- A couple days ago I twittered asking for some book recommendations and got a ton of great responses. Because there were so many, I decided to try something fun: I asked my assistant, Karen, to compile them into a list and then to choose the three titles that seemed most interesting to her and those would be the ones I read first. Her email to me after she ordered the first three books was hilarious:

“Just so you know, I totally prayed over my selections that God would lead me to order good ones. If these are crappy, blame him!!!!!”

So…the next three books I will read based on your recommendations then picked by Karen will be “The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith” by Timothy Keller, “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto” by Mark R. Levin and “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us” by Seth Godin

- We are kicking off a short, two-week, series on PEACE (Saddleback’s local and global missions strategy). While I’m super excited about it, I’m also a little apprehensive because I’m not sure two weeks is enough time to properly address the issue but I also know that teaching about missions for any longer would likely bore our weekend crowd.

- Our children’s ministry here at Saddleback is led by an amazing group of people. Next month as a gift to our ministry they are hosting a “preparing for junior high” event for 6th graders and their parents. They are footing the bill, they are doing all the grunt work and they are putting a ton of effort into promoting it……all for 6th graders that they are losing! Our junior high team will be completely freed up at the event to meet parents and students, answer questions etc. I would be interested to know what type of relationship your children’s ministry and youth ministry have. Ours is as good as I’ve ever experienced right now.

I found this article about Domino’s recent PR nightmare really good. While the focus is onresponding to internet and social networking related PR problems, I couldn’t help but see some correlations to how me might better respond when our junior high ministries take a PR hit with….be it real or perceived.

My life the past year has been a blur of busyness. There has been so much going on in my life and ministry that I have, numerous times, felt almost paralyzed by the “list” of responsibilities, opportunities, options, decisions etc. in front of me on any given day.

My number one love in ministry is simply leading my junior high team here at Saddleback. I have been in junior high ministry since 1988 and it is still my primary calling and the thing that brings me an incredible amount of fulfillment. But the truth is I just CAN’T (and shouldn’t!) do everything all the time…..even stuff I really like. Today, I took some time to remind myself of whatI think my primary roles are; the stuff that the primary leader of a ministry really can’t ask others to do on his/her behalf. Here’s my list….feel free to add or delete in the comments section.

NURTURE MY SOUL: Taking care of my soul is my primary role.

CREATE THE CULTURE OF OUR MINISTRY: How does our ministry “feel”? How do we treat other team members? What are our values etc.?

POINT THE WAY: Where are we headed? What are our goals? What’s our purpose? What do we want to see accomplished in our midst?

SELL THE VISION: Once God gives me the direction we’re heading, pointing the way is only part of the leadership process. Not everybody will like where I’m pointing! That’s where selling the vision comes in.

EQUIP THE TROOPS: Others can help equip my team, but the primary load falls on me.

MAKE THE IMPORTANT DECISIONS: I can empower others to make lots of day to day decisions, but the biggies fall on me.

TAKE THE HEAT WHEN THINGS GO WRONG: My role as the leader is to protect others on my team as much as possible when something goes wrong.

PASS THE PRAISE WHEN THINGS GO RIGHT: When something goes right it’s my job to pass the praise and make sure others get the credit.

BEAT THE DRUM: Vision, purpose, where we are heading, etc. isn’t a one-time job, and nobody should be more passionate about it than the leader. My role is to constantly beat the various drums.

Because it was Easter, we didn’t have junior high services this past weekend. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t eventful! First, a small team from our junior high ministry returned on Saturday from a trip to the Philippines where students helped lead a PDYM youth conference, participated in local church services, ministered to the community in a variety of ways and much much more.

Several of us from our student ministries team partnered up to run a significant portion of our child care for Easter Sunday. We headed up the 1-3 year-oldage groupand it was a blast. I’ve never seen so many well skilled youth ministers so overwhelmed! We really had no clue what we were doing but had a ton of fun doing it. The experience certainly served to remind us all of our calling to students.

After a long Easter of children’s ministry and family time, Rachel and I dropped into bed feeling really tired but really fulfilled and mindful of the power and significance of Christ’s resurrection. It was a good day.

On tap? Feels like we are headed into a busy, but eclectic little season. In the next 5 weeks we are focusing on Global missions, teaching our 3-week sex and dating series, co-hosting a “how to survive junior high” event with our children’s ministry,leading aservice day to the inner cityand running an 8th grade retreat. Additionally during the same time I have to squeeze in a speaking trip for Believe, a trip to New York to preview an upcoming social awareness project and help create 15 weeks of video small group curriculum. All this while trying to be better at the only thing I really care about: Loving on my family.

Speaking of my family: Cole turns 12 today which is hard for me to fathom. I am ditching work today so we can hang out together. Nothing crazy planned……at least that he knows of!

Bethany Johnson heads up our junior high small group ministry and she is doing an amazing job! So good, in fact, that I really NEVER need to think about details and am freed up to write curriculum, dream about big picture things etc. Here are a few small group items on my mind today.

- Trying to set most of today aside to start work on writing “scripts” and study questions for two new sets of junior high video curriculum that I want to have in our leaders hands for next season of small groups. One set will be on the book of Proverbs and the other will be called “The Red Stuff” and will focus on Jesus’ words. If I can just chart a basic course for each today I will feel pretty good.

- Small Groups. I have felt a little (not a lot, but definitely a little) unsettled about our small group structure for a while and am really torn between the ideas that our strategy is a good one that just needs a tiny bit of tweaking and attention vs. maybe it’s time to really begin to re-think junior high small groups and open the door for a variety of groups such as affinity groups, deeper learning groups, larger groups focusing more on relationships etc. In my “gut” it feels better to allow lots of freedom and variety, but organizing such a strategy feels like a nightmare at best! I guess at the heart of my struggle is this: Is it better to design a structured program for small groups that keeps everybody heading the same direction or is it better to be organic and allow freedom, customization etc. of each group?

- What is the best way to follow up with, encourage, hold accountable etc. the leaders of each group? Currently we have a “coaching structure” that feels like it should do the trick quite well. For example, I am a coach to about 8 small group leaders. Where it breaks down (and when it breaks down, it really breaks down) is when coaches don’t coach. I know this because I am a horrible small group coach and my guys would be justified in feeling un-coached! While this approach feels right, it hasn’t ever really proven to be as effective as it could/should be.

- I love small groups! Just thinking about small groups puts a smile on my face. They are flawed, frustrating and figuring them out completely won’t happen for our ministry any time soon, but I can’t imagine leading a junior high ministry without their existence at some level.

I asked myself this morning as I was channel surfing the wide assortment of news shows if it is possible to be addicted to the news. I decided it isn’t. I’m not an addict, but I do like news. So a new, semi-regular, feature here on my blog will be “News To Me!” where I will link to a few news stories that catch my eye. Commentary may or may not be provided.

GM Plans to Partner With Segway. Huh?

Some Communities Are Printing Their Own Currency. This makes sense to me.

Remember This Guy? A year for chucking a shoe….good thing he missed!

The Weekend: I wasn’t there this weekend, but all indications are that it was a great weekend. Attendance was very low, but the service went great I was told. It was the second week ina short series. We now take a one week break for Easter. We cancel our youth services on Christmas and Easter so families can worship together.

Sunday and Yesterday:My cousin, Tamal, passed away about a week ago after being in and out of a coma for the past 10 months. Sunday, family and friends gathered in Brentwood area (just up the street from OJ’s old pad….weird) for a gathering. My uncle (Tamal’s dad, my mom’s younger brother) had asked beforehand if he could come home from the gathering with us and stay for a day. So Sunday night and all day yesterday was spent with uncle Gerow who I really haven’t seen much in the past 5 years or so. We talked a lot about faith, the church, organized religion, Christ’s main message and tea. Actually we talked a whole lot about tea. Uncle Gerow was married for years to a Japanese woman (Tamal’s mom) and has completely embraced the Japanese culture and all things tea related. To be honest, I was a bit hesitant about the 24 hours we were to spend together, but it turned out to be a wonderful time.

BELIEVE:The reason I wasn’t at church was because I was speaking at Believein Atlanta. Believe is a fast-paced (6 general sessions in less than 24 hours) “conference” for middle school students. The topic revolved around the life of Jeremiah and focused on this topics: ” I have formed you, “I have set you apart”, “Don’t be afraid, I am with you” and “Speak my words”. One of the highlights was having dinner with Jared Hall, who performed several timesduring the weekend,after the event. Everybody else managed to get flights home Saturday night but we found ourselves alone and lonely. So a man date seemed like the perfect option. Jared is a really neat young guy with a fantastic ministry and it was really fun to get to know each other a little better. Jared performs almost exclusively for churches and if you are looking for an “illusionist” who is really funny and extremely un-goofy, Jared may be perfect.

This Week: I have a surprisingly slow week with all of our high school team and most of our junior high team away on Spring Break missions trips and no weekend service to prep or lesson to write due to Easter. So I plan to do a whole lot of catch up work and tinker with some big picture stuff that I have been hoping to find time for.

If you’ve read my book Controlled Chaos (recently revised and updated as Middle School Ministry Made Simple) or if you have ever heard me speak about junior high ministry you are familiar with my insistence that one of the best things a junior high youth worker can do is to walk down junior high memory lane from time to time.

The reality is that as we age and the farther away from our own junior high experience we get, the more likely we are to forget what it’s actually like to be in junior high. For this reason, I think it’s wise to do a few things once a year or so:

- Visit your old junior high school. Drive around the perimeter, walk the halls if possible and maybe even drop in to see one of your favorite teachers (of course this won’t work for me as all of my junior high teachers can only be found in retirement homes….).

- Browse your junior high yearbook. Look at pictures, read what people wrote when they signed it.

- Walk you old stomping grounds. Go to the mall you hung out at, go to the field where you played little league, visit the Taco Bell you and your friends frequented.

I try to do most of these exercises at least once a year, and when I do I’m surprised at how many memories come flooding back. I’m reminded of my struggles, my fears, my insecurities, my hopes, my successes etc. And ultimately I’m reminded that though much has changed in our world since I was in 8th grade, the journey my students are on isn’t much different at all.

Rachel and I both grew up in Whittier, California, an area about 45 minutes north of where we currently live and one that has seen some fairly dramatic changes over the years. Today for our date day (I took an extra day off this week due to the absolutely crazy schedule our youth ministry team kept last week with the PDYM conference) I decided I wanted to go on a “Whittier Tour” and spend the day driving through our hometown. We spent about 2.5 hours visiting various child-hood and young adult-hood stomping grounds. Not that you care (unless you are familiar with Whittier…) but here were our major stops.

- Granada Middle School: While it’s technically in La Mirada, it was where I spent grades 6-8

- Bretheren Christian School: Rachel’s junior high

- Cal High: My High School. Cal is short for California….such a great school they named our state after it!

- La Serna High: Rachel’s High School

- My childhood home on Chadsey and myteen yearsapartment on Mulberry.

- Rachel’s childhood homes (4 or 5 different ones!)

- First Family Church: This was the highlight of the day! This is the church where I came to Christ in high school, it’s where Rachel grew up, it’s where we met, married and spent the first 6 years of junior high ministry on staff. The church has gone through some really, really exciting changes in the past few years and it was so fun to tour around with the new Pastor and some of the staff. As luck would have it, while on our tour we ran across Carlos, a lifelong friend who we grew up with who now serves on the church board of elders. If you know anybody in the Whittier/La Habra/La Mirada area looking for a church home First Family is worth a visit.

- Oceanic Arts: My friend Chris Schmaltz’s dad, Leroy, is a legend in the world of Tiki carving and art. He and his partner have owned and operated Oceanic Arts since the late 50′s. Chris and I worked there off and on all through high school and college.

All day long Rachel and I kept talking about our roots, our heritage and how blessed we were to grow up in loving homes, with good friends such fond memories.

Lesson:Week one of our two week ‘mini series’, “Sunday Old School” (Rahab)

Attendance: Lower than average.

Music:Music was great! It was an all junior high band led by a high school student. As a closer, they played a very cool version ofJesus Loves Me.

Volunteer Involvement: Felt a little lower than usual. Maybe coming out of our ‘School Wars’ series they were ready for a break.

Student Involvement: Lower than average. Other than the band, students weren’t used much.

“Fun Factor”:Different than usual, but high. We really played up the old school sunday school theme and played older games, sang older songs etc. It’s not something that would work very often, but for a two-week series it seems fun.

Creative Twist:Instead of me telling the story of Rahab and then teaching, we had a team member dressed up like an old man in a rocking chair reading a version we wrote. It was very true to the biblical account and we just added a few funny jokes and pictures here and there. Then, later in the service I taught for about 12 minutes.