Not Your Average Day

Today Bart and I had driven to a meeting together, and we were headed back to the office. Now before I tell you any more of this story let me pass along to you a little bit about Bart Steever. In case you don't know him at all, he is the Discipleship and Mission Minister here at Parkside. Bart is one of manliest men I know. I am convinced that Bart could survive in the wilderness for years. He might even give Chuck Norris a run for his money. I mean this guy just climbed the Grand Tetons this past year. He is pretty manly.

Now that I have said that, I have to tell you he did something pretty unexpected. He asked if we could stop real quick to pick up something from Michael's. At first I thought he was joking and we were really going to stop at some outdoor place or gun shop, but sure enough we went to Michael's. Don't believe me? Here's the proof:

Here we are walking into the store. Bart is also the fastest walker I have ever met.

He wasn't just there to have a secret meeting with Jack Bauer either. He actually bought something!

He doesn't lose his Man Card, but he definitely lost some Man Points. I never thought I would Silk Floral and Bart Steever in the same photo...

Wanna Learn to Speak German?

Check out this article about a Croatian teen who woke up from a coma speaking fluent German, but now can't speak Croatian. Before she went into the coma she had started studying German, but this is crazy!

Here are a couple of other things that people have emailed me or told me about since my last post about Robert Epstein's new book Teen 2.0 that discusses the concept of adolescence.

Is Adolescence a Myth? -an article from Youth Specialty's website

Why I left the Ministry... -the story of Alan Nelson, founder of KidLead


Finally it is Monday, and Monday can be long and tiresome for some of us, so I thought I would include something that would cheer us up! Below is a link to story about a guy getting arrested for driving a Barbie Toy Jeep while under the influence.

Man Get's Arrested and Barbie Cries

Have a great Monday!

Teen 2.0 by Robert Epstein

I got a book from Amazon the other day. It just arrived in the mail and I spent about an hour digging into it. It's called TEEN 2.0 and its an in depth discussion on adolescence. In short, the author Epstein, argues that there actually is no such thing as adolescence.

I first heard about the book when it was mentioned in a TIME magazine article someone told me I should read. Since, many would say, a large part of my job focuses on helping teenagers navigate through adolescence, I was real interested in seeing what Epstein had to say.

My first thoughts were that one, the book was about 400 pages longer than I expected, and two, because of its Rain Forest Killing Size it would either be very good, or very dry. After spending an hour checking it out I am glad to say that so far the book has been very interesting. The idea that there is no such thing as adolescence is a new one to me. In all my college courses on counseling, psychology, and student ministry not once did we suppose in class that adolescence came about as a result of the Industrial Revolution as Epstein suggests.

Don't worry, I know I just mentioned the Industrial Revolution in the same sentence as student ministry. I am not about to go deep into a philosophical rant on the historical relevance of student ministers, but I am going to talk about what I thought was interesting.

I am no where near finishing this book, or looking into what resources Epstein tapped into for the writing of this book, but so far its been very informative and engaging. I agree with Epstein that a lot of our teenagers problems reflect issues from our society and culture. I also agree with him that a lot of other countries and cultures don't struggle with adolescent issues like we do in America. I'll update you all as I continue to read. Remember that I am not saying this is the ultimate resource in raising or ministering to a teen, but I am definitely suggesting that its a good read (or at least the first 2 chapters are). If you've already read it or are reading it let me know what you think.