Slicing through taboos…especially in the church.

My friend Brett Ullman, Director of Worlds Apart and internationally acclaimed speaker to youth, isn’t afraid to broach subjects that might not be welcomed by some.  

Brett Ullman speaks with courage and conviction on sensitive, current issues affecting youth including self-injury, suicide, substance abuse, sexuality, music and faith in our modern age.

I wanted you  to get a taste of Brett’s courageous style to be God’s man…no matter what other people think (a lesson that I need to be constantly reminded of).

Keep reading in order to learn more about Brett Ullman and Worlds Apart. Here’s the interview:

1. How did you get from there to here? I was a teacher in Toronto for 10 years while I was beginning my speaking career.  As a teacher, I was moved by the pressures that my students were under and wanted to make a difference in students lives on a broader scale. The requests for me to come speak grew to the point that a full-time commitment from me was needed.  I left teaching 3 years ago and love having the chance to speak to students across North America.
2. Please identify one of your leadership weaknesses that’s been exposed while in ministry? I think one of my many weaknesses has been Vision Bleeding. Andy Stanley wrote an amazing book called Visioning which is the first time I ever read the term vision bleeding and realized that it is something I struggle with. If I begin with 100% of my work day to work on the calling that God has given me I can do a lot of working towards those goal. The problem is that people then ask us to become part of something that is not part of the vision or calling we have. These things are probably good things but things that have to “bleed” or decrease your time you can put into your original vision. I am often asked to write weekly or monthly articles for youth magazines. I appreciate the opportunity but if I have to take 2-3 hours a week out of my work day to write those articles it means that I have less time to work on other things. This balance is one area that I have struggled in but am getting better at.  I have to really pick and choose what things I will do in a given week to make sure I get done the big things in my own ministry.
3. How have you closed that leadership gap? Coming from a background of teaching I had many skills that transferred over to my speaking but many areas did not. When I was younger I did not enjoy reading. I have since learned how important reading is.  I have been reading anything I can get my hands on dealing for leadership for the last few years. I presently just finished a 2 year leadership program called the Arrow Leadership Program (www.arrowleadership.org) which as been a great help to me and I plan on starting my Masters in Evangelism and Leadership from Wheaton in the Fall.
4. I applaud your vision for World’s Apart. What is your “God size” vision for it? Good question. I want to help people connect their ancient faith with their modern world. To break that down, I have created a media.culture.faith talk, a response to self injury talk and a dating talk and I am presently putting together a talk specifically to challenge men. My vision is for World’s Apart to be used as a catalyze to lead people to a deeper faith in Jesus and as a result to impact their world as He would like.
5. Give us the Big Idea (3-4 sentences) behind your breakthrough resource Your Story: The Wounding Embrace and why you made it?  My main talk is called Media.Faith.Culture and is a look at how to connect all of those things. About 5 years ago I added in one slide on Self-Injury (cutting, suicide etc) and the response was overwhelming. I began to receive hundreds of emails from students talking about their struggles. I had been reading Bill Hybels book “Holy Discontent” where he says if you have something you cannot stand then “feed” that discontent. So I did. I went to Amazon and bought every book I could find on Self Injury (about 30 books) From those readings and my conversations with about 500-1000 people who struggle with Self-Injury this talk grew. It is meant to be a practical look at this issue as well as a discussion about what to do if we or someone we love is struggling with Self Injury.

If you self-injure or know someone who struggles with this  I encourage you to click here for more information on how to work through the pain and enter into healing.