Im not sure what triggered the thought for me today, but I got to thinking, ‘we need more women youth pastors’. Sadly, my next thought was, that’s not a very helpful thought, if I, a male, is looking for employment. But maybe thats part of the problem. Historically, males have dominated leadership roles in the church, and maybe us guys need to step up and speak up. We need you women! I have known some amazing pastors who are women. They are gifted in amazing ways, and without them, our churches are weak. Or maybe a better example is my own life. The main person who gave me life, helped make me the man I am, is my MOM. For the last 25 years I have been raised by a single mother. An amazing strong Godly women who cares for me. I think their are some potential benefits of a female pastor over a male pastor. Obviously this is not true of every women. And hopefully churches are following the Spirit’s leading on who a church should hire. But I thought of a few things that many pastors of the other gender are at a benefit:

(1) Teens often trust Women over Men (examples can be from: abuse, dad issues, boyfriend issues, etc)

(2) Help break up the boys club mentality of church leadership. And the stereotypes that come with it. I will give a little plug to a great Dan Kimball book, They Like Jesus but not the Church. One of six main issues, identified by the author, to why people don’t like the church is because some people think the church represses women.

(3) Understanding where female students are coming from better. Obviously either gender can connect with both genders, but God has made us different. We need great leaders of both genders involved.

(4) From my experience, mom’s were more engaged in the ministry, so a female youth leader may be able to connect with families better then men. The future of youth ministry needs to grow in a more holistic family unit direction. Think Orange.

(5) With more women involved in youth ministry leadership, more leaders will rise up everywhere in the church. I have often been asked by students, why don’t women talk upfront in church more often? Women youth pastors by experience show the inclusive nature of God’s calling (especially as a minority). It may not be easy, but if God calls you, you need to follow. By a female pastors presence alone, they communicate so much.

However, I have also heard women have added pressures. Traditionally lower pay, less involvement with leadership (elder/deacon/whatever you call them) meetings, expectations to be ‘motherly’ (provide food, cleaning, free babysitter), etc. As a minority, these things will be hard to change. But they need to. In closing I want to point to two things. First a resource. A great book that I own, published by Zondervan/Youth Specialties, is Help! I’m a Women in Youth Ministry! It is written by three great women (Kara Powell, Megan Hutchinson, Heather Flies) who are experienced youth ministry gurus! The second thing I will point to is some lyrics from a song. I have been loving and listening to alot of SHAD K. He is an amazing Canadian rapper. I caught him in Ottawa at the Jazz festival. Here is some lyrics from his song Lucky 1’s on the TSOL album. He says what Im trying to say, in his context, with far more creativity and style.

Lucky 1’s by Shad K (Verse 2)

And I’ve been known to talk about women
on a track or two
I talk to women, I just can’t talk for women
That’s for you
We need women for that
More women in rap
Even tracks like Kwali’s Four Women
That’s still only half the view of the world
There’s no girls rappin’ so we’re only hearin’ half the truth
What we have to lose? Too much
Half our youth aren’t represented, the better halves of dudes
So we don’t hear about your brain, just your brains
How you rock a fella, Stacey Dash dames
We just need your voice like an a capella
Something in the music’s gotta change
A lot of things

I watched a great TV show that premiered today. It was called ‘Breakthrough with Tony Robbins’. Most people know who Tony Robbins is. If you dont, he is like the inspirational guru Terrence Bundley in the movie Yes Man starring Jim Carrey. Tony Robbins is huge. He is an author and great communicator. He is helping people reach extraordinary lives. Tony is large, always smiling, and inspirational. In the show we are introduced to Frank & Kristen. We are told that they are a powerful love story. They love each other so much they would do almost anything to keep it together. That they could have easily been torn apart, but even in this low time, they are fighting for love.

Let me give you some context. Kristen & Frank had a destination wedding in Mexico. However, on their wedding day Dec 6th, 2008, during the reception, Frank broke his neck when he fell into the pool. This moment was suppose to be the best moment in their life; however, it became a nightmare. They dreamed of having a family, but now Frank cant even feel his wife. They became depressed and feel trapped to a caretaker/quadriplegic relationship. What happened to their future? What happened to their dreams?

I cant even imagine the pain of this tragedy. How can you be free and experience true joy after such pain? Tony Robbins offers 7 steps. I love these. Check them out.

1) Rewrite your story

2) Confront your real issues

3) Discover your inner strength

4) Redefine what is possible

5) Exceed your expectations

6) Change your belief system

7) Own your breakthrough

Those alone are so awesome. But then throughout the show I noticed and learned alot. It was inspirational to see his hands on compassion. Tony was a great listener and inspired Frank & Kristen to listen to one another. He helped them share their dreams and encouraged them to experience freedom. He obviously did alot to help; but the true restoration was realized and owned by Frank & Kristen because they experienced it instead of just hearing it. One of the great realizations by Frank was in step 3 when he experienced how he provides for Kristen. He provided real emotional support and true intimacy by being a comforter to Kristen. And Kristen experienced a chance to lean on her husband and his strength. However, that was only the beginning. The two of them experienced some amazing challenges throughout the process. From skydiving, to playing murderball, to taking time to grieve and enjoy life. Even Frank, a quadriplegic, driving a truck through the desert, was a great moment that destroyed false truths. It was amazing to see meaningful freedom being discovered by experience.

One of the great things I took from this show was how practical and meaningful the process was. I hope churches will grow in this. I hope Jesus followers will continue to learn how to live and not talk the belief system. I hope we will spend our time and resources on meaningful change instead of talk. I hope we will experience true life, and help connect others with joy and freedom. I hope we will stop trying to do the big thing and realize the small and practical, changes lives. Like Frank in the show, I have been slipping into the lie about dwelling in the past, or worrying about the future. I want to jump into my new life. Enjoying and facing the challenges of life will make me present. My present reality has some risk involved, but it is full of joy and freedom. Thank you God for who you are and the life you have blessed me with. Help me love you and love others. Im going to trust You.

Today, my little cousin came on the greyhound to London. It was his first time traveling alone. So excited to be his first real travel adventure on his own. As a surprise, I had organized a few board gamers to come over for an Axis & Allies game. You see, at Christmas I picked up the game for $20. Usually I heard the game went for 3 or 4 times as much. When I saw Bradley after Christmas, we cracked the game open and tried to learn it. My cousin is a war guru. Playing video games like Call Of Duty and Medal of Honour.

The operative word is ‘try’. This game is ridiculous. The rule book is a mini novel. It is confusing and complicated. We had one person who played the game a ‘few’ years ago. Thankful for Brian Malott. Without him, we would have been completely lost. We did our best to get our heads around the rules and enjoy the game. In all honesty, the next day I loved the game. Thinking about the strategy, I can understand why people love this game. But during the game, it was frustrating and slow. This is basically the opposite type of game that my wife likes. She likes easy to play, social, and less cut-throat kinda games. What does it say about me that I love hard, deep thinking, cut-throat games.

Im so pumped! My cousin Bradley is coming to visit this weekend. He is the closest thing to a little brother I have had. Anyone who doesn’t know, I am an only child. However, I do have a 2nd mom. Its really hard for me to imagine there was a time before Keith & Lynda Taylor. I dont remember it, but I have heard the story a ton of times. My mom & I were new to church. We had been a few times. But one morning, after the church service, my mom was wondering where I had wandered off. Eventually, she noticed I was playing an epic game of tag on the outside front steps of the church with some kids and ‘an older guy’. That older guy… I now call him my uncle Keith. He is like a dad to me. Honestly, one of the most caring, hard working, and wise men in this world (he seriously knows everything!). A real man of integrity. I remember so many great memories of Blue Jay games, vacations, late night chats, Christmas’, Baseball roadtrips, and Keith even took me to father/son camp at Kakeka.

And Keith is the great dad of Bradley! I have known Bradley since he was 1.3 pounds. A miracle child. He is truly special. I remember so many great memories with Bradley too. We really bonded when I got to take care of him for a month, as a toddler. I remember watching Space Jam 4 times in a row because I just couldnt say no… And teaching him to stick his tongue out as he dunked on his fisher price basketball net. And ever since, we have been attached at the hip. If we are in the same house, you can just call one of our names and you will find the other. We are usually playing video games or something like Risk. However, we seem to entertain ourselves no matter what we are doing. This weekend he is coming down to spend the weekend! Im so excited.

Recently I took a road trip across Canada. Well, really only from Southwestern Ontario to Prince Edward Island. Im too cheap (or poor, depends how you look at it) to pay for the gas to get to the west coast. Our first main city we stayed at was Ottawa. Beautiful City. Honestly, if I wasn’t so ignorant in french, I might even want to live there. While we were there, hanging with the Queen of England, we thought we would pay a visit to the Civilization Museum. One of the missions we had, for our journey, was to see more of Canada. Seems appropriate to spend time investing in understanding the culture our country has, and where we are coming from.  While visiting, we learned, took many photos, enjoying a morning of exploration. One of my personal favourite finds was a tombstone. I believe it was found in New Foundland dating back to 1676. I could be wrong, but I think it is the oldest engraved tombstone found in Canada. The language on  the front and back of the stone was in Basque language. I need to give a shout out to my friend James Riewald who successfully said Basque is a language with a history in the Spain region. I looked it up to find the region spanned from northeastern Spain to southwestern France. The alphabet used in Basque is Latin. Like the words from the great movie Good Will Hunting, “my friend is wickedly smart!”

Back to what made it my favourite. There was a translation of what the stone said. Take a look and see if you can figure it out…

Im guessing you cant figure it all out because its written on both sides. Let me give you the translation.

“HERE LIES

DEAD…

MAY 1, 1676

I.H.S.

JOHN

DE SALE

CESANA

SON (or heir)

OF THE HOUSE

OF SWEETEST ODOUR”

How awesome is that?! Sweetest Odour?! Now I did find out that  “sweetest odour” refers to ‘the best loved son of the house’. But that is a hilarious way of saying things. Language is amazing sometimes. With the recent funeral I attended in mind, I had been thinking a lot about the end. How to be remembered and what my story will be. But then this photo reminds me to also enjoy the humour in life. An example: even though it was sad to say goodbye to a friend at a funeral, I cant help but keep laughing to myself about how he managed to get a conservative megachurch to play the entire song of Freebird, by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I noticed some heads a nodding, itching to rock out! So any fun ideas for your funeral? Any witty words you want on your tombstone?! I might plagerize John De Sale Cesana and snag sweetest odour, or atleast say I smelled like Old Spice. I would love to have a live band rock out at my funeral, like the movie Elizabethtown, and have the sprinklers go off! Humour is so human. I dont know about you, but I need it.