cow tipping: wrestling with youth ministry

My Ordination

Calling: Just try and resist it

I've been thinking a lot about my calling these past few weeks. As I interviewed with my ordination committee I recalled the few times that I tried to run from my calling. Those times were always filled with so much pain. Just like Jonah ran from his calling and met with isolation and pain, I ran and experienced the same consequences. I am convinced a call will never rest unless we are in total rebellion. I think it was Charles Spurgeon who encouraged a young man to "try not to be a pastor, and if God wants you he won’t let you do anything else." If we can get peace and fulfillment doing anything else than it won’t be a call. God will not be frustrated by our refusal. God will restore us and call us again.

reverse "photo in need of a caption" contest

I need an image. I am working with our media people to create a program for my ordination. I don't want the typical store bought program with a cross or dove on it. I'd like a program that depicts my calling to middle school ministry (and the Church of course). I will give a $10 Starbucks gift card to the person who sends me an image that best represents the calling to middle school. I need it by Monday!

Also, I will send a $10 Starbucks Gift Card to the person with the best idea of how to incorporate an "art project" into my service. Selfishly, I want a memento of this exciting event in my life. I think it would be so special if the students had a chance to literally put their fingerprints on this celebration.

UPDATE: You all suck at this game! Maybe its because Riddle had such a great idea. We have a very gifted resident artist here at the church, but I don't share his taste in art. He's more of a Thomas Kincade type of guy. I'm more of a Mark Rothko fan. When I went to our artist with Mark's idea and one of my favorite Rothko paintings, he got excited. I'll make sure to post pictures of the finished piece of art next week.

Shift

I'm headed to Shift, the Willow Creek Student Ministry conference tomorrow. It's actually a 20 minute drive from my house, so it doesn't seem like a big deal. I am looking forward to the line-up of speakers: Brian McLaren, Mark Yaconelli, and Dan Kimball. I am really excited about my breakout seminars on Thursday. I have chosen the Teaching the Bible through Story and Dialogue with Mike Novelli. Here's the description:

This interactive training is designed to inspire and equip you to teach the Bible through story and dialogue. We will explore the art of "Storying", a dialogical approach founded in the Hebrew tradition and used extensively in missions all over the world. This new (and ancient) way of engaging God's Story has proven effective to help people to discover God's unique identity and calling for their life - to see themselves as part of a bigger story. During this breakout you will discover new things about God and the Bible through a "Storying" experience, and learn new methods to communicate and interact with God's Story. You'll also receive a workbook packed with ideas and resources to help you lead in your context.

I have known about "chronological storying" since grad school, but never really explored it further. Novelli has written some great curriculum, but it takes some training to fully understand. I will be sure to post my exerience with it after the conference.

Send me an e-mail if you want to hook up at the conference.

Soul Searching Movie Night with Parents

I have been working through Christian Smith & Melinda Lundquist Denton's book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) the last month. It's my second time through 300+ page text book, but my first time as a youth worker (as opposed to a student reading it for a grade). Since my first time reading it, they have taken the findings from the book and created a 70-minute documentary film, Soul Searching: A Movie About Teenagers and God. The film is wonderful. Great discussion of the book and interviews with students, parents, youth workers, and the researchers. I was so moved by the film that I scheduled to showings of the film for parents this month - the first is tomorrow night. I have prepared an 8-page handout summerizing the book, but I will also have a pile of the $35 books for parents to purchase. The only aspect to the evening I have not prepared for is the discussion. The DVD comes with a 20 question study guide, but with only 20 minutes, I am not sure where to begin. I think it will take 10 minutes just to revive the parents from the shock and unbelief (and perhaps denial) from the film. If you have seen the film or read the book, what ONE question, would you want parents to disscuss?

The topic I want to discuss is “MORALISTIC THERAPEUTIC DEISM” the religious outlook that is distinct from the faith commitments of most religious traditions. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism serves as a “default position” for teen religiosity when religious communities’ engagement and education of youth is weak. Teens value and engage in religion not for the sake of God, or the common good, or for composing an identity or distinctive community, but for the instrumental good it does them. Religion is not particularly necessary, but it can be useful, especially in terms of validating what youth want to do anyway.

Moralistic: Oriented toward being good and nice, in ways that affirm certain moral claims (for example, “You should never have sex with someone you don't really care about.”) in fairly arbitrary ways without their being integrated into any larger, coherent moral tradition.
Therapeutic: Primarily concerned with one's own happiness, personal comfort, and emotional wellbeing—in contrast to, say, a focus on glorifying God, learning obedience, or serving others.
Deism: A view of God as normally distant and not involved in one's life, except if one has a problem one needs God to solve, one can call on God to fix it and make one feel better. In other words, God functions as a combination "divine butler" and "cosmic therapist".(See Tony Jone's interview with Christian Smith)

If that isn't bad enough, the real punch in the gut is that the research finds it's the parents' fault. The best social predictor of what the spiritual life of a teen will look like is to ask what the religious and spiritual lives of his or her parents look like. By and large, parents “will get what they are.” Youth workers can be very influential, but parents are most important in forming their teen's religious lives. How do you address that topic and still keep your job? Seriously, I'm trying to craft the perfect discussion question that will allow for the best responses. The trick will be to focus the discussion so it doesn't go off in some tangent-laden rats nest.

Ordaining a Middle School Pastor

I am going to be ordained Sunday, April 27, 2:00 pm, It is an awesome confirmation of not only my role in the church, but also our middle school ministry. Our church is making the statement, "We care about middle school students and their families enough to provide them with an ordained minister!" The entire church is invited, but we are making a special point to invite all the middle school students (past and present) to be a part of the service. I have the great opportunity to help plan the service and I would love to have students as involved as possible. I would appreciate hearing from any of you that have seen students involved in this type of service. Any ideas would be great!

By the way, if you are reading this post, you are more than welcome to attend! I think we are having cookies and punch after the service!

4-Way Grinder

I'm not a big fan of silly, sweaty games in middle school ministry, but the 4-Way Grinder is one of the best inventions created by humans. You put 4 people in inner tubes attached together by seat belt materials. You yell "GO" and everyone runs to their corner to retrieve their ball. Last night I witnessed a 7th grade guy's pants slip down to his ankles. This clip was the staff round (why there is only 3 staff I don't know). I love how my staff person, Matt, falls down and rolls around.