Anna speaks volumes on how and why we must interact for/with Christ with 12-25 year olds.  how are we doing?  How can we do better?

You talk a lot about this idea of telling your story and being real. What do you think is the challenge to being real, and how we overcome that?

The challenge is fear of judgement. The only way to counteract that is to exude grace from your own life and lead by example. Going first and being honest first gives people open up, you've given them the permission to go second. In my own experience talking about burn-out and other struggles, I do get hate mail, but it also allows people to open up and share about their struggles as well.

By living your life as authentically as you can. Realizing that you might get judged and you might get hurt and you'll find-out who your friends are. But at least your being honest with yourself, not hiding, and you're setting a huge example by doing that — an example of hope.

You seem to be a part of a community of bloggers and leaders that are collaborating to be authentic, that seems like a new thing, talk a little about that.

The generation younger than us, 12-25 year olds, they're really craving that rawness and that realness. They've seen their parents with the independent spirit and the "I've got it together" attitude. It's almost a knee-jerk reaction for us to do the opposite. Unfortunately a lot of my friends' parents are getting divorced after having been married for 30 years — it seems that people were staying married and pretending to be wonderful and perfect.

We're in this kinda middle generation, where we have the ability and opportunity to pick which way we're gonna go. We can either go the way our parents did, or we can start something new, because we've seen the other way. It's an opportunity to lead by example for that younger generation. It takes a good 10 years for something to be formed in someone, so we've gotta start now, because, in 10 years these 12 year olds are gonna be 22 and it will be their time, will they be prepared