DYM100 Conference Notes

October 28, 2021

Last week I had the incredible opportunity to attend a conference in Southern California called DYM100. I, along with 100 more youth pastors from around the U.S. were able to be encouraged, inspired, and challenged by people like Doug Fields and Josh Griffin from Download Youth Ministry, Jim Burns, Mark Ostreicher, Sean McDowell and even the GM for the L.A. Lakers, Rob Pelinka and many more.

Throughout the three day conference I was constantly thinking of what I would want to share with you, and so here’s my five hot takes. You can click on any of them and find my session notes from that talk. These are a bit unpolished and include both talk notes and notes from Q&As that followed. If you’re interested in hearing more, I’d love to share.

1. “Ministry of presence isn’t always about winning people over or healing hurts, but just letting hurt people be heard.” - Katie Edwards, Student Ministry Pastor at Saddleback Church

2. “If anxiety is fuel, it burns dirty. Peace is renewable energy.” - Alan Fadling, author of “An Unhurried Life”

3. “Defending yourself never really works out for you. Jesus defending you always does.” - Rob Pelinka, GM for the L.A. Lakers

4. “Lay out expectations, but be willing to negotiate some for the sake of the soul of your volunteers. Call them to faithfulness and greatness for the sake of your students.” - Jessica Sanchez

5. “I need to trust the Bible enough to let it prove me wrong. I also need to trust it enough to let it say things to me that I don’t want to hear.” - Gregory Coles, author of “Single, Gay, Christian”