Street to Street by Fred Lynch

A monthly message from Fred Lynch.

Street to Street by Fred Lynch

Nothing's Holding You back! Skip the middle man and let your voice be heard.

September 2005

We've all heard it so many times that we can finish out the overplayed scenario before it makes it to scene two. The familiar scene happens at a bookstore or a conference or even on a tired and drastic Wednesday afternoon; hours before the youth service and you don't have anything fresh, new or half interesting to present to your eager, high strung awaiting students! Of course I'm talking about the overwhelming need for quality urban centered resources.

I along with many of my colleagues often find ourselves in an overflow of inner contempt and turmoil; trying to figure out why the major publishers hadn't yet 'figured it out'. According to the latest stats from Barna*, urban teens talk to their friends about God, pray and go to religious functions for training and direction at a higher percentage than their suburban counterparts. So if these are our potential top prayer warriors, evangelists and disciples then why are we cutting them short with half baked ideas and resources that insult their intelligence? When will the major movers in the 'Christian resource game' wake up and smell the potential? Well let me digress before I take you through a rendition of P.E.'s 90' smash hit 'Burn Hollywood Burn'! I'm sure that if you're reading this article on this site, then I'm preaching to the choir. However there are some potential solutions that might help us as leaders get the treasure out of our hearts and onto a medium that will transferee truth to teens right were they live.

Well let's talk about scene two. Efrem Smith is one of my heroes. I'll never forget his words one day as we were both walking the city streets (eating some BBQ of course) and in a mad rage over folks whom we felt were holding us back from getting real resources to real street kids. He simply said,

"I don't even know why we're crying about them trying to help us do what we know how to do better than anybody. It's time to get our hustle on and take the truth to the streets regardless of anyone's help. Besides, even if they did publish us, would they ever get us back here to the streets?

I'd like to showcase a powerful tool that's being used all over the internet to help inform, equip and train people all over the world. Electronic publishing (or e-publishing for short) isn't a new medium to many of you out there, but it has come a long way since it was first introduced back in '95. Last fall the Library of Congress had a conference on the digital future. The conference was very insightful as far as where we are headed and how far we've come in the digital world. If you'd like to check out some excerpts from the event, just check out this link.

What makes this relevant to us as youth workers in the urban world is just one of the tools that has developed over the past few years: print-on-demand publishing (or pod books for short). There are many pro's and con's with this new medium as with any, but the overall idea is that it helps an author get her work out at a much lower overall cost than trying to go through a major publisher. By the time it takes to sell your idea to a publisher, work out a contract, go through the booming book industrial cycle and finally get your material in a bookstore that you honestly question will be visible to the audience that you want to address, guess what: your stuff is already old! Yea I'm exaggerating, but you'd be surprised how many writers long to have the freedom of sharing a timely resource that is free to just get out there right into the hands of someone crying for help right now.

Why would this work so good for us? We minister to a niche market (a market who I personally think has the strongest grip on influencing culture in the world right now) and just to take an idea from Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point it makes my position simple but powerful: we may not need the big publishing boys to effectively do what we have to do. God has placed us in a frontline position where we see what it's really like on the cutting edge of youth culture where too many are bleeding and are in need of a resource that could bandage, heal and turn a community around.

Well here's the point: It is time for scene two, and it could be starring you! If you have something to put out there that has helped you and you feel the calling to be a blessing to someone else, then step out and make it happen. This is a friendly reminder that nothing is holding you back. Be bold! Get your stuff together, get an editor, and get your treasure out of you! Below are some sites to visit and do your research. Check out some of these tools and let us know how they've worked for you.

* High Impact African-American Churches: Leadership Concepts from Some of Today's Most Effective Churches pg.23-24

Sharing the gospel from 'Street to Street',

Fred Lynch III
GodStyle Productions

Fred Lynch is the founder of GodStyle Productions, a ministry committed to changing youth culture. For more information on Fred, visit his website or check out his latest project, The Epic (the gospel of John translated into rap).

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