Resource Review: Moving On by Doug Franklin

Just snagged a copy of Doug Franklin’s newest book: Moving On.

What an awesome resource!  Geared toward kids transitioning to the next stage of life (graduation, etc.),  this book is just deep enough to communicate importance and just light enough that kids will actually read the entire thing.

At just a little over 100 pages (with 40 of those being leadership assessment tools), I was able to read it in just an hour or so.  But don’t let that communicate ‘light’ to you.  The concepts in this book are life-altering for most teenagers – and helps them answer the questions every Millennial is asking.  What am I supposed to do in life – and how do I do it?

Burden + Passion + Vision = Mission

With simple definitions for burden, passion, and vision (and an appendix chock full of ways to get you there!), coming to the ‘mission’ is almost a no-brainer.  The application questions in each chapter are designed to help a teenager think – assess – and act.

It’s a great graduation gift, to be sure.  BUT, as a youth pastor, I cannot wait for next spring.  Every other year, we take a junior/senior trip.  This is the perfect retreat material for an event geared toward those kids.  Seniors get one last chance to define it before they head off to life.  Juniors actually get a year to work it through, define it, and put it into practice in the laboratory of high school.

By the way – if you’re having trouble identifying your mission…it works for grown-ups, too!

Buy it.  You must – it could change the futures & missions of the teenagers in your sphere of influence!  (Plus it’s on sale right now!)

Veteran Youth Pastors are Full of It…

….or so I was told this weekend by my dear friend and young youth pastor.  While I know that most people believe this statement to be true of me – I was completely offended on behalf of my brethren vets!  After clarifying his statement – I realized it was a badge of honor he was pinning to my chest!

Veteran YPs are full of….experience.  We’ve lived it – and undoubtedly have at least three dozen T-shirts to show for it.  Not only are we in the trenches – in a lot of cases, we dug those trenches ourselves.  We’ve walked more than a mile in those shoes – and some of those miles we probably ran…barefooted….in the snow….uphill both ways.

Veteran YPs are full of….mistakes.  We haven’t always gotten it right – and we still don’t.  Periodically we lose receipts….or kids on a mountain during summer camp.  Sometimes we plan a really spiritual event that flops…or our own retreat-version of UFC that, while lacking in depth and holiness, goes down in history as the best youth ministry event ever.  Occasionally the budget doesn’t balance…nor do our family commitments.  We’re still learning.

Veteran YPs are full of….it.  You may know it as ‘the call.’  It’s the ‘it’ that keeps us in when our joints and muscles drive us out.  It’s the ‘it’ that brings a smile to our face when we’re asked for the 1,437th time when we’re gonna become a real pastor.  It’s the ‘it’ that makes us see promise – and Jesus – in teenagers when most people see problems – and that other one.

Veteran youth pastors are most assuredly full of it.  If you’re working in youth ministry – you should get close and see if you can get some of it on you.