Wayne Rice

Tag: Youth Specialties

  • The Big Bang of Youth Specialties

    It was the summer of 1968 when Mike Yaconelli and I resigned from our jobs with San Diego Youth For Christ and became youth directors at two local churches. I won’t go into the reasons we left YFC, but we both needed a little more normalcy in our lives at that time. Earlier in the…

  • Not Just a Desk

    I sold my desk this week for $75. I put it on Craigslist, first for $300, then for $200, then for $100. Somebody offered me $50 and we settled on $75. I even delivered the desk across town in my truck for that. And then I came home and cried. Emotions run deep when you…

  • YS Lifetime Achievement Award

    After being assured that receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award doesn’t necessarily mean your lifetime is over, I was pleased to accept a LAW from Youth Specialties at their recent San Diego National Youth Workers Convention. From what I hear, this was the first of many that will be given to individuals who have contributed in…

  • Reweirdifying Christianity

    I am an avid reader and admirer of author and Princeton professor Kenda Creasy Dean. In response to a question “What’s the biggest challenge facing youth workers today?” on the Youth Specialties blog, she says: The biggest challenge might also be the best thing to happen to the church since the apostles and that is…

  • New Leadership for Youth Specialties

    Youth Specialties is the ministry that Mike Yaconelli and I started back in 1968 to provide resources and training for people who do youth ministry in the church. I don’t think the mission of YS has changed much since I left in 1994 or since Mike died in 2003 but the leadership continues to change.…

  • National Youth Workers Convention 2010

    I just returned from the National Youth Workers Convention in Nashville (Youth Specialties). I was a speaker at both the Nashville and the San Diego YS conventions this year, an honor for me given that Iā€™m well past my prime as a youth ministry expert. What I am these days is a walking youth ministry…

  • Reinventing Youth Ministry [Again]

    Last year I wrote a book summarizing pretty much all that I have to say about the past, present and future of youth ministry. The book is titled Reinventing Youth Ministry [Again]: From Bells and Whistles to Flesh and Blood and it was just released this month by InterVarsity Press. I began my youth ministry…

  • Talking Crazy about YS

    This was a fun little sketch that the YS gang invited me to do a few weeks ago. It was about 110 degrees outside when we filmed this inside a car with the AC off and the windows rolled up. I kept flubbing my lines so after about 5 takes, we were both about to…

  • Would you buy this book?

    OK folks, I’ve written a book which will be published later on this year … part memoir, part youth ministry rant … and the publisher has suggested this cover design. There’s still time to change things, so your feedback would be greatly appreciated. Everything is up for grabs … concept, images, title, subtitle, etc. ……

  • Hooray! YS will keep right on “Tic-ing”

    Well, the news is out about the future of Youth Specialties and I’m happy to report that it’s very good. YouthWorks, the Minneapolis-based ministry that purchased YS from Zondervan a couple months ago has re-hired Tic Long to come back in and lead the organization. I wrote in a previous post about the high regard…