Summit Lunch

Shift will be hosting a student ministry leaders' lunch at the Leadership Summit in August.

If you're are a student ministry leader or volunteer attending the Summit at the Willow Creek campus this August, we want to extend a special invitation to you to attend our student ministry leaders’ lunch, which will take place on the first day of the Summit (August 7) from 12:30-1:30pm in room 392.

During the lunch, you’ll hear all that’s going on in Shift, the student ministries segment of the WCA. You’ll get a sneak peak at Shift 2009, our upcoming student ministries conference, and receive a special discount for you and your team to attend the event. You’ll also hear all about our new regional training events, coming to a city near you this fall.

There’s no additional cost for this lunch, but due to limited space, you’ll need to pick up a ticket to the lunch in Blue Sky 2 during check-in on Thursday.

See you then!

Francis Chan at Arise 2008 Conference

Francis Chan at Arise

"A Few Minutes More" with Francis Chan after his closing session at Arise 2008

Med Packs Update

Back in April, many of you who attended Shift 2008 took part in Thursday night's Bright Hope Med Pack Experience. Student ministries from across the country assembled hundreds of medical supply kits for under-resourced villages in Uganda. Recently, Bright Hope announced that the Med Packs had been delivered!

Over on Bright Hope's web site, you can read all about the delivery, as well as see photos and video of an entire town lined up to receive the packs.

Thanks to all of you who served as the hands and feet of Jesus, and helped make these medical supplies available to those who so badly needed them.

Did You Know Video

Since the Shift conference, we've gotten a lot of questions about where to find the Did You Know? 2.0 video from session one.

The video we showed at Shift was a shortened version of a media presentation created by educators Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod with design by XPlane.

You can now find the video, along with newly posted session highlights from the conference, by clicking here to go to the video section of the web site.

Conference Podcasts

In case you didn't catch them over on Out of Ur, we've now posted the three podcasts recorded at Shift 2008 a few weeks back , including interviews with Mark Yaconelli, Mark Miller, and Drew & Jerome from Switchfoot.

Check 'em out in the Podcasts section of the site.

Podcast 09: Switchfoot

An interview with band members Drew Shirley and Jerome Fontamillas, recorded a few hours before Switchfoot's Q&A session and acoustic performance at Shift 2008

Podcast 08: Mark Miller

An interview with breakout presenter Mark Miller, recorded on day two of the SHIFT 2008 conference

Podcast 07: Mark Yaconelli

An interview with author and speaker Mark Yaconelli immediately following his session at the Shift 2008 Conference

"Center" and Re-Centering

I’m actually typing this little blog post outside. Those of you who came to Shift traveled to Chicago a week too early - it’s 71 degrees outside right now!

Even though the weather was less than desirable last week, I felt like I was able to leave behind some of the clouds that have been hovering over my heart recently. I was able to “re-center” my soul with God and my calling as a youth-worker.

The first day of sessions were crazy intense for me. And from the vibe in the room I could tell that many of you were sitting with the weight of the work that we have ahead of us. From Brian McLaren’s opening charge to live out the kingdom of God right now in this broken world – to Mark Yaconelli’s simple, honest reflections on spiritual formation in students – to Shane Claiborne’s unashamed fire for justice ... it was enough to make even the most complacent of us sit on the edge of our seats.

That first day set the tone for the rest of our time together. I could feel it in the air. And I hope that you could feel it too. You and I have a very important calling on our lives. As we sang the song “Center” together on Friday morning ... I was struck once again with the reminder that we must re-center our lives on Christ every day. And in that moment, in those last hours, I felt that hundreds of us were united with Christ and his call to return to our communities and live a re-centered life.

I hope that your time with us was energizing and inspiring. I’m really looking forward to the days ahead. See ya next year.

[Brandon Grissom is worship leader at Elevate, Willow Creek's Junior High Ministry. brandongrissom.net]

Shift 2008 Recap

We had a great time, how about you?

Thanks to everybody (that’s you!) who made Shift 2008 what it was.
From main sessions to breakouts, Cups of Coffee to the Thursday Night Experiences, we feel like this year’s event would truly have been different without each and every one of you there.

If you weren’t a part of Shift, check out the rundown of the event over at Out of Ur, who covered our 2 1/2 days together from start to finish.

If you were there, we’d love to hear from you. What was a highlight? Any session, speaker, idea, artist, or experience stand out?

The Shift experience is definitely continuing beyond last week (see Bo’s previous post here). Let’s keep the conversation going...

[Thanks to Gavin for the photo. Check out his amazing Shift 2008 flickr photostream here.]