Welcome to my blog.
For the three of you reading this—I want to say thank you for joining me. I have now entered the blogosphere—and I do so both reluctantly and with some excitement.
I am an aging youth worker—I still love youth ministry—love the crazy world of teenagers—and love those of you who are weird enough to be in the middle of all of this. This blog will be a place for me to share thoughts, reflections and ideas with you. It will be a place for me to wonder with you about the mysteries and struggles of leadership. For some reason, God has placed me in youth and family ministry leadership since my early days in college. I have learned a lot—and made A LOT of mistakes.
Let me say something as I start. I am hesitant about this—and have resisted the efforts of my staff to make this a reality many months—because I have asked this question one too many times:
“Does the world need one more egotistical person who really thinks their ideas need to be heard?”
It causes me to reflect and wonder. We all talk SO much…we say SO much..we update our status on facebook….we twitter…we preach and teach. And there can be an addiction to the “platform.” If we are honest…we all know this about leadership. We have a platform—verbal or written. And we start to hear ourselves, and we start to believe our own press releases. I want to be careful about that here.
This blog is sub-titled: “Reflections of an imperfect youth worker.” That is me. That is my reality. That is my press release to you.
Yes, I am a leader, teacher, speaker and author. I am the President of an organization called Youth Leadership, have taught at seminaries and I have been called an “expert” at times. My press releases highlight my successes.
It’s all good. And mostly true. But here—in this technological community—I will wonder about leadership. Honest leadership. Real people. Imperfect realities. And, I will not inflate or deflect…but will do my best to honestly think about the issues involved in youth ministry leadership.
So, I enter the blogosphere. If you choose to come along—welcome. I invite your comments and thoughts as we journey together.
Peace in Christ, Tiger
Youth ministry has been my world--from the early days of being young, cool and relevant to today--when I am none of those things. But, I still love sharing Christ with teenagers--and working with crazy adults who want to be used by God and care for kids. If you are one of them...let's talk.
thank you for making a difference in my life and so many others. You forgot to add you are funny!
ReplyDeleteWell Kitty--thank you! I am amazed that God has used me over the years. I figured to say that I was funny might add to that "egotistical" thing I was mentioning....even though it might be true!!
ReplyDelete(My son wrote it best when he said: "I am really funny. And I mean really stinkin' funny. And I am being totally humble about that, which means I am even funnier than I just said.")
Now, THAT is funny. I am a proud dad..
Welcome to the world of blogging - let the egotistical self-indulgent dribble begin! Looking forward to the conversation.
ReplyDeleteIf more than 3 people read this blog, will Tiger keep adjusting the number in this entry?
ReplyDelete