I don’t know, I just thought this bat video was pretty cool! This guy obviously has a skill set that most of us don’t. If course if he was really good he would be playing in the majors…but it’s still entertaining to watch the bat!!!
Summertime Blues
I absolutely love the summer! As a parent, we can take the kids to the pool, spend nights outside, ride our bikes, go fishing, all kinds of good stuff. We can even get sunburned together…what a great family time!
And as a youth guy, I love it too! There are so many opportunities and so much time for building relationships with my students. You cna go to lunch, play golf, hang out at the skate park, play some frisbee golf, see your teens at the local pool, man it is awesome.
But the one thing I struggle with is what to do with my Sunday Night Cross Current program. I mean, we meet every sunday night at 6pm but is that the most effective way to use the summer? With vacations, family events and the church schedule, there may be some weeks where I wind up with a handful of students.
And I’ve heard the argument that you shouldn’t shut down for the summer, it’s a time to ramp up activity. Apparently some people thinking stopping a “program” for the summer means stopping ministry as well. I never want to stop ministry. In fact, if I decide to shut down Cross Current sunday night for the summer, it would be partly because it would free up time for me to do more one-on-one relationship stuff with my students.
So I ask that anyone who reads this would pray that I can discern what God wants for this summer for the students at Sycamore Creek Church.
My daughter can ride a bike…
It has been absolutely beautiful here the last few days. And that is good because we (and when I say we, i mean my wife Andrea is doing most of the work) are working with Addison, who is 4, teaching her how to ride a bike with no training wheels. I think she is doing ok!
Human Bowling Cross Current Style
I’ve only done this once before, but this time no injuries (I’m still sorry ZAC!!!)
Entertainment versus Teaching
It seems that in student ministry, you can always count on two types of teens to be at youth group:
1. The teens who have latched on to their faith and truly want to take the next step in their journey
2. The teens whose parents force them to come, whether they like it or not
You can always count on those two groups to be there. But here’s the issue- that’s about 5% of the total youth in my church. How do we get the other 95% to consider youth group as an option? Well let’s think about it.
What is the number one reason teens in 7th -12th grade do anything? To be entertained. Like it or not we live in a society that has become so focused on self-entertainment that if it is not entertaining, students don’t want to do it. So obviously we have to find a way to make youth group entertaining enough to draw students in.
But I struggle. I would hate to think that the only reason a student comes to youth group is to be entertained. I want to help them grow in their faith, grow in their relationship with Christ. But maybe just getting them to come to youth group over the movies or the skate park, is one step in that direction….
So I struggle with the balance of Entertainment versus Teaching….
Done with the Dish
Today is a great day in my house. When we moved into our home, we got set up with a DirecTV deal because they had an internet/tv bundle that was going to save us a bunch of money….
Wrong! Apparently the internet they wanted to give us was designed for people who live in places where you have no other options for internet. It involved putting a satellite dish on our roof…and it was crazy slow…like etch a sketch downloads.
We have been unhappy with DirecTV ever since we got it (No offense to anyone who works at DirecTV- I am sure there are some great highly qualified people there- we just didn’t get to talk to any of them!).
And today, we are having AT&T Install U-Verse which is the fiber optic internet and cable…the same thing as Verizon Fios (in fact, they have a competitor agreement where they split up the country and AT&T does some parts and Verizon does others). We loved the FIOS when we lived in VA so I am looking forward to watching a little TV when I get home!
Look what the Easter Bunny brought…
So I waited a week to post this because I figured every other post had something about Easter and family and all that.
We decided to have the Easter Bunny visit on Saturday since I had to pick up bagels for the Easter morning breakfast at 6:45am. Pretty sure neither the kids or wifey would want to get up before then! So, I made a few phone calls, and since me and The Easter Bunny are tight like that, he promised to swing by early!
Here is the video of my kids finding what the Easter bunny brought them….
Starting at the End
For the last month and a half, I have been chewing on a question that every youth pastor needs to spend some serious time thinking about. I mean I always had an answer to this question but I never really dove into the way I should have. The question is a very serious question. And one that will shape how I do ministry for the next few years. Here is the question- What do I want a student to look like that graduate from my student ministry?
Now at first glance, it seems like an easy question to answer. I think all youth ministries want the same thing- to develop students who have a personal growing relationship with Jesus Christ, right? But go deeper, what does that look like? How does a student live? In order to measure your effectiveness as a student ministry, you need some tangible things to use as measurement.
The problem is you can’t really use tangible things to measure a student’s heart. We can say, “I want students who read the Bible everyday, or share their faith often or attend church all the time” (and all those things are worth noting by the way), but does that really measure the relationship a student has with Christ. I know in my life as a teen heavily involved in youth group, I did all those things and my relationship was nowhere near healthy with Christ. They were just things I did. So I don’t think you can fully rely on those tangible things- but I still think they are important to teach!
So as I have thought about it a lot, I keep going back to four things I want students to be able to do when they leave the student ministry here at Sycamore Creek Church:
(This is by no means a finished thought process, but I wanted to share it with you anyway. Feel free to add insight!)
1. To own their faith-
They may not be able to explain the deepest things of the Bible, but I want them to be able to state what they believe and why they believe it. So many students believe because their parents believe, but I want to see students really own their own faith.
2. To be able to confidently say “I don’t know”-
There is something about the confidence that comes from the ability to say “I don’t know”. I really don’t want students to think they have everything figured out in their faith- because then it is not faith, it’s logic. But i want them to be comfortable enough in who they are in Christ to say “I don’t know”
3. To not settle for “I don’t know” as a final answer- To me, if a student says “I don’t know” and leaves it at that, then they are done growing (true in adults as well!). But I want students to say “I don’t know, but I will find out”. That is where the habits of Bible Reading, prayer, church attendance, and all that come into play. So I want to see students willing to do the work to find out the answer to the question so that the next time they get that question, they can say “I do know!”
4. To be willing to ask Questions- This is where it gets hard. I want to teach my students to ask questions. I don’t want them to take everything I say or Josh says or any other teacher says at just face value. I want them to ask questions. When you ask questions, you get answers, when you get the right answers, you gain knowledge, When you gain knowledge, your faith can grow and be stretched.
I think if every student that graduated from the student ministry here at Sycamore Creek did those four things, I think we could deem it a successful ministry!
Now the tough question is “How do I guide them to do those things?”….
A Little Skyline Fundraiser
We really don’t like doing fundraisers at our church. In fact it almost never happens. We feel like the church is called to give back to the community not ask for handouts from it. Now that being said there is a point where it is a win win for everyone.
I feel like if you offer something of value for a fair price, then it is no longer fundraising, it is providing a needed service. And there are also times where we can help out a business in the local community and they in return can help us out. That’s a win-win!
And it is happening tonight! Skyline Chili here in Pickerington, OH has graciously offered to host a benefit night for Sycamore Creek Church. So anyone who comes in tonight and turns in the benefit coupon when they pay, 20% of their total order cost will be given back to Sycamore Creek. We are using this money to help offset the cost of our Student Ministry WorldChangers trip this Summer!
So if you are in the area, drop by from 5:30pm-8:30pm tonight and help out Skyline Chili and Sycamore Creek Church!!!
