I'm Going To Graceland

First off, let me among the first (or last, depending on when you read this) to wish you a Happy April Fool's Day!  To read about one of my best AFD pranks, click here.  My wish for all of you on this special day is that the fleas of 1000 camels would not infest your armpits.  And with that said, on with the blog!

I mentioned Wednesday that one of the big changes I made in the student ministry of Wesley Memorial UMC in Tampa was changing the name of the entire ministry.  I used to get asked how I came up with the name Graceland.  Obviously, I didn't.  Elvis had it way before I did.  Dan Kimball was calling his church that way before I used it, and I am sure he was not alone.  It's not like I made it up.  But there was some method to my madness in choosing that moniker.  I really wanted to use the word "grace" in our new name.  I had been around that particular group of students enough by that time to understand that this was a collection of ragamuffins.  We had a number of split families.  We had kids who didn't seem to fit in anywhere.  There were the usual number of students with zero self-esteem.  We had some adults who were legalists in their approach to Christianity.  This was a group that needed to understand God's grace, and I felt like the right name could help facilitate those discussions.  Plus, I had a killer catchphrase to go with the name- one that I had created myself.  It would play off both concepts involved in the title- Elvis & God's grace.  Our slogan would be "Living in God's Grace- and spending time with the King!"  Even today, that gives me goosebumps...

Another reason I wanted to go with Graceland was that we really wanted to reach out into the community, and in order to do that successfully I felt we needed to "brand" our ministry.  We needed a recognizable name and a logo that made people think of us immediately.  Once we had a name and a catchphrase, I turned to my old friends at Uth Stuph for the logo.  They had produced a couple of killer summer ministries logos for me during my FUMC-Kissimmee days, and I knew they would come through again.  After talking over a number of options, we decided to use the retro feel of the name and design a logo that was a cross between Harley-Davidson and the Hard Rock Cafe.  This would give us style points with unchurched teens and great t-shirts for our students.  The great artists at Uth Stuph came up with the Elvis you see at the top of this page just for fun.  And they came up with this logo for us.





Ashley stylin' the hottest Graceland swag!



I could not have been more excited. The Cross in the "d" was the perfect final touch, added by the great artists at Uth Stuph.  We bought all of our students and adult volunteers Graceland t-shirts.  Once I added their artwork to our website and newsletter the branding process was underway.  Even today, some 6 years after WMUMC quit using the name, there is a bench by the sidewalk in front of the church with the Graceland logo on it.  I re-wrote Paul Simon's classic song. Graceland, with lyrics to inspire our group.  Our group was growing.  Excitement levels were high.  And...the church was building a new facility that included both a new youth room and a full gym.  I was confident that before long all of northwest Hillsborough County would be singing along..."I'm going to Graceland, Graceland, at Wesley UMC, I'm going to Graceland..."   I was praying big honkin' prayers and dreaming big dreams.  And the next big dream was to bring my old friends Lost And Found to Tampa.  That story on Monday.

Because of Jesus,

"Ch-ch-ch-changes..."

I have mentioned here before that when I arrived at Tampa's Wesley Memorial UMC in October of 2001 there were some innate problems with the youth ministry.  I moved slowly the first year when it came to making drastic changes and severing ties with the past, but with the huge influx of new 6th graders in August, 2002 (see Monday's post), it was time to start swinging my axe!  Here are 4 of the traditions I found on my arrival that I decided to hack away at in order to take our ministry where I felt God was leading us to go...

A trust building game in The Overflow.

1. Meeting space.  We had no space of our own to meet in.  The Fellowship Hall was occupied by our children's ministry (more on that in a few) during the same time period on Sunday afternoons.  There were no classrooms large enough for us.  So for a number of years the student ministry had met in the church sanctuary.  From my first day on the job I was not happy about this set-up.  First of all, the space was too big.  Thirty youth in a room that sits 500 is just not a good match.  No matter how good a crowd turned out, it always felt tiny.  Also, I have always enjoyed wild and sometimes messy indoor games as part of my youth meetings.  I cannot stress enough how much trouble you can get in for throwing pies in the sanctuary.  And finally, it didn't feel like "our" turf.  There was nothing "youthy" about it.  All the pews faced forward, so group discussions were difficult.  It was a beautiful worship space for our church.  As a youth room it had serious problems.  There was, however, a large empty space in the back- The Overflow - that could be closed off from rest of the worship room.  And that became my target area...




Worship in The Overflow


2. Worship.  The tradition with the youth of WMUMC was that worship took place in the sanctuary, and it was the first thing they did at youth fellowship each week.  The music was led by a Praise Band consisting of a few students and some adults.  Joining us for this part of our time together were all of the kids and leaders from our children's ministry (they also joined us for snack time).  All of these things were problematic.  I wanted to be able to have worship to close our time together, or in the middle, or whenever.  The Praise Band was so loud and the room so large that you couldn't actually tell if anyone was singing or not.  Having the kids with us must have looked good on paper, but in reality it limited what we could do and it limited our flexibility.  I always (from Day 1 in 1978) wanted my students to arrive at youth asking the question, "What will happen today?"  The way we were set up at the time, the question was moot.  We had to do the same things at the same time every week.  Soooo....   I uninvited the children, with the trade-off that I would bring youth to do worship for their Promiseland Sunday School program every Sunday morning.  We moved to The Overflow, changed worship to the end of the program (most of the time!) and re-imagined the Praise Band with our newly arrived Contemporary Worship Leader, Jason Deese.  For the time being, I would go old school on them and lead music with just my acoustic guitar.  It was awesome- turned out this bunch could really sing!  Did anyone fight me on these changes?  Oh yes.  Did they work?  BIG TIME!!!




The infamous 4-Way Grinder in action.


3. Games.  As I have written about far too many times to count, I believe building relationships to be a huge part of student ministry.  So after moving from the sanctuary we began to play.  We continued the pre-youth outdoor football game that was very popular with the males (especially the adult male volunteers!) and added more wild, crazy, unusual group building games to the mix.  I must have had a dozen students say to me in those first few months something along the lines of, "WOW!  I never knew that youth group could be FUN!"  And then, just when they thought they had me figured out, I broke out the 4-Way Grinder.  Things were never sane after that...




"I'm goin' to Graceland..."


4. The Name.  The previous youth pastor had tagged the group with the name God's Property after the Kirk Franklin group of the same name.  While there was nothing wrong with the name, it just didn't pass my "WOW!" test.   Rather than change it or drop it right away, I just ignored it.  I never uttered those words in the first year.  They popped up on my office computer everyday (she had left under bad circumstances and taken some passwords with her...) but I just let it ride.  I built a website for our ministry at some point early on, and it was around that same time that I began asking for suggestions for a new name.  I received a number of suggestions, but after talking it over with our Youth Ministry Team and some of the student leaders I decided on Graceland.  I'll write more about that on Friday.

Change is always scary, but it is often the catalyst for growth and new adventure.  Such was the case with these changes, but they didn't come without a price.  There will always be people who oppose change.  But here is my student ministry leadership thought for today- If you are still doing everything the same way, with the same events and programs and the same names as your predecessor, then are you really necessary?  Very seldom can I say this about my life, but looking back at these changes I wouldn't do anything different.  We were ready for some "good times"...

Because of Jesus,

Transfusion & Transition



Alex, Lexi, Santa and Ariel

 As we began the 2002-2003 school year at Wesley Memorial UMC we welcomed a new group of 6th grade students into the student ministry.  Being a small group, our high school and middle school students were all part of the same ministry.  That was not our problem.  Our problem, as I have mentioned before, is that just prior to my arrival the group had lost a number of high school students who had been important leaders in the group.  Then shortly after my arrival our senior pastor was moved, taking his two very popular teenagers with him.  And finally, two other very established youth (their mom was our children's director) had become so deeply immersed in soccer that after our 2002 Myrtle Beach trip we seldom saw them again.  The remaining youth were having a hard time adjusting to life without all of these departed friends.  Some of the older girls were on the verge of bailing out on me because they no longer had close friends around.  It was tough.  We needed some new blood.



Cullen & Colton

 Enter the new 6th graders.  Lots of them.  As I have mentioned in posts about previous stops in my career, every now and then you can see a class of students coming from a mile away that you know will change your group for forever.  This bunch was clearly going to provide us with the transfusion we desperately needed.  Included in this amazing group were kids who would go on to change that ministry- Zach Wehr, Colton Myers, Skylar Rogers, Cullen O'Brien, Matthew Preston, Alexis Woods, Alexandra Smith, Ariel Ringo and many more.  They hit the ground running and never looked back.  Their presence allowed some of the returning students to assume the role of mentors, and soon I could feel the ministry starting to take off...

But to go along with our transfusion, we also needed a transition.  It was time to cut some ties with the past and head in a new direction.  If we wanted to start hitting on all cylinders, we had to take our Sunday meetings, our Wednesday bible study and our fellowship events up a notch.  We had to change the way we did worship.  We needed to change the space we used for our meetings.  And we needed to refocus our ministry on Jesus.   Come back Wednesday and I'll tell you some of the radical changes that turned that "youth group" into Graceland!

Because of Jesus,