"Stuck in the Middle"- stories of middle school ministry

March of the Unqualified

2012-01-27T13:56:00.000-08:00

This week we finished our study on the book of Jonah. We concluded with the reminder that God loves us in spite of our sin and failures. We finished with a reminder of God's character and a look at Jonah's lack of character. What a great reminder.

We showed this video this week right before the message to get them thinking about this point. Great Video.

Creative Videos

2012-01-23T08:18:00.000-08:00

Almost every Thursday night in youth group our youth ministry uses videos to help focus the students on the theme/purpose or main point of the night. We don't believe we have to have or use videos, but there is something about a well made, creative video that draws the students in. Once our team has confirmed the direction we are going for that specific youth group night our whole team takes a little bit of time to find a fitting video.

Here is the video we showed last Thursday night. I thought it was a pretty good video which asks the question do you have a real personal intimate relationship with Christ.

If you have come across any good videos or even sites where you find videos please leave me a comment. I would really appreciate it.

This is Discipling (www.getoutthebox.org) - YouTube

2011-12-08T08:44:00.000-08:00

Awesome video about discipleship.

Staggering Statistics

2011-11-30T09:21:00.001-08:00

Yesterday at church we had several meetings that had to do with reaching our community and knowing our community. We have a great guy on staff (Joey Mayfield) who helps us know our community better by looking at the statistics. He showed me some crazy statistics about our community yesterday that i want to share mainly as a reminder to myself what my mission field looks like. Pray with me that Christ would be proclaimed to these students.

Bethel Demographics

Lake County 2010 Statistics

Total Population- 496,005

Under 18- 127,273

Age 10 to 14- 5,704 in Lake Co
15 minutes from Bethel- 10,805

Age 15 to 19- 6,118 in Lake Co
15 minutes from Bethel- 11,467

Local School District Enrollment -

School- Middle School High School

Crown Point 1778 2633

Merrillville 1663 2396

Lake Central 2456 3225

Valparaiso 1467 2114

Lowell 869 1276

Wheeler 416 545

Totals 8649 12189

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

(Matthew 9:35-36; Matthew 9:37-38 ESV)

Week of Prayer

2011-11-18T11:25:00.001-08:00

Prayer Stations-

Last night our student ministry participated in our church-wide "Week of Prayer" by setting up prayer stations for our students to go through for the evening. We divided our church up into a sort of prayer labyrinth that the student walked through and stopped at each station for 5 minutes to be lead by a youth leader in that specific station. The high school had 10 stations and the middle school had 10 stations.

My wife and I had the privilege of leading the "Offering" station. This station's goal was to help the students see that God desires us to give Him everything, not just our money. So my wife started by reading Romans 12:1 to them and then had examples of areas of their life they could give to God. After they went around the table looking at the examples, they wrote out a prayer asking God to help them give this area of their life to Him. The prayers were then put into an offering box.

Overall, I think the night was a great opportunity to help our students engage in prayer as well offer a good variation on the typical Thursday night worship. It's always good to involve the students instead of just preaching at them. I hope we are able to use experiences like this in the future.

We got all the ideas for this night from this website. http://www.creativeprayer.com/index.php?blog=2

A Faithful Presence- Christ at the Colonel

2011-11-16T14:22:00.001-08:00

A Faithful Presence-
One of the goals for our middle school ministry is to have a faithful presence at each middle school where our students attend. It's a pretty bold, audacious goal, but one that I think is attainable and Christ-honoring. We want to refer to them as a "faithful presence" because our goal is to go where the students are instead of just asking them to come to us. So, please pray with us as we ask God to bless our ministry in this way.

Praise God- God has allowed one of these to start. A couple of weeks ago one of our students came up to me in regards to this challenge. He told me about his passion for his school to have a Bible Study/ "Faithful Presence". As God continued to work through this, a leader at our church who is also a teacher at that school has volunteered to help with this meeting. So I am proud to announce "Christ at the Colonel". A faithful presence at Colonel John Wheeler Middle School. I am so excited to see what God is going to do through the heart of a 7th grade boy with a passion for the lost at his middle school.

Ministry Idea!? "Laser-Tag with the Homeless"

2011-11-10T11:21:00.001-08:00

Last Sunday my 6th Grade boys small group meet again. Our topic was, "this life is short, make it count." One of the things we discussed was how our small group could make a difference in our community. Our youth ministry gives every small group a budget to use in order to minister to the community, so we discussed possible opportunities.
The Question- what could we do to impact our community?
After a little discussion and coming to a consensus that our desire was to help the homeless and hungry.
The Answer- Laser-Tag with the homeless

My 7, 6th grade boys were pretty dead set that this was a great idea to encourage the homeless community. Now, my job is to take their idea and turn it into something that would support their dreams as well as help them meet a need. Any ideas?

Small Groups Begin

2011-10-05T09:12:00.000-07:00

This month our small group ministry got started and i am so excited to have an opportunity to build relationships with a new group of students. This year I am a 6th grade boys small group leader, and am fortunate enough to have an assistant leader. My assistant is my intern Brett, and I am so grateful for his help. What is so cool is that Brett works in the children's ministry too, so he already knows some of our 6th grade guys because of that ministry.

This week we went through chapter one of "Crazy Love" which is titled Stop Praying. We discussed who God is, Who we are talking to when we pray. So, I had our group do a little white boarding to get them thinking about who God is. Then we discussed what we say to God. So, i had them think about what they would say to God if He was standing right in front of them. Overall, we had some great discussions. Here are some more pics.

I love teaching to a large group, but the more i get to do it the more i see the real ministry and life change that happens in small group ministry. Please pray for my guys and our small group ministry if you think about us.

Great Resources that are new to me

2011-09-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks i have had the privilege of getting my hands on some awesome resources that i would love to recommend. Please comment on this and let me know what you have been reading/ listening/ or use.

1. Books- Grace Based Parenting by Dr. Tim Kimmel
Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick
ESV Student Study Bible

2. Podcasts- White Horse Inn- On Theology
The Village Church - Sermons - Matt Chandler

3. Blogs- The Youth Cartel- Good ideas that will make you think
YouTube Trends- Great for research on culture

4. Ipad Apps- Flipboard
GLO Bible
Keynote Remote

I'm always looking for great resources let me know what you think.

A little fun

2011-09-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

Every week in our youth group we have an element of fun called "Riot Time". This weeks was especially fun and crazy. Here is a quick video. What i love about "Riot Time" is that it is completely planned and ran by a few awesome volunteer youth leaders. This allows Pastor Jim and I to keep our main focus on the teaching aspect of the night. I am so grateful for gifted and called youth leaders.

2011 Fall Season

2011-09-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the 2011 Fall Season got started last week. I'm very excited about being able to be a part of this entire school year from start to finish as opposed to last year, where I started right in the middle of it. As our new school year gets going I just want to give a quick overview of what we are doing in our youth ministry.

Thursday Night Worship - This is our weekly big group gathering. This year we are going through a study on the book of Jonah. We will be taking the majority of the school year to dive into a deep study on this book, with periodic breaks to do special events or topics. While I was studying and preparing for this series, someone recommended a book on Jonah that has been so amazing and informative that I would like to recommend it to you. The book is called Surprised by Grace written by Tullian Tchividjian and has been a great resource for me as I study the book of Jonah.

Sunday Night Small Groups- Our students meet twice a month for age and gender specific small groups. This year our small groups will be going through a very popular book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Our students will be reading it, watching his DVD curriculum, hearing our staff teach on it and going through the small group study guide each time they meet. We are so exited to see our our students step up to the challenge of loving God with a crazy bold love.

A Youth Ministry Summer (Week Eight)

2011-08-24T20:57:00.000-07:00

Week eight of the summer, Bethel Teens put on our fourth and final missions trip for the year- Samaria Missions Trip. Our Samaria Trip is a local missions trip . Our goal for this is to show our students the mission field that is their home town and surrounding areas. We took 16 students (middle and high school students) as well as 7 leaders. Our youth ministry does a missions trip blog to keep parents up to date about the trip, so instead of giving highlights of the trip here is the link to that blog. http://alphaomegasamaria.tumblr.com/

A Youth Ministry Summer (Week Seven)

2011-08-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

This week our Church sent Kaci and I to Berlin, Germany to join a team of a few others to put on a teen camp. Crossway International Church puts on a Summer Camp style "Teen Camp" every summer, but this year a team that had intended to go had to back out at the last minute. The Church in Berlin, where my sister is a missionary, frantically called everyone they know in youth ministry in order to try to put together a team at the last minute. I gave the proposal to the staff here at Bethel and they allowed me to go and help.

The Lord miraculously put together a team from all over the United States to put on this camp for Students in Berlin. Dan, a phys ed. teacher from North Carolina, Chaplain Marty, the chaplain of Purdue University, Nate, and engineer, Kaci and I and my sister Kristi. Most of us did not know each other before this trip, but God allowed us to work very well together in order to spread his love with over 40 students.

We arrived during that churches VBS style childrens camp, where we got to see and hear of over 40 children who made professions of faith. Then on monday we started our program for the week. We averaged right around 40 teens each day, and the majority of them unsaved. We even had the opportunity to share the gospel with a few that this was their first time ever hearing it. Instead of rambling on about each day i will just give a few highlights of the week.

Highlights from Teen Camp
1. Meet a Senior in High School who for the first time in his life heard the gospel. His girlfriend brought him to church and for these two weeks he was confronted with the truth of the gospel. Through many conversations with Kristi and rubbing shoulders with true followers of Jesus, i believe he is on his way towards a relationship with Christ. He told us at the end of the week he would like to be more involved in the youth ministry next year to continue to grow.
2. Meet a student who just graduated high school and is on her way to an ivy league school in the states. The amazing thing about meeting her is she is still searching for truth. She Dad is a scientist and teaches her evolution, so she is still wrestling with what is truth. She has been actively involved in this youth ministry for years and desires to come to a knowledge of who Jesus is, but is actively wrestling with this. To read more about her... http://kristiwalkeringermany.blogspot.com/2011/08/dedicated-to-helena-hengelbrok.html
3. There is a student who comes from an unsaved family who was saved through this churches ministry, but his parents have been opposed to the gospel for years. One of the nights i had the opportunity to speak, due to circumstances and God's sovereignty his parents had to sit in and listen to the gospel presentation. I found out later that God used that week and his word to urge them closer to himself and they told the church leadership that they want to start coming to church on Sunday's.
4. Every night we had someone share their story with the students. One night we asked a German lady from the church to share her story of how God changed her. Her testimony was an awesome story of God's grace/ mercy and rescue. What was awesome was that it had to be translated into English for the English speaking students at the teen camp. The lady giving her testimony got choked up as well as the translator and many of the audience as we heard of how God rescued her from her sin and how God offers that same salvation to all. Powerful stuff
5. A funny story- one night we were playing water games and their was a poisonous moth that drops hairs that cause a rash, and many of our students came back the next night covered in that rash. The cool part of the story is that night we taught about the 10 plagues and how God allows big things in your life sometime to get your attention and show you your need for a rescuer. Great object lesson.

A Youth Ministry Summer (Week Four - Six)

2011-08-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

These three weeks went by in a blur. As I reflect on the events of these three weeks its hard for me to remember specifics, luckily Microsoft Outlook has a better memory than I. After returning from Woodlands camp i had one week of some what normalcy. We went and picked up our children after camp and spent the next weeks having a lot of family time and i was in the office a lot making final preparations for the rest of the summer. But, here are two highlights from these three weeks. 1. VBS- My daughter had the privileged of being involved in Bethel's VBS this summer. It was amazing, very high energy, loud fun and professional. I was awesome being in the office trying to get work done while 600+ children are all over the building, a great week. 2. My wife and i will be in Berlin, Germany for week seven, so in order to make this trip happen we need to again drop the kids of with family. This week my parents, who live in PA, would be taking them. So, Monday we were able to drop the kidos off with mimi and papa. This gave Kaci and I almost a whole week to ourselves. We horribly missed the kids, but it was really nice to have a week long date. (Much needed)
Overall these were some nice and relaxing couple of week during a crazy busy summer.

A Youth Ministry Summer (Week Three)

2011-07-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

Week Three consists of taking 17 middles school students to Woodlands Camp in Georgia. We left Sunday morning and returned the following Saturday. Woodlands camp is great. Nice facilities, tons of activities for the campers and is excellent at making the whole week about spiritual growth. Many memories were made on this trip. Overall i think this camp was great for the students spiritual lives as well as a great opportunity for the leaders to build relationships with the students.

A youth ministry summer (week two)

2011-07-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

This week was a huge week in the life of the walker family. This week we officially moved to Indiana. This week was crazy, stressful, exciting and tiring. We are so thankful to everyone who helped in any way this week.

Sunday- traveled to crown point with mini van full of stuff. Went to church, drove to apartment and dropped off load and went home. My mom was with us to help with our daughters.

Monday/ Tuesday-at our house in michigan doing last minute packing and some chores. Mom took care of the girls so Kaci and I could get stuff done.

Tuesday night/ wednesday- packed up mini full very full and left for crown point to get some work done. This time I went alone. Sadly, power was out at the apartment when I arrived and could get in due to only having a garage door opener. Lead a bible study wednesday morning at local coffee shop and put in a full days work at bethel. Drove back to Kalamazoo after work.

Thursday- some friends showed up at our house early that morning along with kaci's dad and we packed up the moving truck and the minivan. father in law, Alex and I drove down to CP, unloaded both vehicles. Brandon showed up at the apartment to help unload. We left the minivan in IN and drove the truck home. Dropped the truck of and hopped in my Honda and drove back to crown point without my daughters. Father in law took them for a week.

Friday/Saturday - organized apartment. My mom, kaci and I spent endless hours getting the apartment ready. I did get to sneak away to go golfing with my intern and his dad for a couple of hours. White hawk country club.

That was week two of this crazy summer, but we are officially residents of Indiana.

A Youth Ministry Summer (Week One)

2011-06-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

It's June, which starts another youth ministry summer. A summer of trips/ retreats/ camps/ events /activities/ etc. Last week was for me week one of the craziness. Last week I was the Camp Speaker for a camp up in Traverse City, MI called "Lake Ann". I was with a program they call "Fresh Start", which is just for upcoming 9th graders. A week specifically designed to help students with their transition from Middle School to High School. This camp is a short wilderness retreat, a very mild version of it. We raft, cook our own food, sleep in tents and have chapel out side. This particular week was a little rough. We had very cold weather as well as lots of rain. Thursday morning we all woke up with water in our tents, we had to have Chapel in a bus due to the sever weather and many got sick due to the cold temperatures. Besides the negatives mentioned we had a great week. I had the privileged of walking the students through the lives of the 12 disciples and show them how Christ took them from average men to extraordinary apostles of Christ. I am so thankful for the opportunity.

Not what i expected!!!

2011-03-27T18:44:00.000-07:00

This week I had an experience I've only had a hand full of times in my experience with youth ministry.
We had small groups on Sunday night and i have a small group of 7th grade guys. This night a couple of times i had to raise my voice to some of my guys to get their attention. One boy in particular didn't listen to me so i yelled his name. Well, that boys dad must have been there that evening and heard me yell his son's name. After small groups the boys dad promptly came over to me and asked if we could chat. Instantly i got a lump in my throat and i started to prepare myself to be confronted for raising my voice to his son. But, the exact opposite happened. The dad asked if he had the story right; that i had to yell at his son to get him to listen. I affirmed that and then the dad apologized to me. He then did something that amazed me. He called his son over and in front of me scolded his son for the way he acted and told his son right in front of me that if this situation ever happens again he (the dad) would be sitting in on our small group time for the rest of the school year. The Dad told me thank you for my time and took his son home. I stood there in shock and then went on my way.

Now that i have had time to reflect on that situation, i am still so amazed at that interaction. That Dad amazed me that he was willing to stand up for me, he amazed me that he was willing to set such an amazing example to his son, that Dad set a great example to me on the type of Dad i need to be. Wow, what an amazing night.

Great Resource For Anyone In Youth Ministry

2011-03-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

Jim (Youth Pastor) and i were running some errands today and found this book. "The Encyclopedia of Immaturity" Inside are pages filled with creative and silly ideas. The ideas inside range from weird pranks to funny talents. Huge potential for sermon illustrations or small group activities.

First Youth Leader Meeting

2011-03-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

Today, we had our first official "Alpha" Middle school youth leader meeting. It was a great time for me to really get to know the team as well as cast vision. Below is the topics discussed.

AO Middle School Ministry 3/13/11
Bethel’s Purpose Statement- It’s All About Him
Successful middle school ministry:
Middle Schoolers + Godly Leaders + Word of God = Spiritual Growth
Every Student is on a Spiritual Journey
Programs:
A. Thursday Night Worship
1. Welcoming/Fun environment
2. Creative/Engaging elements
3. Gospel-centered sermons

B. Small Groups
1. Helps students to be known
2. Foster conversation
3. Builds healthy cliques/clusters

C. Mega Events
1. Retreats
2. Missions trips
3. Parties

D. Ministry Teams *NEW TERRITORY*

NOTES:

Ways to bring the Retreat Experience to our Weekly Program

2011-02-16T11:01:00.000-08:00

This past weekend our Middle School ministry took a bunch of our students and leaders to CIY's Believe Retreat in Peoria, IL. A short recap is that we had an amazing weekend.

I noticed that on the bus ride home, which was only about 26 hours after the trip began, that our students and leaders had grown so much closer to one another. Also, from the discussions i had with my guys and from what i heard from the other leaders they grower closer to Christ as well. It was amazing to see what God did to our group in a little more than a day.

So, the question that comes up is how can we see this happen weekly through our programing. Or, does it take a retreat for these things to occur.

So Thoughts,
1. Relationships take intentional time. I think if we showed up to our weekly programing with real intention to make meaningful relationships with particular students than some of this will happen ever week. I know many times i want to build relationships, but in reality i don't do anything specific except small talk with a few students. This week focus on a few and work hard at it.

2. Application to the messages. I noticed that every time the speaker got done speaking the program never ended. Many times in our weekly program when the speaker is done he will pray and then dismiss the students. I think we should implement some purposeful elements into the program after the lesson. The believe retreat always ended with an extended time of praise and worship and then a thought provoking video, then that was usually followed up by a time of small group discussion. I think our middle school ministry will be implementing these elements in the near future.

3. Programing starts when the first student enters the room and end when the last student leaves. I think our ministry does this pretty well, but i want to keep improving on this. The retreat had elements of programing going on from the time doors opened until the time they kicked everyone out. There was always purposeful things to do which pointed back to the theme. My favorite- The had probably 8 black boards hooked together which made a big wall and tons of neon colored markers and allowed students to write on the wall thoughts on the topic of that lesson. Awesome Idea.

Wrestling with a few Ideas

2011-01-25T19:19:00.000-08:00

Lately our middle school ministry has been chewing on a few things. (I want to always strive to tweak and improve what our ministry is doing)

I though i would post them here and if anyone out there has ideas i would love the input.

1. What would ideal praise and worship time look like geared specifically for middle schoolers?

- Do you remember what it was like being a middles schooler? What do they need when it comes to praise and worship. Should it look high schooler ministry P&W/ children's ministry P&W or a blend of both or something completely different?

2. Games (Riot Time) What would be the perfect game time.

- In our ministry, every youth group night has a 10 - 15 minute game time. How do we reach perfection or close. Middles schoolers love to have fun and fun can be meaningful, but what does that look like. How do you involve all the students or is it impossible.

3. Small Groups. What does small group time look like in middle school ministry.

- Our ministry does small groups twice a week for 2 hours each time. So our small group leaders get to be with their students for 90 minutes twice a month. How do we use that time most effectively?

Reading is FUNdamental

2011-01-05T13:46:00.000-08:00

I love to read and am always reading something. For good or for bad i am usually reading several books at the same time. Usually one that i picked, one i being made to read and one that in know i should read. Well that is true right now so i just thought i would highlight a few and recommend them.

1. My Pick- Reinventing Youth Ministry (Again) - by Wayne Rice

Very good, i really love the stories in the book. His history with Youth Specialties as well as his time in the local church. I also love it because he is real about his strengths and his weaknesses. Not many authors are willing to talk about their weaknesses. Most books are about how amazing their are and all of their successes. It refreshing to read a youth ministry book about a real person.

2. Must Read- Think Orange by Reggie Joiner

Again a great book which will make you think about what the role of youth ministry really is in your church. Many of the same insights as in Reinventing.

3. Needed to read- Middle School Ministry made Simple- by Kurt Johnston

I read it a long time ago but am rereading it as now i am in full time middle school ministry. A great encouragement.

4. Just Finished reading- Soul Pancake by Rainn Wilson- Great

AO - 12/2/10 - week highlights

2010-12-07T07:53:00.000-08:00

My first official Thursday night as Full time Middle School Director of Bethel Church.

We had a week break for the thanksgiving holiday, so after the kids being off school and not seeing each other for a week the excitement in the room was very high. Here are just a few highlights of the week.

1. Riot Time- Frozen Turkey Bowling- It is what it sounds like, we bowled usinga frozen turkey instead of a bowling ball. Every student waited in line to bowl. Awesome.

2. Give Back opportunity- we are giving the youth ministry an opportunity to give back. We passed out around 200 baby bottles to the students for the purpose of filling it with change and returning it to the local womens ministry. Inside of every bottle was a name of a baby to be praying for. Very cool idea. Here are a few of the middle schooler putting their bottles to good use.

3. Debrief time- Every Friday Pastor Jim and i will be getting together to debrief the evening. This is such a great opportunity to keep refining our program. Programs are great but many times they veer away from their intended purpose. This meeting was a perfect example of that. Jim and i were able to discuss both the middle school and high school youth group nights and discuss ways to continue to improve them.

Overall this was a great beginning to prayerfully a very God honoring and fruitful ministry.

Week 2 at Bethel

2010-11-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

Another week as i start visiting Bethel Church just on Thursday's as i finish up my position at Northeastern. The Plan- Plan and teach Middle School Youth Group. Share my testimony with the students and Youth Leaders that i will be working with.

The drive down to Bethel was beautiful. Sunny and chilly, perfect to drive with the moon roof open. Just chilly enough to keep you awake without freezing you.

I arrived around 10:30 a.m. and checked in to say good morning to Jim (youth pastor), but oddly enough he wasn't there. I later found out that he had throw out his back and had been out all week.

Around 11 Jim calls me to inform me of his back situation and that i would need to plan both High school and middle school AO (youth group) and still just teach middle school. Sounds good, great experience.

A little later we get a tip that the man that is supposed to teach high school is unable to teach tonight. Being that it was lunch time Intern Anthony and I go to lunch to come up with a plan for what to do.

Over some wings at BW's we decide to combine High school and middle school and I teach both. Good Solid Plan.

A couple of hours later we find out that the tip we had received about High school teacher wasn't true and he was planning on teaching tonight. With just a few hours till AO, Anthony and I scramble to get things back as they were originally. We are able to get things back to normal and youth group starts with very few knowing any knowledge of the confusion.

Middle School AO was a blast-

Topic- God's Will / Your life's purpose

Riot Time (Fun Element)- lead by Intern Anthony- Pop can theme minute to win it- Very fun. While contestants were playing another youth leader was throwing candy into the crowd.

My favorite part of the night- The praise and worship was incredible. One youth leader lead with his acoustic guitar and then three middle school vocalist. They did two sets with a total of 5 songs. They were so good and Christ honoring. I truly worshiped Christ :-)

Every night they do a prayer element in the service. This was also very neat as every row gathered together with a youth leader to pray for the evening. It was awesome to see about 80 middle school students and 10 -15 youth leaders circled up throughout the room praying to their God.

I also loved sharing my story with the Middle School students. The were very attentive and respectful. I just hope i did my part well.

Overall a great day. There is no greater joy in life than Serving Christ.

First Day on the Job

2010-11-08T07:41:00.000-08:00

Thursday, November 4th, was my first official day as the Director of Middle School at Bethel Church. An absolutely incredible way to start.

I arrived at Bethel Church around 10 am CMT, after about a two hour drive through blinding rain. My car (96 Accord) has a defrost problem. I'm not sure what the problem is, but for some reason the car fogs up like crazy on the inside. It is almost impossible to drive without a window open. That made it very difficult during this drive due to the blinding rain. My options were stay dry and unable to see or wet and see clearly. I choose to see clearly.

After arriving i had two meeting right away. The first was to take care of paper work. It went well and it was neat because the lady that the meeting was with was also a mom of a middle schooler. She talked to me about her love for the youth ministry and her sons passion to use his gifts and abilities (skateboarding) to reach his friend for Christ. (Awesome) The second meeting was with a head pastor who as he says is in charge of "the folks, funds, facilities". An amazing man with an awesome testimony and love for people. After going to some info he handed me my keys and showed me my new office. Walking in their was a huge care package sitting on my desk filled with tons of awesome stuff- (a Red Crown Point Jacket, a coffee shop gift card, etc.)

Then Jim (YP) came and got me from my office and took me on a few errands.

1. To go see a house that is available to rent/buy/use.

2. A very necessary errand to dick's sporting goods- Jim with a very serious face told me we were going to get something that i had to have to do my job. Keeping his poker face he took me to the hunting section and grabbed an airsoft gun/ glasses and bee-bees. While telling me that this will definitely come in handy often.

3. Lunch.

Following our errands we went back to Bethel to finish prep for my first official AO (youth group night). I meet with Jim for a while working on details for the evening, went up to the youth room to meet the band who was performing that evening and then headed to my office for set up.

About an hour into getting my office set up and checking email and stuff i experienced my first airsoft sabotage. I was on my phone and a youth leader ducked his head into my office and let off a few rounds in the direction of my head. I quickly grabbed my before mentioned new pistol and ducked behind my desk. Something must have distracted said youth leader, because he was now hiding from someone else right outside my door. Foolishly his armed hand has right in front of my door. I took aim and shot him in the wrist. The battle ended as quickly as it had started.

My first official AO was amazing. The night started at about 4:15 when about 10 students arrived in the youth room. These students are LT's (leadership team). They meet early to do set up, a book study as well as eat together and learn leadership strategies. I had a great time just sitting in and watching this all take place.

The Night featured a band named "Winters Halo". Jim Pitts, the youth pastor, set up the concert very well, by having an element of fun at the beginning and then focusing the 200 students attention by showing a video about worship and then leading a small bible study on Mary of Bethany. Following the Bible study "Winters Halo" had about a 45 min. concert with included worshipful songs, and fun songs. Overall the event was amazing and a great night for the students to learn, fellowship and worship their God. I'm not sure, but i might have even done a little crowd surfing. This is no job in the world like youth ministry.

Thank you Bethel Student Ministries for allowing me to be apart of this.

A New Chapter In My Life

2010-11-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

As of November 4th, i have started a new chapter in my life. I started a new youth ministry position. Director of Middle School at Bethel Church in Crown Point, IN.

Due to the new chapter, i have decided to get my blog back up and running. Simply for the purpose of keeping a ministry journal. I did not do a good job at this at my past position and desire to keep this a active part of my weekly routine of my new ministry.

My goal is to blog weekly about the weeks events as well as things i have learned and experienced. I hope for this to be fun and interesting to those who are interested, but most importantly something for me to look back at years from now.

So, just to get this started.

My first post-

-I sit in my office of the position i am leaving, packing up my office as well as trying to get things ready for the youth ministry to continue on after i depart.

- I have about three weeks left before i am officially done, but have started my new position, but just on Thursday nights.

- I have learned already that leaving a ministry is very difficult. Telling those you love, care for and have ministered to and with that you are switching ministries is horrible, because you don't know if they understand why. You try to explain it, you try to show it through your continued love, but their faces say that they feel like you are abandoning them.

- I am very excited about the new position

Reasons i am excited

- Working on a youth ministry team has always been a dream

- Working specifically with Middle Schoolers is a exciting challenge. I love their energy and authenticity.

- Not being "the guy in charge"- their is a lot of perks to not being that guy.

- Working on a large staff. I will get to just enjoy normal church stuff instead of leading it.

- There is so much more, i just can't put it in to words yet.

Thoughts from starbucks presentation.

2010-08-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

Interesting presentation by the director for digital of Starbucks. They have 10 million Facebook fans and are the #1 engaged brand online. There is some great thinking going on over there that I think apply to a wide range of organizations.

A few highlights – I feel like I could do a blog post on each of them:

It’s about relationships (human connection), not marketing
social fits within a larger digital, integrated strategy
build a coalition / thoughtfully deputize
Become a content archeologist
Enabling personalization
Relevant mobile experiences

Here is a link to a full video of the presentation

Funny Read- Kinda Christianity````

2010-05-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

Just received this book from a good friend. Very funny satire mocking a new kind of Christianity. A great light hearted read.

www.thefuntheory.com

2009-11-04T06:45:00.000-08:00

Just found this amazing website. It's called www.thefuntheory.com. The basis is that there are certain things in life we should be doing, but because they aren't very fun we choose not to do them. Great example is physical exercise. The fun theory put this to the test. Go to the website and watch the video on the staircase. (Amazing)

This has great application for the church. We all know we should go to church, but because we are selfish and lazy many people choose not to attend. What if we made church just a little fun? I believe many people who know they should go would start going.

1. How can we make church a little bit more fun, while keeping it centered on Christ and the Bible?
2. Wouldn't we be more bold to invite our unchurched friends if we knew it would be an enjoyable experience for them?
3. Why isn't church fun? Am i missing something?

Coaching as a ministry

2009-05-21T08:11:00.000-07:00

I just finished coaching distance for a local High School track team. Here are a few thoughts on the my experience and reasons for and against youth pastors using coaching as an inlet into the public school.

1. I tell my students to use the contacts God gives them to share Christ. How amazing is it if i can set an example to my students by doing it myself.
2. I tell my students to invite friends to youth group. Now i have the opportunity to invite teens to youth group.
3. Coaching gives you complete access to enter the public school. Every other inlet i have tried i am merely a visitor who has limited freedom.
4. I am at the public school daily that many of my students attend. It gives me opportunities to encourage them out side of the youth room and in their mission field.
5. Coaching gives me a foot into getting more opportunities in the public school. Possible counseling opportunities or others.

Just some thoughts. If you have other please add them. This would make a great book.

PT

"The way I see it"

2009-02-24T07:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday i went to Starbucks on my way to coaching. Going to starbucks for me is one of the greatest experiences. I sipped on my favorite drink (caramel macchiato), read a book, and was intrigued by the thought provoking quote on the Starbucks cup called "The Way I See It". Today's was interesting.

"There is a subtle difference between a mission and a promise. A mission is something you strive to accomplish - a promise is someting you are compelled to keep. One is individual, the other is shared. When a mission and a promise are one and the same... that's when moutains are moved and races are won." By Hala Moddelmog

What an amazing quote. If my mission and promises are dependent on God's power, i think, that is when God moves moutains and impowers me to run the race.

New Laptop

2009-02-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

Last week i made the decision to buy a new laptop, but this time i went small. My current laptop is by no means a laptop, it has a huge screen, is very heavy, gets very warm and burns your lap, and has a battery life of maybe 10 min. So, this time i purchased a true laptop; small and thin. I am very excited about it, especially the integrated webcam. This will allow me to keep this blog more up to date with video blogs. Check back soon for some new posts.

New Office

2008-10-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

This last Wednesday the pastor's here at Northeastern Baptist were able to move in to our new offices. What a glorious day it was. So, here i am sitting her writing my first blog entry from my brand new office; gazing out my windows. But, i want to give a few pros and cons of the new offices.

Pros:
* Larger- my office is twice the size of my old office and it includes a huge closet to store random youth ministry stuff.
* New- i think the very fact that it's new brings a sense of excitement back to what i do in the office each day, as well as excitement to the students to come visit me.

Cons:
* Corner office- having a hidden corner office is great for big executives who don't want to be bothered by people, but my job is to be bothered by people. Pastor's aren't supposed to be office people were supposed to be people persons. I miss having people pop in and talk, many great relationship building times happened when people popped in.
* Ok there's only one con- i love my new office.

Come visit me in my corner sometime.

Serve Kalamazoo Video

2008-07-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

We showed this slide show during the sunday evening service this week after the students gave some testimonies, an amazing evening.

Serve Kalamzoo

2008-06-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

We returned Friday from our summer missions trip. A little tired and a lot amazed by God's work. This week consisted of Morning VBS at the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission and work projects each afternoon. 11 Students and 2 leaders went on the trip and i think this is a trip we will all remember for a very long time. To our knowledge 6 kids received Christ as their Lord and Savior and 100% or the students heard that God loves them. What a great week. Akd one of our students to tell you what God did though them this week.

Lake Ann 2008

2008-06-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

This summer we took 30 students to Lake Ann's summer camp. The ages ranged from 4th grade to 12th grade. We had an amazing week and many of our students made great decisions for God. Lake Ann is expensive but worth every penny. Thunderstorms throughout the week, but the week was still amazing.

Small Groups This Wednesday

2008-06-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder, this Wednesday we start our summer small groups. Guys we will be at the walker's and girls you will be at the Klinger's. Give me a call if you need directions. We are really looking forward to this study this summer. Feel free to show up early and stay late.

Summer Small Groups

2008-05-29T08:26:00.000-07:00

This summer our guys are going to be going through the book "Becoming a young man of God", by Rawson. I am so excited to see how our group of guys grow closer to each and and God. I would highly recommend this small group material to anyone in youth ministry. If any of my teens are reading this, you don't want to miss this study this summer.

C:format

2008-05-29T06:59:00.000-07:00

It was a bitter sweet day today as i received my laptop back from Best Buy today. My laptop had not been working well for a while, so i decided to give my service plan a use and bring it in to best buy to see what they could do for me. The end result, they completely reformatted my hard drive. It's sweet because now my computer runs like its brand new, but bitter because i lost all of my files. I have had to start from scratch again. I have now learned the importance of external hard drives.

"Day of Silence"

2008-04-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

April 25th is a nationwide day of silence in public schools to remember the homosexual community. Please pray for our nation on April 25th that the Lord would use this sad day to allow His followers to take a stand and tell their friends why they are against this day of silence. Teens remember God has put you in that public school to be His light in that dark place. "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." Col. 4:6

Please read more about this topic at http://www.missionamerica.com/homosexual.php?articlenum=70

SNL- Movie Night

2008-04-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

Last night we had our monthly SNL here at the church. We watched an amazing movie called "The Last Sin Eater". Great movie, if you weren't there last night i would encourage you to rent it with your family. Watch it and then talk about it. Great gospel message.

XBOX 360 Gamertag

2008-03-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

I believe you can tell a lot about a person by their gamer score. For those that were confused by that statement. Anyone that owns a XBOX 360 has a gamer tag and along with the gamer tag is a gamer score. If you are XBOX person, go ahead and add me as a friend.
My Gamertag is tigersyear

Survey Trip To Durban, South Africa

2008-03-05T06:43:00.000-08:00

Kaci and I just got back from our Short trip to Durban, South Africa. We went to survey the area for our future missions trip in 2010. We will be returning with some of our teens to serve the churches there during the World Cup. The missionaries we got to meet are amazing. It was so encouraging to spend time with them and to see what God is doing through them there. Highlight of the trip was probably preaching in church and attending a college age bible study. I can't wait to go back.

Snow Camp 2008

2008-02-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

This year we took our teens up to Lake Ann for their Freeze Out program. It was an amazing weekend for all of us that went. Awesome worship, great preaching (Rudolph). The highlight of the weekend was Paul Bakers frozen pajama pants and our 8 hour car ride home. It should have only taken 4 except for the white outs that occurred every half hour. Fish tailing through Grand Rapids is invigorating.

Grand Central Freeze

2008-02-13T10:14:00.000-08:00

200 people can effect thousands. Especially watch those not apart of the prank. Look at how they are effected by what is going on around them. This should be the result of teenagers on fire for Christ. (Missions Trip)

NSM Super Bowl Party 2008

2008-02-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday Night our youth ministry held its 2nd Super Bowl Party. We got to watch a great game and had a great time. We had about 70 students show up to our party, including 15 from Bethel Baptist Church. Our night consisted up food, prizes and some crazy games; including an air rock band competition which is shown in the video. The gospel message was shared at half time and according to the response cards which were filled out by the students 15 teens accepted Christ as their Savior. Praise the Lord. It's amazing how God can work in the lives of students even during something as silly as a football game.

Book Review:

2007-12-18T06:33:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Speaking to Teenagers by Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins. This book had many good principles to follow when preparing a message and did a very good job off reminded us that there is more involved in teaching than just the words that come out of your mouth. But, the book was very much a text book on speaking. A great book to have on your bookshelf or to give out to lay youth workers, but very much a review for anyone that has taken a course on communication. Definitely worth reading if you haven't taken a course like that.

Youth Group Christmas Present

2007-12-13T20:03:00.000-08:00

Tonight Kaci and I bought our Youth Group a little Christmas gift. In our youth room are many table games, but the majority of them are very old and in poor condition, so Kaci and i went and picked up a new toy for the youth room. We will present to them on Sunday right before Christmas. I'm posting this on here, because I'm confident they wont see this on my Blog. Merry Christmas all.

Thoughts on Black Friday

2007-11-26T09:52:00.000-08:00

I read an article this morning talking about the record breaking sales day that happened this year on black Friday in stores. The article also stated that many of the deals offered in store where also offered online between the same hours, yet still millions of people still opted to wait in long lines and fight huge crowds for deals they could have gotten sitting in their homes in their skivvies. My observation, which my be absolutely false, is their is something adventurous and exciting about being apart of the mad crowds and confusions which makes it worth the hardship. People want to be apart of something; people want a story to tell; an experience. I think there are many ministry applications here waiting to be implemented.

Kal-Haven Bike Trip

2007-09-11T15:51:00.000-07:00

What a great day. 30 brave teens took on the 34 mile Kal-Haven Bike Path. The Bike path started in Kalamazoo and then ends in South Haven. We biked all morning and then had lunch in South Haven. Great job to everyone who attempted this, and i would encourage those that didn't come to give it a try next year.

Berlin Missions Trip

2007-07-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

This summer our Youth Ministry took our annual missions trip across the Atlantic Ocean to Berlin, Germany. I had the amazing privilege to work along side my wife and 12 teens from our church. We were involved in ministering to children through a VBS style day camp and then in the evenings ministering to Germany teenagers through a Survivor themed Teen Camp. I am excited to tell everyone one that we know of 11 people accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior during that week. But, one thing that i am just as excited about is the future results that we will see in the lives of the 16 of us that went on this trip.

Funny Far Side

2007-07-02T11:44:00.000-07:00

I think this is so much more funny, now that i am a Dad.

2 Weeks of Lake Ann

2007-06-27T10:11:00.000-07:00

This summer the Lord gave me the privelage to be a speaker at Lake Ann camp this year. I was the Fresh Start speaker for the first two weeks of Camp. Over those two weeks i got to spend time with close to 100 freshman, what a joy. It was amazing to see God use His Word through the ministry of Camp to touch so many lives for Christ. Chuck Norris Rocks!!

Sr. High Girls Mary Kay Party

2007-05-13T19:26:00.000-07:00

So one Friday night the girls and I (this is Kaci :) decided that we should have a party with a woman in the church who sells Mary Kay products. The night started out kinda bumpy with us getting a late start and me having to drive the church van through downtown Kalamazoo (scary!). When we finally found the building we had a blast. Karen Mox did a great job showing us how to take care of our skin and the importants of wearing makeup that flatters your skin tone. So overall it was a great night of bonding over magnifying mirrors and lip gloss :)

German Dinner Fund Raiser

2007-04-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

This Sunday our Berlin missions team and their parents hosted and authentic German meal for the purpose of raising money for the trip this July. We had such a great time... it took a team of nearly 30 to make his dinner a possibility. It was great to see God pull this dinner together, because most of us had never done anything like this before.

We all had looks of awe as we found out how much money came in from the dinner as we were all pitching in cleaning up after the dinner. I'm am so excited to tell you that God gave us $1200 as a result of this dinner.

I learned a couple things from this dinner. 1. The Lord desires to bless us. 2. Our church is filled with people who love and support our teenagers. 3. No matter how prepared you think you are, if you aren't following God's plan you are going to face frustration. "Thank you God, for teaching us that you are in charge."

Cabin Fever

2007-04-04T11:29:00.000-07:00

We'll last weekend was our "Cabin Fever" all-nighter. What a great night. The evening kicked off with several games of Lazer Tag guys vs. girls style at Lazer Land. Not much of a surprise here the boys embarrassed the females. Although Kaci surprisingly had some decent numbers. When then headed over to the Bicking's for some late night swimming. The highlight there was the broken scrub brush. You will have to ask someone about that to find out what happened. We then took our wrinkled selves back to the church where the ladies watched "Flushed Away" and the guys took their aggression out in the Halo world. When we started tiring out we didn't fall victim to our fatigue but played hours worth of Sardines and spoons. Followed by a 1 hour nape during the second showing of flushed away and then a wonderful breakfast served by Mr. Nyhoff. If you were there you had a great time if you missed it stay posted for future events.

The Nursing "Home"

2007-03-06T07:19:00.000-08:00

Today i learned a valuable lesson.
One winter morning sitting in my office jamming to worship music while working on a number of things, a women came into my office asking if we would be willing to bring our teens to her nursing home to lead their residence in worship and then to spend the evening playing bingo with them. Sounding like a great ministry opportunity for our teens, i eagerly accepted the invitation.

February 21st, we left Northeastern heading for the Nursing Home which was about 4 miles away. Not having been their before we drove to the destination looking for a large building with a good size parking lot. We found nothing. So, we continued to drive up and down the road of the street of the address looking for it. Finally we found the street address on a tiny sign that was half coved with snow. We pulled into the drive way of what was a small house. Convinced this was the wrong place, i parked the church van and went to the front door of the house and knocked and was greeted by a women who had just as a surprised look on her face as i had on. After a short awkward conversation we both realized the same thing. Neither of us was prepared for what happened next.
I went back to the caravan of vehicles and unloaded our group of close to 30 people along with musical instruments and supplies, and we all entered this house which had 1 worker and 5 residence.
As we jammed ourselves into the living room which had just enough chairs for their residence i began to have flashbacks of spelunking. While the teens were getting "comfortable" i had yet another awkward conversation with the worker informing her of our plans for the evening. When i finished she changed my plans by letting my know non of that is going to work, due to the fact that the residence need to be in bed in 15 minutes.
We passed out the songs that we were planning to sing for the evening and our worship leader began to lead the 5 of them in some familiar hymns, while the residence began to fall into different stages of unconsciousness. To kind of redeem myself and put a spiritual emphasis on the evening i opened up a time of testimonies to allow our youth leaders and students a time to share what Christ has done in their lives. Once testimony time was over the teens were very ready to begin playing bingo... which gave me the privilege of shattering their desires by saying "it's time to go". It was interesting listening to some of the comments from the confused and uninformed teens. My favorite quote was, "Oh, we must be going to the nursing home now."
We packed up and headed back to the church. Instead of being back at 8:30 p.m. like i had told their parents, it was then almost 7:30, which gave me plenty of time to answer the student’s questions.
As, i look back at the evening i realize the valuable lessons i think the Lord was trying to teach me: Even simple events need a lot of preparation and always have a plan B.

NSM Snow Camp 2007

2007-02-26T09:19:00.000-08:00

Well, we got back yesterday afternoon from our annual snow camp.
We had such a great time this weekend.

Here are a couple of highlights from this year's snow camp.
* NSM Film Festival- Congratulations to Bord-Um
* Challenging Sessions form Todd
* Several Tubbing Injuries- "Extreme Tubbing"
* We averaged a little under 5 Hours of sleep a night
* Who knew Todd Hill was a prankster

Hope to see you all there again next year!!!

NSM Super Bowl Party 07

2007-02-22T07:27:00.000-08:00

Well as i mentioned i will be using this blog site to give you a review of some of the things that our happening in my life as well as the life of our student ministry.

Feb 4th, NSM held their first every Super Bowl outreach party. What an amazing event.
For the last 4 months we have been planning like crazy for this party. Working on details from Super Bowl tickets all the way down to what type of deritos to offer. I just want to give a few highlights of the party.

1. Our church family denoted all the food, drinks and prizes to give away that the entire party cost us less than $50.
2. Even though we had the worst snow storm of the year on the day before the party and the day of we still had over 60 people able to attend as well as our speaker who lives over a half hour away.
3. Many local organizations donated give aways to our party including gift certificates, bowling passes, and even tanning passes.
4. One of our helpful adults was willing to climb his roof during the snow storm to tear down his satellite dish so that we could get great reception in our gym.

What a fun event it was and we saw God do great things that evening.
Thanks for reading.

My First Blog

2007-02-21T11:37:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

This is my first ever blog, and i fell very uncomfortable as i write this first blog. I fell that now that i am a blogger that i need to change as a person. I think that now i have to dress like a blogger and get blogging friends and drink tea instead of coffee. Write quotes written by anonymous and recite lyrics to songs that might not really exist. Maybe, it's just the realization that i am writing things that might never be read. But alas, i am excited to enter the world of blogging.

The reason for this blog is to allow friends, family and students in my youth ministry to find out what has been going on in the last few months. So, expect updates on what God is doing in Western Michigan.

Thanks for viewing my first blog.

“…so that in all things Christ might have preeminence.” – Col 1:18b