Here is a review of 2014! Thank you for everyone that was involved in making 2014 a great journey. I’m looking forward to seeing you in 2015!
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 25 trips to carry that many people.
Has your world ever fallen apart? On more than one occasion mine has fallen apart. My wife Heather has journeyed through the last 15 years of her life with leukaemia + a bone marrow transplant. You can read her story here: www.smythfamily.wordpress.com
That’s why I was so intrigued to read Ed Dobson’s new book, Seeing Through the Fog: Hope When Your World Falls Apart.
Ed has written one of his best books about his own eleven year struggle with ALS. He shares his heart, struggle and emotions from the point of his diagnosis + physical deterioration + seeking forgiveness + spiritual journey + thinking of the after life.
We ask for forgiveness. And we forgive other who ask us. In that way, we can experience healing, healing in our souls. – Ed Dobson
Regardless of how your world might be falling apart right now, Ed’s book is MUST READ!
Follow Ed’s Story.com
You can purchase Ed’s book through Amazon below.
Pornography is something we know that our youth experience, experiment with but it’s not talked openly in our youth 
ministries. No I’m not suggesting that you have porn focused youth night (that just sounds weird).
What I am suggesting is that you think critically on these thoughts about pornography.
If you have not dug down deep into the soil on the topic of porn, then all you are left with is your own opinion or the opinion of others as it relates to a topic. Which is extremely dangerous.
Something I have learned from personal experience is that if you are struggling with something and you try to help someone to deal with the same issue, it becomes increasingly more difficult for you to overcome your own struggle.
What are some things you have learned about the topic of pornography in youth ministry? What would you add to this list?
Here is brief video that explains the scientific effects that porn has on the human body.
Did You Know?
Modern-Day Slavery is still a reality for many people around the world, and the best way to begin to change that is to learn more about it! Complete this educational challenge by our friends at LiveDifferent.com to get informed, and then find ways that you can make a difference!
I love stories. Especially when you hear about a life that was transformed or changed through an experience that they went through (good or bad). I love when my spirit is bubbling up inside me as I listen to a story and when it gets to the end I can boldly say to the story-teller, “That’s the God I know!”
As I sat down to read this book over a few days, I was excited because I had used several of the videos from I AM SECOND in various youth ministry contexts. Each video is visually simple yet powerful, verbally thought provoking, and very inspiring. (I used three “V” words there, cool!). I am also a person who loves things visual, seeing a person share their own personal story, seeing their facial expressions of joy or pain is very powerful. Yet when I read, I love to visualize what I’m reading.
As I began the book I kept having this sense of confusion come over me because it wasn’t clear to me who was telling each of the stories I was reading. Every story, through out the whole book, kept switching from first person to third person. I then jumped ahead to a story I had seen on video that impacted me personally and started reading with expectation. I was let down because as a reader I wasn’t sure who was telling the story. I was left confused.
There are many ways to tell a redemptive story and I know that the redemption that God offers to each one of us is mind blowing. The big problem I had with the book was that the redemptive story of God seemed hidden, missed, not communicated well, I’m not sure what. When someone has a life changing encounter with the living God it is usually very clear to everyone through two ways: 1) their life changes (behaviour, decisions, attitude, thoughts, language, body language, etc…), 2) the reason for the change is clear, they tell you that it was because of their life intersecting with the living God and his son Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Some of the stories in the book I AM SECOND seem to lack a depth of the redemptive story and the life change that each person went through when they encountered God through Jesus Christ. I’m not sure if that’s because the authors wanted it that way or if the person telling the story was not coached on how to tell the story of the redemptive work of God in their life.
Overall, if you are looking for a book to read about how various people go through a rough/rock-bottom experience and they emerge on the other side without drowning and discover God, then this is a book you will enjoy. If you are looking for a book that is very well written and explains in detail the redemptive work of Jesus in the life of various people, then this is not the book for you.
My recommendation is to watch the I AM SECOND videos for free. The book is not a must have on my book shelves. Stick with the videos.
I received this book from Graf-Martin Communications to review and my opinions are my own.
Jeff Smyth 