Stories From St. Louis

Here is mary Huebner and I working the Unkommonmedia.com booth in St. Louis. We had a great time talking to youth workers about sharing all the creative, original ideas they've used over the years with the rest of the youth worker community. Unkommon Media is an online publishing house for the common man/woman.

I had the best conversations that week. I met a Catholic Evangelist (lay person who basically witnessed to me about the church) who wanted me to return to the church. She told me I could always come back. I grew up Catholic and never met a catholic who told me I could come back. Who was genuinely interested in my participation with the Catholic body. Kudos to her. I was so excited to meet a passionate Catholic I was ready to convert. Alas, the theological jump was too far.

The second conversation I had was with a young man (18-25) wearing a Notre Dame sweat shirt. Instead of laying my Unkommon Media jargon on him I wanted to talk about football. After 15 minutes he stared at me and said thanks. I asked him why. He said, "All i have been talking about for two days was youth ministry, thanks for talking with me about football. I need that." What a great encounter. I was glad to be able to minister to him.

My last meeting happened with an author who was sitting art our booth Sarah Cunningham. I had read her book Dear Church and it really got me converted from defending the establishment to questioning it in a loving way. She was kind but I could tell she was weary of discussing her thoughts from 3 years ago.

I am looking forward to more encounters and more stories to tell when I am at the Atlanta YS. If you are there come by the Unkommon Media booth.

PT