Remembering the Youth Ministry Hotline

Greetings and Salutations (or as they say in NC, "Howdy Ya'll!) out there in Blog World and welcome to another Flashback Friday edition of Carl's blog! Today, kiddies, we are going to take a trip in the Wayback Machine, all the way back to 1988. Think back to this time, before many people had home computers, before churches had websites, before cell phones and before online social networking sites. Even in those dark days, we still had to communicate with one another- and we often did it with this thing called a telephone.

After the epiphany about more active summers and better communication I received at the 1987 NYWC, I had spent much of my time in the following months working on ways to let my youth and their families know what was going on in our ministry at Springfield Friends Meeting. I had improved the monthly newsletters, sent out more postcards, and put up more bulletin boards in the facility. This all culminated in the summer of '88 with the publication of my first Summer Ministries Booklet and the introduction of the Youth Group Hotline. The concept of the Hotline was not new. The idea was to have a separate phone line with an answering machine (get Grandpa to explain that contraption to ya!) attached where people could call and receive information on youth events. But I wanted to take the idea to another level. I found an answering machine with a 1 minute message tape, and advertised that the message would change every day! And from June of 1988 (887-8366 at Springfield) until March of 2000 (847-XLAX in Kissimmee-"get a new message every day that will really MOVE you...") I did just that- at least most every day. It was much more than just information- it was entertainment, it was interactive, and it was a great means of connecting with students. Here are just a few of the things that happened on the Hotline over the years:

• Al Sleet, Hippy-Dippy Youth Leader-  Stolen from a George Carlin character, Al sounded a little stoned, and delivered the youth news along with great lines like "The forecast for tonight is dark...continued mostly dark tonight, ending in widely scattered light tomorrow." Al was a favorite for years.
• Chicken Man-  With his famous cry of "He's everywhere, he's everywhere," Chicken Man's heroic tales (as told by me, the narrator) would always include some of the youth and the upcoming events in our program. He was a weekly character for years.
• The Student Spotlight-  Once a week I would highlight one of our youth, giving true facts and some humorous stories- or facts I would just make up! "Bob's favorite subject is basket weaving; he loves football and chinese checkers; and his hobbies include eating cheesecake and knitting sweaters for senior citizens."
• Contests-  There were all kinds of contests designed to get kids to call in and leave messages, and they did. I would publish the contests in our newsletter and get them hooked on calling.  They were having fun and hearing what we were up to as a ministry- hmmm this idea just might work...
• The DJ-  I would play a corny AM-radio style disk jockey, giving the youth news and singing songs like Carlin's One Last Pimple (I've got one last pimple from going steady with you, don't know whether to break it or leave it alone, it's the only one I call my own...") and Put Your Hand In the Fan ("Put your hand in the fan and you could lose a finger.  Put your foot in the fan and you could lose a toe.  Put your face in the fan and you will look at others differently, put your body in the fan and alter your anatomy!"). Always a favorite.
• Top 10 Lists-  I would do lists about our ministry, about events, and about individual youth. I would also borrow directly from the master, David Letterman!
• Mocking Culture- From time to time I would latch on to something that was huge in the youth culture and make fun of it in various ways. For instance, during the Titanic craze of 1997 I introduced a recurring character named Leonardo Decappuchinobreath to torture all of the young women who were madly in love with Leo. I had so much fun with this one...

The Hotline accomplished everything I ever hoped it would until it was replaced by the website. It fostered communication and contact with the youth I served, and helped eliminate moments like a youth walking in and asking when the Atlanta trip was going to be, only to be told we had just returned the day before! And websites, as great as they are, cannot replace the intimacy of hearing the excited voice of a youth responding to your work and the upcoming events. It was just one of the many ways we used to try to help connect students to our ministry, and hopefully, to Jesus. And by the way- even with this "new" computer technology, comments are still appreciated!  :) 

Because of Jesus,

The Well-Rounded Man

I'm the Prince in the pink tights and the crown...

When I was in youth ministry people used to ask me all the time how it was that I could get along so easily with so many different types of people. They knew that it never mattered to me what a person's interests were or what their personality was like, I could always find a way to talk to them. While the opportunities are much fewer at this point of my life, that is still something that comes easily to me. And lately this question has been heavy on my mind: Is it possible for those growing up in our world in 2015 to turn out like me? Now I know that sounds both presumptuous and narcissistic (and it may well be), but stick with me. It is entirely possible that we don't want anyone to turn out like me, but that's not really my point either. Here's the deal. We live in an age of specialization and compartmentalization. Our society puts an emphasis on learning particular skills and hanging with a certain crowd. Young people learn early on to focus on the things they are good at and not worry about branching out into areas that don't interest them. Play one sport so you can become great. Focus on being a math & science nerd, or hang with the literary geeks. Be artistic at your own risk- that comes with a certain reputation and little hope of a decent income in the future. Writers are encouraged to write in a specific fashion so that other writers will approve of their work- sometimes rather than the readers.. We are teaching students to impress the people who are just like them. And whatever you do, find friends who are like-minded and learn to speak their language. Be a specialist in all you do, and that will lead you to greatness.

Here's where this post becomes all about ME. When I graduated from high school one of my teachers wrote in my yearbook that I was "one of the few people I have ever known who truly made the most out of high school." Why would Mr. Wolfe write such glowing words about little ol' me? At the time I didn't really get it, but looking back I can't argue with the Wolfe! The reason he wrote that epitaph is that I was indeed a well-rounded man. Let me brag for a minute- or maybe two. In my middle school and high school years I played just enough sports to have a connection with the athletes, almost all of whom I played baseball with in the summers. The most important social group in my life was my church youth group. I was a good enough student (with the exception of math!) to be in honors classes and be able to call the class "geeks" my friends. I sang in the school chorus (an athlete in the chorus WAY before Glee) for 3 years. My senior year I had the lead in 2 different plays (including the school musical- see picture at top) and was the Editor-in-Chief of the yearbook. I was not GREAT at any of those things (well...maybe the musical) but I enjoyed all of them, and more importantly, enjoyed the people I got to know through each phase of my high school career. I had friends in nearly every social group in the school and knew how to communicate with all of them. Though not nearly as cool as Ferris Bueller would be a few years later, I like to think our school secretary might have said this about me at some point, just as Grace the secretary said about Ferris: "Oh, he's very popular. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wastoids, dweebies, d*ckheads - they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude." I learned the value of every person and ways to communicate with people who disagreed with me. And most of that education came about because I didn't know enough to specialize.

Me again. All things to all people...

All of that carried over with me into student ministry. Dealing with a wide variety of students and a wide range of issues never caused me grief. I was comfortable with introverts and the extroverts, with the party people and the nerds. I was at home at band concerts, football games, dance recitals, poetry readings and concerts filled with music I didn't really like because I KNEW how much those things mattered to the kids who were involved in them. My wide range of knowledge about various subjects allowed me to discuss the things that were on their minds, no matter what those things were. In the end, my 28 years in youth ministry were a success (to whatever extent that is true) not because of what I knew, but because of my abilities to communicate with all types of people in all kinds of situations. I followed the Apostle Paul's admonition to become all things to all people. My high school education had very much prepared me for my career. And it had absolutely nothing to do with books or tests...

So why do I doubt that today's system could produce another me, even if that were a goal anyone would have? Too much emphasis on specialization and "being great." We are asking kids to decide in middle school if they are going to college. We want them to declare their college majors in high school. Great athletes are told to pick one sport. We try to brand musicians with certain specific styles and labels. We live in a society where the old cliche "Jack of all trades and master of none" has become a serious insult. Too many young adults live in closed circles, unaware of the beauty, the challenges and the excitement that can be found in another circle. And these things show their ugliest face when an inability to understand different points of views turns to a violent response. At a time when the need for universal understanding has never been greater, we are pushing students to learn to bond with all of the people who are just like them.

Trust me when I tell you that the world doesn't really need more people like me. But we do need more people seeking to be like Jesus. More people who reach across racial, ethnic and religious lines to communicate in love. We need more people willing to "clique jump" and spend time with those who can seem so different. We need some jacks of all trades, willing to love no matter the circumstances or the consequences. And if you need to wear pink tights to make it happen, so be it! :) Happy Hump Day to one and all!

Because of Jesus,

Throwback Thursday: TNT Theme Nights

In honor of the upcoming Springfield Friends Meeting Reunion Lunch at Pizza Inn (August 16 at noon) we will be looking back at some highlights of those years each Thursday until then.  Today's Throwback Thursday post remembers a classic TNT theme night. Not that anyone cares...

One of the really fun parts of the early days of writing this blog was looking back through my files to see old newsletters and brochures I designed and wrote to keep students interested in what we were doing with our youth ministries. I have to admit I had some pretty strange ideas. The following was an ad for our TNT program at Springfield Friends Meeting from March, 1993. Would this themed event grab your attention? Or would it have sent you scrambling for the remote control, hoping to find a re-run of Little House on the Prairie?

March 15th- TNT will meet from 7:30-9PM, and it will be (YAWN) Apathy Night. This is your night not to care! Wear the most boring clothes you can find- nothing bright or colorful. Some of the things that will not be allowed on this night include laughing, smiling, crying, fast movement, applause and interesting conversations. If you are caught breaking these rules, you will be dealt with in a very boring manner. Yawning is perfectly legal. Plan to join us for a real ho-hum evening of boredom- or not- I could care less if you come to Apathy Night.

Hard to imagine that the youth still showed up, huh? But they did, for this and lots of other very strange theme nights, such as Jell-O Night, Disco Night, Slop Night, Pie Eating Night and 60's Revival Night. Those nights were all part of what we did to put butts in the seats so we could talk about Jesus. And for those of you who may have been part of one of my groups, I am curious- what theme night sticks in your memory? I'd love to hear from you!

Because of Jesus,

The UMYF Enquirer

I began doing a monthly newsletter for students and parents in the late 1970's while serving New Garden Friends Meeting in Greensboro, NC. It felt like the more information families had about what we were doing in our youth ministry the more likely they were to be involved. I always tried to make the newsletters informative and funny, and include things like contests and bizarre stories, because the idea was to get the students to read it. It was constantly frustrating that despite my best efforts, the kids never seemed to know what was going on. I had been at FUMC-K for over a year when I received a revelation while standing in line at the grocery store. I was laughing at the headlines on the gossip rags like the National Enquirer when it hit me- what if I used headlines to draw readers into my newsletter? They could be wild, crazy, and have nothing to do with the article, but if they were crazy and funny enough they might just draw the youth in and get them to read the stories. That month I changed the name of our monthly newsletter to The UMYF Enquirer and began writing outrageous headlines and inserting random weird stories. It worked, at least in the beginning;  parents and students buzzed every month about the silliness. And I had a BLAST writing them. 

Today, I want to share some of the headlines that struck me as funny as I went back through some the Enquirers I still have in my files. Just for kicks (and to keep the spirit of those old newsletters alive) we'll have a contest, too!  If anyone can tell me what V.I.T.R.S. (as seen in the first headline) is short for, you could be a winner! Leave your guess in a comment (just click comment at the bottom of this post). If you are correct, I'll buy you a Slurpee next time you are in Tampa! Here are some of my favorite headlines - and no, I cannot explain all of them!

Spicy Foods Cause VITRS In Lab Rats

Nate Hill Says, "Country Music is my life!"

Sumahama, Cathy Thacker!

Call Brain Watson's Beeper At 1-800-FLUSH

Pope To Visit U.N. in March- UMYF To BE There!

The Good, the Bad and the Methodist...

2nd Heziciah Made Easy!!!

The Figaro School of Moonlight Tubing

Sheep Cloned At UMYF- It Could Be Ewe!

Moose Bites Can Be Really Nasty

4 Square Found To Cause Rare Disease!

Ben Thacker- "I'm Dating a Martian!"

Attack of the Killer Christians

Scientists Discover Evil In Kissimmee

Lisa Kraus Speaks Out- "I'm Not an Alien!"

Elvis To Lead Bible Study

Jacob Lupfer Says "I'll Kill Again!"

Communication is a key to student ministry. So is creativity. There are so many ways to sty in touch these days, but I still love the old methods too.Good luck making sense out of most of those headlines, and have a blessed weekend, everyone!

Because of Jesus,

The Ministry of The Next Big Thing

Scott, Robbie & evidence from a
Polaroid Scavenger Hunt- 1982!

Early on in my ministry at New Garden Friends Meeting (1978-83) I began to understand that the missing link in most youth ministries at the time was communication.  Letting students and parents know what was going on, what was coming up, and what they needed to do about it was a new concept in the fly by the seat of your pants world of youth work.  Sometime in the year after David Stone turned me on to the concept of Wholistic Youth Ministry (that is ministry to the whole person- body, soul, mind and spirit) I began to actually plan months in advance for YFYF  (Young Friends Youth Fellowship) programs.  As part of that planning, I began doing a monthly newsletter that we mailed to the home of every youth on our roster- active or not.  Doing a newsletter was not easy in 1979. Those were the days of cut and paste clip art, rub on letters and mimeograph machines. But I felt it was that important.  The first objective of this newsletter was to inform.  My theory was that it would inform much better if it was actually something the students wanted to read, so I set out to make it creative and exciting.   No matter how great a youth ministry you build, it is worthless if no one shows up.  So we needed to build a buzz! I used lots of names of active youth in the articles; I hid inside jokes and contests in the body of the letter; and I tried to give catchy, creative names to everything I could.  For instance, one Sunday a month we would go to a local fast food restaurant instead of just having snacks.  We just said we were going to Burger Doodle, and that name stuck no matter where we went.  We also tried to keep sameness, tameness and lameness (with apologies to Jesse Jackson) out of our ministry.  We hoped the kids were never quite sure what would happen each Sunday afternoon.  I soon discovered it was working.  We were almost hip!  Do you know how hard it is for Quakers to be hip?  Even students who rarely showed up for YFYF were talking to me about the newsletter and hoping to see their name show up in it!

The second objective was to get them excited about things that were still to come, things that we wanted them to look forward to.  I began to think of this as the ministry of The Next Big Thing.  Did we have a trip or retreat coming up in a few months?  Were we going to see Ghandi or having a Marathon (lock-in) soon?  Did we have a Polaroid Panic planned or a guest speaker coming?  Anything I could think of that we could plug as a way to keep students anticipating was featured in the newsletter.  This, in turn, forced us as leaders to plan in advance.  It all seems so basic now, but at the time youth ministry was just coming of age and this was pretty radical stuff!  And it worked...

Over the years the methods of communication changed.  There would be summer booklets, telephone hotlines (like 847-XLAX in Kissimmee) and websites.  But they all served the same purpose- to keep parents and students up to date, and to hype The Next Big Thing.  I was always looking for ways to inject my sense of humor into these things, and in the New Garden years I did it by ending each newsletter with "And remember..."  I looked back through some of those letters, (Yes, I still have them- I know, I am pathetic!) and here are some of the actual things I wrote for those students to remember:

• An apple a day keeps the doctor away...but an onion takes care of everybody!
• It is better to give than to receive...unless,of course, you are Darek Newby!
• He who lives in a glass house...should dress in the bathroom!
• A bird in the hand...BITES!
• March 20-26 is International Youth Leaders Are Great People Week.  It is also International Pickle Week.  So in another YFYF first, we proudly bring you International Buy Your Youth Leader A Pickle Week!  We prefer dills!  And a happy April Fools Day to all of you!
• A day without sunshine is like...NIGHT! (Thanks, Steve Martin)

Those early days were exciting, and I will never forget what it was like to grow up right along side my students.  They taught me so much about effective youth ministry.  But I still had lots to learn.  It would be several more years before I figured out that if I made a newsletter the right size to fit on the back of a toilet, even more people would read it! Communication is a critical element of any student ministry. In this day of texts and social networking youth pastors have more opportunities than ever to stay in touch.  Use them. I'd love to hear what you are doing to bridge the communication gap. In the meantime, here's a final thought for all of you...

And remember:  This blog is like toilet paper.  You may not need it every day, but it's always here- and if it's not, you will really miss it!


Because of Jesus,

My Glossary, Part 2

Before I begin today, I must report some sad news- at least to me.  Nina Mock, one of the youth from WMUMC (and one of the finest young women I have ever known) wrote Marilyn last night that Kado, our favorite Japanese restaurant in Tampa, has closed due to financial reasons.  It will be the subject of tomorrow's blog.  It shall be missed...

Today I continue my explanations of abbreviations, acronyms and terms used to describe various aspects of my student ministries over the years- often to much confusion amongst adults!  Here we go:

Graceland-  The name of our student ministry at WMUMC.  When I arrived in Tampa, the student ministry went by the name God's Property.  After a year of phasing that name out, we had a little contest to pick a new name- which I then pretty much ignored and decided to go with Graceland.  I loved the tag line we put with the name in our logo (at left)- "Living in God's grace and spending time with the King!"  (Both this logo and the Crosseyed logo were designed by Uth Stuph, a fabulous company out of Orlando.)  I was never a huge Elvis fan, but I loved this classic logo and the meaning behind the name.  It did, however, confuse the older folks every time it showed up in the church bulletin...

YSOP-  Youth Service Opportunity Project.  This was a youth-led service project we started at FUMC-K.  The youth took over the nursery during the 8:30 AM Sunday worship service, providing lesson plans, teachers and helpers.  Cyndi Reep and Jill Souther were the first youth to direct the program; others followed.  Then name was "stolen" from a New York City Quaker ministry I once worked with.  That just proves the old saying:  "A youth pastor is only as good as the people they steal from..."

Blizzard Run-  Any trip to Dairy Queen.  We started doing these as official events on Sunday evenings after UMYF in Kissimmee.  Fifty or so of us would storm the local DQ and eat many blizzards.  In Tampa, we went to Baskin-Robbins instead because it was much closer.  In Waycross, it was back to the DQ.  Free blizzards made very popular prizes in my various contests, and you could always claim your prize at a Blizzard Run!

Rec Around the Clock-  An all-night "Lock-In."  Another stolen title (thank you, Tom Klaus!) that is still is use at various churches I served, this was a totally different type of church lock-in.  Mostly because for the majority of the night you were actually locked OUT!  A few of my favorite things we ever did at RAC include seeing Laser Led Zeppelin at the Orlando Planetarium;  3 AM picnic in a Krispy Kreme parking lot in High Point;  4 AM Laser Tag in Kissimmee, joined by half of the local area drug dealers;  4 AM ice skating (sleepy ice skaters are hilarious!) and early morning shopping cart races in the K-Mart parking lot.  We also often finished with breakfast at Shoney's or Denny's- and once at an IHOP in Tampa, where they took 3 hours to feed us all.  Strangely enough, I really miss this event...

Happy Hour-  An afternoon of fellowship at the local Sonic Drive-In.   Sonic began advertising an afternoon special called Happy Hour in Tampa, where drinks and milk shakes were half priced.  I co-opted the idea and the name for our program, and during the summer we would gather from 2-4 PM at the local Sonic and just hang out.  We would play cards, eat, drink and be merry!  Some youth would drop by; others came and stayed.  It was another great relationship builder in both Tampa and Waycross. 

Radical Sabbatical-  An overnight spiritual growth adventure.  A small group would gather on a Friday night and spend the next 24 hours together exploring the scriptures and other spiritual disciplines.  We did this several times at FUMC-K, including one very memorable experience with a guided meditation where the students walked with Jesus in their mind's eye.  We had a number of excellent experiences, including one on sharing your faith called Live the Life and one where we took a road trip to Jerry Hanbery's apartment in Gainesville.  We also did a couple of weekends at WMUMC.  I would love to do these for adults some day, if that is somewhere God leads me.

One On One- I would meet with a student- 1 on 1!  Several days each summer, from 1987 through 2006, I would set aside a whole day to meet with students one at a time for an hour at a time.  We would usually go grab a milk shake and just talk about whatever was on their minds.  The 9 AM appointment got breakfast and the 12 noon got lunch, so those were highly coveted time slots!  There were some youth who made an appointment every time I offered it.  This was always a very valuable ministry.

Crosseyed-  The name of our student ministry at TUMC.  Upon arriving in Waycross, I wanted to brand our ministry just like we had done with Graceland at WMUMC.  I went with Crosseyed Student Ministries (see logo at bottom).  The idea was that we would stay focused on the Cross of Christ.  Our tag line was one I still use quite often- "It's all about Jesus!"  This was yet another youth group friendly name that left adults scratching their heads and wondering if we were making fun of cross eyed people...

So there you have it- two days of examples of ways I tried to create a unique culture for our students at the various churches I served.  And there are more- but I think you get the idea.  If not, then you can sign-up for the Timothy Club or Super Service Saturday (SSS) by visiting the Super Summer Sign-Up Center in the youth room or on the website.  Sorry- old habits die hard!  See you tomorrow as I remember an old friend- Kado!

Because of Jesus,

My Youth Ministry Glossary

Many times over the years church members came to me and said something along the lines of the following:  "I love reading your articles in the church newsletters and the bulletin, and I love trying to keep up with what our youth are doing.  But it's like you people speak speak a foreign language!  So many weird titles and abbreviations.  I just can't keep up!"  They often looked like the man pictured at right, confused and afraid (That man is actually Pat O'Brien, a member of our YMT at WMUMC, and that picture was taken on a Myrtle Beach trip- so he WAS confused and afraid!).  So today, for those who read this blog and wonder "What does that mean?" I offer a partial glossary of terms and acronyms I used through the years.  As you will see, I LOVE abbreviations.  I hope this makes it easier to keep up with year #2!!!

YFYF-  Young Friends Youth Fellowship.  This was my name for our primary Sunday evening programs at both New Garden Friends Meeting (NGFM) and Springfield Friends Meeting (SFM).  We never said each letter individually- it was always pronounced "Yuf-Yuf."   Also see UMYF (United Methodist Youth Fellowship).

SCUBA-  Spiritual Concepts and Understanding Biblical Approaches.  This was a bible and book (The Screwtape Letters) study we did at NGFM on Wednesday nights, trying desperately not to make it sound like a class.  It was just much cooler to say "I'm going to SCUBA tonight- wanta' join me?  Plus the name was an inside joke to our group at the time.

2nd Heziciah-  A fictional book of the bible, the use of which was taught to me by my pastor at NGFM, David Bills.  It served many purposes over the years- to fool people and thus encourage them to learn more about actual scripture; to give emphasis to wise sayings and truths that are not actually from the bible; and to make fun of my own "wise" sayings.  For instance, I might offer my opinion on a song, and then say "Blessed is he who changes the radio station when rap music is heard- 2 Heziciah 4:12." 

Burger Doodle-  Any fast food place within a short driving distance of the church.  We used to go eat once a month following YFYF at NGFM and SFM, and we always went to Burger Doodle!

TNT-  That New Thing or The Next Thing or whatever I decided it meant!  It was our award winning outreach program at SFM; I also used the name later on at the First United Methodist Church of Kissimmee (FUMC-K) and the Union Church of Hinsdale (UC). 

SHO-Time-  Senior High Only Time.  This was a night out at dinner for high school students, begun at SFM and perfected at FUMC-K.  This ministry was great for relationship building, and I used it at UC, Wesley Memorial UMC (WMUMC) and Trinity UMC (TUMC) as well.

ICU-  Intensive Care Unit.  Based on an idea found in the book Spiritual Growth In Youth Ministry by J. David Stone, this was a leadership team of students who were charged with taking the pulse of our youth ministries and serving the students who attended- or in some cases, no longer attended.  I began trying this as far back as NGFM, and tried it at many other stops along the way.  It worked for a while a SFM & WMUMC, and worked best at FUMC-K.  It never quite became what I wanted it to be, but when it functioned properly it was an awesome ministry!

I will stop there for today.  I would love to hear which ones you remember.  Join us again tomorrow for more terms and learn that a Blizzard Run has nothing to with skiing, that Graceland was not just Elvis' home, and that Happy Hour has a place in student ministry!  Blessings to you all!  (For Part 2, click here!)

Because of Jesus,

Apathy Night

The 40 Day Adventure begins today!  To be part of this Lenten devotional blog, click here, and discover how you can use the next 40 days to become WIDE OPEN for Jesus!

One of the really fun parts of writing this blog has been looking back through my files to see old newsletters and brochures I designed and wrote to keep students interested in what we were doing with our youth ministries.  I have to admit I had some pretty strange ideas.  The following was an ad for our TNT program at Springfield Friends Meeting from March, 1993.  Would this themed event grab your attention?  Or would it have sent you scrambling for the remote control, hoping to find a re-run of Little House on the Prairie?

March 15th-  TNT will meet from 7:30-9PM, and it will be (YAWN) Apathy Night.  This is your night not to care!  Wear the most boring clothes you can find- nothing bright or colorful.  Some of the things that will not be allowed on this night include laughing, smiling, crying, fast movement, applause and interesting conversations.  If you are caught breaking these rules, you will be dealt with in a very boring manner.  Yawning is perfectly legal.  Plan to join us for a real ho-hum evening of boredom- or not- I could care less if you come to Apathy Night.

Hard to imagine that the youth still showed up, huh?  But they did, for this and lots of other very strange theme nights, such as Jell-O Night and 60's Revival Night.  Those nights, and all the trips we took, were all part of what we did to put butts in the seats so we could talk about Jesus.  And for those of you who may have been part of one of my groups, I am curious- what theme night sticks in your memory?  I'd love to hear from you!

Because of Jesus,

The Hotline

Greetings and Salutations (or as they say in NC, "Howdy Ya'll!) out there in Blog World and welcome to another edition of Carl's blog!  Today, kiddies, we are going to take a trip in the Wayback Machine, all the way back to 1988.  Think back to this time, before many people had home computers, before churches had websites, before cell phones and before online social networking sites.  Even in those dark days, we still had to communicate with one another- and we often did it with this thing called a telephone.

After the epiphany about more active summers and better communication I received at the 1987 NYWC, I had spent much of the following months working on ways to let my youth and their families know what was going on in our ministry at Springfield Friends Meeting.  I had improved the monthly newsletters, sent our more postcards, and put up more bulletin boards in the facility.  This all culminated in the summer of '88 with the publication of my first Summer Ministries Booklet and the introduction of the Youth Group Hotline.  The concept of the Hotline was not new.  The idea was to have a separate phone line with an answering machine attached where people could call and receive information on youth events.  But I wanted to take the idea to another level.  I found an answering machine with a 1 minute message tape, and advertised that the message would change every day!  And from June of 1988 (887-8366 at Springfield) until March of 2000 (847-XLAX in Kissimmee-"get a new message every day that will really MOVE you...").  I did just that- at least most every day.  It was much more than just information- it was entertainment, it was interactive, and it was a great means of connecting with students.  Here are just a few of the things that happened on the Hotline over the years:

• Al Sleet, Hippy-Dippy Youth Leader-  Stolen from a George Carlin character, Al sounded a little stoned, and delivered the youth news along with great lines like "The forecast for tonight is dark...continued mostly dark tonight, ending in widely scattered light tomorrow."  Al was a favorite for years.
• Chicken Man-  With his famous cry of "He's everywhere, he's everywhere," Chicken Man's heroic tales (as told by me, the narrator) would always include some of the youth and the upcoming events in our program.  He was a weekly character for years.
• The Student Spotlight-  Once a week I would highlight one of our youth, giving true facts and some humorous stories- or facts I would just make up!  "Bob's favorite subject is basket weaving; he loves football and chinese checkers; and his hobbies include eating cheesecake and knitting sweaters for senior citizens."
• Contests-  There were all kinds of contests designed to get kids to call in and leave messages, and they did. I would pulish the contests in our newsletter and get them hooked on calling.   They were having fun and hearing what we were up to as a ministry- hmmm this idea just might work...
• The DJ-  I would play a corny AM-radio style disk jockey, giving the youth news and singing songs like Carlin's One Last Pimple (I've got one last pimple from going steady with you, don't know whether to break it or leave it alone, it's the only one I call my own...") and Put Your Hand In the Fan ("Put your hand in the fan and you could lose a finger.  Put your foot in the fan and you could lose a toe.  Put your face in the fan and you will look at others differently, put your body in the fan and alter your anatomy!").  Always a favorite.
• Top 10 Lists-  I would do lists about our ministry, about events, and about individual youth.  I would also borrow directly from the master, David Letterman!
• Mocking Culture-  From time to time I would latch on to something that was huge in the youth culture and make fun of it in various ways.  For instance, during the Titanic craze of 1997 I introduced a recurring character named Leonardo Decappuchinobreath to torture all of the young women who were madly in love with Leo.  I had so much fun with this one...

The Hotline accomplished every thing I ever hoped it would until it was replaced by the website.  It fostered communication and contact with the youth I served, and helped elimate moments like a youth walking in and asking when the Atlanta trip was going to be, only to be told we had just returned the day before!  And websites, as great as they are, cannot replace the intimacy of hearing the excited voice of a youth responding to your work and the upcoming events.  It was just one of the many ways we used to try to help connect students to our ministry, and hopefully, to Jesus.  And by the way- even with this "new" computer technology, comments are still appreciated!  :) 

Because of Jesus,

The Next Big Thing

Early on in my ministry I began to understand that the missing link in most youth ministries at the time was communication.  Letting students and parents know what was going on, what was coming up, and what they needed to do about it was a new concept in the fly by the seat of your pants world of youth work.  Sometime in the year after David Stone turned me on to the concept of Wholistic Youth Ministry (that is ministry to the whole person- body, soul, mind and spirit) I began to actually plan months in advance for YFYF programs.  As part of that planning, I began doing a monthly newsletter that we mailed to the home of every youth on our roster- active or not.  The first objective of this newsletter was to inform.  My theory was that it would inform much better if it was actually something the students wanted to read, so I set out to make it creative and exciting.  Missionaries use the quote "empty bellies have no ears" to explain how hard it is to share the Gospel with a starving person until you feed them.  No matter how great a youth ministry you build, it is worthless if no one shows up.  So we needed to excite them! I used names of active youth in the articles; I hid inside jokes and contests in the body of the letter; and I tried to give catchy, creative names to everything I could.  For instance, one Sunday a month we would go to a local fast food restaurant instead of just having snacks.  We just said we were going to Burger Doodle, and that name stuck no matter where we went.  We also tried to keep sameness, tameness and lameness (with apologies to Jesse Jackson) out of our ministry.  We hoped the kids were never quite sure what would happen each Sunday afternoon.  I soon discovered it was working.  We were almost hip!  Do you know how hard it is for Quakers to be hip?  Students who rarely showed up for YFYF were talking to me about the newsletter.

The second objective was to get them excited about things that were still to come, things that we wanted them to look forward to.  I began to think of this as the ministry of The Next Big Thing.  Did we have a trip coming up in a few months?  Were we going to see Ghandi or having a Marathon soon?  Did we have a Polaroid Panic planned or a guest speaker coming?  Anything I could think of that we could plug as a way to keep students anticipating was featured in the newsletter.  This, in turn, forced us as leaders to plan in advance.  It all seems so basic now, but at the time youth ministry was just coming of age and this was pretty radical stuff!  And it worked...

Over the years the methods of communication changed.  There would be summer booklets, telephone hotlines (like 847-XLAX in Kissimmee) and websites.  But they all served the same purpose- to keep parents and students up to date, and to hype The Next Big Thing.  I was always looking for ways to inject my sense of humor into these things, and in the early New Garden Friends Meeting years I did it by ending each newsletter with "and remember..."  I looked back through some of those letters, (Yes, I still have them- I know, I am pathetic!) and here are some of the actual things I wrote for those students to remember:

• An apple a day keeps the doctor away...but an onion takes care of everybody!
• It is better to give than to receive...unless,of course, you are Darek Newby!
• He who lives in a glass house...should dress in the bathroom!
• A bird in the hand...BITES!
• March 20-26 is International Youth Leaders Are Great People Week.  It is also International Pickle Week.  So in another YFYF first, we proudly bring you International Buy Your Youth Leader A Pickle Week!  We prefer dills!  And a happy April Fools Day to all of you!
• A day without sunshine is like...NIGHT! (Thanks, Steve Martin)

Those early days were exciting, and I will never forget what it was like to grow up right along side my students.  I owe that group so much.  They taught me so much about communicating with youth.  But I still had lots to learn.  It would be several more years before I figured out that if I made a newsletter the right size to fit on the back of a toilet, even more people would read it!  Until next time...

And remember:  This blog is like toilet paper.  You may not need it every day, but it's always here- and if it's not, you will really miss it!