{"id":3985,"date":"2012-11-28T20:39:57","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T01:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ywupdate\/?p=3985"},"modified":"2012-11-28T20:39:57","modified_gmt":"2012-11-29T01:39:57","slug":"a-beautiful-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ywupdate\/2012\/11\/28\/a-beautiful-mess\/","title":{"rendered":"A Beautiful Mess"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Mark Oestreicher is a veteran youth worker and founding partner in The Youth Cartel, whose recently released book,<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/theyouthcartel.com\/products\/a-beautiful-mess-whats-right-with-youth-ministry\/\"><em><strong>A Beautiful Mess<\/strong><\/em><\/a><strong>, will help you experience the freedom of your calling. You can find Mark on<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>his blog: <a href=\"http:\/\/whyismarko.com\/\">whyismarko.com<\/a><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2012\/11\/a-beautiful-mess-transparent1-300x300.png\" rel=\"prettyPhoto[3985]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-3986\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2012\/11\/a-beautiful-mess-transparent1-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ywupdate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2012\/11\/a-beautiful-mess-transparent1-300x300.png 300w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ywupdate\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2012\/11\/a-beautiful-mess-transparent1-300x300-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This book is a breath of fresh of air! It focuses on what is right and allows youth pastors to be encouraged. Reminding us that we are making a difference as we continue to serve students with the love of Christ.<\/p>\n<p><em>When you think about the state of youth ministry today, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you cheer or fear? Is the glass half full or half empty? In this honest, frank, blunt examination, veteran youth worker Mark Oestreicher offers a fresh perspective on what\u2019s working in youth ministry today\u2014and discovers that perhaps things aren\u2019t as broken as some of us might have thought.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Theologically and anecdotally, we can uncover plenty of encouraging signs in the realm of youth ministry, according to Oestreicher, whose youth ministry experience includes time as an in-the-trenches youth worker and as a publisher of youth ministry books and resources.\u00a0<\/em><em>A Beautiful Mess<\/em><em>\u00a0features insights on the issues and opportunities facing youth workers, including the trend toward longevity in ministry, the power of smaller churches, the work of the Holy Spirit, the rewards of authentic relational ministry, the need for integration instead of isolation, and the centrality of faith and humility.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This book will help you experience the freedom of your calling, rather than the stress of expectations. You\u2019ll discover an abundance of reasons to remain optimistic, intentional, and faithful as you engage in the lives of today\u2019s teenagers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Happy Reading!<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ywupdate?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=3985&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Oestreicher is a veteran youth worker and founding partner in The Youth Cartel, whose recently released book,\u00a0A Beautiful Mess, will help you experience the freedom of your calling. You can find Mark on\u00a0his blog: whyismarko.com. This book is a breath of fresh of air! It focuses on what is right and allows youth pastors [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[253,281,240,1,4369,429],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-center-for-youth-ministry-studies","category-resources","category-speaker-team","category-uncategorized","category-web-resource","category-ym-network"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Beautiful Mess - ECC | Youth Worker Update<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ywupdate\/2012\/11\/28\/a-beautiful-mess\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Beautiful Mess - ECC | Youth Worker Update\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mark Oestreicher is a veteran youth worker and founding partner in The Youth Cartel, whose recently released book,\u00a0A Beautiful Mess, will help you experience the freedom of your calling. 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