YouTube is creating some new rules and operating procedures in an effort to minimize the exposure of questionable videos and content.

This feels like really good news since it is one of the most-visited sites by young teens. Read more about it here.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the importance, or lack thereof, of a strategic year to year teaching plan. In our ministry setting, if a junior higher enters our ministry as a 7th grader he/she will have approximately 100 weekend lessons and somewhere close to 60 small group bible study lessons under their belt by the time they graduate from 8th grade. Of course this assumes they are involved in a small group and rarely miss either small group or weekend programs.

Sooooo, with at best 150 (add 33% if you have 6th graders) opportunities to speak God’s truth into the lives of a group of students who are in the midst of CRAZY social, spiritual, emotional, physical and intellectual development, it seems like junior high ministries should have a pretty solid christian education plan, right? It does to me, but we don’t. Our team recently had a small, but rather disturbing, “ah ha” moment at our weekend program that caused us to acknowledge that perhaps we need to become more proactive in thinking through our teaching scope.

Sure we have certain areas of studies that we make sure we cover from year to year such as the basics of the faith, sexuality, core doctrine, etc. but honestly there isn’t all that much that has been deemed as “stuff we always teach to every group of kids”.

So this post is selfish, but hopefully one that will garner some discussion that will benefit everybody.

I would love to get comments briefly outlining your teaching strategy from year to year if you have one. If you don’t, then explain your strategy for not having one. Here is some fodder for discussion:

- How do you balance felt need/topical with expository/doctrinal type teaching?
- If you have small groups, do they follow your weekend lessons or stand alone?
- Is it better to expose this age group to lots of topics or pick much smaller amount and repeat, repeat, repeat?
- Given their developmental stage, how much time should we spend helping them navigate this season of their life?
- Knowing that much of our faith is more ‘caught’ than ‘taught’, what types of strategies do you employ outside the formal teaching time to help students ‘catch’ a desire to follow Christ?

Okay, that’s enough…I really could go on and on. Let’s talk!

- Hey! my last post was #650! I probably should have done something cool commemorate it.

- Starting next Monday, I will bring back the popular “Weekend Wrap Up”. I would have brought it back today but I wasn’t part of our junior high programs this past weekend so I have nothing to “wrap up” other than I heard it was a great weekend.

- If you happen to ride a dirt bike, what do you ride? Do you recommend one bike over another? Is there one to avoid at all costs? I ask because I am in the market to “move up” from my 2002 Honda XR 250 which I bought at a killer deal from a buddy as we were getting into riding. Now that it is something that has “stuck” with the family we are in the process of upgrading some of our bikes. And conveniently, I’m first in line!

- Two weeks ago the Jets beat the then undefeated Titans. This week the Broncos beat the Jets. Simple logic will tell you that this means the Broncos can beat the Titans, making them the best team in the AFC.

- Enjoyed a fantastic Thanksgiving yesterday with both sides of the family. Sure missed having my dad there.

- Shows that I watched PART of during the course of the day: Lions/Titans game, Cowboys/Seahawks game, James Bond, Godfather parts 1&2, Texas/Texas A&M game, Kung Fu Panda, Dirty jobs, and others that I’m forgetting. Yes…it was a LAZY day!

- Today I’m trying to figure out whether to shop for black friday specials, take Cole to what will certainly be a crowded Vans skate park, clean my garage, See a movie with the entire family or some crazy combination of all the above.

- My new favorite drink (one that I “invented” on a plane trip a few months back but forgot about until a couple days ago)is cranberry juice with a slice of lime squeezed in. I call it a “CRIME”. I’m sure there’s a formal name for it, but hadn’t ever heard of it until my discovery so I figured I could come up with my own name.

- Absolutely loving the cooler weather that has visited us for the past few days.

- Excited about this week’s junior high lesson. We are going to attempt to, in 20 short minutes, educate our students on how to use various tools to study the bible on their own. Probably not the most exciting lesson, but an important one.

Yesterday was a tough day. We got a call at about 7:30 a.m. telling us that my dad had passed away. As I write this I’m grieving but filled with joy knowing he is in the presence of our heavenly father and enjoying perfect health…something he hasn’t known for many years.

Thanks a ton for all the comments and emails of support and encouragement the past couple of weeks. It has meant a lot. If the technological world of texts, instant messaging, facebook, blogs etc. have hurt “true community”, I haven’t sensed it during this time. I have had very few face to face conversations about my dad in recent days, but have never experienced more community and closeness with the body of Christ.

I have fourteen 7th grade guys in my small group, which I co-lead with one of our volunteers. He travels quite a bit and couldn’t be there this past Wednesday night. Because my fourteen guys are….one might say….”spirited”, I knew I needed to try something different if I had any hope of keeping control of the group by myself.

I decided to show them Rob Bell’s Nooma video called “RICH”. In case you don’t know who he is, Rob Bell is a young senior pastor who is an amazing story teller and teacher. He produces 10-15 minute teaching videos along a variety of subjects. “Rich” is dedicated to helping us understand that God has blessed us and our country so that we can be a blessing to the world around us.

At one point, Rob says something along the lines of “Did you know we could solve the problem of starvation in the world for “X” billion dollars? …..Guess what, Americans spend more than that each year on ice cream.” That comment seemed to resonate with my guys because there was an audible “oooohhhhh” from the group.

When the video was finished I decided to seize the moment and ask about the ice cream statement. The short conversation is a classic reminder of junior high ministry 101.

ME: “So, remember that part about how the entire world’s starvation problem could be solved for the same amount of money that Americans spend on ice cream?”

THEM: “Uh, yep”

ME: “What do you think something like that might be saying to us?”

7th GRADE BOY GIVING VERY SERIOUS ANSWER: “It means we need to shut down all the ice cream places in America.”

Classic.

If you’re like me, the busier you get doing God’s work, the easier it becomes to find yourself feeling far from God. Over the years, I’ve created a short little “check list” of questions I try to ask myself on a regular basis, and especially in the busy seasons. For me, the categories are more important then the specific questions.

HEART
- Am I feeding my soul?
- Are jealousy, greed or other cancerous motives creeping in?
- Is Jesus my first love?
- Am I generous?

MIND
- Am I guarding my thoughts?
- Do I like the “stuff” that has been at the forefront of my mind lately?

EYES
- Is the stuff I’m watching okay?
- Is the stuff I’m reading okay?
- Currently what do I tend to “set my eyes upon”?

It’s not some sort of spiritual measuring stick or check list of do’s and dont’s that cheapens grace and invites legalism, but rather the acknowledgement of my sin nature and the fact that the busyness of ministry and life in general has a way of making it super easy to neglect my spiritual well being.

Time after time I’ve found that when I’m grumpy, stressed, overly frustrated, impatient, feeling unfulfilled or under-appreciated etc. there is a direct correlation to the categories I’ve listed.

- My friend, Gregg Farah, just started what I think will be a really good blog. Greg is a great writer and it seems like his posts will mostly be short essays like this one. Good stuff, I think.

- When they first came out I really, really wanted an FJCruiser. My enthusiasm wained quickly for two reasons: 1) they seem to have a real bad blind spot which made me uncomfortable when I drove my buddy’s and 2) I couldn’t afford one. It’s been about two years, and I suddenly find myself really, really wanting one again. They still have a blind spot and I still can’t afford it, but do you really need to be able to see when switching lanes? Do my kids really need to go to college?

- My new “guilty pleasure” t.v. show is Sons Of Anarchy. It’s a really well written and acted show that revolves around a motorcycle club/gang in a small town in Northern California. It isn’t for the faint of heart and is pretty strong much of the time…like a cleaned up (but not too clean) version of the Sopranos on Harley’s. Viewer discretion is advised.

- We are wrapping up “The Red Stuff” in our junior high ministry this weekend. I think it has been one of our better series in a long time. If I taught longer series, this would be an easy one to stretch five or six weeks.

Thanks a TON for the prayers for my dad and for my family over the past few days. I truly have felt supported and strengthened by our heavenly Father.

It has been a crazy roller coaster which has brought no real sense of direction as of yet.
When we took my dad off his life support on Saturday night, we were told he would survive anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple of days, so we all braced ourselves for what was to come.
Now, a few days later he has stabilized to the point where they believe the best thing for him is to return home and “let nature take it’s course” which could happen extremely suddenly or take a couple of months. His heart is at functioning at about 17%, his blood pressure is extremely low and his heart rate extremely high. It’s basically a trifecta of bad scenarios that his body can only endure for so long. The hope of having my dad around for a little longer is thrilling, but the uncertainty of the situation is so much more un-nerving than I would have anticipated. In essence we are in a minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, day-by-day, week-by-week posture.

Right now, I’m enjoying a few moments of alone time at Peet’s Coffee trying to figure out how best to structure my life and time for the short-term future in order to maximize time with my dad without abandoning everything else.

It’s been a CRAZY Weekend….

- I wasn’t at church this weekend so we decided ahead of time to do something we’ve never done: I video taped my entire message beforehand and showed the video instead of asking somebody else to fill in and teach. I was told that it was super effective. What I found interesting was that instead of shooting it in a creative setting we simply set me up on the stage and I taught to an empty room. I thought that was a mistake heading in because I assumed in order for the video idea to work it would have to be more creative…but the word is that students totally responded. I helped, I suppose that much of my lesson was built around a fun story and that we had a live “teacher” set me up and wrap it up.

- While we were in the dessert dirt bike riding we got word that my dad had suffered a heart attack (he has had several heart attacks and strokes in recent years), and had been placed on life support. We packed up, headed into town and have spent the last couple days and nights at his side. He has specifically requested no drastic measures be taken to spare his life, so we took him off the medication that was keeping his heart somewhat stable…so far he is still very much conscious so we have had some great time together. The doctor originally said that when we took him off the medicine he could survive anywhere from 10 minutes to several days.

- My dad loves the Lord and has been an incredible example of faithfulness over the years. He has always questioned his effectiveness of a father because we struggled financially so much while we were young and he has always seemed to carry an enormous amount of guilt over his “inability to provide for us”. He brought this up in conversation at the hospital and we had some great conversation reminding him what some of the true measures of a man really are…all of which he has faithfully fulfilled. I would appreciate your prayers.