Interesting article.
Actually, I find the comments at end of the article much more interesting than the article itself.

I’m looking for somebody with some expertise: We are building a ‘Skate Friendly’ area in our new student zone (not a true skate park….) and our insurance company is requiring me to create a bunch of stuff that I really don’t understand anything about.

If anybody has a skate park at their church, or knows somebody who does, and would be willing to give me some insight I would greatly appreciate it!

I’ve had a buddy since college who is the most encouraging person I’ve ever met. Every single time I talk to him, he finds a way to sneak in an edifying comment of some sort. I always walk away from my time with him feeling a little bit better about myself.

I’ve been thinking lately about the power of encouragement. I wonder if anything has such a high return on such a simple investment.

A few words of encouragement to a parent of a junior higher can make their day! Pointing out something you’ve seen in how the love their child or saying something kind to them about their kid are both super easy ways to encourage a mom or dad.

A few words of encouragement to a 13 year old makes a huge difference. Look for something deeper than “I like your new hair cut” or “That’s a cool skateboard” and point out something about his or her character. “I love the way you ________” or “I noticed the way you treated the new student” etc. take about 30 seconds but make a big impact.

A few words of encouragement to your volunteers may keep them around a little while longer. Point out an area they excell in and thank them for it. Express ways your ministry is better because of them.

Encourgement…I wonder if anything has such a high return on such a simple investment.

Today is our Student Ministries team Christmas party. We are heading out to Moreno Valley (out towards the desert…) to race go-karts on a mile-long outdoor track. The Karts are supposed to reach speeds of 60 miles an hour which should be a ton of fun. They let you practice for a while and then set up actual races. We’re a pretty competitive bunch so it should be interesting to see it all unfold!

UPDATE: It’s now 7:35 and I just walked through my front door. In a word: AMAZING. a few highlights.
- The track was unbelievable…the largest go kart track in the U.S. at one mile.
- Top speed was 70 MPH which felt like about 120 in the low-riding carts.
- There were times when I definitely felt like my life was in danger.
- Despite a 45 minute orientation preparing us, I completely spun out in my very first turn because I couldn’t gauge the speed.
- We did have one unfortunate injury in our “main event” race which resulted in one of our interns going to the emergency room for 10 stitches to the knee.

Lesson Topic: Week One of two week series: UNWRAPPED, Revealing Christmas
Attendance: Above average
‘Fun Factor’: Above Average
Volunteer Involvement: Average
Music: Average
Lesson Quality: Above Average
Length of Lesson: 17 mins
Student Response: Above Average

Kicked off a two-week Christmas series with a fun weekend. For two weeks, we’re revealing the good and bad of Christmas time. This week, we looked at three Christmas killers: Busyness, Greed and Jealousy. Next week we’ll unwrap the good side of Christmas…true meaning.

Games were fun, music was great (but only ‘average’ because it was led by high school students which I never enjoy as much as when our jr. highers lead even though the quality is better)and students seemed to really track with the lesson.

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours with Eric Iverson from Youth Works, an organization that runs short term missions trip for students. Eric and I met on an enterprise rental car shuttle van in Chicago a couple of years ago and have been trying to get together ever since. I really enjoyed our time together and feel like he’s the kind of guy that, if he was smart enough to live in Southern California, I would enjoy being around more often.

I was excited to talk to him because I’ve been wrestling with the whole idea of short term missions for quite a while and posted about it here several months ago.

A big piece of Eric’s role at youth works is to help them re-shape the age-old formula of traditional short term mission projects which is basically: Middle class suburban youth group pulls into neglected community and paints, re-builds, etc. then loads vans and goes home feeling good about what they just did for the kingdom.

His vision is that Youth Works would begin to ‘work themselves out of ministry’ by helping students understand a more holistic picture of society, culture, justice etc. in the hopes that students and youth groups will begin to think about how to be part of the bigger solutions on the front end. If, instead of cleaning up a neglected neighborhood, youth groups began to think about how the church can be part of preventing the neglect in the first place. Of course, He articulated it much better than that.

It seems like youth leaders find themselves in a bit of a catch-22. By simply showing up in vans we only provide band-aids and may, in some cases, actually be pro-longing the problems we think we’re fixing. But, band-aids aren’t bad and if applying a band-aid exposes our kids to the gaping wounds of others perhaps they’ll be motivated to be part of the bigger solution.

Instead of ‘either, or’ I think this is a perfect opportunity for organizations like youth works to help create a ‘both, and’ approach. I’m glad people like Eric are wrestling through it.

This morning I took a quick drive by our soon-to-be-completed Student Zone. To be honest, the thing is amazing. Over 50,000 square feet of incredible space dedicated to our junior high and high school students plus an outdoor activity area. It will give us incredible new opportunities to minister to our community. As excited as I am, I also fear the leadership of our ministry could lose a little bit of what I love so much about us:

- Flexibility: We’ve never had our own space so we’ve always been super flexible. We get bumped, double-booked in rooms, etc. A couple years ago, our junior high ministry met for an entire Summer in our parking lot with a portable stage!

- Sense of Gratitude: Because we haven’t had a lot of ‘stuff’ historically, I fear the building could begin to usher in a sense of entitlement; that we somehow always deserve the best. Right now we’re thankful when the facilities team remembers to help re-set the chairs after the women’s bible study!

- Creativity: Having a world-class facility sets the stage for laziness. Why think outside the box when we have the world’s coolest box right here?

- Generosity: We’ve been super generous with the resources we’ve been given in the past. I hope we’ll view the new Student Zone as an opportunity to be more generous than ever. Human nature tends to want to horde nice stuff.

- Just picked up the book, ‘Trust’ and am looking forward to it. It’s not a new book, but the title caught my attention.

- I really hope the Patriots don’t go undefeated…how awesome would it be if the Dolphins were the ones to beat ‘em!

- Have you heard of Stuck In The Middle? Check it out…neat ministry for middle schoolers.

- Group Publishing has turned some of the columns I’ve written for GROUP Magazine into a junior high ministry book due out in February. The best part is that Scott Rubin, the jr. high guy at Willow and a great friend, added his commentary to every page.

- My office has very little storage space and a whole lot of stuff that needs to be stored…not a good combination right now!

- Been spending a lot of time playing Tiger Woods ’08 on Xbox after the family is in bed. My computer golf game is no better than my real golf game.

- Saved and saved and saved and saved, and just bought a 2005 Honda TRX 250 for my wife and daughter to share. It looks exactly like this one.

Lesson Topic: One Hit Wonder: Power of Compassion
Attendance: Above average
‘Fun Factor’: Average
Volunteer Involvement: Average
Music: Above Average
Lesson Quality: Average
Length of Lesson: 22 mins
Student Response: Above Average

On Wed-Fri of last week, our church hosted the 3rd Global Summit on Aids and the Church. On Saturday we hosted our first Youth Aids Summit. We were expecting about 300 students and had almost 1,000 show up. One of the highlights was World Vision’s Step Into Africa that allowed students a 20 minute journey into the life of a child affected by HIV/Aids.
To wrap up the weekend, we dedicated our junior high services to the topic of compassion.

I see quite a few movies. I typically sneak out to a late-night showing after the family is in bed and join a couple of buddies. Yesterday my friend Eric Venable called me and said he thinks I should add a regular movie review to my blog. I like movies, but I’m really not a reviewer. I watch them for entertainment not through a critical eye, a theological lens etc.

But I thought his idea was sorta fun so here’s what I’ll do….every now and then I’ll share the three most recent movies I’ve seen and give a simple ‘Thumbs Up’, ‘Thumbs Down’ or ‘Sideways Thumbs’ review.

I’m not a fan of any particular genre of movie, and I have no real ability to identify why I like some movies and don’t like others….therefore my reviews will probably be somewhat inconsistent.

Hit Man (Rated R). Best Scene: nothing sticks out.
Review: Thumbs Down

Dan in Real Life (Rated PG13). Best Line: “You are a murderer of love!”
Review: Thumbs Up

Enchanted (Rated PG) Best Scene: The opening scene making fun of Disney’s own formula.
Review: Thumbs Up