Words cannot express what I'm feeling right now. Abused. Yet joyful. Rethinking yet dangerous. I'm wondering after all the things I've heard if it was true. A zealot, a rebel, a thinker, a dream catcher. A friend. Mentor. One who did not or thought not he was a pastor yet pastored the smallest and slowest growing church in America yet pastored one of the largest as well. He's been called crazy. Mad. Jokester. Stepping out of the water and into the arms of the one who created him.

Now wonder they call him unthinkable. I mean afterall, how can God use such a crazy, messy, dangerous person and yet many looked to this one as a mentor. Mentor, peer, and friend. A lover of God. Why is it we like to tell stories of Yaconelli because its his stories that fit us too! He lovingly and ultimately was in love with Jesus. He knew Jesus and was Jesus to many.

Why do we love Yaconelli; because we love the God he served. He laughed, cried and were in pain when he was. To some he was son, husband, father, peer, co-worker, and mentor. To a lot of us, he was just plain crazy and a friend of God. He knew youth ministry; but also was concerned for the messiness that the church brought and the work that youthworkers did.

To me knowing Yaconelli was easy. I just needed to know Jesus. After all we only have one life and we need to do something. Mike did this. Youth Specialties may never be the same; yet it will beloved. Why? Because the ultimate "I am" and "Be" is with them.

I wish I could articulate my feelings as well as others. With the mixed emotions I'm going through. Having known Youth Specialties for years. Working with them the last couple of years via the listserv and now as a moderator with the Forum; I feel such a loss; but jealous because Mike is there with the Lord; in the ultimate renovatus. God bless.

I
Saw this on the Youth Specialties
site and thought to post. Kind is my own adaption of a Statement of Faith.


Important Stuff YS Believes
(a.k.a., Statement of Faith)

We believe in Jesus. We know He's part of the Trinity and all the other important stuff we also believe, but if we're honest, we're partial to Jesus. Don't get us wrong. God is like a Father—no, God IS the father—and the buck stops with Him (if you're going to have the buck stop somewhere it might as well stop with Someone who is … well … all about love with a capital L. Of course, He's also about justice with a capital J, but we'll take our chances that, in the end, justice will feel like love). And then there is the Holy Spirit—mysterious, windy, seems to like fire a lot, whispering, and always pointing us to … you guessed it … Jesus. We not only like Jesus a lot, He likes us a lot. Enough to die for us. We know that when life gets tough (and it always does) He'll be there for us.

We believe in the Church. We know—it's flawed, inconsistent, institutional, bureaucratic, even embarrassing sometimes. Yet it is also incredibly heroic at other times. Whether we like it or not, want to attend it or not, we're stuck with it. There are a lot of parachurch organizations out there that are a lot more glamorous at first glance, but the Church is the Body of Christ, and that's pretty glamorous too. The Church is not optional, it's not up for discussion, it's been around ever since Jesus, and it's still here. That's good enough for us.

We believe in the scandalous grace of God. Grace is outrageously unfair, ridiculously extravagant and unashamedly the center of the gospel, and it sure beats judgmentalism, legalism, and all the other isms. Grace always gives second chances, third chances and never stops giving chances. Grace has Jesus written all over it. Grace makes people nervous because they are always so worried someone is going to take advantage of it. But that's what we like about grace. You can take advantage of it. But here's the really interesting part—grace doesn't just let everyone in. Anyone, yes, but not everyone. And the Grace of God frequently includes the unexpected. So … who's in and who's not? Only God knows, and that's fine with us.

We believe in the Bible. We're awed by it, inspired by it, and believe it is Truth. We're also terrified of it. We don't understand all of it, but we believe it. All of it. That's the important part, because if you only believe some of it, if you try to edit out the parts you don't like, then you don't believe it. Of course, believing it all doesn't mean we perfectly live it all. It doesn't even mean we have it all figured out. Mostly we're scared of it, scared in a good way, because whenever we read it and try to live by it, God shows up and that's pretty terrifying … and also pretty amazing, and pretty …uh … assuring.

That’s kind of it. The “biggies.”

We know there’s other important stuff out there … actually, a lot of other stuff: theology, doctrine, homosexuality, abortion, war, the second coming, prophecy, music, discipleship, appearance, serving, worship, tattoos, dancing, drinking, traditions, smoking, language, baptism, moral issues and … well, like we said, lots of stuff.

All that stuff is important, and certainly people should try to figure out what to believe about all those things, but that’s exactly the point. We believe that if the “biggies” are sorted out, then all the other stuff will eventually fall into place too. It might not fall into the same place as the brother or sister next to you, but that’s what makes the kingdom of God so interesting. Right?