I realize it’s Tuesday, but figured I’d go ahead with my new Monday Miscellaneous tradition:

- Didn’t post yesterday because, frankly, I forgot. I got up fairly early to head out to an all day golf tournament for my kid’s school. A friend of mine owns the insurance company that insures the school so he always buys a foursome for the otherwise way-too-costly-for-me event. We had a great time. He also bought us each 10 raffle tickets for some pretty cool prizes which, of course, I didn’t win.

- The weekend in Junior High was an interesting one. Really good in some areas and not so good in others…very much a roller coaster of sorts. Music was probably the best in a long time. One of our games was great and the other really struggled (even though it was a great, creative idea…). In fact it struggled so much that we tweaked it for the second service and then totally eliminated it from the third. Our new series “Simmer Down…three emotions that will get you into hot water” seems like it will be pretty fun. This week the topic was Anger; and more specifically how to deal with dangerous anger.

- Our Student ministry program at our new regional campus in Irvine kicks off this Sunday. Leo, our youth pastor at that campus, has been working like crazy recruiting volunteer leaders, setting up the youth room etc. I’m excited to see what God is going to do at the new campus.

- Our junior high and high school departments are in a little bit of controversy because we have decided to post-pone all of our missions trips to Mexico for the next 6 months due to the increased danger. Mexico always has certain risks, and many feel like nothing much has changed other than media attention but our missions department feels like violence has increased enough to warrant not taking students. Some families are are thanking us for our cautious approach and others are frustrated by it.

- Incredible progress is being made on our new student facility, The Refinery. All signs still point to a June 21st grand opening which happens to be promotion weekend so we are getting really close! The building is amazing.

One of the biggest frustrations in leading a junior high ministry is the relatively small amount of resources and curriculum written specifically for young teens. So, I am excited to see that Youth Specialties is releasing four new 8-week middle school studies around really crucial topics. Ken Rawson and his wife, Jen, told me about this project a while back and I am really glad to see these great studies available for folks like me and you! The four studies are:
Becoming a Young Man of God
Living as a Young Man of God
Becoming a Young Woman of God
Living as a Young Woman of God

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about organizational culture; how do you define it, who sets it, how to navigate it etc.

Every church in America has it’s own culture. Your church has yours, my church has mine, and chances are they are fairly unique. When talking to fellow youth workers who have had bad experiences at a previous church, I’ve come to the conclusion that one of the biggest contributing factors is a failure to navigate the culture of that particular church. It’s really tough to pin-point or define the culture of any particular church, but it exists and the ability to recognize and function well within it is one key to longevity and success in the church setting.

- Is the work environment casual or formal?
- Are you expected to tell your supervisor where you are during the day?
- What meetings can you afford to miss and what ones must you make sure to never miss?
- What type of humor is allowed in what settings?
- Is the church led by type ‘A’ personalities or not?
- How loosely or tightly are office hours tracked?
- Is there an expectation that most good work happens when you are in the office?
- Does your church value ‘sacred cows’ or is it open to lots of changes?
- Are there certain leaders who expect to be treated in a certain fashion?
- Is email the preferred method of communication amongst staff or face-to-face?

…and the list goes on.

Try this exercise: write a one paragraph definition of your church’s ‘culture’ and ask others you work with to do the same. Then, spend some time together and identify the areas that were common to everybody. Chances are those areas are the true culture of your church and the less common areas may be individual values or experiences.

What I’ve learned and what I’ve seen others learn is that one person rarely changes the culture of the church. Culture is developed over time; for better and for worse and the wise youth worker is one who can appreciate it, understand it and navigate it.

Our Summer Theme this year is “Full Service Summer”. This morning we went to a local gas station to take a bunch of pictures for our Summer Calendar that is due to go to print in about a week. We’ve always had a ‘theme’ for the Summer, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that we actually started creating 10-weeks worth of lessons around it. In recent years our themes have been:

- IN MOTION
10 weeks on what it would look like if you actually put the fruit of the spirit in motion in your life

- ON LOCATION
10 weeks using a different famous land mark such as great wall of china, mt. everest etc. as backdrop for an object lesson.

- HANG 10 SUMMER
10 weeks of character traits such as honesty, loyalty etc.

For “Full Service Summer” we are hoping to use a different car part each week as an object lesson. It was a great idea at the time, but now I’m struggling. Anybody have any creative ideas for me?

Let’s do this….post an idea to help me out, then post any Summer-related topic you could use help on. Camp ideas, activity ideas, promotion weekend ideas….you name it. We can all chime in.

Over the past year or so, God has really begun softening my heart for single moms and the struggles they face. To be honest, much of my thinking and praying has been on behalf of the moms and not on their kids. A good buddy of mine just passed these stats along to me which served as a reminder of who the real victims are when no dad is present.

63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes–U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census
85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes–Center for Disease Control
80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes–Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 14, p. 403-26
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes–National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools
70% of juveniles in state operated institutions come from fatherless homes–U.S. Dept. of Justice
85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home–Fulton County Georgia jail populations & Texas Dept. of Corrections

Translated, this means that children from a fatherless home are:
5 times more likely to commit suicide
32 times more likely to run away
20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders
14 times more likely to commit rape
9 times more likely to drop out of school
10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances
9 times more likely to end up in a state operated institution
20 times more likely to end up in prison

Brandon Grissom, the worship leader for Willow Creek’s junior high ministry, just released a new E.P. As usual he wrote a good portion of the songs, and as usual it is really good stuff. The most junior high friendly, I think, are Brighter and Liberty.

- I was traveling yesterday from the Willow Creek conference so didn’t attend our junior high program but heard it was a great weekend.

- I did get home just in time for our annual small group frisbee golf tournament. Kids sign up to play with their small group and we make a nine-hole course around the campus. Good time.

- Today my son, Cole, turns 11. He has really taken to guitar and we were told that a great way to encourage practice is to play along with favorite songs, which makes sense. We would never buy our 11 year old an iPod but that seemed like the best way for him to find individual songs that he would like to play along with without needing to buy an entire CD. So, we have an 11 year old with an iPod (but purely in the interest of encouraging his love for guitar).

- Has anybody out there played much of the Xbox 360 game ‘Skate’? Cole showed me a demo of it last night and it looks amazing. Way better than Tony Hawk from the little I saw. Is it worth buying?

- Was very odd to board the plane yesterday morning in snow flurries and land in 91 degree heat wave sweeping So.Cal. I’m really not ready for Summer quite yet, but the heat does feel kinda good.

- Heading off to date day with Rachel which usually includes Chic-fil-A, walking around the mall and being lazy. I’m quite the romantic I’ve been told.

I’m in the coffee shop outside Willow Creek’s auditorium enjoying my Chai Latte (which happens to be much better than the one I usually get at Starbucks. Not sure why….) and reflecting on my experiences and learnings.

- Brian Mclaren was great. I was expecting controversial statements and attempts to rattle our cages, but didn’t get any of that. He shared a really, really great presentation about the possibility that the church is busy addressing lots of issues that don’t matter a whole lot. Good stuff.

- Had dinner last night with a student ministries team from a multi-campus church in Canada. They may have been the sharpest, nicest group of youth workers I’ve ever met. Some of their approaches to the multi-campus structure are quite interesting and I found myself taking mental note after mental note. I would have actually taken written notes, but both hands were busy cramming Chicago-style deep dish pizza down my throat.

- This morning, Kara Powell made a case for 4 ingredients of a youth ministry that produces students who remain Christ-followers as they enter college. Her 4 (in my words):
* A clear understanding of the gospel.
* A ministry that welcomes and provides opportunities for doubts to be shared.
* Opportunities for inter-generational relationships.
* Students learning how to feed themselves spiritually.

- Right now I’m heading in to hear Dan Kimball who is my favorite of the emerging thinkers and leaders. Partly because he has cool hair.