My good friend Josh Griffin is taking a BIG leap of faith. We’ve been doing-life-together for more than a decade and I’ve been thrilled to watch him grow as a husband, dad, leader, youth pastor, teacher and blogger. It’s really so fun to watch people you love develop right in front of you. I’m so proud of him and have become his biggest fan. And, now he’s taking another big risk 10 years later (first one was moving from Michigan to California to work with me):

He’s jumping from the safety and security of having the most popular blog in youth ministry… to essentially start over. Josh and I are joining forces to do one super youth ministry blog on the newly designed DownloadYouthMinistry.com (which launches July 1 … if the geek-crew works round-the-clock).

That’s right! It’s BIG news in the small youth ministry space–that as of next week Josh is leaving the uber-popular blog that he created (but owned by Simply Youth Ministry) called More Than Dodgeball–where he wrote more than 6,000 blog posts and collected over 18,000 comments.

Here’s what Josh wrote on his blog this past week that I thought was really challenging, especially now that you know more of the story:

When God says go, you go. But remember sometimes the leap of faith means staying and sticking it out.

Isn’t it funny when God gives you peace about something that sounds crazy? Don’t stay because of a false sense of security. But don’t leave because of big challenges ahead.

The key is obedience. Obey God’s voice when He speaks to you. Sometimes he SHOUTS, sometimes you can barely figure out what He is saying. But when you do it is unmistakable and our only response must be to obey.

I hope you attempt something crazy this next season in ministry. I hope you take a leap of faith into the unknown, I hope you are listening to what God is telling you to do next. A great adventure lies ahead!

Here’s what I respect about this whole move: Josh is leaving something that is easy and safe behind for a journey that he believes God has called him to go on. He is leaving easy street and a huge audience–in essence taking a big risk–in order to own his own content and have the freedom to do what he wants. It’s a bold move… not an easy one and Josh feels a strong sense of peace and confidence from God.

Josh has spent years faithfully caring for this youth ministry audience and helping them with practical, in-the-trenches material. I have no doubt that these people will follow–Josh’s stuff is just so good and helpful.

In addition, I’m going to stop blogging here and combine forces with Josh (how fun to bring together the #1 and #2 youth ministry blogs!). Josh isn’t writing a “goodbye” post on More Than Dodgeball, but he will have a really fun “hello” post next week (look for it next week at new DownloadYouthMinistry.com).

I get excited when people I love risk and take big leaps of faith. How about you?

DF