Missing Students

On Friday night, our Junior High boys were supposed to go to the Sixers game. We had 8 students signed up, along with 2 leaders. A van was rented, tickets were purchased, and I was waiting at the Tabernacle at 5 pm, ready to go. Unfortunately, none of the students showed up. None. I called a few that I had numbers for, and received no real reason why they bailed.

Now I have had my share of event failures in ministry. This one was surprising, though, since it was an activity the students wanted to go on, and it was free (for them, not us!). One nugget of truth I have learned from this experience: the more you think you understand students and youth ministry, the more you find out you don’t. Remember, it is not your ministry, but God’s.

Kids Names

Over at Textuallly.org (via Engadget), I found this article on recent trends in naming children. Here is a quote from the article:

“Most parents these days are drawing on the cool SMS and email spellings, by eschewing traditional spellings for versions such as Alex-Zander, Cam’ron, Emma-Lee, Ozkah, Thaillah and Ameleiyah.”

I have noticed this trend in my ministry. Students are no longer showing up with “normal” names like Michael or John. Rather, their names are a hodgepodge of consonants and vowels with a unique pronunciation. If they do have a semi-regular name, it is either spelled with an extra letter or is pronounced completely different.

On a personal note, I guess that when the time comes to name my offspring, I might as well pick up a Scrabble set, jumble all the letters together, and pick letters at random. They are bound to form a name.

Hillary Clinton and the Holy Spirit

Last month Hillary Clinton gave an interview with the New York Times about her religious beliefs. Read the transcript here: Transcript with Hillary Clinton.

Points from her interview:

• Her discussion of the Trinity. She said “I believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and I have felt the presence of the Holy Spirit on many occasions.” I am glad she recognizes the Trinity, but I wonder why she mentions her “feelings” of the Holy Spirit. But it’s not like Christians keep a running tally of how many times times they “felt” the Holy Spirit.

• Her description of faith. She described faith as “…the background music. It’s there all the time. It’s not something you have to think about, you believe it.” Sorry, but I think about my faith all the time. I thank God for my faith, and I try to live it out daily.

• Her Beliefs on Salvation. When asked if belief in Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven, she responded with “That one I’m a little more open to. I think that it is, as we understand our relationship to God as Christians, it is how we see our way forward, and it is the way” She then goes on to say that she accepts others who do not believe Jesus is the way to salvation.
• Her Thoughts on Isaiah. I wonder what parts of Isaiah she finds “very intriguing and provocative.” Interesting.

I am not here to judge her. I mean, it sounds like she knows what she is talking about, or she at least knows what Evangelicals want to hear. Her rejection of Jesus as the ONLY way to Heaven disturbs me, and it is not what Evangelicals want to hear. I cannot stand the woman and may move to Canada if she is President, but I am glad that she at least talks about Christianity. Heck, I voted for the guy who believes Jesus came to America!

Local Youth Pastors: No Competition

Today I went to the local Friendly’s with other local youth pastors for our monthly meeting. In this meeting we joked around, talked about the universal struggle for volunteers, and problem solved specific issues in our ministries. One guy has had a recent influx of Junior Highers, bumping his numbers from 20 to almost 60! While this is a blessing, it has also left him seeking more leaders for this ministry.  We gave him some of our ideas on how to approach volunteer recruiting.

As I left, I thought how these monthly meetings are a blessing. Every month I look forward to meeting with my friends, hearing about their ministries, helping them through struggles, and sharing a common bond of ministry.  Some may see other local pastors as competition, since we are provide the same service: getting students to Jesus.  However, there are MORE THAN ENOUGH students out there lost and without Jesus.  That is why our meetings are so important: so we can help each other reach out and minister to these lost students more effectively.  I thank God for these meetings and cannot wait for next month!

Recording Youth Events

I saw this post on Lifehacker called “Effortlessly Document Your Party.” Basically, this post described ways the author was able to record his 27th birthday through video, pictures, and a real-time slideshow of the party.

As I read this post, I thought some of these ideas would be great in a youth ministry context, especially during a Lock In or All Nighter. I especially liked the “photo booth” idea, mainly because of how easy it is, especially if you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro (I have neither). Most students are familiar with using webcams, and it is simple enough for them all to learn immediately. One could be set up in your Youth Room, and throughout the evening all the students must stop by and contribute. My favorite part of this idea: you don’t have to be creative, your students will be creative for you!!

Suggestions on Using photos from Youth Events:

• End of Year Slideshow (What student doesn’t want to see their face on the big screen?)
• Collage of the Event
• Thank You cards to Volunteers
• Newsletter to Parents/Ministry Prayer Supporters
  
• Photo section of Youth Ministry website
• Promotional material for future events

Do you have any ideas for recording and presenting your events? I’d sure love to hear it. Post them in the comments below.

“I Could Teach You” Graph

Found this over at Robert’s Blog:

Amazing!

Writing Messages

I spent most of yesterday working on a message I will be giving to my home church’s Junior High ministry. It is about Elijah and the 450 Prophets of Baal. The message is entitled “Showdown on Mount Carmel” and I will have the students whistle the typical Western music that accompanies any shootout (I tried typing it out here, but it just looked like a jumble of letters).

While working on this message, I realized that I have a very precise way of formatting my message outline. Here is a sample of my formatting:

Title

Passage

Big Idea

Date Written

Date Given

Audience

Topic

 

Body of Outline (Headings, verses, and tips)

 

 

 

I have always forced myself to write message outlines like this. I almost never write out a manuscript, but always an outline. The outline helps me organize my thoughts, while serving as my only form of notes during my message. My reasoning for precise formatting may be a slight case of OCD, but more likely it is because I want to instantly recognize who, what, and where I gave this message when I look back at the files. After a few years in ministry, it is inevitable to talk about the same passage/topic more than once. Because of meticulous formatting, I can quickly find any previous outline related to the passage, thus avoiding redoing work. Plus, you can make sure you did not give a similar message to a group two years in a row!

Eagles land Samuel

The Philadelphia Eagles landed All-Pro cornerback Asante Samuel at the start of Free Agency. The former Patriot was signed to a 6 year, $57 million dollar contract (with $20 million dollars in guarantees) . Very exciting times in Eagle territory.

In the midst of glee, one sobering thought: Samuel gets $20 mil without even playing a down. Man, I wish they had contract guarantees like this in youth ministry. Instead the guarantees look like this: “Low pay, long hours, under appreciation, All-Nighters, church politics, and rewards in Heaven.” And to think, I do it for the All-Nighters!