6 Weeks and Counting...

So sorry for the slight hiatus last week. The WCA staff has begun our countdown to the opening session of the 2007 SHIFT conference, just six weeks from today! We can hardly believe that it's coming so quickly. Don't forget to sign-up if you haven't already.

Here are just a few things that we thought you might like to know about:

• MySpace is making it easier for parents to monitor their kids accounts now. In an effort to appease some governmental critics (the critics don't really stop there), they are now giving parents the ability to see how their child is representing him or herself on the site. This information isn't given secretively. The account holder will be notified that information is being shared. — Although a respectable move, I suspect that kids will venture to have a couple of accounts...one that they let their parents see and another that they "really" use. OR, they'll just find another social network site where they aren't being monitored so closely. Don't you think?

• Holistic youth ministry? Doesn't that sound like a pill you can take that makes your youth ministry...err...whole? ChristianPost recently posted an article that I think has some relevancy and the very least find interesting. The gist is, maybe what youth ministry needs is a focus on the student as a whole, not just their spirituality. This includes health, friendships, family, etc. While this sounds good and most youth leaders would agree, a recent survey found that there are serious discrepancies between the idea and the execution. — Don't you think that this is a legitimate approach?

• Finally....they say that 73% of all statistics are made up on the spot. (If you can find the stat that confirms 73% let me know). While that may be true, a recent article suggests that Evangelicals are, and I quote, "some of the worst abusers of simple descriptive statistics, which claim to represent the truth about reality..." — I bet 45% of you all know people who do this.

Church, Synagogues, Mosque, Temples...OH MY!

YOUNG IN SPIRIT (OCRegister.com) - An interesting article on how the youth ministry challenges don't just stretch to the Christian church, it includes all religions. Here's a great quote from inside the article:

"When kids can watch TV on their cell phones, when they can watch movies on an iPod, they have certain media expectations in their lives. And they bring that to church..."

Another Youth Ministry SHIFT!

We're sure that you've noticed, along with us, that youth ministry is changing. In fact, we believe it is changing so much that we've changed the name of our Student Ministry Leadership conference to SHIFT just to prove it. However, the goal here isn't to just dialog about some said change, but to actually show you that there is an urgent need for it. Just like this...

In some recent Time, Christian Post and Barna articles, it was reported that Christian students are no longer okay with shallow religion. In fact, one report says that 88% of teens have given "church" a try and have walked away unsatisfied and disengaged. Why? The Post reports that today's teens are more drawn to Scripture and desire to get a better understanding of what they believe.

The Barna Group found that the top reason that teens attend church was to "understand better what I believe."

However, the most interesting information came from Time. They reported that churches that now focus more on Scripture and less on entertainment are actually growing and in some cases, attendance is doubling because of it.

The days of social cliques, all-nighters and cheesy camp games are long gone. It seems as if the students are looking for the same Jesus we are. S H I F T

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PS. *Alert* Seriously, this is exactly the kind of stuff we're talking about at the conference this year. Register NOW!