628 Project: The beginning

For the past couple of years I’ve served as a volunteer in the junior high ministry (called Project 628) of my home church. I love hanging out with my boys in small group and have had a lot of fun leading worship for the group on Sundays. This fall I was challenged at YMEC (a yearly gathering of youth ministry executives) to think beyond what I was doing for my own ministry (Stuck in the Middle) and instead focus on what I could do to build up another ministry. Specifically we were challenged to use our gifts in a way that would not provide a direct immediate benefit to our own ministry organization.

I went home and talked to our junior high pastor, and the end result is that I’m serving this summer as an unofficial “intern” for the ministry. Specifically I’m working with our JH pastor to help plan weekly services, lay out a plan for a yearly calendar of teaching and events, and help strengthen and build our team of volunteer leaders. It’s a great chance for me to encourage and pour into our JH pastor and other adult leaders, and it’s an awesome opportunity for me to get my hands dirty again in the planning and execution of day to day junior high ministry.

Where we’re at:

Weekly: Right now 628 meets once a week during the weekend. Students have the option to attend a 628 service on Saturday night (during Sat. adult service) or on Sunday morning. For context, we’re a church of about 4,000 and our Sat. night 628 service has anywhere from 10-20 students and Sunday morning is typically around 70-90 (these are my estimations on the numbers, so they may be off a bit).

Events: Our yearly events include: summer camp, the Stuck in the Middle conference, “Hello/Goodbye” (a trip with incoming 6th graders through outgoing 9th graders) and an occasional “628 Late” (a “fun night” at the church held about once a quarter).

Volunteers: For the past couple of years we’ve typically gathered once a year for the purpose of planning/dreaming/relationship building/etc. We also typically get together before major events like camp or Stuck for a planning meeting. Aside from that, most of our communication is done via email.

Over the next couple of months I’ll continue to update the blog with our successes and failures. My hope is that the things that we’re doing at 628 will serve as an encouragement for others who are considering making changes in their own junior high groups. Also, I want to point out that I’m not trying to “fix” a broken or failing program. 628 is going strong and is a great and vibrant program with a strong legacy and excellent leadership. My goal is to come alongside our JH pastor and help him by giving him a sounding board and an “idea guy” to bounce things off of. If I can encourage him and the other adults, then this will be time well spent! I’m excited for the opportunity to serve, and am excited to see what God might have in store for the future of this great ministry!

Dave Gibbons on Third Culture

Here’s the video I was talking about in my previous post.

Thanks to Chris Fann for the video.

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Junior High Summit 2009

A group pic of the crew...

Last week I had the awesome privilege of hanging with 21 friends and fellow junior high ministry peeps at Forest Home Camp in Sunny California. Every year I feel so blessed to be a part of this group, and I walk away feeling encouraged and challenged. This year we spent a large chunk of our time with Dave Gibbons, pastor of NewSong Church and author of The Monkey and the Fish. The book was a very easy read, and was full of insight and practical content. The book talks a lot about third culture, which was honestly the hardest part of the book for me to get a firm grasp on. The definition seems to morph a bit from start to finish, but in the end it’s basically about the values and character of Jesus, and how we live that out in today’s context. Dave has an incredible video online that explains this much better than I can. It’s on facebook, and I haven’t been able to figure out how to get it on here yet. If you’re on facebook, visit my homepage to see the video. If you’re not my friend, shoot me a request and I’ll get you the video. Though I enjoyed the book and learned a great deal from it and from our time with Dave, I must admit that it was difficult for me to draw a lot of practical applications for junior high ministry from it.

As a group, we spent a chunk of time talking about what it meant to live out a third culture mindset, and how we could teach (or encourage, assuming it may already be there in some regard) it to middle school students. We talked a lot about being adaptable and “fluid”, and about the idea that many middle school students already embody this trait by virtue of their multiple roles in the family and at school. I honestly can’t say that anything stood out as being incredibly profound or game-changing, but it was a good conversation.

What hit home more for me were the conversations about ministry R&D (research and development), “fringe” ministry, and the idea of leading from our pain.

• R&D: The idea that we have to constantly be researching new ways of doing things. He cited Google as his main example, saying that they spend a large chunk of their time and money investing in new ideas. He also mentioned that for every new thing we start, we should end two old things. Not sure how that would fly in most churches, but it’s definitely worth thinking about.
• Fringe: Dave talked about what we’re doing to minister to the “fringe” elements in our world. The “least of these” or the ones that make us uncomfortable at best. How are we looking out for and reaching out to the people that others seem to pass by again and again?
• Leading from our Pain: The idea that every leader, and really every person, has a deep pain in their life. Whether it’s something that’s been put on you, or it’s something you’ve brought on yourself…everyone has a pain. Dave says that the best leaders, the ones who will lead the way in third culture, are the ones that lead from their pain. Pain, says Gibbons, is what draws people in and disarms all the things that can be used to divide us.

Great stuff to think about. Again, I’m thankful to be a part of this group and grateful to Dave Gibbons for coming to share with us. I’ll see if I can get that video from Dave up here in the next few days.

AWOL blogger and 24 kids in a bug

I’ve been away for a few weeks but am finally working on a couple of new posts. In the meantime, here’s a couple of great videos from my buddy Andy Jack. These videos remind me of why I love working with middle school students!

As a side note, listen to the voice doing the countdown in the second video. I’m pretty sure that’s Andy’s voice I hear saying “5…3…3…2…1″.

I know the ordination work took up a good chunk of your brain buddy…but I’m pretty sure there should be a “4″ in there!

Jr. High Ministry Summit

Finally made it to Chicago and have had an amazing time at the Jr. High Ministry Summit this year. The summit is a gathering of 20-some jr. high only youth workers from all over the country (including one canadian!). We get together once a year to discuss and dream about various aspects of ministry to young teens. This is my third year of meeting with the group, and they have become like family to me. We have a great sense of community (and belonging!), and it’s always a time for us to really live, laugh and love together.

This year author and sociologist Christian Smith met with us and challenged our thinking in a few different areas. A lot of it is swirling around in my head, and I need some time to process through it. Over the next week or so I will post my thoughts on much of what we discussed, and I will link to our notes once they have gone live.

Great idea for a youth group…

This is a crazy video that just has to be seen!

ht to bob c.

Ken gets published by YS!!

This is so cool… I know that several of you know my buddy Ken Rawson. He’s an incredibly gifted youth pastor and a great friend. He’s been doing middle school ministry with excellence for a long time now, and now he’s got something really cool out of it. He’s been published by Youth Specialties! His first two books should be out in May, and I understand that his wife Jen paved the way by getting a deal for her two books first. Pretty cool stuff!! Way to go Rawson fam!

All four books come out in May, and are available on the Youth Specialties website.

Here they are: