Youth Specialites Pitt

Before I go off the grid, I wanted to briefly talk about the last YS national convention held in Pittsburgh. I have to say that everything I said during Sacramento held true again! What a blessed and humbled weekend I had. But there was one glaring difference between the two cities:

As my friend Margaret Feinberg so elequently said to me before I took the general session stage - this region is more stoic in general, and therefore probably won't be as enthusiastic as what happened in Sacramento, especially around the topic of homosexuality.

Thank God she told me that! I was able to prepare my mindset before I went on, and indeed Margaret's words proved correct. It took me almost 10 minutes into my talk until the crowd started to loosen up a little bit and listen to what I had to say. As Marko, the President of YS put it,

"I noticed you threw a little more evangelical stuff in there tonight (vs. Sacramento) to relate to where the crowd was at."

What an observant guy ... that's why I love YS soooo much! They care enough to notice subtlties, and it makes all the difference in the world.

As for my talkback session and workshops, I once again stayed hours upon hours after each of them to answer every person's question. I love that more than anything else! My whole philosophy is that people pay good money to come to conferences, and I HAVE to make myself as accessable as I possibly can because what good is someone who talks and then darts off into their own little corner because they don't want to be bothered?!

Unfortunetly that is the norm, and I hate when speakers (especially the big timers) do such a thing. If it weren't for all of the people, those famous speakers wouldn't be famous ... so show respect! Anyway, I never want to be that type of person so I will always and forever make myself accessable because that is what the Lord has asked me to do!!! [For a point of clarification, I am NOT talking about any of the Friday speakers I had the privledge to be around. Margaret Feinberg and Soong-Chan Rah stayed, as I did, and answered every single person's question. They are legitimate people, and I truly love them to death! I hope that one day each of you will be able to hear their words and hearts for the Lord].

Enough of my little rant: The major thing that I noticed in the talkback and workshops in comparrison to Sacramento was that many of the people (inquisitive as they were), were coming from a completely different starting point. In as much as I could, I expected this because the topic of homosexuality isn't quite at the forefront of any headlines in Pittsburgh, Ohio, Kentucky, etc. from that region of the country. But the heart's of those in attendence were no less eager and yearning to see a bridge built to their gay and lesbian youth!!!!!

And to everyone who attended YS Pittsburgh, thanks for the questions and the heart to start this unique joureny together. I love you all so much!

Much love.
http://www.themarinfoundation.org/

Speaking at Youth Specialties Sacramento - Part 2

And the conclusion to YS Sacramento ...

During the general session (GS) I started talking about my story, my unique experiences and how the broader Christian community has intentionally run away from any type of constructive tension that pushes us to cause growth when it comes to building bridges with the gay and lesbian community. I don’t want to give my GS all away … I don’t want to give away my quotes, my stories and the whole talk because then why would anyone want to come to the next two? So you’ll just have to live with that summary for right now!

As I was standing on a 7x7 stage, that was surrounded by thousands of people in a circular fashion on all sides, talking about homosexuality and the Church you could sense the crowd’s tension easing a little bit a few minutes into everything, not necessarily because I was saying what they wanted to hear, but because they found themselves strangely and uniquely gravitating to being able to in some small way relate to me as a straight evangelical man who was a former Bible-banging homophobe who was thrown in the middle of a crazy life because the Lord deemed it so. In fact, I actually got a few claps – the crowd still dumbfounded, but a few none the less. :)

My time flew by and I had no idea what just happened or the impact (or lack their-of) until my talk-back session after the GS. The talk-back session is what follows all GS’s where the GS speaker goes into a separate room and answers questions for an hour (and my talk back session was held in conjunction with 2 other GS speakers as well).

About 300 people showed up! And as soon as I said I didn’t have an agenda for what to talk about other than to answer questions 100 hands shot up. Sweet! I love questions. (I came to find out afterward from one of the YS staff that what happened during my talk back session had never happened before at any other event). Not only did a ballroom full of people show up, but it’s not like I had anywhere else to go so I told everyone I’d just stay until all the questions were answered.

And then we all got kicked out at 1am by a security guard! That was the theme for all of my experiences throughout the weekend.

My first workshop was at 8am that morning (thanks YS for the great scheduling on that one!). I thought I was screwed because I just spent 3 hours answering everyone’s questions, and, Question: who in their right mind (besides me because I was contractually obligated to do so) would wake up at the butt-crack of dawn to go to an 8am workshop on homosexuality after I just spend 3 extra hours with everyone? Answer: about 200 more people who tried to pack into a room fit for 67. People sat on the floor around me and beside me, people sat out in the hallway, wherever they could. I WAS SHOCKED! In going with the theme, another 70 or so hands shot up for questions, and once again, since I had nothing else to do I just stayed and answered all of them – for 3 ½ more hours!

Oh, and it didn’t stop there. My next workshop was on Sunday afternoon, and after the convention buzz about the GS, the talk back and the first workshop, YS moved me to a large ballroom (picture to the right). Another 300 or so people showed up to that one as well. And just the same, I stayed almost 2 hours after to keep answering questions.

My main point to all of this has nothing to do with the numbers. I would have done the same for 5 people. The main point though, is truly about the sheer numbers of people who:

1) Stayed hours after each session trying to process all of this new paradigm bridge building theology in real time, not knowing where they’re going to end up, but realizing that it needs to happen!!!

2) Those who pulled me to the side while I was walking in the hotel or the convention center needing to ask more questions because they had continued to wrestle with, think and about and challenge themselves while processing this new info well after the sessions and the Q&As were over.

And there is absolutely nothing more then I could ever asked for from anyone.

Throughout the weekend I was so tremendously humbled by everything. I was so tremendously shocked for how I (and the topic) were received. I was so tremendously encouraged by the number of church leaders from all over the country who gathered to purposefully enter into a difficult conversation without knowing where it would go. And I was so tremendously blessed to be a part of the greatest conference experience I have ever been a part of – not because YS treats both their speakers and attendees totally first class (which they do), but because of the mass amounts of hungry youth workers who face the gay-religious-mainstream disconnect every day of their life without any help, knowing the church can’t move forward until this topic is handled in the right way. What a great God we have, and what great followers He has produced.

I can’t wait for Pittsburgh at the end of the month.

Much love.
http://www.themarinfoundation.org/

Speaking at Youth Specialties Sacramento - Part 1

The name Youth Specialties (YS) carries a lot of weight with it. For good or bad, any big organization constantly gets both hated on and praised for their work and successes. There are some people out there who have nothing better to do then to try and discredit and rip apart people/organizations for no other reason because they have made something out of themselves. YS falls into that category. But as many in the ‘spotlight’ tell me, it comes with the territory. And with that, YS totally understands who they are, what they’re all about and the mass audience they command (YS averages anywhere between 13,000 – 21,000 people throughout their 3 national conventions each year).

So I’d be lying if I said I expected them to ask me to be a General Session (GS) speaker. I’d be lying even more if I said that I also expected them to ask me to be a GS speaker at all 3 of their national conventions! I was shocked. Why … a number of things which include the following:

I am 27 years old

I talk about homosexuality in a very non-traditional way

I am not pro-gay or ex-gay

I don’t have a book (not released, anyway)

I’m not super famous (PS – it’s like the only folks who get to grace a YS main stage session are big … real big, with a big following – and I am not that)

And I am reletively new to the public speaking "circut"

I am not anything that, from what I had previously gathered, YS was ever looking for. Not looking for, that was, until Marko (the President of YS) told me why they asked me to speak 4 times per convention. As he said in his introduction of me during the Friday night GS in Sacramento this past weekend:

“YS has looked for, and thought really hard for many years in how to address the topic of homosexuality. And in each idea we never found the right person or the right method to do such a thing. But I think our [YS] inability to talk about homosexuality has said more, loud and clear, then if we were to have ever talked about it. But we have found the person … “

Talk about setting the tone and the expectation for what I was going to be talking about?!

I wouldn’t have had it any other way because not only did it grip the thousands of people sitting in the audience, but it gave the intentionality this topic deserves in conservative/evangelical/ecumenical/middle of the road/swaying left/Christian/Catholic/general religious circles that it utterly deserves these days!

(even though I needed a big dose of Zanax while I was sitting in my hotel room before-hand totally doing the freak). Just a side note about why I was doing the freak …

Every person (past YS speakers and YS staff as well) I asked about the vibe and environment I was going to be walking into told me the same thing: “I have no idea how they’ll react, good luck and stick it to ‘em!” OH, isn’t that comforting?

When I got up on that stage the tension and uncertainty in that large convention ballroom was so thick it could have been cut with a flimsy feather – I mean we’re not even talking about solidly constructed butter knives!

And thus I started talking.

To be continued ….




Much love.
http://www.themarinfoundation.org/