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,

Magic Moments: The First TNT

As I recall, Todd did NOT win!

Before I get started this morning, I just have to say-- How 'bout them Rays?!

It's another Throwback Thursday, and for today's youth ministry Magic Moment we take the way-back machine back to High Point, NC and my days at Springfield Friends Meeting.  The "moment" was the night we gave birth to a ministry changing and life-altering program called TNT. Seems like only yesterday...

In the Fall of 1987 the youth ministry of Springfield Friends Meeting was a tiny little band of excited students who wanted to take what we were doing to the community we lived in.  Thus began our new outreach program, which we called TNT.  What TNT stood for was a little up for grabs.  Sometimes it meant "That New Thing."  Sometimes it meant "The Next Thing."  For the most part, we just stuck with TNT!  It was going to be a Young Life style meeting, with lots of craziness and a brief devotional time. We had spent a month advertising and talking about it, building interest and enthusiasm throughout the community. I had been hanging out at lunch at the high schools trying to convince students how cool this was going to be.  Some of the Trinity High School cheerleaders, friends of our own Robin Simmons, were coming to be part of a pie eating contest (see picture- that's Todd Farlow!).  Not much else about that first Monday night stands out in my memory.  There are a few things I am certain of.  I am certain that we sang, and that one of the songs was the old Olivia Newton John classic Let Me Be There.  The song became a theme song of sorts for us, and was also the last song I ever played and sang with the youth of Springfield at our farewell party in 1994.  I am certain there was a melodrama, and that it almost certainly included a character named Pup (which, spelled backwards, is Pup!).  I am certain we played several games, including our own version of the MTV classic Remote Control.  And I am absolutely certain it was the start of something wonderful.

Shelley Godwin, Mummy, Jon Moran & Robin Simmons

That first TNT did not attract huge numbers.  That came later.  Eventually we would pull in non-Springfield students from Trinity, Southern Guilford, Ragsdale and High Point Central High Schools, as well as from the middle schools that fed them.  Students and leaders from Archdale Friends Meeting and High Point Friends Meeting became regulars at our Monday night event.  There would be times when we would draw as many as 80 youth to TNT.  In later years we would drive 30 minutes to Greensboro to take kids home after the program.  TNT did the three things we wanted it to do almost immediately.  It connected us to lots of new students in our community and helped us to connect them with Jesus.  It put Springfield on the map as "the place to be" for student ministry.  And it gave our students an outreach ministry.  TNT would have never succeeded if our youth had not invited their friends.  Amy Simmons, Todd Farlow, Jennifer Wood, Laurie Rees, Heather Beggs, Jill Gilbreth, Mike Mercadante and many others were much more responsible for our success over the years than I was. We were eventually named a national Youth Group pf the Mnnth by Youth! Magazine.  And we had a great time doing it!

I've been gone from Springfield for nearly 20 years now, but I often think about those days and all of the wonderful people I came to know and love.  It always strikes me that so many of the youth who were a part of my life I would have never have even known were it not for TNT.   That ministry was used by God to change all of Springfield Friends Meeting, not just the youth department.  We were faithful, and God blessed us.  It was a magical moment that lasted for 7 years.  And in youth ministry, that's saying something...

Because of Jesus,

Connections

Kelly, Wendy Mattocks and Jennifer- EPCOT, 1990

Happy Slurpee Day!  In this modern world of social media occasionally things happen that make me pause and go WOW!  Call it coincidence, happenstance or whatever you like, some days are just filled with technological wonders that bring old friends together.  Here is an example of what I mean...


This past weekend Kelly Allen Olmeda. a former student from Springfield Friends Meeting (where I served as youth pastor from 1986-1994) joined Twitter and followed me. As I said on Twitter yesterday, Kelly is one of my all-time favorites and is one of the funniest people I have ever known.  If you read this blog regularly you may recall the stories of her entertaining us for hours on the Floridays '90 trip to WDW with her tales of Lucretia Soul Disney Murphy Johnson and Tyrone Mouse. You might also recall her efforts at Myrtle Beach to count all of the "Na Nas" in the Journey song, Loving, Touching and Squeezing.  I also love reading her posts on my wife's Facebook.  Kelly still cracks me up. So it was a joy to have a new way of connecting with her.


One of Kelly's good friends and partners in crime in that student ministry was Jennifer Wood Jones.  Jennifer was an early inductee in to my Hall of Fame, famous for once beating a guy with a Bible (among other much more noble things!). Woodhead (as we all called her) seldom missed a meeting or an event, and Marilyn and I both thought the world of her.  We lost track of her when we moved away and she got married and had a child.  We have often thought about her and searched for her on Facebook, but never had any luck.  So imagine our surprise this weekend when her name popped up as having made a friend request! We were both thrilled!  We are looking forward renewing that connection, and I couldn't help but think of that picture at the top and think of how interesting it was that connections had popped up for Kelly and Woodhead on the same weekend.


Yesterday, I asked my followers to show Kelly some love on Twitter and follow her.  One of those who did was James (Jamie) Robinson, another Hall of Fame member from those days and another survivor of Floridays '90.  He was also the very man once beaten with a Bible by the aforementioned Jennifer Wood. :)   Again, I could not help but smile.


Monday evening my buddy Jeremy Godwin (yet another Hall of Fame member) sent me a text with prayer request. Jeremy is someone I came to know through our TNT ministry, and he was also on that 1990 Orlando trip. I am starting to detect a pattern...


One of our favorite songs to sing at TNT in those days was the old America song, Lonely People. As I scanned Facebook yesterday, I saw that my dear friend Marie Allen had posted a link to that song.  I was flooded with memories.  For those of you following along at home, Marie is Kelly's little sister, a regular reader of this blog and one of my best encouragers.  The connections continued...


Also yesterday, my old buddy,  new daddy and youth ministry hero Tim Vestal contacted me asking if I would mind if he resurrected the name TNT for a new outreach program he is planning for his current youth ministry.  I was honored and am glad that name will carry on its legacy among NC Quakers.  


It has been 18 years since I last served Springfield Friends Meeting, and yet the relationships formed in those days continue to bring light to my life.  The connections we make as part of the family of God may often lay dormant for a while, but they never really fade away.  As these connections have emerged over the past few days, I admit to having a swelling of pride that our TNT program had the impact that it did in that little community. I admit to loving the fact that is some small way I am still part of the lives of these students.  I admit to be being more than honored that Tim remembers my ministry fondly enough to want to use our name- a name used by many I am sure, but one that he connects to me.  I am not sure if God has a message for me by bringing all these folks up in my life at one time like this, or if it is just one of those things. In any case, I am left with a huge smile and a warm heart.  I am reminded of the old Michael W. Smith song that was popular during those days- "Pray for me and I'll pray for you. Pray that we will keep the common ground... and one day love will bring us back around...again." Love will indeed always bring us back to each other...and to Jesus.  I am so blessed to have so many amazing connections, past and present.  And if I hear from Wendy Mattocks (the other young woman in the picture at top) in the next few days, I will KNOW something is up! 


Because of Jesus,

The Story of T.N.T

Another TNT Mummy Race!

Congratulations to the Page Pirates under the direction of Head Coach Kevin Gillespie, his wife Andi and assistant coach Jeremy Godwin on their victory in the NC State 4A Football Championship this past Saturday.  Made me think of the great times we had at TNT back in the day...  and so here's a story first told in December, 2009.  Enjoy!


In October of 1987 the youth ministry of Springfield Friends Meeting began our new outreach program,which we called TNT.  What TNT stood for was a little up for grabs!  Sometimes it meant "That New Thing."  Sometimes it meant "The Next Thing."  For the most part, we just stuck with TNT!  We had spent a month advertising and talking about it, building interest and enthusiasm throughout the community.  Some of the Trinity High School cheerleaders, friends of our own Robin Simmons, were coming to be part of a pie eating contest.  Not much else about that first Monday night stands out in my memory.  There are a few things I am certain of.  I am certain that we sang, and that one of the songs was the old Olivia Newton John classic Let Me Be There.  The song became a theme song of sorts for us, and was also the last song I ever played and sang with the youth of Springfield at our farewell party in 1994.  I am certain there was a melodrama, and that it almost certainly included a character named Pup (which, spelled backwards, is Pup!).  I am certain we played several games, including our own version of the MTV classic Remote Control.  And I am absolutely certain it was the start of something wonderful.

That first TNT did not attract huge numbers.  That came later.  Eventually we would pull in non-Springfield students from Trinity, Southern Guilford, Ragsdale and High Point Central High Schools, as well as from the middle schools that fed them.  Students and leaders from Archdale Friends Meeting and High Point Friends Meeting became regulars at our Monday night event.  There would be times when we would draw as many as 80 youth to TNT.  In later years we would drive 30 minutes to Greensboro to take kids home after the program.  TNT did the three things we wanted it to do almost immediately.  It connected us to lots of new students in our community and helped us to connect them with Jesus.  It put Springfield on the map as "the place to be" for student ministry.  And it gave our students an outreach ministry.  TNT would have never succeeded if our youth had not invited their friends.  Amy Simmons, Todd Farlow, Jennifer Wood, Laurie Rees, Heather Beggs, Jill Gilbreth, Mike Mercadante and many others were much more responsible for our success over the years than I was.  And we had a great time doing it!

I often think about those days at Springfield and all of the wonderful people I came to know and love.  It always strikes me that so many of the youth who were a part of my life I would have never even known were it not for TNT.   TNT was used by God to change all of Springfield Friends Meeting, not just the youth department.  We were faithful, and God blessed us.  It was an amazing time with wonderful people.  I love you guys!

Because of Jesus,

Youth Group of the Month (A Vintage Post)

This post originally appeared on December 9, 2009- back when 10 readers a day seemed like a lot!   It is re-posted here with minor changes.  Enjoy!

Twenty years ago this month (1989) I received a phone call telling me that because of our new TNT program, the youth ministry at Springfield Friends Meeting was receiving an honor.  YOUTH! Magazine, a publication of the UMC, was going to feature our little Quaker group in the May, 1988 edition as their Youth Group of the Month.  There would be a full page article and two pictures.  This news created a great deal of buzz in our church and our community.  The following is a reprint of the article, written by Mariellen Sawada of YOUTH!  The pictures are from TNT, but are not the same ones that accompanied the original article.  The first photo features Jennifer Simmons, Jeff Byrd, Heather Beggs, Keri Vinson, Patrick Tillman and Geoff Coltrane.  The second is of Todd Farlow in one of our famous pie eating contests.  The last pic is just an average night at TNT.  Enjoy this piece of history!

TNT explodes each Monday night at the Springfield Friends Meeting in High Point, North Carolina.  TNT or "That New Thing" is "an outreach program to the local high schools that has our group growing," wrote Carl Jones, Director of Youth and Christian Education.

Each Monday, the Springfield Young Friends Youth Fellowship hosts an evening of singing, skits, devotional time- and perhaps a little pie-throwing.  "It's a time to get away from school and all the pressure," said sixteen-year-old Todd Farlow.  "It helps get the books off our minds and that time together makes it easier the rest of the week."  

Sixteen-year-old Amy Simmons describes TNT as "a social outreach for other high schools students in our area.  We try to get them involved.  We want them to know other people care."  Caring has been a big factor in the group's growth.  TNT started with a core of fifteen to twenty youth.  After only 6 months, the group has "exploded" to sixty or seventy participants.  "It's been exciting to watch as more people have gotten involved.  The kids are responsible for that," said Carl Jones.  "We can advertise events, but the real publicity is from the kids."   "It's like a chain reaction," explained Amy Simmons.  "Our friends that we brought in have started bringing in friends."  Why do the TNT youth involve others in their fellowship?  Amy Simmons responded, "We want everyone to experience the love and family-like atmosphere we have at TNT.  We care about other people."


Because of Jesus,

Hall of Fame: Keri Vinson

Doug Thomas, Keri & Heather @ QLC, 1987

The late 1980s were a wild time for the youth ministry of Springfield Friends Meeting.  Our TNT program was bringing in students from all over the community for our Monday night fiesta of fun, and a number of the youth were becoming more and more involved in our ministry.  One such student was Keri Vinson.  Keri began attending events shortly after my arrival at SFM in 1986 with her best friend (and fellow Hall of Fame inductee) Heather Beggs.  Like many other TNT students, Keri's family attended another church, but she became an important part of our youth ministry.  Today I recognize her contributions to those amazing years by making Keri an official member of my Youth Group Hall of Fame.

Andy, Keri and friends

There are so many stories I could tell about Keri, and many were featured on this blog during the period when I was writing about my days at Springfield.  You can see her here stopping by our house in High Point on the way to the 1989 Trinity High School prom.  Her date was (I believe) Andy; the other 2 were just along for the ride (A side note:  Does this picture capture the 80s or what?  Hair, fashion, the whole bit.  Makes me want to rent a pink tux and go to a prom myself!).  She was victimized in a Gorilla Kidnapping; she called me at 1 AM to ask the name of a song she had just heard on the radio (see my post The Best of Bread); and I have a VHS tape featuring hours of she and Heather entertaining us on our 1989 Myrtle Beach trip at the Betsy B.  We had an amazing time on a New York trip and on a couple of retreats.  But the two stories I want to share today are new to this blog, and I think will help you understand why Keri is a Hall of Fame youth.


The first story is pure silliness. Heather and Keri had stopped by my office one day for reasons I do not remember.  At some point during the visit, they began to make-up a story about two men.  One was named Fred, and he was from Georgia.  The other was named George, and he was from Fredia.  For an hour or so they told this tale, and it was one of the funniest things I have ever heard in my life.  I remember nothing else about it, except that there I have been times in my life when I wish I could have heard it again because it made me laugh so hard.  I always found Keri to be hilarious.  But she also had a very serious side, and often came to me to talk about issues, faith and pretty much anything else that was on her mind.  I have often said that there were certain people in my student ministries about whom I knew way more than I wanted to.  Keri fell in to that category.  One night, on a retreat at Quaker Lake, I said some things without thinking as part of a program that really hurt Keri.  She wrote me a very angry letter.  She doesn't know it, but I kept that letter for all of the years that I was in youth ministry, as a reminder that I was never speaking to a "group;"  I was always speaking to individuals with their own personal stories.  She eventually forgave me.  After she got married and moved away, we lost touch, and didn't connect again until she discovered this blog and Marilyn on Facebook.  I keep threatening her with old pictures; the prom pic was my final blackmail leverage.  She is safe now- at least until I figure out how to convert VHS into a file I can use on this blog.  Then it's on! :)


In the end, my fictional Hall of Fame is all about enshrining great memories, and few students can stir more memories than Keri Vinson Johnston.  She simply belongs.  With her loving spirit, big heart and infectious smile, she continues to have a great impact on all who know her- and that includes me.  Welcome to the HOF, Keri!  Or as you would have said back in the day- "HIIIIIEEEEE!"


Because of Jesus,

Psychological Sit-Ups

Pictured above:  A typical TNT night, featuring Noel Cecil, Mary Mercadante,

Elizabeth Tillman and Carrie Burton

Every now and then in youth ministry you lose control of a situation.  In my case, it was usually my fault.  But sometimes circumstances just surprise you.  Here is one such story.

One of the reasons our TNT program at Springfield Friends Meeting became so popular among students was our willingness to be goofy and daring with our programming.  It helped that we had goofy and daring students on our ministry,too! We often did stunts that ended with someone getting wet or receiving a pie in the face.  Our favorite way of delivering the whipped cream pie was a stunt called Psychological Sit-Ups.  It worked like this:  I would announce that I had acquired a Spock-like power of pinching a nerve in a person's neck and rendering them paralyzed.  It required an elaborate set-up for me to accomplish this, and I would ask for a volunteer to help me demonstrate.  I would blindfold them, cover them in towels and sheets, and lay them on a table.  I would apply the pinch as the crowd began chanting "you can't sit up....you can't sit up...you can't sit up..."  The chant would grow louder and louder until I would scream SIT UP!  The person on the table would be unable to move- because they were in on the stunt.  After two such performances, it was easy to find a third volunteer who didn't know the trick and was eager to prove me a fraud.  We would go through the whole show a third time, only this time, the over zealous victim would sit straight up- into a waiting pie held by another student.  It was a classic stunt that I used for many years.  And it almost always worked.

One night at TNT we were had a number of new people (which of course is the only way it worked- once you saw it, you had to be pretty stupid to fall for it...) and so we broke out the pie.  Things were going along just fine, and the victim was a Trinity High School girl whose name escapes me (Lynn Prevette, maybe?).  As we got into the stunt, the pie appeared as usual, and was handed to another girl, Pam Collins.  Pam was friend of our Amy Simmons and, we thought, of the victim.  What I didn't know was that on that very Monday they had gotten into an argument over a boy, and tensions were still running high.  So when the victim sat up, the pie was not just waiting for her- the pie was SMASHED into her face with great force!  I thought for sure it broke her nose.  There were gasps from the gathered crowd as I moved in to try and ease her pain and clean her up to make sure she wasn't injured.  It was one of those thousands of youth ministry moments that is funny now...not so much then.

After that, only students I knew well got to hold the pie.  And we moved on to another pie delivery stunt- Speed Kissing.  But that's for another day!

Because of Jesus,

That's A Wrap

At the conclusion of the Floridays 1990 experience- after the trip, the banquet and all of the work that followed- I took the slide of the group picture I had taken in the Great Hall underneath Cinderella's Castle and had it blown up into an 8x11 picture.  The picture was taken around midnight our last night, and the entire group is in it except for myself and Robin Thomas (he was also taking pictures.).  I had it framed and hung it on my office wall at Springfield.  I also hung it every office I had after that.  It is currently hanging over the bed in our guest room.  I was going to scan it and post it here, but I discovered after almost 20 years it is stuck to the glass of the frame, and to remove it would destroy it.  And I can't do that.  I did, however, take a picture of the picture so I could post it here.  You can't really see much of the group, but the symbolism is important.

Why has this picture always been so significant to me?  After all, this particular Florida trip is only the second best Disney trip I ever led (the 1993 WDW trip is my favorite trip ever!).  Overall, it would rank sixth or seventh on my all-time list of favorite trips.  So why is it a picture from this trip that has always been on display for people to see?  The picture has always reminded me of what can happen when we seek God's will and are faithful to God's vision.  It reminds of how the youth ministry of Springfield Friends Meeting changed in a three year period, going from 5 my first Sunday to 20 on the first Disney trip in 1987 to 60 on this trip.  I look at the picture and see so many lives that were touched by God through our TNT program and wound up in Florida as a result.  We invited Jesus to be a part of our student ministry, and He showed up in a very real way.  The trip also represented a changing of the guard in our ministry.  The youth who had taken us to a new level were aging out, and a whole new batch of incredible young people were assuming leadership .  The next four years would be amazing.  I cannot overstate the significance of this trip as a wrap-up to the  first four years and the beginning of whole new world. 

Tomorrow I am going to rant a little bit about why so much of USAmerica sees Christians not as Christ-followers, but as "Jerks for Jesus."  I hope you'll be here.

Because of Jesus,

Youth Group of the Month

Twenty-two years ago this month (1989) I received a phone call telling me that because of our new TNT program, the youth ministry at Springfield Friends Meeting was receiving an honor.  YOUTH! Magazine, a publication of the United Methodists, was going to feature us in May of 1988 as their Youth Group of the Month.  We would be featured in a full page article and two pictures.  This created a great deal of buzz in our church and our community.  The following is a reprint of the article, written by Mariellen Sawada of YOUTH!  The pictures are from TNT, but are not the same ones that accompanied the original article.  The first photo features Shelley Godwin, a mummy, Jon Moran and Robin Simmons.  The second is of Todd Farlow in one of our famous pie eating contests.  The last pic is of a 60's Revival Night held a few years later.  Enjoy this piece of history!

TNT explodes each Monday night at the Springfield Friends Meeting in High Point, North Carolina.  TNT or "That New Thing" is "an outreach program to the local high schools that has our group growing," wrote Carl Jones, Director of Youth and Christian Education.

Each Monday, the Springfield Young Friends Youth Fellowship hosts an evening of singing, skits, devotional time- and perhaps a little pie-throwing.  "It's a time to get away from school and all the pressure," said sixteen-year-old Todd Farlow.  "It helps get the books off our minds and that time together makes it easier the rest of the week." 

Sixteen-year-old Amy Simmons describes TNT as "a social outreach for other high schools students in our area.  We try to get them involved.  We want them to know other people care."  Caring has been a big factor in the group's growth.  TNT started with a core of fifteen to twenty youth.  After only 6 months, the group has "exploded" to sixty or seventy participants.  "It's been exciting to watch as more people have gotten involved.  The kids are responsible for that," said Carl Jones.  "We can advertise events, but the real publicity is from the kids."   "It's like a chain reaction," explained Amy Simmons.  "Our friends that we brought in have started bringing in friends."  Why do the TNT youth involve others in their fellowship?  Amy Simmons responded, "We want everyone to experience the love and family-like atmosphere we have at TNT.  We care about other people."

Because of Jesus,

That New Thing

In October of 1987 the youth ministry of Springfield Friends Meeting began our new outreach program,which we called TNT.  What TNT stood for was a little up for grabs!  Sometimes it meant "That New Thing."  Sometimes it meant "The Next Thing."  For the most part, we just stuck with TNT!  We had spent a month advertising and talking about it, building interest and enthusiasm throughout the community.  Some of the Trinity High School cheerleaders, friends of our own Robin Simmons, were coming to be part of a pie eating contest (see picture- that's Todd Farlow!).  Not much else about that first Monday night stands out in my memory.  There are a few things I am certain of.  I am certain that we sang, and that one of the songs was the old Olivia Newton John classic Let Me Be There.  The song became a theme song of sorts for us, and was also the last song I ever played and sang with the youth of Springfield at our farewell party in 1994.  I am certain there was a melodrama, and that it almost certainly included a character named Pup (which, spelled backwards, is Pup!).  I am certain we played several games, including our own version of the MTV classic Remote Control.  And I am absolutely certain it was the start of something wonderful.

That first TNT did not attract huge numbers.  That came later.  Eventually we would pull in non-Springfield students from Trinity, Southern Guilford, Ragsdale and High Point Central High Schools, as well as from the middle schools that fed them.  Students and leaders from Archdale Friends Meeting and High Point Friends Meeting became regulars at our Monday night event.  There would be times when we would draw as many as 80 youth to TNT.  In later years we would drive 30 minutes to Greensboro to take kids home after the program.  TNT did the three things we wanted it to do almost immediately.  It connected us to lots of new students in our community and helped us to connect them with Jesus.  It put Springfield on the map as "the place to be" for student ministry.  And it gave our students an outreach ministry.  TNT would have never succeeded if our youth had not invited their friends.  Amy Simmons, Todd Farlow, Jennifer Wood, Laurie Rees, Heather Beggs, Jill Gilbreth, Mike Mercadante and many others were much more responsible for our success over the years than I was.  And we had a great time doing it!

I often think about those days at Springfield and all of the wonderful people I came to know and love.  It always strikes me that so many of the youth who were a part of my life I would have never even known were it not for TNT.  You will read more about some of the people and special nights as this blog rolls along, but for today just understand this:  TNT was used by God to change all of Springfield Friends Meeting, not just the youth department.  We were faithful, and God blessed us.  Tomorrow you can read about how it put us in a national spotlight and headed us on to serving God in new and better ways!

Because of Jesus,

Flashback: Young Life

As the 1987-88 school year began my focus turned to starting a new youth ministry that would reach out into our community and bring in more students.  Springfield Friends Meeting was a decent size for a Quaker church, with average worship attendance around 125 at the time.   Studies have shown that youth group attendance is healthy if it is 10% of church attendance.  By that standard we were already thriving.  But I truly believed God was calling us to something greater.  The planning for what would become TNT was underway, and for me there was only one model to turn to.  Young Life.  So before we move on to the beginnings of TNT, allow me to flashback to my own high school days and tell you a little about Young Life (a worldwide organization that is still thriving today).

Young Life was already very active at Western Guilford High School when I arrived there in 1973.  Those were still the days when if you could get the cheerleaders and athletes involved in something, most of the school would follow.  Under the leadership of Fil Anderson (and later Steve Kimmel) Young Life had become a very "in" place to be.  Fil and the other leaders would hang out at the school around lunch time and at big games and events and build relationships with students.  These students would then bring their friends and come to what was known as Club meeting on a weeknight at a local church.  This worked well because Club was a riot!  There were skits, stunts, games and a short message about Jesus aimed at students who were not already Christians.  The music was always a highlight for me.  In addition to camp-style religious songs, we sang great oldies like Bye-Bye Love and Proud Mary.  It was light, it was fun, and it was addictive.  Once you attended Club, you were usually hooked.  Afterwards, we would all head to Burger King or Baskin-Robbins and hang out.  It was something to look forward to during the school week.

Young Life was more than just Club.  If you wanted to go deeper and work on your faith, then you could join a Campaigner Group.  I joined a group of guys who were good friends of mine, and we met every Monday morning at 6 AM at Tex and Shirley's Pancake House for food and Bible study.  This group was a great support for me and showed me a different side of Christianity than the one I saw at New Garden Friends Meeting, a much more evangelical side.  I loved both!  Looking back, it is interesting that 4 or 5 of the guys in that small group went on to full-time ministry of some sort.  I also attended a couple of YL retreats at Windy Gap, near Asheville, and each time came away having had significant spiritual growth moments.  In later years I played guitar for a number of YL events.  It was an important time in my life.

Young Life did not have a presence in the two primary high schools that Springfield students attended, or a large presence in any of the other three.  The model that had been such an influence on me seemed like the perfect way to begin our outreach to youth in the High Point/Archdale community.  In some ways we would be working backwards.  Our youth ministry was already in place as a kind of Campaigner Group.  What we needed was CLUB!  The final preparations for the first TNT in October of 1987 were underway.  Pies would be eaten (and thrown!).  Songs would be sung.  Spontaneous Melodramas would be acted out.  God had given me the vision.  Young Life had given us the model.  It was time...

Because of Jesus,