I'm going to miss our 8th graders soooooo much. It's our last week together in the middle school ministry.
Yeah, I know, they'll just be across the hall but I'm having serious issues thinking about launching them into high school. We've had some amazing moments together (and not so amazing too). All in all we've grown a lot and we've decided to love each other no matter what...keeping on...not losing heart.
What I want to say is...
be yourself.
use your gifts.
outserve your leaders and parents.
don't be afraid.
Remember,
whatever comes tomorrow.
God's love is here to stay--it's the same yesterday, day, and forever.
Reminds me of a great song by Francesca Battistelli. I hope you'll let God's love be your blue sky ok. Love you all so very much. See you Wednesday night.
Pastor Brooklyn
Tuesday
Office Temperature Set to EMO
And here's why:
1) The cooler (bench) in my office, filled with leftover soft drinks from our golf tournament, was opened unsuspectedly by our lead pastor. I didn't know that cardboard + condensation + time= the smell of a junior high boys locker room. The tears you see in my eyes aren't from the heartbreak I will speak of later, but of the onion-sock smell up in my eye thanks to our curious leader.
Now for the real reason I'm emo today.
My students are graduating. Tonight I'll go to one of our middle school's 8th grade graduations. Our seniors are graduating--those who I've watched from a distance--who I've walked past, joking and laughing with like they'd be here for ever--kids I've known for years are packing up their rooms and memories for to head to college.
Now I know that this sadness/ happiness/ excitement/nauseousness isn't much to compare with what some moms and dads are feeling right now but it's still hard to think about.
Every year the same thing happens. I get excited about new students coming into our ministry while at the same time I'm stubborn, not wanting the mature ones to leave just yet (and by mature, I mean mature in comparison to what they were!)
I will miss every 8th grader who spent the last three years with me--even though they are merely walking across the hall to our high school auditorium. They are my "kids" and it feels good knowing that the time I spent investing in them will continue through our high school ministry. The seeds planted will bloom in their lives lived for Christ. The ultimate pay-off.
It's a good place to be. There are so many things to celebrate. But if you stood next to me tonight, you'd see a tear (or two) and you might just have to hug me and tell me that they are going to be ok.
I'll come back to my onion pit of an office knowing that there will always be days when I'm happy/sad and there will always be friends in ministry who feel the same way I do.
1) The cooler (bench) in my office, filled with leftover soft drinks from our golf tournament, was opened unsuspectedly by our lead pastor. I didn't know that cardboard + condensation + time= the smell of a junior high boys locker room. The tears you see in my eyes aren't from the heartbreak I will speak of later, but of the onion-sock smell up in my eye thanks to our curious leader.
Now for the real reason I'm emo today.
My students are graduating. Tonight I'll go to one of our middle school's 8th grade graduations. Our seniors are graduating--those who I've watched from a distance--who I've walked past, joking and laughing with like they'd be here for ever--kids I've known for years are packing up their rooms and memories for to head to college.
Now I know that this sadness/ happiness/ excitement/nauseousness isn't much to compare with what some moms and dads are feeling right now but it's still hard to think about.
Every year the same thing happens. I get excited about new students coming into our ministry while at the same time I'm stubborn, not wanting the mature ones to leave just yet (and by mature, I mean mature in comparison to what they were!)
I will miss every 8th grader who spent the last three years with me--even though they are merely walking across the hall to our high school auditorium. They are my "kids" and it feels good knowing that the time I spent investing in them will continue through our high school ministry. The seeds planted will bloom in their lives lived for Christ. The ultimate pay-off.
It's a good place to be. There are so many things to celebrate. But if you stood next to me tonight, you'd see a tear (or two) and you might just have to hug me and tell me that they are going to be ok.
I'll come back to my onion pit of an office knowing that there will always be days when I'm happy/sad and there will always be friends in ministry who feel the same way I do.
Monday
Two Minute Tip: Finish What You Start
A difficult obstacle to overcome in day to day ministry is to finish things that we start. Ideas fly like nobody's business around here. Sometimes those ideas get started. Most of the time, the ones that get started die on the operating table (when louder things take precedence). But what happens when you dedicate time to finishing?
Greatness.
I've heard it said that the secret of our successes in ministry can be found in our daily plan or agenda. Do we make time in our day for our priorities, passions, and relationships?
What are you working on that needs to be finished? What keeps you in stall mode? Sometimes, all you need is a good reminder to....finish what you've started.
Brett Blondell, our friend and partner in ministry finished something he started working on this week. A really great worship song came out of his time spent locked in his office, just him and his guitar. So, enjoy this weeks' guest, his new song "The Hope", then get off the couch and finish something.
Greatness.
I've heard it said that the secret of our successes in ministry can be found in our daily plan or agenda. Do we make time in our day for our priorities, passions, and relationships?
What are you working on that needs to be finished? What keeps you in stall mode? Sometimes, all you need is a good reminder to....finish what you've started.
Brett Blondell, our friend and partner in ministry finished something he started working on this week. A really great worship song came out of his time spent locked in his office, just him and his guitar. So, enjoy this weeks' guest, his new song "The Hope", then get off the couch and finish something.
Wednesday
Scars That Speak | Leaders Who Listen
She checked in last Wednesday night and one of our leaders put a wristband on her wrist. As she turned over her hand to fasten the band she noticed what looked like tiny razor cuts up and down the underside of her arm. The leader told me about it immediately. I know the student well. I also know that she is in Christian counseling at our church. She has a lot going on and we've made a way for her to get help--but somehow in the middle of a lot of "help" she still feels alone or like she has only a few things that she can control--one of them being what she does to her own body. The scars tell me that she feels alone and that she is desperately seeking for something to connect her with life again in a a way that doesn't feel forced. So many love her here. But who will love her when she goes home? Who will love her at school? Who will speak truth to her when she is surrounded by lies?
I'm praying for a friend to come into this sweet girls' life--someone who gets it. The movie "To Save A Life" is one of the few portrayals of the type of friend I'm thinking of. Someone who is a peer, but mature enough in their faith to know that gravity of one kind word, or the impact of an invitation to be with someone who is lonely or feeling dejected.
Maybe need to revisit how a teenagers every day living, walking, and being around others could literally change the course of another persons life--especially when that living, walking, and being around is infused with the love and hope found in Christ.
This girl has me thinking about Megan's work at Saddleback with "Life Hurts God Heals". There may be a need for it here. Maybe we need to go through the To Save A Life, Devo2Go again with our group. Or maybe, I need to share this story with our leaders and begin mentoring one student each to live this type of "lovestyle". This blog isn't a solution, more of conversation that needs to be cracked open again and the forthcoming thoughts implemented--immediately.
I'm sure there are others in the same boat, wondering where to start (again). There are others who are thinking about how to keep hurting kids from slipping away from our own ministries and care? What do we do on an ongoing basis to check the physical and emotional temperatures of our students? Maybe I should just ask them...novel right? I'll start with that and let you know how it goes. In the meantime, I'd love to hear how you're checking in with your kids and how you're helping those who are hurting.
I'm praying for a friend to come into this sweet girls' life--someone who gets it. The movie "To Save A Life" is one of the few portrayals of the type of friend I'm thinking of. Someone who is a peer, but mature enough in their faith to know that gravity of one kind word, or the impact of an invitation to be with someone who is lonely or feeling dejected.
Maybe need to revisit how a teenagers every day living, walking, and being around others could literally change the course of another persons life--especially when that living, walking, and being around is infused with the love and hope found in Christ.
This girl has me thinking about Megan's work at Saddleback with "Life Hurts God Heals". There may be a need for it here. Maybe we need to go through the To Save A Life, Devo2Go again with our group. Or maybe, I need to share this story with our leaders and begin mentoring one student each to live this type of "lovestyle". This blog isn't a solution, more of conversation that needs to be cracked open again and the forthcoming thoughts implemented--immediately.
I'm sure there are others in the same boat, wondering where to start (again). There are others who are thinking about how to keep hurting kids from slipping away from our own ministries and care? What do we do on an ongoing basis to check the physical and emotional temperatures of our students? Maybe I should just ask them...novel right? I'll start with that and let you know how it goes. In the meantime, I'd love to hear how you're checking in with your kids and how you're helping those who are hurting.
Video for Mother's Day | Mr T | Treat Her Right
1) We will be showing this at youth group tonight
2) I will be learning the back up dancer choreography
3) I will have Matt Fry to thank for the tip on this gem, thank you Matt.
2) I will be learning the back up dancer choreography
3) I will have Matt Fry to thank for the tip on this gem, thank you Matt.
Tuesday
Powerful Post from Sophia Network | 7 Sins
Today I read a review of the book
7 Deadly Sins Of Women In Leadership: Overcome Self-Defeating Behaviour In Work and Ministryon the Sophia Network Blog. This review was helpful to me and I think it will be helpful to men and women alike as we take a look at our own patterns and how they might hinder or help us.
I welcome books that make me feel like a mirror is being held up, helping me to think about ways my own behavior and thinking hold me back in exercising leadership.
The blog submits that "it might be worth addressing what Kate means when she talks about ‘sins’s. Elaine Storkey helpfully sums this up in her foreword:
“Kate is not offering a diatribe of offences against God for which we deserve punishment. Nor is she cataloguing our moral ineptitudes in order to make us feel wretched. On the contrary, Kate identifies the nature of sin with the destructive patterns of thought and behaviour that thwart the leadership God calls us to exercise.” (p11)
As indicated in the title of the book, Kate identifies seven of these destructive patterns of thought and behaviour often found in women who lead. They are:
1. Limiting self-perceptions
2. Failure to draw the line
3. Inadequate personal vision
4. Too little life in the work
5. Everybody’s friend, nobody’s leader
6. Colluding and not confronting
7. Neglect in family matters
What "sin" do you find yourself meddling in as a leader?
Over the last decade I’ve waded in and out of each of these seven, letting each lap over me like water over toes, then limbs, then torso...the shock of each just as jolting as the cold as it crashing into your back as you turn to brace yourself for the next wave. But just like wading into the ocean, the cold can make us feel numb. We get “used to” the feeling and forget that we are near full immersion, that we are nearly drowned in these sins, that we are close to letting go and giving up because it seems too difficult to go back to where we once were, the place of zeal and confidence rooted in Christ.
Let us remember how surrender in a rip current helps us out. When caught up in something stronger than our own physical and mental strength, letting go and not fighting is the best possible thing. Letting the current spit you out sideways as you slowly approach the shore leaves you yards if not miles from where you first entered the water--but you see yourself living and the place from where you came and are able to rejoice because you know how to stay from the trap and help others avoid it too.
It’s the same for us, as we surrender our fears and habits to God, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the fullness of his love that we experience through Christ, that we have the strength, wisdom, and courage to lead well in ministry.
May we find ourselves in a posture of surrender in the presence of God, resisting temptation to be caught up in these currents that bind us, being able to grasp how wide, and how deep, and how long is the love of Christ, and may we find the courage to do the thing that is too big for us--because he is able to do so much more than we could ever ask or think.
A line to a beautiful song comes to mind.... “let’s risk the ocean, there’s only grace” (Sometimes, Crowder) Risk the ocean--but do so knowing it’s grace that gives us an ability to lead without drowning.
Click here for a free sample.
Better Communication with Your Kids | Fuller Youth Institute
Communication with your kids doesn't have to stop or deteriorate when they become teenagers. Listen to this interview. It will help any parent see that communication really can be better through adolescence. Better Communication with Your Kids | Fuller Youth Institute
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