We All Own YS - We Welcome Zondervan to That Ownership

A group of folks who I adore have a big change rolling out today - Zondervan has expanded their relationship with Youth Specialties by purchasing YS. Go see their video announcement to get a sense of the opportunity and possible threats this big news entails.

Full disclosure: I have worked as an employee at YS and at one point, in a past corporate life, I worked for the parent company of Zondervan (News Corp) in a different division.

I have a bunch of reactions to this big news:

I am so grateful to Yaconelli family for their stewardship of what has been and remains today a unique voice in the global church. Their legacy of doing good things and doing them in a way that goes the extra mile is a benchmark for ministries and businesses all around the world. For Karla particularly, these last few years must have been quite a journey - I am hopeful that this shift greets her with joy, new life and the opportunity to do even more of what makes her heart sing.

I am hopeful that the incredible team at YS experiences this as the opening of a huge toy store - the rich array of siblings that they now have in the News Corp family present an incredible opportunity for YS. Imagine what YS might do in partnership with HarperCollins children's division or with MySpace ? News Corp has a wonderful culture that encourages risk-taking and offers financial management and accountability that should accelerate the expansion of YS. My first reaction to this is to buy stock in News Corp, which is saying something for a progressive blow-hard like me.

My main reaction though is neither personal nor financial - it is communal. While Mike & Wayne founded YS and Marko & Tic run the pirate ship in El Cajon, the truth is that YS is owned by the millions of folks who are engaged in youth ministry. I am hard pressed to think of a better example of Margaret Mead's quote: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Youth ministry is a place of vitality for folks who struggle to follow Jesus - a place where Calvinists and Unitarians work side-by-side, a place where boundaries rarely define identity, but rather centering around students and their life with Jesus unites. The globa

While Zondervan takes over stewardship for YS today from the Yaconelli family, the truth for me is that youth ministers, teenagers and parents all around the world owned YS before it began, they've owned it for the past 30 years and they carry that calling as a gift to the next generations of Jesus followers. While there is no "official" shareholders' meeting for us as owners, you can feel that ownership ay most youth group meetings, certainly online at the YS site and definitely at events like NYWC, the CORE & DCLA.

We have HUGE news! Our longtime publishing partners and friends at Zondervan have purchased Youth Specialties. While you pick your jaw up off the floor, let me back up for a moment...

Youth Specialties was founded by Mike Yaconelli and Wayne Rice in the late 1960s, with a passion to train, encourage and provide resources for Christian youth workers. After a couple years of selling their "Ideas" books out of the trunks of their cars, the publisher of Zondervan came to them and said, "We love what you guys are doing. Let us help you get these resources out to youth workers all over North America." Thus began our more than 30-year friendship with the world's largest Christian communications company.

Over the years, many things have changed in the church and in both companies. But both have stayed true to their mission and to the church we love so deeply. Zondervan talked to Mike and Karla Yaconelli about buying YS several years back, but the timing just wasn't right. The timing is perfect now.

Youth Specialties is a funky and small rag-tag group of youth workers who want to serve other youth workers. And we've always been as unstable as a middle school girl. One really bad move (and we make bad moves all the time!) could finish us off, and end our ability to serve you. So this gives us quite a bit more strength and stability—not to mention opportunity to expand what we're doing. This partnership—and our entire reason for wanting it—is so that we can serve youth workers better. This will allow us to take more risks, try more new things, grow and evolve.

Here's the big elephant-in-the-room question you're likely thinking at this moment: will YS change? Well, on one hand: I hope so! YS has always been committed to change. And we can never continue to fulfill our mission to bring change to the church unless we are changing ourselves. But here's what won't change: our mission, our culture, our vision and values, and our commitment to providing you with the best resources, training, encouragement and challenge. Zondervan is 100% committed to us staying who we are. We'll keep our offices here in San Diego, and our staff isn't experiencing any major changes—except Karla Yaconelli, who will no longer be our owner, but will be actively involved in a consulting role with us (in fact, Karla's office will remain next to mine, so she can bug me anytime she pleases!). You'll be hearing from Karla in the days to come also.

We're pretty pumped about this whole thing because, at the end of the day, Zondervan will help us keep doing what we live for: loving youth workers and the kids they serve.

Thanks for taking the journey with us everyday, and feel free to connect with me if you have any questions about this deal.

—Marko

Comments

[Tony Myles]

That rocks, bro. Good perspective.

[renee]

i haven't told you today how much i love you.

*tears*