Musings of Youth Ministry

Youth Conference

2008-08-01T08:49:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post to say that the conference has been amazing so far including hearing from Shane Claiborne and Zach Hunter. I'm having trouble with internet access at the hotel at the moment, so I'm at an internet cafe at the conference with limited time. But just wanted to update you all that we're still chuggin along! I had lunch today with a columbian who is pastor of a church in the UK. They are dealing with similar challenges in our area. I also talked with a younger guy who is a youth pastor in Hamburg, and he has been describing to me what ministry is like in a post reunification world here in Germany. Good stuff to say the least.

Talk to you all soon!

Leipzig and more...

2008-07-31T01:17:00.004-04:00

We're back on the internet (sort of :) ).

After we left Salzburg, our first stop on Monday morning was to get a Sound of Music Tour. We visited a few sites that were seen in the movie and got a little background from our tour guide on how it all came about. (Gotta watch the movie when we get home as a reminder). If you remember the movie, this picture was on the steps of where they did the Do-Re-Mi song:

After the sound of music tour, we headed to Neuswanstein castle which provided the inspiration for Disney's castle. This castle is set up in the hills above Fussen and overlooks the valley. Its incredibly Disney-esk.

Fussen is a smaller town that we stayed in (unfortunately i-net access was sparser than the first two cities). We did get a chance after dinner to walk around town and get a double shot of Gelato (an ice cream like european food that is very good.)

Tuesday morning we woke up and headed to Munich. Upon arriving in Munich, we went first to Dauchau the concentration camp. Our tour guide who is from Germany, mentioned to us that all German school children have to visit a concentration camp as a way to be sure that something like the holocaust doesn't happen again. It was pretty sobering to walk the grounds and see the buildings where many who were killed once walked. We even saw the crematorium and gas chamber onsite (although they tell us that this particular gas chamber was never used for mass killings like Auswitz).

From Dauchau, we moved on to a walking tour of the rest of Munich which is quite the bustling city even into the late hours of the night. After dinner we went back down into the central square and walked around for a bit. Then for a bit of adventure we rode the s-bahn (train) back to the hotel.

The next morning, we hopped the bus again and made our way up to Leipzig including a stop in Nurmburg for lunch.

Its about time to head to breakfast and the conference here, so I will catch up more with Leipzig tonight when we return to the hotel...

Salzburg

2008-07-27T18:08:00.002-04:00

Today we took a drive and left Vienna for Salzburg. We spent most of the afternoon touring around seeing the sights in Salzburg including Mozarts house. Dinner was at a small cafe across the river.

Our hotel in Salzburg is just a short walk from downtown, but most interestingly is through a tunnel from the downtown area. Apparently this tunnel has been around since Mozarts time.

After dinner tonight, we spent a little time walking around the city then back to the hotel for some hangout time. Since its Sunday, not many of the shops were open today.

Tomorrow we do a Sound of Music tour in the morning, then head out to Neuswanstein castle and to Fussen for our overnight.

Pics in the morning as its late... Thanks for all those that have left comments!

Day 2 in Vienna

2008-07-26T16:35:00.004-04:00

Today we spent the morning at Schrommburg Palace. Incredible location as it has 1400 rooms. (We only got to see about 22 on our tour). It also had a magnificent gardens behind that looked very much like Versailles.

Following the tour, we went to a market that was very much like a flea market, with little shops / tables for the locals. Then we jumped on the Underground and headed to St. Stephens Square where we first had lunch at Griechenbeisl which is a famous restaurant where many famous people have signed the ceiling in the signature room. We were blown away by seeing signatures including those from Beethoven, Mozart, and Strauss, to the likes of Mark Twain, and even more moderns such as Phil Collins.

After lunch, walked up an over 300 step spiral staircase to the top of the spire at St. Stephens cathedral.

From the cathedral, we split into a couple groups where there was shopping, one group went to the Art History museum. I took my group up to the Prater which was a little amusument park where we jumped on a Riesenrad or Ferris Wheel. This one was interesting as it had cars that held 16 people, and took 10-15 minutes to make 1 revolution. You could rent a car that was setup for a romantic candlelight dinner for the evening.

We ate dinner at WienerWald, a restaurant near the hotel. After dinner was a short tram ride, then ice cream back. At the moment, there are a number of our youth that are in our room playing games and hangin out together.

Tomorrow morning we're off to Salzburg for the day.

Everyone's doing great, having a great time, although we're all pretty tired at this point.

In Europe!

2008-07-25T12:30:00.003-04:00

This morning our team landed in Vienna Austria where we will be spending our first couple of days. And WOOHOO! We have internet at the hotel. So after meeting the other churches in our tour (except one which didn't make their connection in Amsterdam), we headed off for a bus tour of Vienna. Following the bus tour, we got checked into our first hotel and headed off to lunch. Most tried Weiner Schnitzle, and a couple of us had ribs.

Following lunch we went on a walking adventure since we had some free time, and explored part of the city near our hotel. By mid-afternoon, everyone was clamoring for sleep including Ben who nodded off in Starbucks. (Yes there is a starbucks here, and its only 1 block from our hotel. WOO HOO!).

We continued walking after ingesting some caffeine to keep us moving. We are now preparing for dinner as it as 6:30pm as I'm writing this. We'll be walking a couple blocks up to our restaurant. Then after dinner, there is a video concert of an orchestra playing at the city hall on their big jumbotron, so we may try to stay awake long enough to watch part of that before heading back and crashing tonight.

Everyone's doing great, no major problems as of this point, except everyone's trying to get readjusted to our new time.

I'll post some pics after dinner tonight.

Germany, Puppies, and Stuff

2008-07-23T09:34:00.003-04:00

Its been a couple weeks now since camp... I'm still catching up on sleep it seems. But it was an incredible experience with a few of our youth giving their lives over to Christ.

Tomorrow we take a team from our church and join 3 other churches from St. Louis and head to Germany for some touring and to attend the Baptist World Alliance Youth Conference. Our kids are in Arkansas with family, arrived last night and are incredibly excited (including getting to sit in the pilot's seat at the airport after landing).

My wife will be going with me on this trip as well which is great as the trip falls over our anniversary!

At the same time as all this, we're also looking to adopt a puppy:

We don't have a name yet, but we pick him up the week of August 10th. the kids are of course very excited... He's a yellow lab from lab-rescue. Part of a litter that is up for adoption and he is the last one to be claimed. Check out lab-rescue.org for lab adoptions.

Camp - Day 2

2008-07-03T23:59:00.005-04:00

Woo Hoo! Day 2 of camp was also an exceptional day. BTW, when are camp days not good days?

Today was the first day our family groups experienced recreation together! Rec was filled with an adventure day for our HSers, and water day for our MSers. During water day EVERYONE got wet. Check out some pics below.

We also talked today about rebellion from The Way and what that looks like, what are the things that lead to destruction in our life.

During church group time, we shared stories from the day (and there were some funny ones too), as well as talked about ways that we rebel from God. We also had a time of prayer with our students as some shared ways that they were rebellious and wanted to turn from those ways.

Everyone's pretty tired but havin an awesome time so far. I'm actually writing this as I'm knocking on doors getting guys up :).

Alright off to breakfast, here are a couple more pics from yesterday...

Camp - Day 1

2008-07-03T00:08:00.007-04:00

Today at Camp was an incredible day as we saw and learned alot. Our theme this year is The Way taken from Acts 19:23 which says "About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way".

We're talking a lot this week about what it means to follow Christ, what is God's way vs., all the other stuff in this world that distracts us from God's way. Tonight at Celebration we studied this passage as well as Acts 5 when the Apostles were persecuted. We talked through what it means for us in America to be persecuted, and are we really willing to be passionate for our faith?

Alright, it's pretty late, and I'm tired. Check out below for a couple pics of our students while they were preparing to go to their family groups.

Camp!

2008-07-02T16:34:00.002-04:00

Woo Hoo! We made it to camp after a long drive yesterday, some fantastic times at the Pickel Farm, and a quick drive this morning. So far we've been unpacking, orienting and getting ready for dinner. I just found out free wifi across campus, so I can blog from the comfort of my dorm room.

Off to dinner, so I will post more about the day a little later this evening!

Memories

2008-05-30T10:02:00.003-04:00

This Sunday is our senior recognition Sunday at Columbia. We've been working on a video of our seniors for church, and today I'm working on writing notes in each of the gifts for our seniors.

Writing these notes to me is an important thing each year. Its a brief note where I can encourage, share memories, think about the growth I've observed over the years with our seniors. Its an amazing yet sad time as I know pretty soon, the making of memories will for the most part end with this class as the go on to college and beyond... It is yet pretty cool as I know God will be doing some incredible things with these youth, as he has already...

Idols...

2008-05-28T10:35:00.003-04:00

One of the books that I'm going through right now during my Quiet Times is Soul School by Jeanne Stevens.

The latest chapter I've read talks about Idols. The Israelites from time to time made idols and worshiped them. Other cultures had their idols and gods as well. When the Israelites did this, God usually let them know that they put something before Him. We sometimes think that idol worship was just an Old Testament issue. Yet, we have idols today in our lives. There is something or someone that we put ahead of our relationship with God, and God becomes secondary to our lives.

This has been such a great reminder for me, especially as a youth pastor. She talks about in youth ministry, some idols that we perhaps fall into from time to time:
External Success
Busyness
Comparison
The Past or the Future
Religious Activity
Youth Ministry
Yourself

In my experience so far as a youth pastor, I'll admit I've had these idols from time to time, and they tend to rear their ugly head just as things within the ministry seem to be going well. Sometimes its a constant battle to keep our eyes focused on the one true God that deserves our worship. Logically it would seem that this should be easy seeing as he's the creator of the universe, provides our every need, loves us, has a purpose for us etc... yet sometimes our hearts are easily swayed by the allure of our own glory. I've found for me, that spending daily time focusing on God through reading, praying and worshiping seems to help keep the focus right, and when I don't do those things, its easy for the idols to creep back in.

The Move

2008-05-16T16:04:00.002-04:00

This week has been an interesting week of transition. Tuesday came and I had to quickly finish packing up my office and move it to another building. I had time enough to do a little purge of my 'stuff', but it still amazes me how much i've acquired in the 5 years here as youth pastor. Even still, today: Friday, I look around and see all the boxes yet to unpack and stuff to go through. These boxes contain everything from good and bad memories, books I've read that have helped, and others that made me go huh?. Many times things like office moves, and house moves give us the opportunity for either the freedom of a clean slate, or a feeling of being burdened by our stuff.

Interestingly Paul talks about this same idea in our relationship to Christ as in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

We all have 'stuff' in our lives that we carry around. Things we wish we could get a do-over, or wounds that someone gave us. Yet, when we live in Christ, we are a new creation, a clean slate. Two things come to mind though: That stuff many times is so deep that it carries with us, it can be hard to let go, or hard to heal from the wounds. Its a process, a daily taking up our cross and following Jesus. That's something that I have to remember day in and day out.

The Vine

2008-05-08T08:35:00.002-04:00

Each Sunday morning, one of the things I most look forward to is the Ignition Group that I teach. Right now this group is made up of 7 students, 3 HSers and 4 MSers, and we're going through John Foster's Celebration of Disciplines. Basically each week we are taking a look at a different spiritual discipline and figure out some of the mechanics to give each of our students a place to start practicing on their own. In the midst of this, a couple of them have asked for a weekly passage to think on. This week is John 15:1-17 about being part of the vine.

I got to thinking about this with regard to youth ministry. Everytime I read this passage, I'm reminded of how important it is to stay connected to God, especially as it relates to ministry. We say this over and over, yet we don't always do it. It seems like the busyness of the world caves in, and our own cares take over, instead of pushing these things aside, making our whole day center around our relationship with Jesus and taking on the cares of God. When this happens, you begin to feel more alive through every day experiences. When you are disconnected from God, you begin to really notice as well. I speak from experience on this one. I can look back over my life and see those times when I was disconnected from 'the Vine', and began to wither, even in the midst of ministry, and it can become painfully lonely when this happens. I also know of others currently in ministry that are facing this same pain. Most of the time, I tend to bounce somewhere in the middle. Somewhat connected to God, knowing that there is more that I need to give up to him. I must decrease so he can increase.

Finally.

2008-04-30T09:45:00.004-04:00

Last week I was at the prelude gathering with some other youth pastors from our area and one night we discovered that a couple of us hadn't posted on our blogs in over a month. I guess for me I haven't felt quite inspired recently.... and I didn't necessarily want to put something random up without any thought to it. I will most likely post soon more about the conference as I continue to process what went on.

But this morning I ran across a news report concerning the ongoing debate about the pictures of Miley Cyrus that were recently published in Vanity Fair. While I'm not necessarily interested in entering the debate at the moment, I do have to say that this was very predictable. But instead of writing why this was predictable, I'll point you to Walt Mueller's blog. Walt is constantly staying up on youth culture and the influences on our youth today. He wrote a great blog yesterday about both Miley, and Chris Brown and how predictable their recent behaviors are.

I also ran across a new blog yesterday that I passed onto my wife who does an amazing job of being a part of a youth pastor's lifestyle. Unless you've been in a youth pastor's shoes, its tough to explain what this lifestyle is like. But I happened to run across a Married to a Youth Pastor blog yesterday, read it and all the comments, and realized this might be a great place for my wife to hang out and be supported by other youth pastor's wives. If you ever bump into my wife, please say thanks to her as she's an amazing woman, and I would not be able to do what I do without her.

Horton

2008-03-18T14:25:00.002-04:00

So this week I'm on 'vacation' which means I get to hang out with my daughter and do projects around the house. We're planning on going to the DC planetarium, an art museum, and some other fun stuff in there. BUT today we went to see Horton Hears a Who.

You definitely need to see it! There are some great theological connections in the movie that describe some similarities with our relationship with God. Instead of going through them all, check out Planet Wisdom's review of the movie as they already have some good stuff on it.

The Core

2008-03-17T09:45:00.003-04:00

This past Saturday we went to The Core which is a training opportunity by youthspecialties. As always this is top quality training that YS puts on, and this year they included students as well. This year's theme was on Generation Change which had to do with our helping our students change their world. The progression of the day was 1. Change happens inside first 2: a Transforming Youth Ministry, 3: Changed to bring Change

Brock Morgan was our presenter and he did an outstanding job. I think he got better as the day progressed (and we all woke up ;) ). The material was all solid and I appreciated the way it was presented and worked through. One thing that really hit me during the day had to do with a commercial that Dove put together dealing with helping girls with their body image. This struck me both as a youth pastor and as a daddy of a girl about the age of the girl in the video. Note the video is a little graphic. Check it out the original on Dove's website: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/home.asp

lastly I'm ON VACATION! I took the week off to spend with my daughter as she has spring break this week. We have some fun stuff planned such as seeing Horton hears a Who, and going to an art museum.

The Weekend!

2008-03-14T14:16:00.002-04:00

Well the weekend is almost here. We'll be heading to the Core tomorrow with a couple of our adults and a couple HS student leaders. This training event is one of the key opportunities for any of our leaders each year as its a low time commitment opportunity, but they always hit things head on. This year's theme is Generation Change which promises to be a great experience. Our trouble this year is its located right at the beginning of Spring Break. Many of our adults and students will be away so we aren't able to bring as many as we had hoped.

We're also in the process of adoption! Yes Adoption, but no more kids :). We're working on adopting a lab from lab-rescue. Check out Hudson...
He's not the one we're adopting, but he's a cute lab anyway :). I would highly recommend adopting from a rescue if you're looking for a dog.

I've been playing around with Twitter this week... twitter is a tool that allows you to 'microblog' what you're doing and your friends (or followers) can get immediate updates. You can also get updates of who you're following texted to your cell phone. I've only got 2 followers as I made them try this out with me. But its pretty cool as I can text from my phone a status, and it automatically updates my facebook page, and any of my followers. I'm thinking there could be some good uses in youth ministry for this thing. Gotta play around more.

I've also been leading a small group on Sunday mornings for a few of our students, talking about spiritual disciplines and how God gave us these to stay connected to him. Its been very interesting so far as we've dealt with the obvious ones such as study, prayer, solitude. Last Sunday we dealt with simplicity and what it means to live simply, not giving ourselves to the burdens of things like materialism, or overcommitment. We seem to live in a culture of running at breakneck speed filling our lives with stuff (i'm just as guilty as anyone). And this complexity very easily turns our attention off of our Creator. I've seen others do it (and not be a monk in the process) and its been very freeing. We're in that process right now as we try to declutter our lives and schedule so we have more time and space to focus on God and our relationship with him.

@ Planet Wisdom Day 2

2008-03-08T20:40:00.002-05:00

We just returned from the Planet Wisdom conference... I'm at home sitting in my house, totally exhausted, ready to go to bed, yet my mind continues swirling about our experiences this weekend. I think this weekend was definitely an outstanding experience. As one of my leaders put it: "This was the best one yet!"

I'm still looking forward to some of the stories that will be shared amongst our group, and can't wait to hear about each of their experiences through their own eyes. Mark Matlock and Sean McDowell both did a steller job speaking well grounded truth into the lives of our students. All of the material they presented was solid Biblical truth presented in a way that I really believe our students could grasp hold of. They continued talking about how we are each clay in the potters hands and stepping us through that analogy. Additionally, Sean stepped us through some of the logical side of the truth being proclaimed.

During one of the sessions, I sat there and was thinking about each of our students and the situations that each of them find themselves. This included one of our students who every time the band came up, he immediately jumped up and rushed the stage so he could be right up front. I never would have imagined this student to do this, yet he didn't care about what anyone thought of him, he was going to jump up and be right up front each time. It was awesome to me to see this kid's passion come out like this.

The last thing I'll say, is I'm so appreciative of our volunteer leaders. They each took time away from their own busy lives to not just be with us, but to spend some intentional time with our students, and what a difference they made as always. I'm also very proud of our students and some of the conversations I had during the weekend. Its such an incredible opportunity and honor to be their youth pastor.

@ Planet Wisdom

2008-03-08T08:11:00.002-05:00

Day 1 of the Planet Wisdom was excellent. I am came down early with one of our seniors to help with setup at the conference. Then the rest of the group joined us around dinner time. I've been looking forward to this event for a while, for just a chance to be with our students. In the general sessions last night, Mark has been giving our students a picture of their lives using the potters clay illustration. It was a powerful night and our students had much to talk about at the end of the evening. I've had some great conversations the last day as well... I'm thankful for being here and being with our students. i'll update more tonight with some pics as well...

Presence Centered Youth Ministry

2008-03-06T17:09:00.002-05:00

Ok... so I'm pretty exhausted today, and so to end my day in the office, I decided to start working through this book. Just read the introduction and the piece that really sticks out to me is the Prayer that Mike as it relates to youth ministry quotes from Thomas Merton:

"My Lord God I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean I am actually doing so. But I believe that my desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."

Check. I can relate to that one. There are definitely days in youth ministry or any ministry that feel like this. But I love the last 2 lines of the prayer. There are some days when I wake up in the morning where this becomes my prayer. Because of my own human-ness, I have to repeatedly recognize that our youth ministry here is not my own, but is God's. Most times this recognition comes during my prayer time when I offer this ministry back to God. If I don't do this regularly, then my own pride kicks in and takes over, which is usually not very helpful in our lives.

More Prelude

2008-03-06T15:44:00.004-05:00

The Prelude Gathering is coming up in just over a month. After registering, they sent us each 2 books, A New Kind of Youth Ministry by Chris Folmsbee. I've read the book, but didn't blog on it. The other book is Presence-Centered Youth Ministry by Mike King. We're to read these for the gathering, so I'll taking a break from my other books and reading Mike's book over the next few weeks. I'll also try to blog on it to help with my memory retention (which these days isn't doing too well).

--begin rant
On another note, I've been catching up on my reading of Group's youth ministry magazine. (check out youthministry.com for some good resources / articles). While I was reading the magazine, I had this overwhelming sense of being blasted with the consumerism side of youth ministry. I love the articles they always have, and they always get me thinking. But in some sense I'm getting a little tired of the overwhelming amount of resources that are out there. Resources are good and all and can be helpful in ministry especially when starting out, but in a market where more and more resources are hitting the shelves, companies have to market harder and harder for our youth ministry budgets (limited as they are). At some point it becomes a commodity like everything else in our consumer culture. What do we teach our youth when we continue looking for the latest and greatest resources to fill our shelves? I feel like I could probably spend a full time job just looking for something good and useful through all the fluff. Unfortunately the way my mind works, it tends to clog my brain instead of providing clarity. I think it would be great if someone could figure out how to provide quality resources to youth ministries, without leading us into the consumerism that plagues our world. Maybe it already exists and I haven't found it yet... or maybe just by providing this we continue to buy into consumerism...
--end rant

Just some stuff

2008-03-04T09:22:00.002-05:00

Ok so I have to admit, even though I had a day off yesterday, I'm still pretty exhausted. We've had a busy schedule here recently, and a couple more weeks left to go. This weekend is another one of my favorite events that we attend put on by Planet Wisdom.
I'm always excited to be there as Mark Matlock is an excellent youth communicator, and of course the skit guys are hilarious. Setting aside the impact that this event has on our youth, I partly get very excited about this one because its an event that requires little planning on my part, and affords me the ability to just be with our students without the normal stress of actually running the event.

Next weekend is also an exciting opportunity: The Core This is a great opportunity for our leaders and student leaders to get some great training. We always have a great time together hangin out and bonding as the leaders of the youth ministry. This year's theme is "Generation Change". Lookin forward to it and will post thoughts about it after the conference.

Prelude

2008-02-28T13:52:00.003-05:00

In April, Tom and I and some others will be in Kansas City to be a part of the Prelude Gathering where a discussion among a number of youth ministers will be occurring to think and collaborate on the direction of youth ministry and God's story in our lives and the lives of the youth we spend our time with. Lookin forward to stepping away from things for a couple of days to thing long term as we discover where God is leading us in all this.

Ski retreat '08

2008-02-20T10:07:00.003-05:00

After a very busy January and February, I think I'm back to having a little space to do some more blogging about things I'm thinking about related to youth ministry and my own life.

President's weekend was our annual high school ski retreat where we head out to Columbia's retreat center and have an opportunity to get away from the distractions to worship together and have some fun together. This year we had Tom Lynch come and share about God's story and how we fit into it, focusing on taking risks for the kingdom. This is a topic we've been talking through in our high school ministry since January. My hope here is that we can teach our youth what God's story is, and how their story connects with God's story. Part of the weekend is of course writing more stories about our community including the fun we had with a day of skiing /boarding on Saturday, and snow tubing on Sunday. Most of our youth have been posting pics on facebook, and they're great to see all the interactions they continue to have with each other. We've also had some of our youth ask to do a retreat every weekend. Oh to be in a time of life where that could happen :).

On a totally geeky side of things, I'm starting to get back into playing with Linux. There is a new (to me) distribution called Ubuntu which in african means 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. Its been a couple of years since I've had a chance to do any work with Linux, but I'm looking forward to playing around with this distribution to see if it could actually be a windows replacement as many folks out there are saying. Interestingly, there's a theological connection here as we talk about youth ministry. We are who we are because of who Jesus is, yet he has put each of us together in community for a purpose, and each of our youth ministries has a unique identity.

Winding down

2007-12-19T15:30:00.001-05:00

We're down to just a couple more 'events' before Christmas with a party tomorrow night for our team of volunteers. Our ministry would not have the effect it does without our volunteers. Our team members handle all sorts of things from helping plan events, programs, building relationships with all our students, running our snack shacks, staying up incredibly late on retreats and lock-ins. That's just the fun stuff. Of course there is the harder side of relationships that happens from time to time, including seeing a student struggling, witnessing the breakup of a family, or any other number of things that come into play in the normal everyday life of a teenager. I'm thoroughly convinced that without these relationships from our volunteers, our ministry would be very shallow. So every year we have a chance to celebrate with our teams, some of what the past year has been like. While its a Christmas party, its definitely a celebration party. So if you're reading this and you're on our team, I can't say enough: Thank You, for being you, loving God, and loving our students!

We're winding down some ministry stuff over the next 2 weeks before we wind back up for the new year. It'll be nice to have some downtime to rest (and clean my office!) But of course January will be here before we all know it!

So as we pause during this time of year to celebrate the coming of Jesus onto this earth, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

See you soon!

Coming up...

2007-11-28T09:55:00.000-05:00

The Edge:
FNL: Back on this Friday at 8:30 in the Garage
BTE: This Sunday: Kristine is speaking (Last BTE is Dec. 9th)
Dec. 16: Christmas Party! 1-5, then come to Amahl and the Night Visitors!
Feb. 15-18th: Ski Retreat
March 7-8: Mark Matlock /Planet Wisdom Conference

Wired:
Unplugged: Dec. 9th is the last Unplugged of '07!
Dec. 16: Ice Skating and Christmas Party! 3-9
Jan. 21: Snow Tubing!

Redskins tragedy

2007-11-27T17:04:00.000-05:00

Today is a sad day for the Redskins community as many mourn the loss of safety Sean Taylor. What a tragedy it is for anyone to be killed in such a senseless act. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Redskins community.

NYWC Day 3

2007-11-19T07:29:00.000-05:00

I was so tired last night, I decided to do a rundown of Sunday on Monday morning. Hope you don't mind. Yesterday was yet another fantastic day... including a chance to sleep in a little bit. Our first general session included Doug Fields talking about ministry envy. I thought he did a pretty good job talking about an issue that many of us face. I'll be the first to admit that this has hit me at times... usually when things aren't going so well and I'm feeling like the energy I'm putting into youth ministry isn't doing anything. This is the point that I become vulnerable to ministry envy. It must have been a little difficult doing this one because let's be honest: many (but not all) youth workers that I know have at one time dreamed of being the next Doug Fields. He has to know that going into a session like this. Yet he faced this talking about his own struggles and the damage he saw come from that.

Worship with David Crowder: Always a lot of fun. I've always enjoyed how light hearted David can be, yet drawing us into worshipping our Creator.

Sessions: Went to 2, Chris Folmsbee's on Living, Loving, and Leading like Jesus. Good seminar and was challenged to figure out and live out the virtues of Jesus. This seems so simple, yet so profound at the same time. At the end, I met a friend of Chris's: Doug, who did youth ministry in our area at one point, and knew the youth pastor 2 yp's ago at our church.

Then went to Mark Matlock's seminar on Neuroscience and biologically what goes on when we talk with each other and why talking with students is so important. (ok I'll admit, I was a geek growing up, and this stuff is interesting). There was a lot in there, so i need to process it some yet.

For dinner, we went to Jock's and Jills as the Redskins game was on, and while in the lobby waiting for our table, I met another Redskins fan from Virginia: Tim and Laura. They invited us to sit with them as their table was called first. What an experience it was getting to know them and just hangin out watchin the skins almost win, but end up losing yet again. As a fan, I've really enjoyed watching them this season almost win, then give the game up, time and again. I love being able to predict the turning point!

Last night's general session was pretty wild with Skit Guys, Marquis Laughlin who did an excellent job telling the story of Abraham (as memorized from Genesis) in a way that was so engaging. He was so good he even maintained composure when the camera man fell off his platform.

After the general session, I was pretty wiped, so I came back to the hotel to sleep... no late night this time.

NYWC Day 2

2007-11-18T00:31:00.000-05:00

I have to admit, NYWC is one of the many highlights of each year. It provides the opportunity to step out of my own local faith community to be with youth workers from around the country, and engage in discussion, worship and learning together. What I didn't expect this time around was to have this nasty cold. (Yes if you hear someone hacking during the general session, that's probably me.) This cold is nasty enough that even with Tylenol cold and sinus, my throat is still painful enough just sitting there. So my thought for today is it feels as though I'm to stop talking and start listening. Course this had some hard moments such as wanting to laugh during the comedy show, sing during Chris Tomlin, and of course the normal screams and yelps that occur during an event like this.

Despite that, the day was fantastic. First this morning in our general session, Phyllis Tickle came on stage, and honestly I didn't know what to expect. Yet she came on stage and really challenged our thinking on the future of the church. She started by talking about how every 500 years, there seems to be a reformation of sorts (in her words "the church has a rummage sale"), and that we are in a period of reformation right now. She provided a lot of language to something that I've been feeling but haven't quite been able to explain. Yet I've been able to sense this to some extent with our youth. It seems to me that its no longer acceptable to our youth to merely talk about faith from an intellectual standpoint, but rather they want to know that this stuff is real! Logical of course but sometimes we tend to be a little slow on such things. Chris Tomlin is one of my favorite worship leaders as I feel like he strips worship down to what it should be: worshiping God for who he is.

In the afternoon... I ended up sleeping through all the seminars, then got together for dinner with Curtis, Donna, and Mary Beth at Ted's for some Bison Burgers. We spoke about how difficult it can be to develop community in our region.

Tonights general session was just as challenging as this morning. The comedians tonight were hilarious ( i went to the comedy club afterward to see them a second time). Louie Giglio challenged us tonight with a story of a family who lost their daughter, and how we have hope in the cross. That sometimes we try to separate our hope and the trouble we have in life. But trouble in life is certain, as is the hope we have in Christ. What an incredible reminder. I'll have to continue thinking about this as I think to some extent the medicine I'm on has made me a little numb. Tomlin led worship again, and this was the first time all weekend that I could notice the voices of everyone in the room above the sound of the band. What a beautiful sound to hear 5500 youth workers crying out in praise to God.

That's it for today. For any of our youth reading this, know that I continue to think about you and pray for you while we're away. I'll miss you tomorrow while you are at church spending time together praising our Lord.

NYWC Day 1

2007-11-16T22:43:00.000-05:00

What a day it has been. We flew in to Atlanta this morning, got to the convention center and checked in, met up with some friends, and into it all. I always appreciate the opening general session as Marko begins by inviting everyone to use this conference however they need. Some come and need rest, others come and need a time of recharging their relationship with the Lord, some need training. Me? I would say there's some of all 3.

By the time this convention hits in the fall, we've had our beginning school year crunch, and about to hit the holidays. Its usually pretty non-stop and so this is an opportunity for me to break free for a couple days and be reminded what ministry is all about. I'm also reminded this year about the importance of taking care of ourselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually. As I right this, I'm dealing with a cold, and have been hacking away all day, no more voice, and pretty tired. :). And ready to have a concentrated time of reconnecting with my Lord.

Andy Stanley challenged us to remember that we all have power, but its what we do with it that determines our character. Will we use it for our own gain? or use it for God's glory to serve others? Challenging stuff.

Then off to a seminary with Marko and Mark R on Expectations that killed the youth worker. Challenging seminar. My takeaway was to be more committed to open communications with my supervisor and peers on staff as well as those I serve in our ministry. There was a lot that resonated here though in regards to my own approaching burnout a year ago, and the following numbness that came after it, mostly due to my own expectations on myself. It took a lot of prayer through that to finally realize that I wasn't and couldn't be in control of things, but rather I had to realize that God was in control and I just had to go where he wanted me. That took a lot of pressure off and helped put things back in perspective.

Anyway, its pretty late, and I miss my family, but am thankful for the opportunity to be here.

Off to NYWC!

2007-11-16T05:00:00.001-05:00

Last night as I was falling asleep, I did my usual thinking through the day... it was a rough one, which usually happens the day before something big happens. (this morning is fly out to Atlanta for NYWC). Living in a church house sometimes brings its interesting issues: We had to deal yesterday with termites in the floor of our kitchen, and the backing up of our kitchen sink. In the house we're in, the kitchen is in the basement (very cool), and when it rains big, we sometimes get a gyser coming up out of the sink (not so cool). After the plummer came, we found out the main pipeline going out of the house not only is broken, but has a tree root right smack in the middle of it (very no so cool). It was a fun day trying to get laundry done and packing done for the trip!

Now here we are at 5am the morning of, ready to hit the road to the airport on the annual pilgrimage to the National Youth Workers convention.

More to come...

Building Blocks

2007-11-08T13:35:00.000-05:00

Ok I know I already posted today, BUT I had an interesting thought on the way back from lunch today. I was walking back from Panera in FC past a construction site where they are putting up a new building. Its been interesting seeing this change from a hole in the ground to a structure that will eventually be occupied with condos and stores. Today in the work, they have the bricklayers out putting up the brick facade, and I got to thinking just about how life, and youth ministry are like laying bricks. Whether its building the program, or developing relationships, none of it happens overnight. And you can't put bricks up at the top until you have the bottom layers down, and brick by brick the foundation is put it in place, then brick by brick the rest of the programs and relationships fall into place until sometimes many years down the road do you begin to see a more complete picture of what the thing will look like. But many times while you're standing close to the building, adding one brick at a time, it seems like the work will take forever, or you'll never get to see the end result.

I think this is especially where faith comes in. We're God's laborours, laying brick by brick and only he knows what the end result will be. But we trust and have faith knowing that where he has us laying bricks, will produce the fruit that hopefully one day we can see.

Retreats and such...

2007-11-08T11:11:00.000-05:00

Retreats - one of the staples of youth ministry, are an incredible opportunity to get our students away from the noise of life to just experience, build community, and find time and space to spend with our Lord together.

This past weekend we had a gaggle of middle schoolers (at times in our group, affectionately known as the pig pen gang) up at our retreat center studying John 8:32: "Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free". So many people today get wrapped up with things going on in their life that we (and that's me included) forget about the truth of the saving grace of Jesus Christ. This weekend was a good reminder for our students and adults. Steve Able, a friend from Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) came and spoke to our students during the weekend. Steve did a fantastic job not only speaking truth into their lives in a relevant and challenging way, but he also is committed to the relational side, and was not afraid to hang out and play with our students too. I really appreciate all that FCA does in partnering with churches and connecting with students at schools, and even more so I appreciate Steve's friendship and all that he stands for.

We also had Bradley Rhodes leading worship for us. Bradley is a former student in my youth ministry who is now leading worship on one of our campuses. I've always said that Bradley is incredibly talented and gifted in not only his musical ability, but his ability to lead others in worship. I'm looking forward to seeing how God continues to work in Bradley's life as he grows and pursues his ministry.

Outside of our large group times, there was some manhunt, runnin around the center, a couple of team activities like making commercials for spam, cheesewhiz, clam juice, and beenie weenies, and just some fun hangin out. It was awesome seeing one student who has a high functioning autism and doesn't like physical touch most times, get in on a game of tackle whoever has the football. At one point he said to me "give me the ball so you all can dogpile me!". I almost cried seeing him take such a huge step relationally with the rest of our group.

Ultimately what brings me the most joy about weekends like this is hearing stories about some of our students wanting to pursue their faith with Christ at an even deeper level. Many of our youth go through some tough stuff, and its incredible seeing them see through that and wanting to lay their life at the foot of the cross, and the impact it has on their life.

So what does this mean for our ministry? There will always be another retreat around the corner :).

Huh?

2007-10-26T16:27:00.000-04:00

Not sure what I think about this yet. Virtual churches? I might just have to log onto this thing to check it out. Lemme know what you think?

Good times...

2007-10-25T23:06:00.000-04:00

Today I had the opportunity to go with a friend and fellow youth pastor Andy down to see Camp Crossroads and to catch up with some good friends Reuben and Nicole. I got to know R&N while they were the retreat center directors at Columbia... and it was so good to see them. One thing I have never been good at is keeping up with friends as they move away, and this is just a reminder to me about how sweet friendships are.

I also heard about Andy's experience at National Youth Worker's Convention in San Diego. My turn will come in a couple of weeks when I head to Atlanta for the convention there. This is always a sweet time for me to make my yearly trek to the convention. Once I'm down there I hope to do some blogging about it this year.

After getting home from my road trip, I had an opportunity to hang out with my kids while Kristine was out at a work function. Always a great time. Of course I love my kids, but even more special is seeing them laugh together and goof around together. We just did a quick dinner at Panera, but the time together was invaluable. Each night we spend time praying together, and I love hearing there prayers each night. My son's usually has to do with being safe (after he fell on the playground), and with all the rain tonight he was praying for all the dirty tires driving through the mud then getting wet.

The saddest part of the day however was hearing from Dad about having to put their dog down. Katie was a very special dog to all of us. She was a full grown dog by the time my kids came along, and I have so many memories of my kids 'riding' Katie around the house, playing with her, getting licked all over. She was always such a sweet dog but in these last few days her health really deteriorated. This pic is from when she was a baby. We'll miss you Katie...

Checkin it out...

2007-10-19T13:02:00.000-04:00

Ran across this video today.

Pretty cool stuff. For any of my seniors that may stumble across this one... take this stuff seriously. Will probably use this one at our seniors retreat.

'Nother Article

2007-10-18T16:07:00.001-04:00

Check it out from USAToday.

And of course the comments at the end are very entertaining.

Also started reading ANOTHER book this weekend for a seminary class: The World is Flat. I thought it was a fairly new book, but turns out its been around for a couple of years. The main crux of this book has to do with not just the shrinking of our world, but the flattening as well as countries are more intertwining. He takes a look at a lot of the technical driving factors in the last couple of decades that helped us get to where we are today (where I can write this in a blog and anyone from around the world can read it, abeit unlikely). One of the interesting factors for me however is that I grew up in the tech industry before becoming a youth pastor, so many of the technology references being made in this book, I feel as though I lived it and could remember when and where I was when some of these advancements occurred as well as how my life changed as a result. This happened during my time in college, at&t, chesapeake, and juniper networks. Most of this stuff I used to know about the change when it happened because of my proximity to the core of everything going on. Nowadays however, its a little tougher to keep up as I'm no longer 'playing' in that industry. But still very interesting to see the changes happening globally.

My bigger question now is, what will this do to youth ministry down the road? It used to be that students competed academically locally within their own school, and maybe nationally with SATs, AP tests, and College entrance. Now with IB exams and other international tools, many of our students are competing globally. Does this affect how we do youth ministry when there is so much more of an awareness of global issues going on in the lives of our teens?

Interesting article

2007-10-11T10:51:00.000-04:00

Ran across this article in some culture studies the other day. It has to do with the use of Halo / video games as an outreach tools for youth groups trying to stay relevant to the culture. I think its an interesting subject to discuss as it seems at least a few of us (but I know not everyone) has a video game console in their youth room, whether its gamecube, xbox, ps2/3, dance pads guitar hero etc...

At the very least, I can say with confidence that a majority of my boys (as young as 6th grade) are playing Halo 2 these days at their friends house, or at their own house, and so from an outreach perspective, I can see how moving that into the youth room might be an interesting way to get our youth to bring their friends. So from a cultural relevancy perspective, I can make the point (as the article does) that its a way to make a connection with those that aren't currently in the church.

Where I struggle however is with the success in developing disciples for Christ this method might have. At some point, our hope would be that those that don't currently have a relationship with Christ might come to know him by walking through our doors and playing a video game. But I have to wonder if this is actually happening? Granted I will give you that if we have a Halo night, give out free pizza, and do a devotion during the pizza time, that those that normally wouldn't hear the Gospel might now have an opportunity.

I guess that's to say that I'm not sure where I fall on this one yet. Note that we do have an Xbox with Halo2, a gamecube with mario kart (always a favorite), and DDR that has all christian music on it.

Another interesting side note on this, check out some of the trailers on the Halo3 website. Some of the thematic elements including how much master chief is the savior of the world, how the trailer leads you with a charge to believe (assumingly in master chief's ability to save the world). I've thought about using some of these in some youth talks as there is relevancy, and of course a connection to spiritual things.

Passion of the Western Mind

2007-10-02T14:23:00.000-04:00

Alright, well today I started reading the book "Passion of the Western Mind". This isn't necessarily a fun book, but was recommended by a friend to take a deeper look into what brought us to the worldview that we seem to have today. Just in the couple of pages I read, it seems to be very intellectual and therefore, very challenging. I'm guessing I will read only 2-3 pages a day if I'm lucky.

Today was mostly about Plato and Socrates and their thoughts on the Idea as something that is bigger than the concrete world. For example, in order for us to determine is something good, there has to be a collective Idea of what is good. In order for us to make comparisons as to whether or not something is better, there has to be an ideal that gives us a basis for comparison. These collective ideals are bigger than one person and bigger than the what we can 'get' from our senses, yet it has a piece of it that can be represented concretely in our world, and a piece that can be represented within our own mind. Another example used was that of a Horse. There is an Idea called horse. The idea Horse exists outside of space and time, yet it is manifested in time and space as individual creatures that we call horse. Even though there are differences within each of these creatures, they still conform to the idea Horse. An individual horse may be born, live and die, but the Idea Horse still exists. Additionally, we each have a perception of what an ideal horse would be in our own minds based on the Idea, but my perception of what makes a horse might be different from yours.

What does this have to do with youth ministry? I'm not sure yet. But there is a sense in my mind that some of this is what we are struggling with these days, and why the discussion is so important. That is to say we each have a perception of what a relationship with God entails. Somewhere there is an Idea of what all this is about, but we as humans may only see a small piece of that manifested both in our minds and concretely in the world around us. I wonder if the same can be said for youth ministry. That there is an Idea of what the right way to do ministry is, but each of us have a small piece of that manifested in our minds, as well as manifested concretely in the world around us.

All very philosophical of course, of which I'm not a philosopher, just trying to get down some of the stuff I'm reading and wrestling with. What do you think?

A conversation

2007-09-28T11:56:00.000-04:00

One thing I have really enjoyed and have been thankful for while being the minister of students at my church, is the opportunity to be with and learn from some fascinating people from different walks of life.

This morning I had breakfast with a good friend of mine Bruce. He often invites me, but it ends up being a little less often then I would prefer. Bruce is a man that is incredibly intelligent and wise in both what's happening in the world as well as spiritual matters. Many times we meet he shares stories including his days as chaplain at USC and mentor to many others. Most of the time, I sit there trying to keep up intellectually, having to repeatedly ask him to explain something to help me understand. Bruce continues to challenge my thinking on ministry and reminds me to keep it about the main thing. Additionally, he reminds me to keep thinking about it, and cautions me about falling into ministry that just becomes routine that I don't need to think about. Bruce has challenged me to read "The Passion of the Western Mind" by Richard Tarnas. This book gives some history to how western society has come to have the world view that we do, verses other societies. Knowing Bruce, it will take a lot to digest this book and so I will probably blog about it from time to time as a way to help me process this stuff.

I'm also thankful about our teams of adults that spend time guiding our students and hanging out with them. As I reflect over the last few days as well as where I'm going in ministry, I feel as though schedule wise, I'm starting to get a little space where I can think theologically, and strategically again about what we're doing here, instead of being so busy planning things that I never have a chance to just sit and think. I'm so thankful for the commitments of our leaders to not only develop a quality program, but their commitment to just spend time coming alongside our teens spending time with them and letting them know that they are each created and loved by God. The longer I do this, the more I realize how little I'm able to do on my own strength, but rather its God through me, and even more so, God through our leaders that have a passion to do what they're doing.

Back in the game...

2007-09-27T12:47:00.000-04:00

The school year is beginning to settle into a normal pace, and a few of you have asked me if I plan to keep up my blog. The answer is yes!

What's on my mind recently:
Our church is doing a fall emphasis of family, and so I've begun to think about, what does it mean to be in authentic community with others. Of course we have biblical examples in Acts, but in our world of intense schedules, and busyness, is it possible to have authentic community, and what does it look like?

Secondarily, how do we help teenagers develop authentic community that centers around a relationship with Christ? In two of our ministries, I see two opposites that have developed. One group that has developed a great deal of community both with leaders and students, and the other where authentic community once existed and has been lost for a time (although recently I'm thankful to be able to watch some community redevelop with some of our students).

One quick story to share that still has me thinking about what God might be doing: This past weekend we were at Summit Lake, our annual Northstar association high school retreat. It was an incredible retreat all around. But one thing that has stuck with me this week as I reflect back on it: Some of our students were wrestling with the social justice issues. That's to say we had a lot of great discussion about how they as a group of teenagers can begin to think beyond themselves and begin to help others both locally and globally. It gave me a lot of joy seeing these students wrestle with this issue, AND start to take some leadership in doing something about it, not just wait for someone else to do it. This is a memory that will stick with me for a long time.

Day 5: Eagle Eyrie... Last night!

2007-07-27T18:57:00.000-04:00

Well we've arrived to the last day of projects. Just about all the projects that were specific projects were completed today, and of course all those that are ongoing were very thankful for the teams being there to help this week. Today, signs of exhaustion are setting in. Instead of a wild card game, or running around playing frisbee, most of our team slept, a few went to the pool, and a few of us ended up having a a deep theological discussion that was a pretty powerful time for all of us.

Tonight we hear from Denton Lotz during worship, then we'll have pizza and a final church group time before we fall into bed. Tomorrow's plans are sleeping in (yay!), I'll be making pancakes for everyone, then off to a final worship / celebration time with Denton before we pack up, have lunch and hit the road hopefully by 1pm!

We're all lookin forward to being home. Its been a great week of hard work, some good fun, and worship together as our youth seek to 'take the next step' in their walks with Christ. Please continue praying for us as we make our trek home tomorrow, and thanks for following along on our blog. I will try to post once more in the morning if I can with a few more pics from the week.

See you all soon!
-Chris

During spoons

Mid-spoons action

Day 4 at Eagle Eyrie!

2007-07-26T18:45:00.001-04:00

Well the last 24 hours has been full of excitement and adventure. Last evening a group of Italian youth came to the camp and will be here through Saturday. They performed some Italian worship songs and shared some testimonies during our worship hour. After worship last night, the camp provided free ice cream for everyone, and so to burn off that extra energy, we played a massive 20 person game of spoons. This was nothing short of a full contact sport as everyone piled on each other trying to get to the spoons. (If you have accident prone kids in the group, no teens were injured in the playing of this game :) ).

This morning's projects were great as the weather has been fantastic today. Stories have been coming in throughout the day, but much seems to have been accomplished as some teams were able to continue the siding, clearing of trails, and roofing that had been delayed in the rain.

We spent the afternoon today at the Natural Bridge, enjoying some much needed off campus time. If you've never been to the Natural Bridge before it is a stone Bridge that is apparently taller than Niagara Falls. We also saw a 1700's era Indian settlement, then drove over to the Caves and had a fun tour of the caves which included a room more than 340 feet underground. While in this room, the team experienced complete darkness as the tour guide turned off all of the cave lights. We ended the trip with some yummy ice cream for the ride home.

Everyone's spirits are still positive, although some are getting tired. I noticed a few nodding off over dinner tonight :).

See you all soon! And check out the two posts below from two more of our students.
-Chris

Fun times have been had by all, and for some, mainly at night. A group of us decided it would be fun if we went down the 20ft slide in the dark after it was rained on. Many fell in the mud, and for Pierce, 4 flips and a twist suited him well for the night. Also, I managed to tie a knot with a cherry stem in my mouth, and started the trend of it, only having one for success.
The group today all piled in the vans and saw the Natural Bridge and the caverns beneath it, all in awe of the amazing site.
~Rebekah

Today the Italian people came arrived. I learned some pretty cool Italian words. They are beast at soccer; it's scary. We plan on playing them tomorrow ...The results will be posted later.
Pierce Out:D

Day 2 and 3 at Eagle Eyrie!

2007-07-25T16:12:00.000-04:00

Well so far we've had an incredible time here at Eagle Eyrie. Since our last update, we had playtime yesterday afternoon and some great worship in the evening with a skit and some music from one of the church groups here. Also Tuesday evening my cousin Cammy came to EE to join us for the evening. During evening devotions she gave our students a challenge to rely on God for everything no matter what's going on in their life.

As with any youth trip, we were up late playing games and generally hangin out.

Today we our teams ran into some rain in the morning. Some still worked even in the rain getting good and muddy. Only the roofing team with Jim W. had to come back mid-morning. Other outdoor teams could pair up with other teams and join some indoor projects such as the sports camp where some of our students were leading sports for underprivileged children in the area.

Of course a good rain makes the athletic field good and muddy and perfect for a good game of Ultimate Frisbee (see some pics below).

Everyone is doing well, and most are seeing the fruits of their labor on their project teams. Additionally I'm really seeing some great bonding between a lot of our youth which wouldn't have happened had we not come to spend the week here.

Below I've included 2 comments from a couple students... more are planning on writing for me tomorrow as well.

Everyone's having a great time, and we miss you all. See you all soon!
-Chris

Today has been another great day! To me, it has been inspiring how diverse the ministry opportunities are. I knew that there were a lot of ways to minister to others, but I was never aware that there were so many opportunities. To me it is exciting because it proves that you can show God's love through whatever you do. I have also learned a lot from the leaders at the Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center, the station where I am working. They are so meticulous about what they do and try as much as they can to include God in their work. The leader of the center told us yesterday that many ministry centers will try not to openly profess that they are a Christian institution, however she believes that our God is so much bigger than that.

I think that most campers would agree that we have a lot of free time at the end of the day. Although it can get boring at times, it has been so much fun to get to know persons within Columbia's youth group and out. We have enjoyed swimming in the pool, walking in the rain, buying ice cream, going down the huge slide, making weird stuffed animal videos, and much more. I am sure that tomorrow will be another fun and productive day!

- Marlee

Missions Connections 2 is very different from the other trips I have taken with Columbia. I love how I can share my beliefs with other believers, and not be afraid of discomfort. Everyone here is extremely welcoming, and it's easy to feel at home. Especially in our lodge. I've gotten to know Columbia youth that previously, I had not gotten to really talk to. In essense, it's just a camp, but we do service projects in the morning. The variation of the projects is so wide, ranging from VBS-esque projects to construction sites. No matter what project, if it is directly or indirectly helping the community, this has been so much fun, and I'm glad Columbia chose to do this trip for the youth this year.
- Dana

Proof that she was workin hard. See how dirty she got?

Just one of the many pics about Ultimate Frisbee

Crazy dance by Pierce

Big Reach by Tak

Kelly... um doing the sprinkler?

Marlee Sarah and Jenna... Jus chillin.

Jim W's roofing project

Last night's wrap up church time with Cammy

Road trip to Eagle Eyrie! 7/24/07

2007-07-24T10:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we made out trip down to Eagle Eyrie for Missions Connection 2. As always, the van drive down was full of singing,laughter and overall excitement as we made our trek down for the week. Once we arrived, the afternoon was filled with adventure as we explored the campus, got settled into our lodge, and joined the rest of campus for an evening picnic complete with a watermelon seed fight.

After dinner all the groups met in the worship center for some interesting worship led by a trio from Columbia's hispanic congregation! After worship each of our students met their project teams and spent some time getting to know what their project would entail.

Finally we ended the evening as a group with some great conversation, talking about the distractions that each of us bring into a week like this, and praying for each other.

Before we knew it, the morning had come, alarms waking us up, getting ready for the new day. All of our teams are currently out on their projects right now as I have a few moments of rest, a few errands to run, and preparation for the rest of todays activities.

Tonight, a cousin of mine will be joining us for dinner onward through the evening and will be leading us in a devotional after worship this evening.

We hope everyone at home is doing well! Stay tuned for more blogs and pics from our week!

Um Just a little excited?

Just Chillin

Youth Ministry... How'd this happen for me?

2007-05-30T15:26:00.000-04:00

As of this post, I've been doing youth ministry on staff for 4 years, and before that I was a volunteer for 5 years. It all really happened by accident. I never had it in my 'gameplan' to be in youth ministry at all. I graduated from college fully intending to have a long and prosperous career in computer network engineering. Of course we all know that sometimes God changes our plans. Right after college, my wife suggested we volunteer with the youth ministry at Columbia as she had mentored some girls while in College, and so I decided it would be a good opportunity for us to do something together. Thus began our re-entry into a world that we both desperately tried to escape: Teens.

Fast forward a year and a half and both the Minister of Students and Senior Pastor at the time took other positions, and our church began the road of refiguring out who God would want us to be. In our student ministry, we started 2 years of interim student pastors. At one point we had a youth minister search team and a final candidate. That candidate fell through and thus our team entered into the struggle to figure out the direction to go with the search.

At the same time I was thrust into the arena by a number of factors that I resisted at first, however after 4 months of serious praying amd struggling through different areas of my life, both my wife and I felt that God was leading us to this radical change in our lives to go into full time ministry. Major lessons? 1. Trust God with everything. If there's anything holding you back from totally giving up your entire life to Him, he will continually bring these issues up until you're ready to release them into his hands. 2. God can use you for his purposes anytime, anywhere even if its an area that you totally don't feel skilled / trained / or even confident doing. What's your role in all this? Be prepared and ready to go when he calls you.

This is really the short version of how we got into this. It was a long process of discovering what God had in store, and didn't hit us overnight.

How has life been since then? Well of course its had its up and downs, but I'm continually reminded to keep focusing on God, and I'm continually reminded that this ministry isn't mine, but its God's, and I just have the opportunity to take part in what He's doing!

Coming up: My philosophy of ministry and other thoughts...

My Foray into Blogging

2007-05-29T15:05:00.000-04:00

Well enough of you have talked to me about blogging, that now is the time. I'm jumpin in. I've always got thoughts about different things in life and so here's my opportunity to pass on, ideas, thoughts, and experiences so that hopefully at best you can be blessed by them, and at worst, have a view into the crazy world that is mine.

My hope is to update this about once or twice a week and to include things that would be beneficial to the students in our youth ministry, parents of our students, as well as other youth ministers that I know. At times this may include articles and books that I've read, passages that have been convicting or just general thoughts that I have.

My next couple of posts will I'm sure be longer as I'd like to share with you my thoughts on Youth Ministry and what its really about at its core, as well as what we do (or hope to do) at Columbia, and why. This is to help parents of our students know why we do what we do and what we're about.

I can also say that these are of course thoughts / ideas / sometimes stream of consciousness, and at times may seem inconsistent with other of my posts. I'll try to be as consistent as possible and let you know if I'm thinking about something that changes my thoughts somewhere else. I know I don't have the corner on knowledge, and this provides me a way to think about something 'outloud' as I tend to do.

One thing I can also promise you is that I will be praying for you as you read these posts that God would use these posts to impact your life, and be a blessing to you.

See ya!
McYouthMin