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Friday, Oct 31, 2008. And so it begins. For real.

NYWC officially began today. But before that, we still had to finish up our Critical Concern Course. I begrudgingly woke up early and made my way to the 8:30 start time for part 2 of The Present Future of Youth Ministry. Let me just say that this class was amazing. If this is the only thing I take this weekend, it was worth the price of admission.

There was a lot of discussion in the class on where youth ministry has been - stretching as far back as the mid 1800’s. We looked at traditional models for YM and “how we got to where we are.” Something I didn’t realize is that the “normal model” we use as a general for youth ministry today is the same as was used in the 1940’s. We looked at cultural changes since then and what it looks like to be a teenager in that time and what it looks like to be a teenager now. The basic idea is that culture has changed so much that we cannot pursue the same models of yesterday and expect them to relate the same to youth in 2008. We went over ideologies on where we need to move from and to. Some examples are that we need to move from program-focus to people-focus - meaning that our program is irrelevant and we need to focus on the kids. Brock, our speaker, even suggested such extreme moves as to cancel your regular program and just go to where the kids are, as his group has done. Really revolutionary ideas. Other concepts, and most are tied together, are that we need need move from being attraction-based to missional based ministries, we need to stop teaching only salvation but focus on the way of Jesus instead. We need to move away from a centralized structure to a decentralized structure. Really, the concept is that we need to stop worrying so much about our traditional programs and focus on the kids themselves. Meet kids where they are. Reach out to them in their real lives. Don’t try to get them to come to us… go to them. It reminds me of something I heard on a podcast recently where the said that we need to stop treating the church as a business and let it be the Body. In the podcast they aslo posed the frightening question that “The Church is supposed to be the Body of Christ, but if a body becomes a business, doesn’t that make it a prostitute?” Anyway, the CCC really inspired me to pursue new, more relational, agenda-free ministry with the kids back home.

And then the conference began. I’ve been live blogging the General Sessions with @pattigibbons, @mattmcnutt, and @mclanea. You can read the full transcripts at nywc.com/live so I won’t go into much detail on what that’s like other than it’s really fun. I’ve been doing a lot of picture and video posts. I <3 media.

The sessions themselves are going really well. Starfield has led worship thus far and they are incredible. I learned they just released a new CD. I was going to buy it here, but I’d rather just get it on Amazon.

The speakers were great too. Mike Pilavachi spoke in the first session. I love his teachings. The only down-side is that he gave the EXACT same message this year as he did 2 years ago. It was a good message, and I as glad to hear it again, but I still would have liked to hear something new. In Session #2 they tried something different. There were 3 speakers who each spoke for 18 minutes. After each teaching there was 8 minutes of discussion and then 8 minutes of Q&A via text with the speaker. I really liked the format and would like to see more. Two of the speakers, Andrew Marin and Shoon-Chen Rah, spoke on really touchy subjects - homosexuality and racism. There was a bit of tension in the room at the start of their talks, but by the ends, great discussion was inspired. So cool.

I have to admit, I skipped the seminars for the day. Well, I went to a half hour of one with Jenn - Duff Robbins’ talk on teaching technique. We left, not because it wasn’t good… Duffy is an amazing speaker. We left to bow at the alter of the coffeeshop. We had a hankerin’ for some chai that needed remedy. And so we made our way to Crazy Mocha. They had a special drink available - the apple cider chai. It was sooo good. Tasted like warm, liquified, apple pie. We’re gonna go back in a day or two.

And it was Sarah’s 28th birthday on Friday as well. We went to eat at Mahoney’s restaurant on Liberty Ave. It was a really nice place. There was live music and entertainment the entire time we were there, and the pianist serenaded Sarah with one of her favorite songs, Piano Man by Billy Joel. The food took a bit of time to get out to us, and since I had to be back at the convention center for liveblog coverage of Session #2, and so I had to inhale my steak in about 5 minutes. I wish I could have stayed with the group, but alas.

This is getting long, so I’ll leave it at that. I will say that the convention has been incredibly fun and I’m loving every minute of it.

More to come soon.

NYWC: Monongahela Incline Plane from William Hartz on Vimeo.

While touring Pittsburgh before NYWC 2008 began, we found ourselves at the Monongahela Incline Plane. It’s kind of a tram that scales the side of an insanely steep clip and come out at an overlook where you can see the entire city of Pittsburgh from.

We spent some time at the top, taking pictures, and observing the scenery. And we had ice cream.

Also, see some of our pictures from NYWC.

5 hours of sleep. If that much. I woke up at 9, showered, packed my 30-lb bag of gear, and prepared for the first day of the convention. Well, technically, Friday is the first day. Today is all pre-game. YS changed up their regular schedule this year for the Critical Concern Courses. Instead of having the first part between 1 and 6pm, it was 6-9pm. And so, we had the entire morning and afternoon to explore Pittsburgh. We made our way back to Steel City Diner (we were there 3 years ago) where, dining with Samantha and Janelle, I had quite tasty a bacon cheeseburger. I got a phone call from Adam after eating, and so I left a bit early to go get the stuff I needed to liveblog the convention from him at HQ. There, I got to talk to @mclanea, @pattigibbons, and @fess2us for about 10 minutes while getting a tour of the backstage area of the convention. Apparantly, my helping with the liveblogging earned my an “all access” pass. Very cool and very unexpected. Anyway, I soon had to return to my group, so we parted ways.

Afterwards, we went on a little excursion through Pittsburgh. We walked through downtown and crossed the Smithfield St bridge on our way to the Monongahela Incline Plane. It’s kind of like a little tram that scales the side of a steep cliff and takes you to a scenic overlook of the entire greater Pittsburgh area. We spent some time at the overlook, taking many pictures and beholding the glory of Pittsburgh.

Afterwards we saw a sign for a nearby ice cream shoppe and made our way there. They gave you a ridiculous amount of ice cream for quite cheap. Good business.

Then, after a quick nap, it was time to check in to the convention and make our way to our Critical Concern Course. Manny and I took “The Present Future of Youth Ministry: Rethinking Traditional Youth Ministry Models.” Very good class. It deals with many things I have been wrestling with with our own youth ministry. It’s all about looking at the reasons we do ministry the way we do, where we have been, and where we need to go in order to be relevant and effective in the future. It’s a lot about refocusing on what is really important and moving in that direction even if it means shutting down pre-existing programs. We’re only half way done, so I’m excited to see what will come tomorrow.

So, it’s almost 1:30am right now. I have to be awake at 6:30 to get ready and pack and be out the door. I saw a Crazy Mocha nearby here while on our walkabout and I’m wondering if they have quality Chai tea there. I may, if I awaken early enough, make my way there before my class continues at 8:30. Also now, I am waiting for a video to finish encoding so I can upload it to Vimeo. It still has 26 minutes remaining, and though I wanted to include it in this post, I think I’ll just do it tomorrow morning.

Until then… stay up, stay true, more importantly, stay you.

Well, maybe “friend” isn’t the correct word for it. My brother is back in the habit of blogging. He had an old blog that is, unfortunately, no more, and now has come back to the light and begun to update his new blog.

You can access his blog page here.
Or add his feed to your RSS reader here.

Check it out and leave some comments.

The drive wasn’t that bad. We arrived in Pittsburgh around 3:30am. Carlos was leading the caravan because he had a GPS in his truck, but as soon as we got into town he started making odd turns and seemed to be in general disarray. Somehow, and we’re still trying to figure out how this happened, he arrived at the hotel we stayed in three years ago… across town.

He said his GPS was broken and we decided to try to find the new hotel based on my memory of where it was the last time we were here. And so we did.

Finally settling in and getting to bed around 5am, I woke up at 9, showering and getting my gear ready. Growing impatient from waiting for the rest of the crew to get ready, me and Jesu decided to go on a walkabout in Pittsburgh, ending up at the river… well, one of the rivers.

Now we’re waiting in the hotel lobby for everyone else to come downstairs so we can get some lunch and make our way to the convention center.

Hey everyone, my good friend Janelle has just started up a new website and blog. I’ve known her since, pretty much, the beginning of time. Or rather, time as it relates to us… We went to kindergarten and most of elementary school together and still are friends today. For those of you keeping count, that’s about 22 years and 2 months.

Wow, we’re old.

Anyway, you absolutely must do yourself a favor and make your way over to janellepainter.com to see all the new and developing things she has happening there, including links to her clothing store where you can buy her original designs in a variety of merchandise options.

And then, after you have spent most of the day perusing her website, you can make your way hence to janellepainter.com/blog and read her most recent thoughts and ideas… and leave comments. If you still have time after consuming all this Internet glory, you might then consider eating a meal so you don’t collapse out of hunger. Just a thought.

As a side note, she will also be blogging and twittering NYWC Pittsburgh.

If you want to add her blog feed to your feed reader, you can access it at janellepainter.com/blog/?feed=rss2.

That is all.

So it’s almost here. We’re leaving Wednesday night for Youth Specialites’ National Youth Worker’s Convention in Pittsburgh. Every year we gather a team from The Bridge and head out to one of the three conventions for a long weekend of training, encouragement, and rest in order to recharge or batteries as we prepare for another year of working with the kids in our program. It’s an amazing event.

This year is a little different for me because I have the privilege of helping YS do some new stuff while there. They tried, for the first time, liveblogging their Sacramento convention earlier this month, and it seems to have been a huge success. Well, during the Pittsburgh convention, I will be part of the liveblogging team helping to cover the event. Think of it as a real-time conversation somewhere between Twitter and a full-fledged blog, with an up-to-date stream of what’s happening that those at home can follow along with. The liveblog host, CoverItNow.com also supports photo and video uploads into the stream.

You’ll be able to follow the liveblog stream at http://nywc.com/live.

I’ll be joining an entourage of fine and talented bloggers from across the country. I don’t actually know who else will be covering the event, but trust me, they are youth workers of the highest quality and caliber.

My goal for the weekend is to also update my own blog, conveniently located right here in this very location, every day, or almost every day. In addition I will, as I have always done, take an obscene amount of photographs. I’d also like to take a lot of HD video there and put together a daily, or semi-daily recap of what is going on… maybe even a convention video when all is said and done. It really depends on how much time I have and where I am located in proximity to the action. And how quickly I can get the high-quality content out. I do also have my Flip Video camera for super quick film to upload, most likely while liveblogging.

Anyway, the convention starts on Thursday (for those taking a Critical Concern Course), of which I am one. We leave Elizabeth at 6pm Wednesday to make the 7-hour trek across Pennsylvania.

More to come soon.

What is Maji? from William Hartz on Vimeo.

Sorry about the audio. We recorded in a rush, on $0 budget, with whatever gear we had there and ready to go. And so, I didn’t have proper mics. It annoys me, but alas, it needed to get done.

Maji is a program we’re putting on to raise $14,000 in order to provide a village in Africa with a “water wheel” so that the people there will be able to have access to clean, drinkable, usable water that will not bring them disease and death.

If you want more information on the water wheel project, you can visit playpump.org.

Maji is a variety show that we’re putting on December 20, 2008 in Jefferson High School in Elizabeth, NJ. Tickets cost $10. If you’re interested in more information, please email me.

The Voicemail from William Hartz on Vimeo.

For some reason I tend to get a lot of “wrong number” phone calls. In fact, I just got one last night, after making this video. I don’t quite understand how someone can call my number, listen to my voicemail that says my name and in my voice, and still leave a message for someone else.

Last night’s voicemail was kind of interesting. I believe it was a guy calling some girl after a first date. Apparently Jesse, that was his name, had a pretty good time last night and he hopes that he will be able to talk to and see the girl again soon. It is unfortunate that, due to his dialing folly, he will be fulfilling the stereotype of the guy who never calls back. The relationship is doomed.

Anyway, this was a call from a guy, or should I say “your boy,” Charles who was desperately trying to reach his friend. Before the conversation’s end, Charles dropped some inspirational wisdom that will benefit us all.

Happy Columbus Day to all my American friends. Today we celebrate the fine art of getting lost and not asking for directions. It is a day when we honor Christopher Columbus, who in an attempt to reach India for their fine spices and IT skills, made the mistake of following MapQuest directions and ended up in the Caribbean.

I hope you all had a great holiday. I had to work and so am jealous of all workers and students who had the day off.

Remember to buy all your friends a nice Columbus Day Gift.