When I was a kid, the Magic 8 Ball was a popular way to kill some time on a boring Summer afternoon. My mom, of course, wanted me to have nothing to do with it as in her opinnion it was in the same category as a Ouija board or tarot cards….stuff we shouldn’t mess with.

I can only imagine what my mom would say about “Answer Me Jesus”!  I am hilariously offended by it.

I’m in the middle of two new books; both of which are really good.

Simple Student Ministry: From the folks who brought us Simple Church comes an easy-to-read student ministries version. So far, I have really enjoyed it and recommend it to anybody who leads a youth ministry.

Take Your Best Shot: Austin Gutwein founded Hoops of Hope when he was nine.  Six years later God is using Austin in some tremendous ways. Take Your Best Shot uses Austin’s story as the backdrop to challenge students to make a difference.  I couldn’t recommend this book more highly….it’s a must-read for every teenager.

- Today my daughter, Kayla, turns 15. WOW, it really is amazing how quickly time flies. She really has become a young woman who loves Jesus and is beautiful on the inside and out.

- DANG IT! After I typed that last line I thought it would be good to send the same line to Kayla in a text message at school….only to reach for my phone and realize I don’t have it because it is “in the shop” today.

- This past weekend we said farewell to our current crop of 8th graders. I never cease to be amazed at how much students change during their two short years in junior high. After almost 22 years, I’m still convinced junior high ministry is the most fun, and most important, ministry in the church.

- I found this post on Tony Jones’ blog to be a pretty interesting one concerning the emergent church etc.

- Is it possible to be really excited for the Lakers but not at all excited for Kobe? That’s my tension.

- Other than a short trip to the Dominican Republic and a local speaking gig or two I don’t have any significant trips or projects until February of 2010! I cancelled some stuff and said no to a whole bunch of other stuff and it feels GREAT!

- If you lead a junior high ministry in the Southern California area, there are TWO fantastic events worth considering:      

Stuck In The Middle;  November 20-21, 2009           

Junior High Believe; January 29-30, 2010

I just returned from helping out at Group’s Large Church Youth Ministry Summit.  It was three days of really good discussion and I left with a ton of things to chew on and think about. Here are a few unrelated nuggets of wisdom and insight that I need to chew on.

- Jesus’ style of leadership could perhaps be best described as “Surprising”.  He was constantly surprising those around him.                                            

- Leadership is as much intuitive as it is strategic.

- It may be that volunteers on our teams need looser parameters, not tighter ones.  Make their ministry “box” bigger.

- Most of the time, our failures or mistakes in ministry can be turned into incredible opportunities to learn a leadership principle if we are willing to make the effort.

- Historically, it seems like God uses reluctant leaders much more often than those who “really want to lead”.

- Leadership is “fluid”, or “liquid” which means as a leader you need to know your leadership style etc. but be willing and able to lead differently in different scenarios.

There were more sound bites, but those are the ones that stick out in my mind. And those will have to suffice because I left my notes in Colorado!

Teaching Topic: A “One Hit Wonder” (not part of a series) called What Matters Most. Next weekend is our annual 8th grade weekend in which students run the entire program so this was my last time to speak to our outgoing 8th graders.

Lesson Length: I broke the lesson into two halves, separated by some programming elements and music. Combined the lesson was 20:18.

“Fun Factor”: It was a fairly mellow program, but really fun. We introduced our 3 Summer interns by using them to answer various “Would Your Rather” questions.

Music: Above average in quality, but below average in band enthusiasm and stage presence. Lately, it seems as though our bands are lacking a little bit of excitement and energy as they lead. BUT…..still so fun to have students leading the way!

Attendance: A little bit above average for this time of year.

Volunteer Involvement: Low.  In a couple weeks we are changing up some aspects of our program in an attempt to give our adult leaders a little more ownership and involvement.

In my last post I mentioned that one of my observations about Willow Creek’s middle school ministry was that their middle school pastor, Scott Rubin, seems to be much more of a teacher than a communicator which, in my opinion, was something that helped the large ministry feel smaller and more personable.  To be honest, I’m not even sure I know what that means, exactly, but it really felt evident while I was listening to Scott teach. I’m hoping Scott will read this post and weigh in with some thoughts because I think trying to quantify some of the differences between “teaching” and “communicating” will be an interesting challenge.

I hope you will add your thoughts as well.  Is there a difference? If so, what are they? Which is more effective and in what setting? The list of questions could go on and on.  To get things started, here are a few of my initial, but not totally thought out, ponderings:

- It seems like the smaller the youth group, the more “teaching” happens while larger crowds seem to have more “communicating”. I would possibly define teaching for this discussion as something like learner-based, interactive and instructional where communicating may be presenter-based, non-interactive and inspirational.  Not sure those are the best definitions.

- Communicators try to capture the crowds attention and keep them engage through a high quality presentation. Teachers try to capture the crowds interest and keep them engage through interaction, student involvement, posing questions etc.

- Communicators usually hope their message was “good”.  Teachers usually hope their lesson was “meaningful”

Based on some of these comparisons are you more of a communicator or a teacher?  Note: I’m more of a communicator. I may not be a good one, but that’s my style.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of each style?

What are other differences?

Are my comparisons fair?

What do you want to add to the conversation?

This past weekend while in Chicago, Rachel and I took the opportunity to visit Willow Creek’s junior high program. Elevate (that’s the name of the ministry) ministers to students in 6-8 grade, meets three times during the weekend and truly is a sight to see. It’s a massive, massive ministry that, IMHO blows away just about every pre-concived notion one might have about ministry in an extremely large setting.  I have never seen a large youth ministry do such a good job of feeling small and personable.  A few things that jumped out that helped the cause:

- Lots of leaders. Because they have their small group ministry attached to the weekend program, all of their small group leaders attend the junior high service.

- Lots and lots of interactive stuff for students to do before church starts. I’m not talking high budget, high tech stuff, either. Ping pong tables, floor hockey, shooting hoops etc.

- Racks full of bibles. So that nobody feels left out AND so that everybody reads from the same translation, they provide racks full of Bibles for students to “borrow”.

- Student interaction in the service/lesson. During his lesson, Scott did something that you would expect to see in a much smaller, more intimate setting: He asked for a volunteer to come up and read the lengthy passage of scripture in front of the group.  He would pause her now and then to expound on a point, clarify a tough word etc.

- Scott teaches…he doesn’t “communicate”. I think this is what stuck out to me the most. I’ve heard Scott teach in a lot of settings and every time I am more and more impressed. Instead of focusing on being a great communicator of his message, he seems to be much more about being a great teacher to young teens. It’s hard to put into writing how different it felt, but it was an obvious difference….and a really, really good one!

Don’t get me wrong; thumb print computer kiosks for check-in, a student band so good they should cut an album, professional grade graphics etc. were reminders that Elevate ain’t your ordinary middle school ministry down the street. But something tells me that to the kids who go there each week, that’s exactly what it is. And that’s exactly what it should be.

Okay, Summer is just around the corner and finances are tight for many families. Here are 5 super cheap Summer Ideas:

- FAST FOOD FRIDAYS: We want to have at least one event or activity every week during the Summer but we don’t want everything to cost a ton of money. Our solution is Fast Food Fridays. We’ve simply picked a different fast food place for every Friday of the Summer and are letting students know we will be there from 11:30 to 1:30 if they want to come hang out.

- PARK DAYS:Sounds so old school, doesn’t it! Tell students to pack a lunch (you provide a cooler full of drinks) and meet at a local park for an afternoon of ultimate frisbee, kick-ball etc. Cheap, relational youth ministry at it’s finest.

- MOVIE MONDAYS: Let students know that you will be showing a different movie every Monday afternoon. pop popcorn, dim the lights and enjoy the show.

- ADOPT A BLOCK: Pick a street in a neighborhood near your church and “Adopt” it for the Summer. Ahead of time, ask families what household projects/chores your students could do for them when you show up on X days. Pulling weeds, mowing lawns, washing cars etc. is a cheap and easy way to serve families in your community.

- “AFTER GLOW”: Okay, that is such a lame name, but it’s what we called them back when I was a student in youth group. In short, an After Glow is simply a loosely planned hang out at a student’s house after church (after Wednesday night, for example). Students sign up ahead of time for the night they want to host. Should you choose to try this, please come up with a better name!

- With the “shutting down” of YSMarko, I feel like the youth ministry world is loosing a daily glimpse into the mind of one of our leading voices. I will miss my daily dose.

- A couple weeks ago, mentioning the possibility of a Nuggets/Magic NBA finals would have been laughable.  Could it happen?

- Enjoyed a really lazy Memorial Day with most of the family. Cole was at Universal Studios with some friends so Rachel, Kayla and I laid around a lot and then went to a BBQ at some friend’s house.

- About the only physical thing I did yesterday was take a TON of plastic bottles and cans to our church. We have a recycling program that provides bibles in needy countries…..every 10 bottles or cans = 1 Bible. My wife helps collect the bottles at Cole’s school and we clean them, store them and then deliver them. We hadn’t “delivered” them for several months so yesterday I took enough bottles and cans to the church to provide bibles for the entire nation of China! I’m not much into going “green”, but there has to be some catchy “The Gospel Goes Green” slogan we can attach to the effort.

- A somewhat slow week (lots of meetings, but not a hectic schedule) and then Rachel and I head out to Chicago for a combination Believe meeting/hang out with theRubins/Anniversary get-away. The two of us haven’t been away together for more than a couple days since our 10-year anniversary so we are super excited.

Lesson Topic: 3rd and final week of “Exposed…The Naked Truth About Sex and Dating”
Lesson Length: 34 minutes which is WAY longer than I normally teach. But the subject matter held students attention the entire time. After each service I promised to shorten it, but simply couldn’t figure out what didn’t need to be in the lesson.
Attendance: Below Average. A holiday weekend combined with about 50 of our students away on a mission trip made our attendance quite light.
Fun Factor: Average. Nothing overly crazy or creative, but a fun program.
Music: Above Average. The band was tight, we had a GREAT adult leading with the students, and we kicked the program off with a really fun cover of “I’m Too Sexy”.
Volunteer Involvement: Below Average. Not many in attendance.

On Deck For Next Week:Next weekend is our 8th grade retreat (It’s an overnighter on campus) so we have asked one of our high school Pastors to speak in Wildside to help 8th graders begin their transition to high school.