I'm currently in my 15th week of pregnancy. This blog is for the curious middle schoolers who would like to know:
1) Sorry, we don't know if the baby is a boy or a girl yet. Still five more weeks on that one.
2) Yes, I'm craving things. Feel free to leave super stacks of Pringles in my office (Salt & Vinegar please!)or Starburst candies (Reds and pinks only :)
3) I'm still attending the mission trip, camp, and ready for an awesome fall! Despite popular belief, we won't need a fork lift to move me out of my office until about week 30.
4) My baby is the size of a large naval orange and can do a triple back handspring.
and
5) No, we cannot name him or her after a Jonas Brother or any Disney diva...just won't happen. Kirra thinks we should name him or her "Tiger" but she is two and likes golf, what can we say?
Love to my HPNY students, you're the best.
Tuesday
Global Youth Ministry
My wheels have been turning this week on the topic of global youth ministry, especially as I head into mission trip mode on Sunday. Today I stumbled across a book that has been foundational and motivational for me as we work to bring the students in our youth ministries together on a local level, as well as provide them chances to interact and serve the world.
The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World (Edited by Heather Zydek). Below are some questions it begged of me a few years ago.
Perhaps it would be good in the conversation to know that what I'm referring to here isn't just an openness to other world cultures but an openness to understanding the differing plights of our world and how we, as youth ministers in America, can respond to them by giving our students a chance to think in opposite ways of our culture and offer Christ to a world in diverse and imaginative ways.
Listed are a few of the things that grabbed me, things I am still working through:
P. 4- Head to hands
How are our mission trips working? Local outreach? How do very young middle school students relate to missional experiences? How do they process them? What are the outcomes. Kara Powell's materials might be able to help us here.
p. 8- Reshaping worldview
How do guide the adolescent worldview to a place where they begin to see and respond like Christ may have responded? How do we do this organically? What's the most important thing? Bible study? Experiential learning? Modeling?
p. 14- Prayer
What's the role of prayer in our youth ministries? Is it often overlooked and undervalued?
p. 17- Violence
Are our eyes becoming immune to violence? What stories can we tell to help our students see pain found in violent acts? How do we tell these stories without being manipulative?
p. 35- Susan B. Anthony
How are are we expressing this radical kingdom message to our students? Are we comfortable with the status quo? Are we willing to take risks to articulate the message?
p. 67- Hunger
Do we give our students opportunities to empathize, to enter into the pain of another and experience solidarity at their own level? Is it important? Can things like the 30 Hour Famine become more than a weekend, but a way of life? How do we do that?
And finally, how do we break all of this down? How would this blog be different if I were writing it for a 13 year old? Maybe that is what I should do! Nevertheless, these are the questions as of late.
Maybe you have thoughts of your own?
The Revolution: A Field Manual for Changing Your World (Edited by Heather Zydek). Below are some questions it begged of me a few years ago.
Perhaps it would be good in the conversation to know that what I'm referring to here isn't just an openness to other world cultures but an openness to understanding the differing plights of our world and how we, as youth ministers in America, can respond to them by giving our students a chance to think in opposite ways of our culture and offer Christ to a world in diverse and imaginative ways.
Listed are a few of the things that grabbed me, things I am still working through:
P. 4- Head to hands
How are our mission trips working? Local outreach? How do very young middle school students relate to missional experiences? How do they process them? What are the outcomes. Kara Powell's materials might be able to help us here.
p. 8- Reshaping worldview
How do guide the adolescent worldview to a place where they begin to see and respond like Christ may have responded? How do we do this organically? What's the most important thing? Bible study? Experiential learning? Modeling?
p. 14- Prayer
What's the role of prayer in our youth ministries? Is it often overlooked and undervalued?
p. 17- Violence
Are our eyes becoming immune to violence? What stories can we tell to help our students see pain found in violent acts? How do we tell these stories without being manipulative?
p. 35- Susan B. Anthony
How are are we expressing this radical kingdom message to our students? Are we comfortable with the status quo? Are we willing to take risks to articulate the message?
p. 67- Hunger
Do we give our students opportunities to empathize, to enter into the pain of another and experience solidarity at their own level? Is it important? Can things like the 30 Hour Famine become more than a weekend, but a way of life? How do we do that?
And finally, how do we break all of this down? How would this blog be different if I were writing it for a 13 year old? Maybe that is what I should do! Nevertheless, these are the questions as of late.
Maybe you have thoughts of your own?
Seasons of Middle School Ministry
Last year, at about this time, we were wrapping up our final mid-week worship service for middle school students. It's a unique service because our "ready to get out of here" 8th graders are mixed in with our rising 6th graders who join us for the first time.
Our church is one of those crazy churches who promote 5th grade students into the middle school youth group. I have feelings both ways about this but we can talk about that in another blog.
Nevertheless, the service is unique for many reasons and it left me feeling crazy and old. I honestly felt like I was losing my mind trying to keep the squirrely 11 year - and the socially stimulated 14 year-olds focused for a ten minute message.
This year was no different, with one exception: I knew that this is a season we go through. Every year we have this transition. Every year a new class brings a new and different type of life to your group and an old class says "c u later".
In our final round of toilet paper dodge-ball, just as I was thinking, "maybe I should retire young?", I remember this truth, only learned by remaining in youth ministry.
The truth is that we grow with our students.
It takes time.
It takes listening.
It takes a few extra cases of Dr. Pepper.
It's only a season that yields all sorts of fruits.
So, as I sat down with a new middle school small group (a group of fourteen 11 year-olds), I see their faces, start to learn their names, discover that one has an obsession with talking about potatoes, and remember why I love what I do. Their stories keep us going, their transformation (physically, mentally, and spiritually) are worth the wait.
Our church is one of those crazy churches who promote 5th grade students into the middle school youth group. I have feelings both ways about this but we can talk about that in another blog.
Nevertheless, the service is unique for many reasons and it left me feeling crazy and old. I honestly felt like I was losing my mind trying to keep the squirrely 11 year - and the socially stimulated 14 year-olds focused for a ten minute message.
This year was no different, with one exception: I knew that this is a season we go through. Every year we have this transition. Every year a new class brings a new and different type of life to your group and an old class says "c u later".
In our final round of toilet paper dodge-ball, just as I was thinking, "maybe I should retire young?", I remember this truth, only learned by remaining in youth ministry.
The truth is that we grow with our students.
It takes time.
It takes listening.
It takes a few extra cases of Dr. Pepper.
It's only a season that yields all sorts of fruits.
So, as I sat down with a new middle school small group (a group of fourteen 11 year-olds), I see their faces, start to learn their names, discover that one has an obsession with talking about potatoes, and remember why I love what I do. Their stories keep us going, their transformation (physically, mentally, and spiritually) are worth the wait.
Saturday
Youth Ministry Reading
There are seasons in ministry when I feel an overwhelming urge to read. It's not every day that I feel like this, mainly when a project ends or a trip is complete. I find that these times are often the most fruitful and creative moments in my ministry experience.
When the reading bug bites I find myself looking in a few places. I look at my already read shelf. I find my most precious jewels of inspiration there: Walter Brueggeman's The Prophetic Imagination, Henri Nouwen's In The Name of Jesus, Mike Yaconelli's Dangerous Wonder, and my oldest copy of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
Another place I look is to the list of books that have been referred to me by friends in ministry, a list so long and beautiful it's hard to know where to start, maybe with Robert Lewis' The Church of Irresistible Influence or Kevin Carroll's Rules of the Red Rubber Ball?
Then there are the books that speak to me from the shelves. They may have nothing to do with ministry but they have jumped out at us either at a library or a store and you were drawn in and changed. Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift From the Sea, and Sara Shandler's Ophelia Speaks were like this for me.
This morning I find myself in that space, desiring very much to learn from someone else.
What are you reading? Would you share the book that has changed you and challenged you the most so far in 2009? Dave Gibbon's The Monkey and The Fish that has lingered with me long after I read the last page so I would say it's my book for the year...so far. How about you?
When the reading bug bites I find myself looking in a few places. I look at my already read shelf. I find my most precious jewels of inspiration there: Walter Brueggeman's The Prophetic Imagination, Henri Nouwen's In The Name of Jesus, Mike Yaconelli's Dangerous Wonder, and my oldest copy of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.
Another place I look is to the list of books that have been referred to me by friends in ministry, a list so long and beautiful it's hard to know where to start, maybe with Robert Lewis' The Church of Irresistible Influence or Kevin Carroll's Rules of the Red Rubber Ball?
Then there are the books that speak to me from the shelves. They may have nothing to do with ministry but they have jumped out at us either at a library or a store and you were drawn in and changed. Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift From the Sea, and Sara Shandler's Ophelia Speaks were like this for me.
This morning I find myself in that space, desiring very much to learn from someone else.
What are you reading? Would you share the book that has changed you and challenged you the most so far in 2009? Dave Gibbon's The Monkey and The Fish that has lingered with me long after I read the last page so I would say it's my book for the year...so far. How about you?
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