Josh Riebock, the author of “My Generation”, filmed this quick video to lead us in the discussion of his book for this month’s Network gathering. Watch and jot down a few notes before we gather. I am looking forward to your responses…
Archive for Spiritual
Claim Your Campus “Frozen”
Claim Your Campus: pray for your local student body and teachers…
FCA H.O.P.E. @ Central High School
That’s a lot of acronyms… I know.
FCA = Fellowship of Christian Athletes
H.O.P.E. = Helping Others Pursue Excellence
FCA H.O.P.E. = a weekly gathering of students from all backgrounds, schools, and color that gets together each Tuesday morning at the Central High School’s theater to worship God and pray for our generation.
“When?” 6:50 AM in the morning. “That’s early!” I know. “Why?” Because it’s powerful when God’s people gather together for one cause… to worship and pray, right on campus grounds.
“Anyone can come?” Yes. Any high school student. Regardless if your from Stevens High School, Central, or home schooled. It doesn’t matter. All are encouraged to attend.
If you haven’t made it yet you’re missing out! The first and third Tuesday of every month have a “service format” (with worship and a message) while the second and fourth Tuesdays have a focus on intercession and prayer.
So… one more time. Tuesdays @ the Central High School Theater from 6:50 AM to 7:20 AM. See you there!
See You @ the Pole Rally 2009
Bethel Assembly of God and several other area churches are partnering together to host this community-wide, student, evangelistic event which will feature live music with hip hop artist, Michael Fugitt and more, several inflatables, food, and special guest, Mark Entzminger — all for FREE to students of our community/region.
Where: Bethel Assembly of God, 1202 N. Maple Ave
When: Gates open at 5:30 pm; event starts at 5:45 pm; event is over at 8:15 pm
Cost: Free (including hot dogs and inflatables)
For more information, contact Pastor Gerad at gerad@northpointsm.com or at the Bethel Offices: (605) 342-5415.
All student pastors in the area are encouraged to challenge students to be a part of the national See You @ the Pole event on Wednesday, September 23rd. For Rapid City area schools, we are promoting a 7:30 AM “meet-at-the-pole” time for students (all schools). Visit the official site here for resources and more information: syatp.com.
Promotional Materials:
[download the 2009 Rally Poster (.JPG)]
[radio spot #1] [radio spot #2]
[more resources from the official SY@TP site]
Also, plan on bringing three-to-four student leaders with you to a Tuesday night, September 22nd, one-hour gathering at Destiny Foursquare Church, 927 E. Philadelphia Street, @ 7:00 pm. Our rally speaker, Mark Entzminger, will be challenging and equipping students to help them better prepare for the following day.
Here’s local footage from students participating in the 2007 See You at the Pole event…
The Challenge for Change
Our group of students just got back from a trip to Creel, MEXICO. As one would expect after a momentous trip, these students are ready to take on the world. They saw a different part of the world that most of them had never experienced, served those that were in need in big ways, and jumped out of their comfort zones with leaps and bounds.
I want to harness this energy and keep the momentum going by challenging them with stories of others who are using their gifts creatively to change their world. Here are four that I’m going to be highlighting in the next few weeks with my students… maybe you could, too.
=================================================
This first one hits close to home (for our students) and yet has a potentially very far reaching arm. Jason Salamun is a friend to our student ministry and a local church planter here in Rapid City, SD. He’s shared with our students before at our Wednesday night rally services, so most of our students would recognize the name or, at the least, his face.
Jason is doing something simple, yet profound. He’s challenging himself to lose weight and, in the process, he’s challenging his online community, friends, and family to donate a dollar per pound that he loses in the next three months to one of six great causes listed on his site. I think it’s an awesome idea; check it out at ThisMustChange.org.
=================================================
The Laundry Love Project (LLP) grabbed me from the first time I watched the following video. LLPs are regular opportunities to help people who are struggling financially by assisting them with doing their laundry. Relationships are built, and LLPs become small communities of common concern in which participants often find that they receive assistance and benefit with other areas of their lives. LLPs are just one of several initiatives of the JustOne nonprofit organization.
=================================================
The Freeze Project is another simple idea to challenge our communities with social injustice issues. The idea is to have a group of people gather at an area and do a pre-determined group “freeze” in a very public, high traffic place — an action made popular by Improv Everywhere — and putting a twist on it to bring awareness to social injustice issues. Nice!
=================================================
Here’s another one that seems particularly relevant to my group of students right now. We just got back from distributing shoes (and food, clothes, etc.) to the Tarahumaran Natives in the mountains of Copper Canyon. The idea behind TOMS Shoes was founded on one premise: “With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One.” What a profound way of doing business.
=================================================
Take these ideas and challenge your students with them. Maybe do one of them as a group, making it your own. Or just challenge students with these stories so that they can be encouraged to change the world with their own God-given ideas and gifts. Imagine what change could be affected through the Gen Y generation!
Why We Do Youth Ministry
When people wonder why we do youth ministry and why we think it’s SO important to the life of the church, this is big part of the reason why…
We are so thankful to our volunteers and team workers who work alongside us. Thank you for what you do; it’s SO important.
Numb to Numbers
Does measuring success in youth ministry = playing the numbers game? I’m a firm believer that the fruit of ministry does NOT boil down neatly into how many warm bodies are in a room at one time. Numbers are important, though, because numbers — in this context — are people. Hopefully, these “numbers” are lives that are being influenced.
Measuring this kind of influence isn’t easy. How do we know when we’re growing? When we’re succeeding?
I suppose it comes down to… (I’d better stop and think here. I’m supposed to be a paid “professional”. I should know the answer to this.)
…Jesus.
Jesus showing Himself larger in a student’s life than the influences of the culture.
A student becoming the hands and feet of Jesus through outreach, serving, and loving people that everyone else rejects.
A student that desires daily communion with Jesus.
Jesus living through a student that stirs up some old, religious thinking.
A group of students that have Jesus‘ heart for others more than they are interested in getting self-gratification out of a weekly service experience.
A group of students who value worshipping Jesus, not just by singing songs, but with their lives.
Student’s who have given their lives over to Jesus on Mondays and Tuesdays, not just Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights.
Students who don’t just pay lip service to the words of Jesus, but act on them.
Lives that have been transformed and set free by the incredible, extraordinary love of Jesus.
Numbers are good. They help us to measure things. But numbers aren’t everything. I’d much rather have Jesus.
Holy Hangover?
Anybody ever feel like this after a long weekend or event? I know I have.
Is it too easy for us to overcommit ourselves? Yes.
Do we find ourselves burnt out on ministry because we say “yes” too often? Definitely.
How many of you have seen youth worker peers dropping like flies (leaving the ministry) beside you? Mmmm-hmmm.
How can we prevent ourselves from having the “holy hangover“?
Rite of Passage Relevance
I can remember having to put together a whole rite of passage project for students “coming of age” when I was in the School of Youth Ministry at Christ for the Nations Institute in Texas. It was my last year as a student at CFNI and this was the big project for a class called “Adolescent Development”. We studied adolescent development (big surprise), how junior highers process things differently on a mental level, social groupings, and different ways that the church can celebrate their transformation from “tween-ager” to teenager. It all seemed so simple and easy to me then. I even got an “A+” on the big project.
Fast forward ten years… I’ve been in full time youth ministry since graduating and now have two teenage daughters of my own. I feel like I am more perplexed about how to walk through this thing called adolescence than I was ten years ago — especially as a parent! Woo-boy! It’s easier to disseminate head knowledge to someone’s kid and share with them “how it is/should be” and how “scientifically, it’s been said…” It’s an entirely different thing to go through the process and experience adolescence with your own kids.
I’ve thought to myself several times… “oh, so this is what Mom and Dad felt like when I was [doing that crazy stuff when I was in junior high].”
The emotional extremes and craziness that I’ve always known to exist — because I lived it out myself (and laugh about it now) — is being played out every day in front of me. It’s just weird watching it from the other side, as a pastor and a parent. It’s such an important time in the formation of spiritual and moral disciplines. What can we do to help our young ones step into this next phase of life?
- I’ve seen full blown bar mitzvah-type ceremonies with parents and loved ones offering their prayers and words of advice.
- I’ve seen programs where leaders walk students through physical, mental, and spiritual challenges.
- I’ve seen camping trips with the guys and sleep-overs with the girls along with cake and candles.
I’m not sure what works best, but I am certain that any chance to celebrate students’ growth and relationship with Jesus is worth it. And I definitely believe this is a tradition that we should encourage parents and youth workers alike to carry on.
Check out this short clip taken from my family’s recent celebration of my daughter, Cynthia, turning 13. It was during a time that we had several adults saying prayers of blessing / protection over her and giving our “words of wisdom”. Autumn, Cynthia’s older sister by one year, had been downstairs watching the little ones and we had just brought her up to pray over her sister. This was her prayer…
I won’t soon forget this moment. It’s my prayer that Cynthia won’t either.
