When I can (when my calendar and alarm allows) I love going over to the high school and just hang out with the students who attend the early morning FCA. 

Today one young woman asked a very pointed question that gave the group pause and took them off the printed lesson and into a deeper conversation about faith. 

Do you think it is wrong for people to be Christian just to get into heaven?

The small group had conversation around the question and there were lots of great comments and ideas. 

What is your answer to this question?

How does our answer to this question reflect our understanding of who God is? 

After listening to a podcast this week I found youthleaderstash.com it is a great site that is chock full of wonderful game and talk resources.  I don’t know how I didn’t know about it before this, but now I am glad that I do.  Take a peek and tell me what you think about it. 

I have my tent set and ready to go.  We have less that 30 minutes before the students come for our Homeless For a Night event and I am really excited about what all we are going to be doing. 

I always get nervous at this time before an event.  Pray for the students, our guest speaker, our leaders, the community, and all of those who struggle to get enough to eat and have no place to call home.

Here are some fact s about hunger from our area.  Thanks to one of our students for finding them.

82 children in Middletown live under the poverty level
1,140 people in Frederick face homelessness every year
Nationwide, 3.5 million people experience homelessness
1 in every 190 people use a homeless shelter at least once a year
The main cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing, while the next three biggest causes are mental illness or a lack of needed services, substance abuse or a lack of needed services, and low-paying jobs
42.8% of all homeless people are disabled, mentally or physically
Between 1999 and 2005, crimes committed against homeless people has risen 30%
There are about 51,000 homeless people in NYC
The Frederick Cold Weather Shelter provided for 234 people in 2009
Homeless students are 1.5x more likely to perform below grade-level in reading, 1.5x in spelling, and 2.5x in math.

I am a fixer…

Though I know my limits (cars and things that cause expositions that could take off an arm), I really like making things better.  I don’t think that this is an uncommon desire.  If you see something broken or someone hurting many times there is a desire to fix it.

I am a guy…

I have a limited attention span, I miss implied meanings (ask my wife) and have to have things explained to me very simply.

Finally I don’t like the details…

The phrase “the devil is in the details” is used frequently by some of our staff.  Well that is fine, I think to myself, I am a pastor and should stay as far away from the devil as possible and therefore should only touch details with a ten foot pole

What do these three things add up to…they mean that I have the tendency to look for the quick fix.  If there is a problem I would like to fix it, move on and not worry about the little things.  this is where my shotgun imagery comes in.  At times I will blast out an e-mail, or make a decision that I know will fix or address a problem that is in my ministry.  I will throw a bunch of stuff at my target at one time and hope something sticks.  Have a problem the church is facing preach a sermon, the youth are going somewhere they shouldn’t lock that part of the building…problem solved.

I am quick to fix and move on to the next thing.  I like to make things better in one fowl swoop, but I know God (being relational) calls me to act and lead differently.  Look even at the way we find our salvation.  Not through a magic wand, but through the very personal and very relational life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

I have to be reminded that I can’t bombard a problem and them wash my hands of it.  In our ministry people are the priority, not just because they matter to us us because they matter most to God.  Rather than being the fixer, I have to slow down and journey with student, friends and family to see what they are really saying and going through.

When we are able to the a community (a church) that journeys together and holds hands through the hard things we are becoming the people God has made us to be.

How are you practicing hand holding ministry rather than shotgun programing?

Email a Workcamper : lifeforceyouth.com

Do you know some one who is at workcamp right now????Well then send them a note and let them know they are doing a great job.

We have a group of 20 who have gone off to New Castle, PA to work on houses for a week. They will be painting and scraping, building and demolishing, cutting and nailing.

Our team is made up of Mel Bower, Nick Carter, Taylor Goodie, Carlee Lammers, Samantha Lilley, Casey Lindburg, Kaitlyn Matthai, Amanda Menke, Chrissy Payne, Marina Payne, Nathan Tice, Victoria Tice, Amber Watkins, Evan Wilson, Kristin Wilson, Ladd Bower, Beth Tice, John Tice, Cathy Watkins and Simon Frechette.

Head on over to: http://www.groupworkcamps.com/Workcamps/Pages/EmailaCamper.aspx and send a word of encouragement to our team.

They are at the New Castle, PA workcamp

SO we have the first day of camp “under our belts”.  It got kicked off with me trying to be just as cool as my wife with a matching camera bag.

Today we had a group going rafting and another group who went hiking to Harpers Ferry and MD heights.

We had some really great time together and I am always amazed at the things i can learn from these young people.

Today I saw kids pulling together and working with one anther to do great things.  Some kids talked about how thy thought that they would never have been able to do something, but with their friends help they were able to do something “SUPER”.

Tomorrow is some pool game action.  Stay tuned for more

On the heals of the farmers market and yard sale sermon, we talked about watermelon at Fuel. We wrapped up our teaching series about the Fruit of the spirit with patience.  With the end of the school year and a bunch more time to spend with family, we thought it would be good to talk about patience.

We talked about how watermelon represents how we are a people who are not patient.

• we don’t like to be interrupted- watermelon is a social treat though.  I remember watching as a young adult of ours was so mad because her was trying to eat HIS watermelon that he grew and poeple kept asking for a slice.  By the time he was ready to get his slice he was really mad that he had been interrupted.
• We don’t like to be inconvenienced- it is hard to find watermelon with seeds these days because we don’t want to have to go through the trouble of spitting out the seeds.  we want everything right now and when we have to wait or work hard we get impatient.
• We don’t want to be irritated-nothing is worse than having too many watermelon and no place to put them.  Well the Japanese solved the problem by growing square stackable watermelon.  We all have pet peeves and they are the silliest thing.  We say things like “If only…then it would be ok.” But the truth is we are the ones that need the work, not the other poeple or things involved.

As we work to be a more patient poeple we need to look at ourselves and understand that we are guilty of being selfish and impatient.  We need to be around poeple who are positive and don’t drag us down.  And as we read in Psalm 40:1-5 when we wait on God with patience we find joy.  We have to depend of Christ to give us the strength to be a patient people.

Here is a story from the guys over at Group publishing about the things youth report needing in their lives.  I thought that it was in interesting result.  Also I think that it shows the importance of faith relationships, and puts the pressure of Christian educators to have some clear and drawn out plan of spiritual growth for youth and adults.
Take a look and let me know your thoughts.

Exclusive Survey Report: Teenagers’ Top Needs | youthministry.com

Teenagers’ Top Needs
We asked Christian teenagers to scan a list of 20 “needs” in their life, then rank them from one to seven according to how strongly they’d like that need to be met. The lower the number, the higher the desire for the need to be met. We wanted them to differentiate between “dying” needs and “nice to have but not that important” needs. Here’s how the numbers added up….
Top Needs (Description) Teenagers (Average)
1. I need help building a positive relationship with God
2. I need help building a positive relationship with my parents
3. I need help managing or dealing with the stresses in my life
4. I need someone to help me answer some of my big doubts
about the Christian faith
5. I need help understanding the Christian faith better
6. I need help in knowing how to share my faith with friends and others
7. I need help with my academics
8. I need help figuring out my future choices (college, job, career, marriage, etc)
9. I need help dealing with depression
10. I need help with my overwhelming commitments
11. I need help dealing with the pain I feel in life
12. I need help developing more and better friendships
13. I need help ending my dependence on drugs or alcohol or tobacco
14. I need help with making better moral choices in my life
15. I need help in receiving forgiveness for things I’ve done
16. I need help with living a healthier lifestyle—eating better and exercising
17. I need help with time management and discipline in my life
18. I need help resolving conflicts
19. I need help sorting out sexual issues (sexual activity, gender issues, homosexuality, etc.)
20. I need help with girlfriend/boyfriend issues

In general, the way kids ranked these needs primes the pump for cynicism among youth workers who see a big disconnect between the “God stuff” teenagers elevated to the top of the list and the topical stuff that settled out on the bottom. Typical is this assessment of the survey by Andrea Vincent of Michigan, who’s a volunteer youth worker by night and an assistant research professor by day:

 I saw this post the other week and I thought that it was really interesting.  It has been rolling around in my mind along with a quote from Kenda Creasy Dean that says that, “youth ministry is the R&D of the church.”  Makes me think about how youth are a great barometer for the health of the church.   Perhaps the exception to this is Churches like National Community Church in DC where 70% of the congregation is single twenty somethings, and in a very transient area. 

Take a look at the article, I found it to be some great food for thought.  Follow the link and scroll to the comments to read  other people’s thoughts on what Kara Powell wrote. 

You’ve perhaps heard the infamous statistic that 80-85% of people who become Christians do so before age 14.  We youth workers especially love quoting that data when we’re asking for a larger ministry budget.

There hasn’t appeared to be lots of hard data to back up that stat.  But maybe that’s changed.

Sociologist Dr. Christian Smith and his team at the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) have studied teenagers of all religious persuasions (Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Mormon, Religiously Indifferent, etc.).  He reports in his new book, Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of Emerging Adults, that 85% of those 18-23 who have ever made a commitment to God did so before age 14.

Remember, the study includes teenagers and young adults of all religious persuasions, and it’s not entirely clear from the book what students mean what they say they have “made a commitment to God”.

But nonetheless, this is the best data I’ve seen in a while that supports that 85% statistic.

The 85% Statistic is Back — and Pretty Strong Actually | Fuller Youth Institute

Over the Christmas break I was able to watch as some kids at Katie’s winter break camp played games.  On of the games was a favorite of mine back in the day.  It was “Guess Who”.  This is the game where you try to guess through a process of questions and elimination which person your opponent has chosen.  There was always a little self-satisfaction as you swipe down an eliminated candidate with a thwack of the board.  The only downside was if you got a girl (there were about 4 in total )or someone with a hat (maybe 5 total).  Soon you would realize that the game would be coming to an end because of the lack of diversity in the game. 

Regardless of that, I saw the importance of coming up with good questions so that you could weed out the losers from the winner.  I think the importance is true with youth ministry as well.  We need to be able to ask great questions and follow-up questions to get at the heart of who our kids are. 

I have tried to come up with some of my thoughts about asking questions, but i would like to hear yours too.  I know that I am very bad at this and so it has taken some work and effort to get to the place where I am.  Here is my brain dump of question asking:

1. Start slow: Start off with something easy.  Ask for some information about a student that isn’t really taxing and so you can get an idea of where they are located in life.
2. Open a Door: Ask open ended questions where there is no “yes” or “no” answer.  This will make them think and give you something else to talk about. 
3. Care by listening: Allow the conversation to build on what they have already talked about.  Don’t just ask your questions without thinking about what the students are saying.  Asking follow-up questions will show that you are listening and that you do care.  Having an adult really listen is something that many students lack in their lives and is meaningful. 
4. Repeat:  Check back in with them the following week about something that they shared with you (a sporting event, test, birthday…).  I have to write these things down or I forget.  But, it is always cool when people remember what is important to you from week to week. 

What are some other ways you have found to ask great questions?