A Salute to My Dad on Memorial Day

John F. Rice (1920-1968)

John F. Rice (1921-1968)

I write this on Memorial Day 2009 as we pay tribute to all the men and women who have served our country over the years, especially those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom and way of life.

I want to remember especially my father John Forest Rice, who was a Navy Seabee during World War II and the best man I ever knew. He taught me so much … how to love God, how to love my wife and kids, how to love music, how to love hard work. He died a young man, at age 48 in an auto accident but his influence and legacy lives on.

Thanks Dad for serving your family, your country and your Lord so well during your brief time with us. Outside of the Lord himself, you’re the first person I’ll be looking for when I get to heaven. See you soon!

Me and Dad a Long Long Time Ago

Me and Dad a Long Long Time Ago

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Alison Brown at Anthology

Alison Brown

Alison Brown

Marci and I went to see Alison Brown last night at a local San Diego supper club called Anthology.

Yesterday’s San Diego Reader carried an interview with Alison which included a nice mention for my radio show:

“And I tuned in every Sunday night to Wayne Rice’s Bluegrass Special on KSON. He’s still on the air and probably has one of the longest running bluegrass radio shows in the country. So, as it turned out, San Diego was a great place to learn to play bluegrass, even though that might sound a little counterintuitive.

Alison grew up here in San Diego, then went to Harvard University where she majored in finance. She became an investment banker with Smith-Barney but later ditched her banking career for a stint with Alison Krauss and Union Station. She later formed her own group The Alison Brown Quartet, which is more jazz-oriented than bluegrass. She now owns her own successful record label with an impressive roster of artists.

Her show at Anthology was fantastic. Yesterday was Marci’s birthday and while Marci doesn’t usually allow banjos at her birthday parties, she made an exception for Alison, who wished her a happy birthday from the stage.

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The Rice Kryspies: 40 Years Ago

rice-kryspies2

The Rice Kryspies: Wayne, Joe, Jim and Marci

I began my youth ministry career as a club director for Ventura County (California) Youth for Christ in 1963. Folk music was getting real popular about that time (Joan Baez, the Kingston Trio, Bob Dylan, the New Christy Ministrels) so we formed our own folk groups as a way to be “relevant” with teenagers. The first group I had was a trio patterned after Peter, Paul and Mary called “The Accidents.” I played the upright bass in that group. Then, after hearing the Dillards (who were playing folk clubs around Southern California and appearing on the Andy Griffith TV show), I learned to play banjo and formed a bluegrass group with my brothers called “The Rice Kryspies.” My wife Marci played the bass.

Harry White, who was Ventura YFC’s sound engineer, recently unearthed some old tape recordings of early YFC rallies, several of which featured The Rice Kryspies. The recording below was made on May 10, 1969–exactly 40 years ago. The introduction is by Ventura YFC director Roger Cross (who later became the president of Youth for Christ/USA). The song you’ll probably recognize. Just keep in mind that the Beatles were still together in 1969. This was very cutting edge stuff back then!

[audio:https://waynerice.com/audio/rice_kryspies.mp3]
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Demon Banjos

An interesting post from the Dallas Morning News religion blog:

“My grandfather had this conversion experience and went to West Virginia Wesleyan. He was kicked out of a church in 1919 for playing the banjo with the youth group. Obviously everybody knew the banjo was an instrument of Satan! … Beware the demon banjo.”

Funny, same thing happens to me all the time.

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Teens on Bluegrass

OK, I know bluegrass isn’t going to replace hip hop anytime soon as the music of choice for teenagers, but I’m no longer surprised by groups like the The Doerfels who suddenly appear out of nowhere. I don’t know too much about this family band except they are from Florida and just released a new CD featuring some of their original songs. The senior member (T.J. on banjo) is only 20 years old, joined by his sister Kimberly (19 on fiddle), and brothers Eddy (16 on mandolin), Joe (14 on bass) and Ben (13 on guitar). Check out this video:

I sometimes point to groups like this when I hear some of my colleagues express pessimism about the extent to which parents and other adults can influence teenagers in today’s media-saturated world. Let’s be honest here, teenagers who embrace and perform bluegrass music are not the norm. These are kids who have grown up in an environment, usually provided by their parents, where they have had constant exposure to the music and lots of encouragement from a community of bluegrass music fans.

I’ve spent time with many of these young musicians, like Nickel Creek (Chris Thile, Sean and Sara Watkins) who grew up here in the San Diego area. Also the Cherryholmes family, who also came from Southern California and have become one of bluegrass music’s biggest success stories. There are many more just like them. The Wright Kids, who were finalists on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” show and The Clark Brothers, who won Fox TV’s “The Next Great American Band” competition a couple of years ago. I’m always impressed not only by the talent and skill of these kids on their musical instruments, but with how well-adjusted they are and how articulate and comfortable they are around adults.

So how did these kids become such accomplished bluegrass musicians? Did they find the sound of the banjo and fiddle too cool to resist?

To understand these kids, you have to meet their parents. I’ve met some of them and it’s clear that they made a choice when their kids were little to create a family culture that was centered around bluegrass music. In almost every case, these kids were home schooled and taught music as part of their curriculum. They made field trips to bluegrass festivals where they learned to play (jam) with adult musicians who were more than happy to show them how to improve their playing. I also have a hunch their parents turned off the TV and spent a lot of time playing and singing with their kids.

I know most people would shudder at their thought of their kids forming a bluegrass band, but I do think there’s something we can learn from these families about how to raise children up in the Christian faith.

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Shift Youth Ministry Conference

Last week I went to Chicago to attend a 3-day youth ministry conference called “Shift the Future” at Willow Creek Community Church. It was sponsored by the Willow Creek Association, a leadership organization affiliated with the host church.

I went because I’m doing some writing this year on youth ministry and wanted to listen to what others were saying about it. I went to all the sessions as a conferee, something I really haven’t done in a long time. For most of my life I’ve been involved in putting on conferences or speaking at them. To just sit, listen and take notes at a ministry conference of any kind felt very different for me. While there, I always felt like I needed to be doing something … but these were false alarms going off in my head, I kept telling myself.

notes-from-shiftSo I took notes. I’m not a very good note taker. I tend to doodle a lot. At the right is a sample, from a seminar I attended on junior high ministry led by Scott Rubin. The seminar was actually quite good although you couldn’t tell from my note-taking.

Highlights of the conference included the opening address by Francis Chan, a pastor from Simi Valley California who has become a very popular conference speaker (he also did the YS conventions this past year). He’s dynamic, passionate, transparent and very inspiring. I did have a question regarding his use of his daughter in one of his illustrations to make a point. I’ve always been hesitant to do that–to use your own kids in stories that make you (or them) look good. There are two schools of thought on that (yes and no). I’ve generally come down on the “no” side of that debate even though I sometimes break the rule myself.

I also enjoyed the session featuring Mark Holmen, a pastor from Ventura California and Bubba Thurman, a youth pastor from Texas. Together they presented a compelling argument for ministry to and with families, which of course is a passion of mine. I’ve heard Holmen several times (I’m a big fan of his) but never before Bubba Thurman. I was very impressed by his presentation.

I also enjoyed hearing Kara Powell speak. Currently with the Fuller Youth Institute (Fuller Seminary), I was blessed to have her as a student (one of the brightest and best I ever had) when I taught youth ministry at Bethel Seminary in San Diego. It’s not surprising at all to me that she’s making such a significant contribution to the field of youth ministry now.

While I was at the conference, I had a chance to have dinner with an old friend of mine, Mark Senter, professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has just finished writing a very thorough history of youth ministry called When God Shows Up, scheduled to be released next January by Baker Academic Books. We had a very interesting conversation about the future of youth ministry and a few other topics as well. One thing we both agreed upon: the future of youth ministry is no longer in our hands. Our role is to cheer on the next generation of youth workers and avoid putting a lid on their creativity and passion for doing what God is leading them to do.

A big THANK YOU to the Willow Creek Association for making it possible for me to attend the conference, especially to Scott Rubin, the junior high pastor at Willow Creek Church, who also let me stay at his house. It was an encouraging and productive week for me.

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World’s Worst Title for a Parenting Book

I found this newly-released book at a bookstore the other day and couldn’t resist buying it. teenagers-suck-joanne-kimes-paperback-cover-artWritten by a couple of comedians and a therapist, the back cover reads: “Is it any wonder … Most people go through mid-life crises when their kids are teenagers? … Fewer parents are grounding their teenagers–to avoid being stuck at home with them?” And so on. The authors describe their book pretty well in the intro: “This is not a book about parenting teenagers. It’s a book on how to survive parenting teenagers.”

In my parenting seminars I usually tell parents that how you treat teenagers often determines how they respond, how they behave, how they feel. If you treat them as problems, they’ll give you problems. If you treat them like children, they’ll act like children. If you have a low view of them, they’ll live down to our expectations. We are in a sense mirrors to help them determine their identity and self-image.

So in our seminars we try to help parents appreciate the positive aspects of adolescence and encourage them to “catch their kids in the act of doing something good” whenever possible. Discouraged parents only discourage their children.

Needless to say, I don’t think I’d want to leave this book lying around the house for my kids to see.

To be fair, there’s actually some pretty decent parenting advice between the covers. For example, the authors advise against over-indulging teenagers with money and material things:

“First off, realize that teenagers are expensive to maintain. (Think of them as yachts with messy rooms.) Secondly, make sure they realize it too. The more you can steer your teen toward Appreciation and away from Entitlement, the better your chances of maintaining some non-gray hairs. This is where you dust off your ‘When I was your age, my allowance was a nickel and I wasn’t allowed to spend it all in one place!’ stories. You know you have them. And if you don’t, use the ones your parents told you.”

The book was written by Joanne Kimes and R.J. Colleary with Rebecca Rutledge, PhD.

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Easter 2009

dsc01876We had a great time on Easter Sunday celebrating the Resurrection with a back yard full of family and friends. The weather was perfect, the food was delicious and joyful bluegrass music was heard all over our neighborhood.

I hope we can continue hosting this event every year. I love Easter and I know everyone enjoys being with us in our back yard which is always green and colorful with the flowers in bloom. I’m a little worried about how the economy will affect us in the future–and whether we’ll be able to keep our yard in “party shape” for another year. Water rates are being increased significantly where we live so we’ll have to cut back and let some things go. And we no longer have a gardener to help us out. So we’ll do our best to keep things growing and hopefully next year the celebrating will continue. He is risen indeed!

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Writing to Serve

While I was teaching youth ministry at San Diego Christian College (seems like ages ago) I met a very talented woman named Maria Keckler, who taught English and computer literacy among other things. She currently is developing a new website for Christian writers called Writing to Serve. She recently interviewed me for an article which appears here. I have no idea where she got that “early” picture of me. Nice glasses.

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Got bad news? Just add banjo.

A funny commercial from Alaska airlines, probably based on the old Steve Martin routine. Not a bad idea, actually.
Alaska Airlines – Banjo

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