My Life Will Never Be The Same
I finally broke down.
I bit the bullet.
I asked permission.
I signed up for X-Box live.
I played Halo 3 until midnight last night.
I found it amazing.
I think my life will never be the same.
I finally broke down.
I bit the bullet.
I asked permission.
I signed up for X-Box live.
I played Halo 3 until midnight last night.
I found it amazing.
I think my life will never be the same.
This June will mark my 20 year anniversary in junior high ministry. I’m sure that I will do a much more honest and thorough reflection of stuff I’ve learned, but today I was thinking about some of the bigger ‘Ah Ha’ moments I’ve had in ministry. Moments where the light bulb went off above my head and something changed as a result.
Some of my ‘Ah Ha’ moments, in no particular order:
- I’m not irreplaceable.
- I don’t have to be cool.
- Everybody ‘loves’ junior high kids (we have to, we’re Christians right?) but some people actually like them. Those are the people to build my team around.
- Functioning as a leader first and a Pastor second is a mistake.
- A lesson doesn’t have to be long to be good, but if it’s going to be long it has to be good!
- Parents need to be viewed as an ally not an enemy.
- To be effective, I have to surround myself with people who are smarter, more gifted and a lot different than I am.
- Pride ruins everything.
- I don’t deserve anything I’ve been given.
In our junior high ministry, our team tries to create what we call a “No Way” moment once in each series. A “No Way” moment is simply something we do in the program that causes kids to think, “No way….I can’t believe they did that in church”.
Our chocolate slip n slide is a ‘no way’ moment.
Our cow tongue toss is a ‘no way’ moment.
This weekend, our lesson was on the power and importance of being connected. As a ‘No Way’ moment, the entire junior high music team and our paid staff performed the ‘all in this together’ song from High School Musical. Because I couldn’t make any of the rehearsals and didn’t have the entire dance memorized, I got handed the solo free-style dance toward the end of the bit. I don’t know how to dance and had put zero thought into my big debut.
My 8th grade daughter Kayla already regrets my decision to free-style in front of our entire ministry, and I’m sure I’ll live to regret it, too.
The audio is terrible because it was recorded from a video camera in the back of our room. My solo is toward the end….if you can bear to watch.
I’ve probably referenced these sites somewhere in the past, but the two sites below are my favorites for youth culture research.
The first, www.cpyu.org , is faith based and is a great place to send the parents of your students who are looking for encouragement, information and resources.
The second, www.Ypulse.com, is not faith based but is a sought-after site by marketers and media executives who want to keep a pulse on youth culture.
- The air is clear today. Even though much cleaning up and rebuilding of homes and lives remains, it is wonderful to have clean air and a cool breeze.
- Despite a devastating O.T. loss last night, the Broncos are still better than the Rams and Dolphins!
- After a crazy busy month, this week is somewhat slow.
- This weekend we have our first-ever small group Fall retreat. It’s a 24 hour relationship-building extravaganza that should be really fun.
- Hilarious, but subtle, line from The Office: The tag line at the end of Michael’s commercial: “Endless paper in a paperless society.”
- I’ve decided Don Cheadle may be my favorite actor. It seems like he’s fantastic in every role he plays.
-Just spent much of the weekend teaching about Moses. What a life he led.
- The newest onslaught of spam in my inbox is trying to sell me exotic watches. I don’t get it.
Lesson Topic: Week Two of our Series: What’s The Point? (40 days of Purpose)
‘Fun Factor’: Above Average
Volunteer Involvement: Average
Music: Average
Lesson Quality: Above Average
Length of Lesson: 26 mins
Student Response: Above Average
Taffy, our student ministries worship pastor, taught this weekend and was, as always, a big hit with the students. His energy is off the charts which makes for fun lessons whenever he’s teaching. The band was led by our high schoolers which is a nice change of pace once in a while. However, even though the quality goes up when they lead, I would always rather see junior highers leading!
I rarely accept invitations to speak to junior highers at camps, retreats, etc. but decided to bend that rule a bit this Fall. This weekend, (Fri-Sat) I’m speaking at my first of three Jr. High Believe events. Jr. High Believe is a ‘junior high only’ tour that heads into about a dozen cities. I attended a Believe event a few years ago and was really impressed with their commitment to trying to put on an event geard specifically to young teens.
At the time, they had bigger name speakers…people who do big stage stuff for a living. However, the speakers weren’t necessarily junior high friendly. Since then, they’ve made the decision to invite more speakers who speak to junior highers on a regular basis. That’s where I came in. Other cities will have Jason Raitz and Scott Rubin (both from the junior high ministry at Willow Creek). This switch combined with the fact that I really like the Believe director, Johny Scott, made it feel like a fit for me.
It will be interesting to hear how the Believe team feels about the trade-off. Junior high pastors who aren’t professional speakers Vs. Professional speakers who aren’t junior high pastors.
The air quality the past couple days has been really bad due to the fires. When you step foot out of your house it smells like a massive fire pit complete with ashes swirling about. In fact, much to the delight of children everywhere, school has been cancelled today due to the nasty air.
Yesterday I was sitting in Starbucks and witnessed a fantastic Kodak moment. Walking side by side up to the doors were two people who weren’t with each other. The first was wearing a mask/filter device over his mouth. The second was puffing on a cigarette. Classic.
I wanted to shout out to the smoker: “Hey lady, toss the cigarette and just breath deeply…save yourself a few bucks today.”