wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Crash kills youth ministry guru Mike Yaconelli

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Note #7997 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Crash kills youth ministry guru Mike Yaconelli
03470
November 3, 2003

Crash kills youth ministry guru Mike Yaconelli

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - Mike Yaconelli, 61, a pioneer in church youth ministries, died
on Oct. 30 of injuries suffered in a traffic accident the previous night.

	Yaconelli was the founder of Youth Specialties, a leading
organization in the training of church youth workers.

	According to the California Highway Patrol, Yaconelli was northbound
on Interstate 5 in northern California, apparently on his way home to Yreka,
CA, when his pickup truck left the road and hit a light pole.

	Yaconelli's son, Mark, is director of the Youth Ministry and
Spirituality Project at San Francisco Theological Seminary.

	In 1969, Yaconelli and fellow youth minister Wayne Rice founded Youth
Specialties, an organization that now trains about 100,000 church youth
workers each year, through seminars, conferences, a Web site and other
resources.

	Rice and Yaconelli also founded The Wittenberg Door (now The Door) as
a youth worker magazine in 1971, but it soon turned to religious satire. 
Yaconelli, who was known for irreverent humor, exercised it in books
including Dangerous Wonder and Messy Spirituality.

	He is survived by his wife, Karla, five children and four
grandchildren. Memorial services are planned in Yreka and San Diego.

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