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.

Just getting ready to head into the first general session. Brian Mclaren is the speaker so it should be interesting and enjoyable.

Two highlights from last night:

- On the drive in I found myself tuned into a country radio station. I never listen to country and I’m not sure what possessed me to do so last night. The first song I listened to had lyrics in the chorus that went something like this… “I want to kiss you way out in the sticks, I want to walk with you through fields of wild flowers, I want to check you for ticks.” Seriously.

- Because of the time change I wasn’t tired or ready to settle in when I got to my hotel so I went across the street to see the movie, “Drillbit Wilson”. That isn’t the actual title, but I know it had Drillbit in it and starred Owen Wilson. It was actually a pretty fun little flick and one that youth pastors should see.

I’m in the airport waiting to board my flight to Chicago for Willow’s SHIFT conference. I don’t teach until Thursday, but wanted to catch the entire conference from the beginning because it’s always a great one.

Been pondering this today: What Kind Of Leader Am I, and What Kind Of Leader Do I Enjoy Following?

SELF-CENTERED LEADER focuses purely on his or her agenda and the tasks to fulfill that agenda. People are simply tools toward that end. If somebody can’t help the leader achieve the agenda, the self-centered leader sees little use for them. People are only empowered to the extent that they are freed up to fulfill agenda of the leader. Ultimately, the completion of the project and the recognition of the leader is what matters most.

OTHERS-CENTERED LEADER focuses as much, if not more, on the people and the process as the actual agenda. People are viewed as team mates and considered to have just as much value, input and decision making power as the leader. People are empowered to think outside the box, make decisions, move forward. Ultimately, the completion of the project and the fulfillment and recognition of people on the team is what matters most.

It isn’t always easy to break leadership down into those two categories, but I do think they are where most leadership starts…one or the other is usually the foundation for how one leads.

What Kind of Leader are you?
What Kind of Leader do you work for?
What are strengths and weaknesses of each type?

Lesson Topic: Week Two of our Series ‘Strange But True’ (Jacob wrestling the Angel
Attendance: Average
‘Fun Factor’: Above Average
Volunteer Involvement: Above Average
Music: Above Average
Lesson Quality: Below Average
Length of Lesson: 21 mins
Student Response: Average

Another interesting weekend! I’m beginning to think the “Strange But True” stories we picked were the wrong ones…we are having a real tough time turning them into Jr. High-friendly lessons with good application steps. If my only concern was giving out information, then these stories are amazing and great to tell, but I want all of my lessons to have some “handles” for my students. It’s creating the handles each week that has been tough in this series.

On Sunday, one of our key volunteers taught the lesson (he has to teach X number of times for a seminary class he’s taking)so it gave me the freedom to check out our newly opened Irvine Regional campus (Irvine is a community about 15 minutes North of our Lake Forest campus). Our youth programs don’t kick off in Irvine until May but our Irvine youth Pastor is hard at work getting stuff ready to roll. It was really fun to see the energy around the new campus.