I was snooping around CPYU.Org and stumbled across this recent list of Top 10 television shows.

Rank TV Program Audience (in millions)

1. America’s Got Talen t (NBC) 12
2. Wipeout (ABC) 9.5
3. Criminal Minds (CBS) 9.1
4. So You Think You Can Dance – Thu. (Fox) 8.8
5. CSI: NY (CBS) 8.5
6. Two and a Half Men (CBS) 8.5
7. 60 Minutes (CBS) 8.2
8. House (Fox) 8.1
9. CSI: Miami (CBS) 8
10.Hell’s Kitchen (Fox) 8
Source: Neilsen Media Research

Do you remember several years ago when the “Reality T.V.” craze kicked into high gear? At the time, most television experts and pundits went on the record as saying that reality tv would only last a year or two. It’s interesting that in the list above, 4 of the top 10 tv shows are reality shows. In fact, 3 of the top 4 fall into the category!

The lesson: Experts and pundits aren’t always right. Every field has its experts, and in every field, those experts can often be wrong in their assessments and predictions. Youth ministry is no different. And is often the case in other fields, the youth ministry experts, pundits and predictors of things to come are often far removed from the real world of youth ministry. I appreciate the wisdom and observations of men and women who observe trends, society, theology and try to help us figure out where it’s all heading. But I also realize that they can be wrong. It doesn’t make them less smart or less authoritative, just wrong sometimes.

Keep reading, keep going to seminars, keep talking to people you respect. But don’t change your entire ministry based on what today’s hot youth ministry topic is among the experts.

When I look at that list I notice a couple things:
First, things change and progress, and that’s vital to progress.
Second, while some things change, lots of things stay the same.

Perhaps that’s not a bad way to look at youth ministry.

Some questions to chew on:
– What things in your specific ministry have changed that you didn’t expect?
- What things did you think would have changed by now that haven’t?
– What things desperately need to change and you are willing to make it happen?
– What things must never change?

- Week 4 of “Full Service Summer” went really, really well. Heading into the weekend, I didn’t love my lesson and after teaching it twice on Saturday night I really didn’t love my lesson. But I was kinda stuck with it so headed into Sunday committed to giving it my best shot for final two services. My final evaluation of my lesson is this: Students seemed to like it and my insecurity of wanting to always be funny and captivating made me feel like this lesson wasn’t very good because it wasn’t as funny or captivating as normal. We had great attendance, games were fun, music was great, and the horrific acoustics in the gym couldn’t even hold us back…even though they tried really, really hard.

- Played poker last night (we never play for money…just for fun). I went “All In” in the third hand and got schooled. My three Aces got beat by a straight. Needless to say I was home sitting next to Rachel on the couch much earlier than planned.

- I’m reading The Shack and, to be honest, I’m a little disappointed. Disappointed only because I expected it to be either the most amazing, world shaking and spiritually inspirational book of all time (based on what so many people say) or the most heretical, blasphemous, faith-wrecking book of all time (based on what so many people say). It is what it is: A good read with some great inspiration wrapped in a creative allegory.

- Spending the morning this morning working on my general session message for our PDYM student leadership conference. I feel nervous and unprepared and I believe I speak the session right before Francis Chan which will certainly set him up to look REALLY good! Better that I go before him than after him, I suppose. Wow, insecurity about teaching seems to be a recurring theme for me lately.

- Hoping to go for an afternoon surf today which would be the third time this week. I love Summer.

….Kids would need a membership card to get in (bummer)
….Grace, encouragement, acceptance etc. would come in mass quantities (brilliant)
…It would be well organized (brilliant)
…Some offerings would never change, but lots of things would be rotated out (brilliant)
…The stuff we sell at our snack shack would be the best deal in town! (brilliant)
…There would be lots of kids on the outside looking in (bummer)

Okay, that’s about all I’ve got. It sounded like an easy analogy but maybe not. Shoot us your contributions!

Even though ’10-Minute Talks’ wasn’t written specifically for junior high workers, I think it could be an incredible tool for people who work with young teens. What JH youth worker couldn’t use a couple dozen short, sweet, simple lessons to keep on hand for when they find themselves in a pinch? I have a feeling I’ll grab this book far too often!

- This week is flying buy! I’ve been gone since Tuesday morning on our annual “Burly” trip for JH guys. We limit the trip to 50 students and try to beef up on leaders so the event feels highly relational.

- Last weekend was week 3 of our “Full Service Summer” series. The object lesson was on the Exhaust Pipe. Application: Our outside actions, attitudes and words are closely related to what’s going on “under our hood”.

- Saw Hancock with a couple buddies on Saturday night. Above average but not great. The best part of Hancock (and, in my opinion often the best part of most movies he’s in) was Jason Bateman. He has slowly become my favorite actor.

- I often say that junior high ministry is more about “long term fruit” than what you see in the moment. A recent example for us is Kathryn. Kathryn was in our ministry about 10 years ago. She went away to college, struggled in her faith for a bit and has returned this summer as a volunteer in our ministry. Her faith is strong and her servant’s heart is amazing. She points to her junior high years in our ministry as key to her life experience. A great reminder of importance of young teen ministry.

- On Monday night our family went to the beach. It was the first time I’ve surfed in several months and I am still sore! It’s amazing how quickly one gets out of ‘surf shape’. The highlight of the night was watching Kayla and Cole paddle into their own waves.

THE GOOD:
The past couple of weeks have been like a breath of fresh air to me. Because it’s summertime and because of our crazy schedule, I have been more “hands on” with our junior high ministry than I have in quite a while. I’ve always been really involved in most of the bigger day to day stuff, but in order to pull everything off in this season I’ve been doing everything from building stage props to shopping for prizes to coming up with the game ideas to working the information booth….you name it, and I’ve had my hands in it. I’m not sure it’s been good for everybody else to have me up close and personal, but it’s been GREAT for my own joy factor.

THE BAD:
As amazing as our new facility is, one thing stands out as HORRIBLE….the acoustics in our junior high room. Because of budget constraints, we eliminated acoustic treatments about a year ago while we were building. But the sound is so bad in our room that without some solution, I really believe we run the risk of attendance dropping. Students simply have to work too hard to clearly hear what’s going on.

THE UGLY:
Last weekend during my lesson there was a brand new crop of cute little 7th grade girls sitting right up front. During most of my lesson they were talking fairly loudly amongst themselves. In a moment of weakness I called them out in front of entire group, which isn’t the ugly part. The ugly part was my attitude and super sarcastic tone. Here’s what I said (please read in your most sarcastic tone of voice):
“Hey you girls wouldn’t happen to be brand new 7th graders would you? Yes? Oh, that explains why you’re so immature and squirrley. Here in Junior High, we actually try to be respectful when somebody else is talking.”
Ouch. Needless to say they didn’t interrupt my lesson after that. The only redeeming piece of that story is that I tracked them down after service to apologize for the way I handled the situation which seemed to earn me some favor and grace.

- Our second weekend in our new building was MUCH smoother than our first. We managed to iron out lots and lots of wrinkles, which felt really good.

- Week 2 of “Full Service Summer” went well. The object lesson for the week was the steering wheel and the lesson was built around the idea of steering your life and choices God’s way. The acoustics in the junior high room are really bad which adds some significant challenges, but we’ll get that dialed in. Our new 7th graders don’t seem quite as tiny and nervous as usual…they are jumping right in!

- Couldn’t resist the temptation to see Wanted with the guys the other night. I should have. Too dark for my taste.

- We drive two big SUVs (one was a gift and the other might as well have been…)and the price of gas is killing me. I’ve never been called an environmentalist, but my conscious is beginning to question the need to burn oil at the rate we do. Of course I’m honest enough to acknowledge that my concerns about the environment seem to have only increased as the price of gas has!

- The car I want to replace my Expedition with is a Scion XB. Anybody have one or have any informed opinions?

- Looking forward to a super lazy day off. Absolutely nothing planned.

A couple of months ago I recorded a podcast with Leo Galarza, who at the time was brand new to Saddleback as one of our regional campus youth pastors. The subject was “What to do when you’re new”. Super basic, sound input that garnered lots of feedback. I thought I’d post it here in case you missed it.

Now that we have moved into our new building and now that promotion weekend is behind us, it is FINALLY time to start the Summer season. This Summer, more than any other, we are adhering to the “Cheap and Easy” philosophy of events. Other than our Summer camp and one other over-nighter, all of our events are super cheap and super easy for students to attend. No sign ups, just show up.

The trend with our families seems to be the more spontaneous they can be with their decesion to attend an event, the better the attendance. I wish they planned for youth activities the way they plan for sports and school events, but they just don’t. We decided to quit fighting the system and try to join it. So things like dodgeball, frisbee golf on campus, open Refinery nights, meet us at the park etc. are quickly becoming Summer-time staples.

Would be curious to hear your thoughts and experiences…

A couple of days ago, I saw some really young kids selling lemonade on a fairly busy street corner and thought to myself, “man, I wonder if lemonade stands ever get robbed”.
Today I saw this story.
Don’t mess with 12-year-olds and their livelihood!