My friend heartburn and I have been hanging out a lot lately. He (or she...I definitely don't want to discriminate here :) hasn't been the nicest friend because he causes me to want to rip my esophagus out from time to time and makes me wonder if I'm capable of surviving another night bout. Regardless, this amazing and awful thing called heartburn that's been induced by nearly nine months of pregnancy, has reminded me of a few things:
1) There's a reason I have heartburn. I'm expecting a child. There's no room in the inn this December and my body is letting me know it. While it's painful and caused me to down numerous bottles of Tums, I know it's there for a good reason. It keeps me expectant for the new life that's to come.
2)Heartburn can be alleviated when I pay attention to what I eat. Or, more importantly, what I stay away from. Why can't I stop eating french fries with vinegar all over them? (Maybe because they taste so good, but that's for another blog.)
3) Heartburn makes us want take action. Tums, small meals, tums, water, more tums...
And isn't it the same in ministry?
We get ministry heartburn when our students grieve. We get it when we've got too much on our plates. We get it when we've said "yes" to much and "no" too little.
So what's the parallel when I'm aching in ministry I know there's a reason? I look for the reason. I ask questions. I try to find out what on earth is causing the pain. Often, the pain comes because we are in a constant state of expectation. We expect changed lives. We have faith that God will do what God promised and use our lives as living sacrifices. We get bummed when ministry doesn't produce fruit or we feel like we've dropped the ball somehow. We know that the burn comes when we're in the thick of investment--in the thick of lives--in the thick of the mess that is life.
There's also a season when we need rest from ministry heartburn. We need to alleviate some of the struggle, to do and be less. The alleviation comes for me when I focus in and do some things really well and find contentment that I can't do it all.
When ministry heartburn is there, it moves us to action. It asks us to do something. What is it that your ministry is calling you to do? We all could use antacids at that annual lock-in, but what is it that really satisfies you and gives you peace in ministry? Do that. Focus in. Feel the burn but then allow it to remind you why it's there and what you can do to respond to it.
I don't plan on having physical heartburn for much longer, but in a way, I'm thankful for it's constant presence in my life over the past nine months. I hope the ministry burn comes and goes to keep me fresh, passionate, and committed to the teenagers and families God has led us to.
Wednesday
Advent-agous
I sit in my office today dreaming of the Thanksgiving feast tomorrow, it's hard to concentrate on much else and I would rather be at home digging out the Christmas decorations.
It's times like these that I turn to reading in an attempt to re-focus on what I'm supposed to be doing here. I pulled out my devotional book based on the liturgical church year, "A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants" and realized that Sunday is the first day of Advent.
How did that happen?
Christmas snuck up on me like a middle school boy with a dodge ball.
Advent is my favorite church season and I feel like I didn't do anything to prepare our students for this amazing month of wonder and expectation. I'm bewildered that I tend to do this every year. I find myself saying, "next year, I'm really going to do advent big".
Then I read further in my devotional.
"To have found God, to have experienced him in the intimacy of our being, to have lived even for one hour in the fire of his Trinity and the bliss of his Unity clearly makes us say: 'Now I understand. You alone are enough for me.'" --From The God Who Comes by Carlo Carretto
Arrested.
The question must change. The "what will we do" must turn into "what will we know"? It's in the knowing that Christ alone is enough and that knowledge will change what we do. Doing advent big isn't what it's all about. Advent, the season of preparation for the coming of Christ, should be a time of prayer and devotion--a pulling back from the hectic over-programed, hyper-scheduled norm many of us call youth ministry.
Advent has been referred to as a "little Lent", a time of repentance. I would like to join with our students in the next few weeks in humble searching, in heartfelt prayer, in intentional listening to the needs and stories of others around us.
Rather than planning the best Advent series ever, I think I'll stick to leaving some space for God to work--trusting as we devote time and attention to honoring the birth of Christ that we'll find a childlike wonder that draws us closer to the reason we are here in the first place.
So here's my plan for our middle school students in December(if you can call it one).
Come together whenever we can.
Pray and sing.
Honor the story of Jesus' birth by telling it.
Give students some experiential ways to enter into the story and give them a chance to tell how they have been a part of it.
Listen.
Celebrate.
Be content.
God, we thank you for coming to us long ago in the birth of Jesus. We offer our lives and our ministries to you, asking that you would give us courage to truly wait in expectation for what you are going to do in us and through us. Help us to be patient. Uncomplicate us. Wreck our ideas to make room for your leading. Thank you for giving us unlimited grace. Help us to be faithful, each in our own way--and responsive with our lives for being given such undeserved gifts.
It's times like these that I turn to reading in an attempt to re-focus on what I'm supposed to be doing here. I pulled out my devotional book based on the liturgical church year, "A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants" and realized that Sunday is the first day of Advent.
How did that happen?
Christmas snuck up on me like a middle school boy with a dodge ball.
Advent is my favorite church season and I feel like I didn't do anything to prepare our students for this amazing month of wonder and expectation. I'm bewildered that I tend to do this every year. I find myself saying, "next year, I'm really going to do advent big".
Then I read further in my devotional.
"To have found God, to have experienced him in the intimacy of our being, to have lived even for one hour in the fire of his Trinity and the bliss of his Unity clearly makes us say: 'Now I understand. You alone are enough for me.'" --From The God Who Comes by Carlo Carretto
Arrested.
The question must change. The "what will we do" must turn into "what will we know"? It's in the knowing that Christ alone is enough and that knowledge will change what we do. Doing advent big isn't what it's all about. Advent, the season of preparation for the coming of Christ, should be a time of prayer and devotion--a pulling back from the hectic over-programed, hyper-scheduled norm many of us call youth ministry.
Advent has been referred to as a "little Lent", a time of repentance. I would like to join with our students in the next few weeks in humble searching, in heartfelt prayer, in intentional listening to the needs and stories of others around us.
Rather than planning the best Advent series ever, I think I'll stick to leaving some space for God to work--trusting as we devote time and attention to honoring the birth of Christ that we'll find a childlike wonder that draws us closer to the reason we are here in the first place.
So here's my plan for our middle school students in December(if you can call it one).
Come together whenever we can.
Pray and sing.
Honor the story of Jesus' birth by telling it.
Give students some experiential ways to enter into the story and give them a chance to tell how they have been a part of it.
Listen.
Celebrate.
Be content.
God, we thank you for coming to us long ago in the birth of Jesus. We offer our lives and our ministries to you, asking that you would give us courage to truly wait in expectation for what you are going to do in us and through us. Help us to be patient. Uncomplicate us. Wreck our ideas to make room for your leading. Thank you for giving us unlimited grace. Help us to be faithful, each in our own way--and responsive with our lives for being given such undeserved gifts.
Tuesday
Middle School Message Momentum
At the beginning of the semester I worked on putting together a 9 week series for our middle schoolers that was highly experiential. It was based on a book called the Kingdom Experiment published by The House Studio. The point of the series was to reiterate the truths that Jesus expressed to his listeners in Matthew chapter 5. Every week, the same point was made, that there is a kingdom and we can experience it here on earth. Each week I illustrated one more way to experience the kindgom, and challenged the students to test it out for themselves with experiments they could do at home individually or together as a community with our youth group. The series built incredible momentum, the stories coming from the experiments were amazing and life-changing, and we saw a glimpse of what God could do if we tried, even just a little, to live as Jesus asked us to live.
Now the series is over and I've picked a shorter three week series for the month of November. It's a great series with awesome content---but there is something missing. It's falling flat and the students don't seem to be connecting like they did for the nine weeks before. I'm chalking it up to my short memory--and the fact that I'm not offering a key ingredient that I was offering for the nine weeks before: an overwhelmingly obvious point that they can experience--repeatedly.
Here's what I should know about middle school ministry that I need to remember each week as I plan and prepare messages.
1) Middle school students need a big idea. They need one thing. They don't mind if you share it for 9 weeks straight. If it's good, if it's life-changing, if you are giving them fresh material every week, they really don't care if you stay on it.
2) Middle school students need to hear a story. Every week during the Kingdom Experiment I shared a true story of someone living that beatitude out or experiencing the blessing or pain that was associated with it. The story ties them into something bigger than themselves--which is something hard to do when young teens are just beginning to begin to differentiate between who they are and who others are around them.
3) Middle school students need a challenge. They like to have ties to the club you're inviting them to. What do we give them to take home and "own"? What do we give them to do? What opportunities do we provide for them to flex what you're teaching as an individual?
As I plan for winter messages I'm thinking about these things. I'm asking myself "What am I doing to articulate Scripture in a way that keeps teenagers wanting more, growing more, and connecting more? I'll begin by celebrating the momentum and even the occasional lulls in the program--because in them both I've learned things that are making me better.
Now the series is over and I've picked a shorter three week series for the month of November. It's a great series with awesome content---but there is something missing. It's falling flat and the students don't seem to be connecting like they did for the nine weeks before. I'm chalking it up to my short memory--and the fact that I'm not offering a key ingredient that I was offering for the nine weeks before: an overwhelmingly obvious point that they can experience--repeatedly.
Here's what I should know about middle school ministry that I need to remember each week as I plan and prepare messages.
1) Middle school students need a big idea. They need one thing. They don't mind if you share it for 9 weeks straight. If it's good, if it's life-changing, if you are giving them fresh material every week, they really don't care if you stay on it.
2) Middle school students need to hear a story. Every week during the Kingdom Experiment I shared a true story of someone living that beatitude out or experiencing the blessing or pain that was associated with it. The story ties them into something bigger than themselves--which is something hard to do when young teens are just beginning to begin to differentiate between who they are and who others are around them.
3) Middle school students need a challenge. They like to have ties to the club you're inviting them to. What do we give them to take home and "own"? What do we give them to do? What opportunities do we provide for them to flex what you're teaching as an individual?
As I plan for winter messages I'm thinking about these things. I'm asking myself "What am I doing to articulate Scripture in a way that keeps teenagers wanting more, growing more, and connecting more? I'll begin by celebrating the momentum and even the occasional lulls in the program--because in them both I've learned things that are making me better.
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