cow tipping: wrestling with youth ministry

Cousin Eddie Christmas Costume

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation might be my favorite Christmas movie.

The classic character is that of Cousin Eddie. I love his Christmas party outfit. This year I would like to recreate it for our staff Christmas party.

Here is my shoppin list - if you can help me find these items, or if you have them, please let me know by December 14.

1. Forest Green Dicky (one size fits all)

2. White v-neck sweater (XXL or larger)

3. Plaid pants (Size 44 or larger)

4. White patent leather loafers (Size 12-13 wide)

NYWC: "The Art of Unplugging" notes

Wow! It was a great experience to present my seminar and the youth workers who attended were awesome. However, it was exhausting! I went back to my room and slept through the evening - only to stay up until 2am goofing off with my roommate. I took a glimpse at the evaluations, and they seemed positive for the most part. The low scores were from people who thought it wasn't practical enough, which is exactly what I was afraid of. I look forward to reading through all the comments when YS sends them to me.

Here are my notes: Download the_art_of_unplugging_outline.pdf

My new Journal of Student Ministry article

Today at the General Session the Journal of Student Ministry passed out this months edition of the Journal. The used my article, "Ebb and Flow: The Journey of Enchantment." It's an essay I wrote during grad school and wanted to do something with it. When I heard the Journal was doing an issue on Endurance, I thought it was a great fit.

I hope the Journal is doing okay, it shrunk by 1/3 this issue. Oh well, it quality, not quantity.

NYWC - Atlanta: Day 3

My seminar is today. I'm really excited and really nervous - but more excited than anything else. It was just 8 years ago that I attended my first NYWC middle school seminar and now I get the privilege of giving back to middle school workers.It is truly a gift to contribute to the convention. The butterflies in my stomach and I would appreciate your prayers.

The Art of Unplugging: Practicing Spiritual Disciplines with Middle School Students - Thomas Murphy Ballroom 4. 3:30-5:00 pm.

I'll post my notes tonight.

NYWC - Atlanta: Day 2

I made an appointment to see a Spiritual Director this morning.

“Spiritual direction is the art of intentionally journeying with another (directee) in a Spirit-led, free flowing way that fosters trust, safety, vulnerability and honesty with God and self so that the directee can become aware of the movements and promptings of God in their life, more fully embrace the love and grace God has for them and in turn manifest that love to others.” (Larry Warner).

I came to the realization that I'm not allowing myself to take a break. I am afraid to be by myself and enjoy the silence. I always feel like I have to take a whole day of silence, and I'm not enjoying the moments I do have to connect with God. I find the only time that I don't drive myself is when I am with Emma. We spent some time relating my relationship with God to my relationship with Emma. Why is it that I can just enjoy random time with her without any kind of expectation, but have such high expectations for my time with God. Larry suggested I take "baby steps" with my time with God and celebrate the moments of silence I have.

I decided to go back to my room and take a nap.I woke up watched some college football, and got some dinner. I spent the rest of the evening working on my seminar. I have to say my only complaint is that the hotel cable is horrible. It's all Turner broadcasting. I really needed this time off today - I'm feeling very refreshed tonight.

NYWC - Atlanta: Middle School Idea Lab Notes

A big thanks to Josh Johnson for his superb secretarial skills!

Download MS Word Document: Download nywc_middle_school_idea_lab.doc

Download PDF Document: Download nywc_middle_school_idea_lab.pdf

NYWC - Atlanta: Day 1.5

Tonight's general session was provocative. I don't know if many people would share that sentiment, but it moved me. Shane Calaiborne got up on stage, shared a few introductory remarks and then stated that he would share the best sermon. He then read Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. When he finished he left the stage. Was he crazy, genius, or lazy? I hope he left a mark on people - people who tend to be critical of the polished speaker. Only Shane (and maybe Tony Campolo) could get away with that.

I just got back from "hosting" the Middle School Ministry Lab. It was a privilege to be a part of this group. I wasn't too sure how to organize an hour long brainstorming session so I broke it into 5 categories (all beginning with the letter "C"): Communicating to Middle Schoolers, Cultivating with Middle Schoolers, Celebrating with Middle Schoolers, Connecting with Middle Schoolers, and Coordinating Middle School Ministry. Too much for such a little amount of time. Some of the topics that seemed to hit a nerve were:

1. How do you introduce middle schoolers to worship - especially if they haven't done it before?

2. How do we get middle schoolers to worship with their parents and the church community at large?

3. How do we introduce small groups?

4. What do we do besides games - because many of our students don't want them any more?

5. How do we communicate our faith in a way that honors our students different learning styles and helps them grow as Christ followers?

I would like to thank my roommate, Josh Johnson, for his detailed note-taking during the lab.

NYWC - Atlanta: Day 1

It is so good to be back at the NYWC. There is something indescribable about being with thousands of other youth workers. As I observed the youth workers flow into the assembly hall, I was struck how different we all are. When I attended my first convention in 1999 I was so intimidated by the professional youth pastor. I thought I had to dress a specific  way, talk a certain lingo, and know the right people. I went to the convention knowing I wanted to be a youth pastor, but it was my first year and I was pretty immature and very insecure. Here I am 8 years later and I am so excited by the diversity in the room. I am way past being cool or trendy. I will never be a California-style youth worker (no offense to you guys - I used to think I wanted to be one of you). I embrace the tragically unhip, Midwestern, youth ministry geek. I don't skate, ski, bike, climb, play guitar, or play Halo 3 (however, I am addicted to Guitar Hero 3). I'm glad that those other people exist. It takes all kinds to reach all the different youth cultures that exist. When Tic Long, encouraged everyone to introduce themselves to 3 other people of different denominations, I didn't know what to make of it. Maybe it's because I don't belong to a denomination, but I guess I can't imagine how denomination would stand in the way of us all being youth workers this weekend. There are so many other enemies of the youth worker, I don't see theology getting in the way. I guess my point is. I'm excited that youth ministry doesn't have a spokes-model. It frees me up (and everyone else) to not fit into any mold in order to do youth ministry. I am very excited about the seminars offered this year. There is some serious depth to the content and a great new selection of speakers (a lot of new faces and some familiar faces missing). Some of my seminars of choice will be with Lauren Winner, Mark Yaconelli, Phyllis Tickle, Winfield Tutte, and Andy Jack.

Some random thoughts and observations:

1. This year's give-a-way bag is awesome! They contracted with a small business in North Calcutta that takes women off the street and gives them an income that provides a real living.

2. The program opened up with a sand artist. I cannot even begin to describe this, but it was pulled off so well. The artist drew the story of creation in sand and it was projected on the big screens. Powerful stuff.

3. Marko looks like a Lion with is long blond hair.

4. The Convention Hall does not interest me one bit. My first year I spent hours in there. I visited every booth and signed up for every give-a-way. Today, I walked through the entire hall in 30 minutes. Nothing interested me except for a few of the publishing houses selling their books for 50% off.

5. Atlanta is a great place for NYWC. The Omni is a great hotel. CNN headquarters is very exciting. The food court is nice.

High School Ministry Director Job Posting

Christ Church of Oak Brook is located in the western suburbs of Chicago.We're an independent, evangelical church in the Reformed tradition. Worship attendance is around 2,000. We have a significant and growing youth ministry program.

We're looking for a High School Director who has a demonstrated commitment to and love for Christ. We want someone who loves teenagers and pursues excellence in the nuts and bolts of ministry. Ideally, we'd like a person with proven experience in a mid-sized to large sized church or para -church ministry. We need someone who has some biblical and theological savvy so a solid educational background is necessary. You need to be able to motivate and grow students, leaders and parents.

Must be willing to work in a team with our Middle School Director (that's me) and a Ministry Assistant.

This is a full-time position with a very competitive compensation structure.

Download high_school_directorpastor_final.doc

Send resumes to Mike McCurry at mikemccurry@remax.net

Stampede Fall Retreat

Today is my recovery day from our fall retreat. I'm the type of person who automatically goes into critique mode and looks for the flaws in the weekend. So today, I'm going to focus on the 5 things that went right:

1. We had an awesome worship leader and band. They took the responsibility of taking kids to the throne very seriously. They were a lot of fun, rocked hard, and spent a lot of time hanging out with the kids. I really appreciated them learning the new Crowder songs so quickly!

2. Communion. We have a church where communion is not celebrated all that frequently. I was very eager to have our students celebrate communion and experience it as the ultimate act of Christian community. I used a passage from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together,

"The day of the Lord's Supper is an occasion of joy for the Christian community. Reconciled in their hearts with God and the brethren, the congregation receives the gift of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and, in receiving that, it receives forgiveness, new life, and salvation. It is given new fellowship with God and men. The fellowship of the Lord's Supper is the superlative fulfillment of Christian fellowship. As the member of the congregation are united in body and blood at the table of the Lord so will they be together in eternity. Here the community has reached its goal. Here joy in Christ and his community is complete. The life of Christians together under the Word has reached its perfection in the sacrament."

Then we had each small group come up together and celebrate communion with their leaders. Very powerful.

3. Staff. I am not mentioning numbers to impress anyone but we had one volunteer staff person for every four students. These men and women make ministry so enjoyable. I experienced the joy of once again having four of my former students come home from college to join us.

4. Mosaic Project. Every fall retreat we have a station where students can paint a tile to illustrate their relationship with God. We take them all home and tile the walls of our middle school room with them. The students really get into it and see it as a part of their worship. They see the tiles as a way of leaving a legacy for students to see years from now. It's fun to see all of our students get involved - regardless of gender, grade, or motivation for coming to camp.

5. Hanging Out. Our camp, Expeditions Unlimited, is a great environment for just hanging out with our students. We really stripped a lot of our games and programs out of the schedule this year. When we asked the students what we could do better last year, they asked for more time to hang out. I enjoyed the time I got to laugh and talk with students - especially students who I rarely see during the average week.