The Good:
Our student ministry team has been expanding (new regional campuses, a few newer hires, etc.) but it feels like we are starting to gel as a group. I’m a believer that “fit” is more crucial than “skill” on a team and I feel like our team fits together well and is well skilled at what they do.

The Bad:
Each year, we take a retreat with our youth team and spouses. It’s a major highlight for us because we get to hang out, relax and gear up for Summer. Unfortunately because of the schedule of our new student center opening we had to change our dates this year at the 11th hour. The result: A few of our team had already mad plans and couldn’t change them. I absolutely HATE that my poor planning results in them missing out.

The Ugly:
I feel like our students and their families are under major attack. Divorces, sudden deaths and “run aways” have been on the increase lately. I hold onto the belief that when amazing things are about to happen, Satan gets busy.

On our mission trip, we were staying at a local church about 20 minutes away from the reservation youth center. Friday night as I was exploring the church, I stumbled upon a large room that was set up for a massive Rummage sale the next morning. To know me is to know that I absolutely love Garage sales and all things second-hand and cheap. I couldn’t resist the temptation to browse around to see what I might find. As I snooped around, I stumbled upon a notebook from the early 90′s titled “Teen Clinic” by a gentleman named Dave Ray. It looked like….well it looked like an entire teen clinic in a notebook. How could I resist! I put $3.00 in the little jar and headed back to our group, my head filled up with wonder and anticipation of what this “Teen Clinic” may hold in store. I haven’t started reading it yet, but I will….oh yes, I will.

Missions Trip:
Our missions trip to the reservation in AZ was great. Aside from the usual missions trip highlights, a highlight for me was the fact that a huge percentage of the students that attended the trip were kids who aren’t super involved in our ministry. Many of them were kids who I’ve never really met so I had a great time learning new names, hearing new stories and all that good stuff.

Weekend Program:
It was week two of our “Heroes” series and our subject was the “Sinful Woman” (the woman who poured her perfume on Jesus’ feet). Jason Petty, one of our high school pastors taught and did a fantastic job.

Small Group Curriculum:
I’m spending all day tomorrow editing/tweaking/re-writing 10 scripts for small group video curriculum for next school year. We’re setting aside two days in a couple of weeks to try to film all 10…YIKES. But, our leaders and students seem to really like the stuff so it is time well spent.

New Regional Campus:
This weekend we will launch student ministries on our 3rd regional campus in Corona, a community about 45 minutes East. Sadly, I won’t be able to be at the launch because I’ll be on vacation.

Coke:
It’s time to make it official: I have switched my loyalty from Pepsi to Coke. Even typing this makes me feel disloyal and like I’m betraying an old friend. I’m sorry, Pepsi.

I’m leaving in about an hour on our Mission trip to AZ to partner with a youth center on an Apache Indian reservation. I’m going along with a team of four dads as part of the “early crew” who will shop for food, supplies, meet with the leader of the youth center etc. so we’re ready to go when our students arrive tomorrow night.

Likely won’t be posting much over the long weekend.

Jr. High Grapple, a new resource from Group Publishing has me really, really interested. Much more than merely curriculum it is an online community, gives students a chance to vote for upcoming program elements and more.

I’ll be really interested to see how this resource is received and used….I love the idea, but it also feels really different and risky, which is why I love it so much!

If you try it, I would love to hear your reports.

I’ve tried creating “features” in the past but I haven’t had much success being faithful to them, but I’m going to try it again. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly will be a new occasional post in which I’ll feature a good, a bad and an ugly from my ministry.

THE GOOD:

PRIZE WHEEL: We invested a couple hundred bucks for a decent quality spinning prize wheel. It has about 30 slots and each slot has a different prize listed. Instead of constantly buying prizes that we think kids might like (and spending way too much time and money…) we decided to buy a tub full of goofy prizes and let kids spin the wheel to see what they win. Plastic dinosaur, can of corn, rubber spatula, pair of socks etc. are all on the wheel and ready to be won. Students totally love it.

THE BAD:

WEEKEND FOLLOW UP: Man, we just can’t seem to get this one right. I really want to do a better job of following up on students who attend our weekend program, but I have an aversion to mandated check in systems. The result: really poor follow up! Because we don’t take it seriously, we simply aren’t following up on students the way we should. I have to figure this one out…probably just sucking it up and creating a mandatory check-in of some sort.

THE UGLY:

VOLUNTEER DISILLUSIONMENT:

Had a tough meeting with a key volunteer in our ministry the other day. We mad a major decision that effected this particular volunteer significantly. While it was the right decision, his response made it clear that the process by which we made it was flawed. Flawed to the point that a significant level of trust was broken and I wanted to own our part in the process. It was one of those long, uncomfortable conversations that you hate to have but know you need to have.

- Joined Twitter about a week ago. Interesting. I’m surprised that I enjoy getting frequent updates from buddies.

- This was a great weekend in our JH ministry. We kicked off our “Heroes…from average to awesome” series with a lesson on Gideon. Lots of creative elements, great music and a pretty good lesson. We had students totally engaged from start to finish.

- I’m sure I’ll see Indiana Jones even though I’m not a huge fan and I’ve heard this one is a bit of a let down which is a bummer considering all the hype and incredible hassle to get it done.

- It’s hot, hot, hot and I’m realizing that I’m not quite ready for Summer. I’m ready for all the fun it brings, just not for the heat!

- Last night, a crew of us snuck into the Refinery, our soon-to-open student center, to play the inaugural game of basketball on the new court. High temps mixed with stuffy building mixed with lack of running water. But we had a Great time.

- Not sure which I’m more excited about: Our upcoming Mission trip to the Apache Indian Reservation in AZ. or my vacation that immediately follows. I haven’t taken a full week off in well over a year and we have absolutely nothing planned for this one….which is PERFECT!

The 5th, and final, nugget from Stanley:

“When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near.”

- Most churches are living in the “good old days” and trying to figure out how to recapture them instead of creating new ones.

Takeaway: Don’t let past success or current momentum overshadow your vision…keep vision out in front.

Question for junior high ministry: Are you more excited about the past successes of your ministry of the future potential? What memories from the past are actually jeopardizing your future?

Okay, I’m not so sure about this but I got talked into trying twitter. Sounds kinda dumb, but sure seems like lots of people are lovin’ it so I’ll give it a shot.
www.twitter.com/kurtjohnston

If you have an account let me know and I’ll follow you.

The fourth nugget from Andy Stanley:

“If we got kicked out and the board brought in somebody new, what would they do? Why don’t we just walk out, come back in and do it ourselves?”

- Sometimes the most obvious, important changes are the ones current leadership doesn’t see or is unwilling to make.

Takeaway: Acknowledge what’s not working and own up to why you aren’t doing anything about it.

Questions for Junior High Ministry: What’s in decline? Where are we manufacturing energy (in other words, what things are we spending way too muchtime convincing ourselves and other people are important, when nobody seems to believe that’s the case)? What underlying assumptions do we have that may no longer be accurate?