Posted By Kurt Johnston

10. “Don’t worry about it.”
9. “I may have misplaced the sign up sheet that had your credit card number on it.”
8. “I’m sure if we left your daughter at camp there was a good reason.”
7. “Um…about that minivan we borrowed.”
6. “Sheeesh lady, how many meds does one kid need?”
5. “I know you’re disappointed, but he’s only copying the behavior he sees modeled at home.”
4. “If I were you….”
3. “Calm down.”
2. “The average parent only spends about 15 minutes per day with their child, and I’ve noticed you seem to be falling WAY short of an already embarrasingly low bar.”
1. “I know older people like yourselves don’t usually understand teenagers, that’s why you have me!”

Posted By Jared Moine

As of today, it has been exactly one month on the job! The wife and I have in the last month: moved across the country, witnessed history in the nation’s capital, set up a new home, gone to camp, had our first middle school service, met new friends, and I was able to baptize four students after our camp reunion.

Of all the things that have been new in the last month, I would have to say camp and our camp reunion which provided me the opportunity to baptize students for the first time has been both the highlight of the month and provided me with a whole bunch of humility.

Our camp reunion service was the first service I got to plan and run and this was the first big event for me to own. I planned every detail; the band, the order of service, the open share time. I had the wife make a picture slide show of camp pictures, planned two successful games. The night was a complete success and to top the whole thing off we were doing student baptisms after the service and four students said they wanted to be baptized. Everything was great, the baptismal was warm, and we had the towels, shirts, shorts. We had everything… except one thing… a youth pastor who had baptized before!

As soon as I got into the water I quickly remembered that I had never done this. Sure, I had watched hundreds of baptisms, seen what pastors say, but this was different… I was the pastor!!

It hadn’t occurred to me that I should have prepared what to say. I rehearsed the welcome I gave to the parents, walked though how to play the game, how to open the camp sharing time but hadn’t once thought about what to say at the baptism.

The water was warm but it might as well been 50 degrees because as soon as I touched it the words left my mouth. I thought, ok… “say something about the water not being special”… “Reference my wedding ring as a symbol of baptism or something like that”… “Ask if they had accepted Christ”. “Then baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. Say “baptized in his death, and raised to walk a new life!” or was it “buried in Christ, and raised to live a new life?” I’m pretty sure I said something different with each student I baptized. In my head it was all a disaster! Don’t get me wrong… the whole thing was amazing and praise God that four students got baptized and it was a tremendous honor, but man did I have no idea what I was doing!

To top the whole thing off, our baptismal is kind of wide but not very deep. What I mean is it is 3 ½ ft deep but the back wall is very close to the front glass and to get a good picture of the student pre-dunk I moved towards the back. What I didn’t do for the first girl was move away from the wall to actually dunk her. I think I missed the wall with her head by two inches! That would have been so embarrassing; it was embarrassing enough just to get that close. Seriously, they should put an X on the ground under the water of where to stand. Or color coded foot prints for the baptizer and the baptizie. I mean something!!

All in all, the night was great but you better believe I have watched just about every baptism video on you tube in the past week. This one is my favorite. I guess you could say the learning point out of all of this is to prepare for every detail and not assume that just because you’ve SEEN something done a million times, doesn’t mean you know HOW to do it in a real situation. I had thought of everything I wanted to say except for what to say in the water before I baptized a student. If I was doing a wedding I don’t think I would have not prepared what to say once the bride came down the aisle just because I have been to countless weddings. Maybe you have done a thousand baptisms and you can just laugh at my pain, that’s ok, that’s what rookies are for. But maybe you have your first baptism this weekend or another younger staff member or volunteer does. If you do, watch some videos, take notes. If you know what you are going to say then maybe I could challenge you to invite a younger, less experienced small group leader to help with the baptisms to prepare them for baptizing students themselves one day. I wish that would have helped me.

That’s what I have been learning this past month. It’s been exciting, overwhelming at times and apart from a few minutes of terror over not knowing what to say and almost smashing a 7th grade girl’s cranium into a baptismal wall in front of her friends and family… I would say it’s been a good month!

God bless,

Jared Moine

Middle School Pastor

Park Valley Church

Posted by Kurt Johnston

* This is my first time truly trying to type more than a sentence or two on my new iPad so we will see how it goes….feels awkward…or maybe the awkward part is that it doesn’t “feel” at all due to touch screen keyboard.

* Was just asked via Twitter how I use my iPad for ministry. I am still trying to figure that out. Right now I mostly use it as a reader (like a kindle) and to play games. I have played so many games that Rachel had aclassicline the other night: “I am glad to see you bought a $600 Game Boy.”

* Speaking of games…if you have an iPad, you have to get “stick golf”. My best score for course #1 is 14 under.

* Yesterday we took a busload of JH students to the beach for the day….basic stuff but so much fun and a good reminder of what youth ministry is really all about.

* Not to late to join us at the “Re-group summit” in Loveland, CO August 2-4. It’s geared for youth workers in larger settings…define that however you want. Track me down if interested.

* I am teaching in our high school ministry next weekend and am surprisingly nervous as evidenced by the fact that my lesson is done more than a week early.

Posted by Mark Eades

As a leader, I enjoy reading leadership books because I know that I don’t have all the answers – and many times I don’t have any answers.  I attended an Orange conference with our children’s ministry where Nancy Ortberg spoke.  I really enjoyed what she said, and her new book, Unleashing the POWER of Rubber Bands, really stood out to me as a book I should read.

There is so much for me to think about in the book.  To keep it simple – and for me to actually apply some of the ideas – my thoughts can be narrowed down to two big “take aways”.

First, Ortberg clearly explains that every leader must impact other people around them to be of any good.  The best way to do that is by listening to those people.

Mrs. Ortberg said, “Great leaders know the value of doing the right thing, and that includes valuing the contribution of all the players.”

But we need to create an environment or community where those contributions can be heard.  Leaders need to create discussions about “vision, reality, and strategy.”  This isn’t easy but must be done to be effective.

Another big “take away” is that “Much of the frustration that leaders face comes from trying to solve what needs to be managed and trying to manage what needs to be solved.”  Reading that statement reminded me of many discussions my team has had about the difficulty in sharing God’s love and truth to middle schoolers.

Nancy Ortberg put into words what we’ve implemented but didn’t realize we were doing it.  This is a great book about leadership and one that I think any leader should read.  It has challenged me and given me some great tools to use in moving New Covenant Bible Church’s middle school ministry forward.

Posted by Jared Moine

Hello, I’m Jared Moine and I’m one month into the newest chapter of my life as a full-time middle school pastor at a church outside of Washington D.C. Up until last month I have lived my whole life in Southern California.  I have been married for two years now to the most amazing woman and partner in youth ministry, plus she takes great pictures and makes the most amazing cupcakes. Youth ministry has always been a part of my life but now I find myself on the east coast, building a middle school ministry, and trying to fully enjoy this new adventure that God has me on! Our new church is seven years old, called Park Valley Church, and they just moved into their first building on their own land three months ago.

I’m so excited to get this opportunity to share with you some of my life in ministry. I’m honored to get a chance to offer my green, naive voice and perspective to the world of junior high ministry; to allow you to laugh at my pain and maybe learn or re-learn some of the lessons God has in store for me in my “rookie season” of youth ministry. I will never claim to be an authority on anything, just a young guy trying to do my best to honor God with this holy calling of ministering to middle school students and their families.

If you desire the insight of a well seasoned veteran, well… I’m not your guy; I’ve only got one month on the job under my belt! But if you want to read about the learning’s, experiences and embarrassing mistakes of a guy just getting started, then hopefully I am your guy! I pray my words can offer some support and help to you and your ministry because after all;  no matter how many years you have been doing ministry we all have so much to learn and offer to each other. It’s an honor to share the special calling of youth ministry with so many of you!

God bless,                        

Jared Moine

Middle School Pastor; Park Valley Church

jared@parkvalleychurch.com

http://jaredandalanna.blogspot.com

Posted By Kurt Johnston

I’m sure time will teach us many lessons, both good and bad, from the LeBron James free agency/media frenzy/hour long ESPN show/insert your own favorable or unfavorable description here event that unfolded over the past few weeks. In the meantime, here are a few initial things that jump out to me that I would be wise to consider as a leader and pastor:

- People will assume more about me than they actually know. 

- What people assume and perceive becomes reality to them and is very changed by actual facts.

- People expect those who have been given much to behave in a more generous, graceful way than they expect from others.

- I can’t please everybody all of the time….no matter what.  But, if I’m not careful I can put myself in a position to please almost nobody!

- I’m really not as important as I think I am.

- My “fans” today might be burning my jersey tomorrow if things don’t go their way.

-  The longer I draw out a big decision, the more frustrated people become when the outcome isn’t what they hoped for.

Add one or two of your own in the comments…..

Posted By Johnny Scott

Getting the trust and support of parents in ministry is huge and the best window for hitting a home run is just around the corner.  We all want to have great relationships with parents and at times we work tirelessly trying to win them over . . . or even catch them for a few seconds in the hallway at church.  This is your chance to sow little seeds and reap huge!  Of course you’re going to spend time thinking of the best way to welcome kids into your ministry this fall!  Take some time to help parents transition their kids into jr high.    My oldest son is entering Jr high this fall.  Although I’ve been working with jr high kids for 10 years in ministry, my wife and I are still finding ourselves anxious as our son prepares for this fall.    There are many parents who have children entering jr high for the first time that are experiencing a sense of the unknown or even fear of the school year to come.  This is an opportunity to reach out, meet a real felt need and build a bridge that will yield crazy results for the next three years.    Here are some tips and ideas to get you started: (if you have more please comment)  

• Get parents who have had kids go through jr high come to an evening program or casual setting to talk with kids and new parents, give advice and pointers
• Find out when the school does orientation and partner with them or offer an afterglow with refreshments; go ahead and invite teachers, the principle, sell school T-shirts and such
• Let parents know you plan to visit kids at school their first week for lunch
• Offer to Pray with these parents specifically for this.  Prayer is our weapon against fear.  The parents will never forget your intentionality to their situation.
• Make jr high survival kits for parents and kids, include:  before & after school safety tips, a fall activities schedule for ministry at your church, a top ten list of things they should know about their school (DO YOUR RESEARCH – but don’t name mean teachers…they’ll get that info at the water cooler. )
• Encourage parents to tell their jr high stories to their kids.  Kids never tire (ha, usually never tire) of hearing NEW stories from their parent’s childhood.  Don’t let them trick you into stopping, they love it, they don’t know how to show that they love it. 

Posted By Kurt Johnston

This is the first official post of the new “Junior High Ministry” blog that I have been mentioning for quite some time. You may have noticed that the look changed a week ago, but we have been having some server problems and my house has been semi-flooded so those two challenges have slowed things down….until now!

Here’s the deal:  Simplykurt.com is now juniorhighministry.com and will hopefully evolve (the look and layout of this site is still being tweaked) into a place for junior high youth workers to come for some insight, ideas and inspiration. I’ve asked several people to contribute to this blog on a regular basis to ensure both a good amount of new postings as well as providing some varied perspectives.

We will post more official bios of the contributors sometime soon, but here is a brief overview:

Junior High Ministry Stuff:  Myself, Scott Rubin, Heather Flies, Katie Edwards and Johnny Scott.

“The Doctor Is In”:  This will be an occassional post by Tim Levert, a youth ministry veteran in Ohio who happens to have a PhD in youth ministry.  Hopefully, his stuff will be a bit “smarter” than what the rest of us write!

“My Rookie Season”:  My friend, Jared Moine, has just started his first full-time junior high ministry position at a church in the DC area. He will ocassionally write and chronicle his first year journey.

“In Review”:  Mark Eades, a junior high Pastor in Iowa, will write an ocassional book, article, resource review.

My prayer is that juniorhighministry.com will become a place you visit on a regular basis to encourage you in your junior high ministry journey.

- Looking for small group curriculum for the Fall?  You can download a sample of our brand new junior high LIVE right here!

- Three weeks ago I was encouraged/asked/told by Pastor Rick it was time to join the senior leadership team. I had been ducking and weaving ever since Doug Fields left hoping lead the student ministries team without the extra leadership responsibilities required of the executive team. Three weeks in and I can report that things are actually much better than I had expected. The best thing about it may also serve as a great reminder for you: Take advantage of opportunities to be around sharp leaders; you are never worse for it!

- We are seriously considering staining our concrete as our flooring option. It seems that, when done well, stained concrete can be a super cool plan. stay tuned (or should I say, “stained” tuned….).

- Today my daughter, Kayla, turns 16 years old. She is an amazing young woman and I can’t wait to see what the next 16 years hold for her.

- I’m really excited about a lesson I am working on for a junior high event I am speaking at next week.  I am going to talk about the idea that sometimes the best way to “go” is to stop. I love the concept and am hoping it will resonate with the crowd.

Been a while since I’ve re-capped our weekend junior high service….so maybe it’s time to start up once again.

Series:  No series, we had a “one hit wonder” weekend which was our annual 8th grade weekend. Our 8th graders ran the show with no adult presence on stage at all. They led music, ran games, made a GREAT video, gave announcements and four of them teamed up for the lesson.

“Fun Factor”:  High! It really was a fun weekend and the students who put it all together took it seriously and did a great job. The program was quite a bit shorter than normal which probably added to the enjoyment (nobody ever complains about a short church service, right?)

Attendance: A little bit lower than average…but about normal for this time of year as we are wrapping up the school year.

Volunteer Involvement: Normal number of volunteers in the service, but not highly involved due to the fact that students were doing just about everything our volunteers normally do.

Length of Lesson: about 14 minutes.

8th grade weekend always reminds me of two things: First, we certainly wouldn’t want everything to be student led because I think the novelty would quickly wear off and quality would suffer. Second, we sure could use students more often than we do