff, I couldn’t really find any link between brain development and adolescent risk-taking. Nobody denies that the brain develops or that teens take risks, but how the two got intertwined is beyond me.” Related: The Primal Teen. 08/27/2009
Andrew Root’s new book, “Relationships Unfiltered”
August 24th, 2009 | Comments (0) |
| Relationships Unfiltered: Help for Youth Workers, Volunteers, and Parents on Creating Authentic Relationships | |
Last week I shared a quote from Andrew Root’s book “Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry” (RRYM) and added, “for my money [it] is the absolute best youth ministry book out there right now.”
Good news: He’s got a new book coming out on September 1 titled Relationships Unfiltered: Help for Youth Workers, Volunteers, and Parents on Creating Authentic Relationships. It looks to me like Relationships Unfiltered will be two things: 1) a more accessible version of RRYM, which leaned heavily on the theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and 2) an answer to the question that all youth ministry leaders want: “How!?” (Root does answer the “how” question in RRYM, but Relationships Unfiltered seems aimed solely at that point).
If you’ve never read any of Root’s material, here’s a quick YouTube video of him explaining the “third way” (and if you’re hungry for more after that, the full interview is available here):
Dr. Root has graciously agreed to an interview on this blog, which I’ll post as soon as I finish the book and write some questions. If YOU have any questions for him, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do!
What is youth ministry?
August 19th, 2009 | Comments (5) |
How’s that for a loaded question?
But seriously, I’d like you to ponder a quote from Andy Root’s Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry, which for my money is the absolute best youth ministry book out there right now.
[Youth] ministry is not about helping these kids be better Christians; it is about helping them be what God created them to be — human.1
What’s your reaction/response to that? Leave a comment and let me know! I’ll post the paragraph the quote is taken from to provide a bit more context if there’s interest.
- Root, Andrew. Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry. City: IVP Books, 2007. 15. ↩
- God and Majors from Inside Higher Ed. summarizes some new research about the correlation between college majors and religious observance. “Being a humanities or a social science major has a statistically significant negative effect on religiosity — measured by either religious attendance and how important students consider the importance of religion in their lives. The impact appears to be strongest in the social sciences.” 07/30/2009
- I’m in New Orleans this week with my high school students at the ELCA Youth Gathering. We’re posting daily highlight videos on the blog and group-updating our Twitter account. Check it out! 07/24/2009
Bonhoeffer on youth ministry
May 7th, 2009 | Comments (2) |
Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes these words on Christian community, which are rather applicable to smaller youth ministries:
In the Christian community thankfulness is just what it is anywhere else in the Christian life. Only he who gives thanks for the little things receives the big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good. Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious. We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things? If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1978. 29.
Words that are just as convicting as when they were penned 71 years ago.
May we have the courage and humility to give thanks daily for the ministries we find ourselves in, however modest.
FREE and easy group texting for youth ministry with Tatango
February 21st, 2009 | Comments (10) |
Those involved in youth ministry understand that communicating effectively and easily with teenagers and parents is one of the most important parts of the job. Even though a perfect solution to the communication conundrum doesn’t exist, Tatango makes the process significantly easier, and best of all — free for 30 days.
Before I say any more, I’ll let the CEO of Tatango describe their utility for youth workers. Check out the video below:
Like Derek said, Tatango lets you send out group text messages and voicemails for free, which for youth workers might as well be manna from heaven. Although the free version is supported by ads, they are unobtrusive and the message you send is still communicated, so who can complain? (Please see the updated Tatango post with a 15% discount code!)
One of my favorite things about Tatango is the different ways available for you to promote your group and get members to join. You can embed a widget in your website where users can type in their information, and every group you create has a unique web address where users can sign up as well. But the greatest tool, in my opinion, is using customizable keywords. For example, I set up a customized keyword of “EIKON” (the name of my high school ministry). All I have to do is tell students to text the word EIKON to a five-digit shortcode number, and they’re immediately subscribed to any updates I send out for that group.
Of course, Tatango has paid subscriptions ranging from $5/month to $100/month, which give you some benefits, such as using customized widgets and personalized keywords, but it’s an expense I think many youth workers will easily be able to justify.
On top of everything else, the guys running Tatango are great people, and they have offered readers of JakeBouma.com a 10% discount on any of their paid subscriptions. Just enter the word Tango in the “Coupon Code” box on the payment page, and you’re all set. (Please see the updated Tatango post with a 15% discount code!)
If you have any questions about Tatango’s services, be sure to check out their Frequently Asked Questions page, follow them on Twitter, and/or leave a comment below. And, in the interest of full disclosure, I am not receiving anything from Tatango in exchange for blogging about their company. I simply feel strongly about their services and believe that other youth workers could benefit from them as well.
How can theology transform the church?
February 6th, 2009 | Comments (3) |
Here’s a better question: How couldn’t it?
If you could open my brain, peer inside, and see what has been happening there the past month or so, it would be a loop of this video.
The entire video is fantastic, but here are a couple of money quotes:
“[Pastors] are saying, ‘Theology doesn’t preach. And I only seem to connect with my congregation when when I do psychology, contemporary affairs, aesthetics, novels, comparative religion, lectures on this and that topic.’ So the starting point is just to let folks do theology today.”
“If we then can say every one of us who picks up a Bible, or, for that matter a newspaper, and tries to wrestle with the relevance of the Bible for the contemporary world, or a Christian response to the events on the front page of today’s newspaper — that person is already doing theology.”
“Theology is when Christian folks engage the contemporary world in a vital way; when they ask the hardest questions and then they sit down and try to get some answers.”
I think this is what Tony Jones was getting at when he named a chapter “It’s the theology, stupid.” in his book The New Christians.
Theology alone will not save the church, but if it can be wrestled away from the ivory towers of academia, it will undoubtedly have massive transformative power. And my contention is that the starting point for theological thinking is precisely where it has been avoided — youth ministry.
More on that later.
- The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy has released Sex and Tech, a survey which seeks to answer the question “What is going on with teens, tech, and sex?” This is a must-read for those who are raising teens and/or work with them. “Q: How many teens are sending or posting sexually suggestive messages (text, email, IM)? A: 39% of all teens / 37% of teen girls / 40% of teen boys / 48% of teens say they have received such messages.” They have also provided helpful flyers for both parents and teens (both link to .pdf files). HT: Living Sexuality 12/11/2008
- Matt Cleaver ponders The Bailout, Education, and Youth Ministry. “What should youth ministry’s role be in situations like this? When significant things are happening in our society aren’t being covered by the schools should we step in? Why aren’t school addressing this?” 09/26/2008
1 Corinthians 13 paraphrased for youth workers
September 19th, 2008 | Comments (3) |
If I speak using the language of Rob Bell and Doug Fields, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.1
If I have a years of youth ministry experience and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have hundreds of students in my youth group, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all my time to my church and surrender my body during youth group games, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are empty programs, they will cease; where there are hollow relationships, they will be stilled; where there is indifference, it will pass away. For we know in part and we hope in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in the bumper of a 16-passenger van; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love… and overnight events. But the point is, the greatest of these is love.
- I got this idea from James McGrath’s 1 Corinthians 13 paraphrased for academics. I also found this video later, and any similarities are totally coincidental. ↩
- A Peek Into the Mind of the Average College Freshman. “Each August, Beloit College publishes its Mind-Set List to help professors and administrators understand the average incoming freshman’s frame of reference by describing how things have ‘always been,’ or at least how they’ve been for the past 18 years… #44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.” Last year I made a reference to Hootie and the Blowfish during a youth group gathering and no one had ever heard of them. [HT: Exploring Our Matrix] 08/19/2008
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