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Popular Christian writer, speaker, and youth ministry leader Mike Yaconelli died early yesterday following an auto accident early the previous night. Yaconelli, 61, was cofounder of Youth Specialties, a ministry to youth and youth workers, and for over 40 years had ministered to thousands of people through extensive speaking engagements, and his many books and articles. Yaconelli was also a cofounder and longtime editor of the satire magazine The Door (formerly The Wittenburg Door), which sought to poke fun at evangelicalism while encouraging Christians in their faith.

Yaconelli was driving between Medford, Oregon, and his home in Yreka, California, in his father's truck when, for still unknown reasons, he veered off Interstate 5 and struck a light post. He and his wife, Karla, were helping his father move to Yreka. Yaconelli's father recently had surgery, and the family wanted to be closer to him. His wife and father were in a separate car several miles behind Yaconelli's truck.

Yaconelli was airlifted to Redding, California's head trauma unit, but reportedly died before he reached the hospital. He is survived by his wife, Karla, his father, five children, and four grandchildren.

Last year, Yaconelli wrote in his latest book, Messy Spirituality, "I just want to be remembered as a person who loved God, who served others more than he served himself, who was trying to grow in maturity and stability. I want to have more victories than defeats, yet here I am, almost 60, and I fail on a regular basis.

"If I were to die today, I would be nervous about what people would say at my funeral. I would be happy if they said things like 'He was a nice guy' or 'He was occasionally decent' or 'Mike wasn't as bad as a lot of people.' Unfortunately, eulogies are delivered by people who know the deceased. I know what the consensus would be. 'Mike was a mess.'"

Two years ago, Yaconelli appointed Mark Oestreicher as president of Youth Specialties. Yesterday, CT online assistant editor Rob Moll talked to Oestreicher about his employer and friend.

What did Mike mean to Youth Specialties?

He was the soul of the company. Especially in these later years, he has very much become a pastor to our staff. They just really, really love him.

His passion was to tell the truth to the church. To tell the truth of the gospel, to tell the truth about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, in all of the messiness that truth usually is, rather than prepackaged, saccharine answers.

His passion was telling the truth. That was a phrase he used all the time. For him, what that means is not taking a bold stand. His interpretation was Let's be honest about our brokenness and our need for God. Let's soak in the endless mercy and grace of our God. He was gritty. He embodied the titles of two of his books, Messy Spirituality and Dangerous Wonder. That was very much his life message.

What did that mean for all the people he touched?

It meant that they could believe what he said because it was so clearly true in his own life. There was no pretense when Mike spoke, whether it was before a group of 5,000 people or one on one. I saw him many, many times exercise what I would consider a very strong prophetic gift, in the sense that he was very able and willing to humbly challenge the church or to speak directly into someone's life about what God was saying in a way the rang true. But it came from a place of humility in Mike's own life.

That's part of why I'm here. It's true for a lot of people at Youth Specialties. We're kind of an oddball collection of employees, and yet even at our staff meeting this morning, where we were all praying and crying together, everybody was saying this is the one place where oddballs aren't that odd. I am absolutely at Youth Specialties because of Mike. He has spoken into my life on multiple occasions.

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October (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47