Introducing "The Ground Floor": A Youth Ministry Innovation Podcast
Matthew Overton
Over a year ago I was asked by Mark Oestreicher to create a youth ministry podcast on innovation. At the time it looked like I was about to have some windows of time open up. The didn’t! So after multiple staff transitions I have finally launched a small podcast (6-8 episodes a year)!
The real joy of this work is it gives me the chance (much like this blog has over the last 5 years) to think out loud. Only now, I can process what we are learning with friends more easily. There is an emerging network of folks engaging with social enterprise in the church in North America. I am hopeful that as that conversation begins to roll in earnest, that we might be able to see some new models for Youth Ministry in North America emerge as well.
This first episode is a bit of a shotgun affair, but it allowed me to collaborate and learn from my former student and current youth director, Nicholas Burton. Nicholas works at Bethany Church up in Seattle, Wa. and was willing to dive into the first expression of this adventure. I hope you can hear the joy in our voices as we share the story that got me thinking differently about innovation and YM.
In the coming months we will:
-Feature some youth ministry voices that you will know and recognize.
-Discuss who can learn to innovate! (hint: most anybody)
-Define what innovation is at an individual and team level
-Look at what factors make innovation possible in each person’s context
-Hear from regular youth ministry practitioners that are trying (and perhaps failing) to do things differently in their context.
Come along for the ride!!! Join us on the “Ground Floor” of Youth Ministry innovation. Click the Podcast tab on our homepage or the link below.