Sunscreen & the #NarrowRoad

When my friends and I were teenagers and young adults there was nothing better than trips to the beach or hanging out by a pool once summer arrived in North Carolina. While me and my buddies interest was always in the closest body of water (or other "bodies" that might be a part of the local scenery!) my future wife and most of the other females we knew- as well as a few of the guys- were always more interested in "laying out." This was the common 1970s term for sunbathing, and it was both an art and a discipline. Sun worshippers would drag towels, chairs, boomboxes, books, coolers and assorted snacks down to the beach at 10 am, staking out a prime spot in the sun. Take notice now- there were NO umbrellas on the supply list! They would dress in bikinis that covered as little skin as possible and would apply the necessary lotions for being out in the sun. For my wife and many, many others this included tanning oils (SPF -100) to attract the blistering rays of the sun to their skin. It also included something called Sun In that was put in your hair to help the sun lighten the color. Properly prepared, they would then assume the position, laying on a towel on in a reclined chair for the next 6 hours or so. They would periodically flip over to "even out" the tan. While on their stomachs the women would undo the straps of their bikini tops so there would be no tan lines. And every so often they would wander down and splash themselves with water- or on really hot days even jump in for a while. But then it was back to the beach, hoping beyond hope to attract more ultraviolet rays and end the day with darker skin than the person lying next to them. It was ritual. It was normal. And as we know now, it was insane...

Sunbathing still exists, but it is radically different now and has been for many years. We discovered that too much direct exposure to the sun can cause cancer, damage skin and create a variety of other problems. Now we expose ourselves for shorter periods of time. We use sunblocks and sunscreens instead of tanning oils, sometimes with so much SPF that laser beams could not penetrate and reach our skin! And we carry umbrellas in our supplies when we spend a day on the beach. My wife, one of the darkest tanning sun worshippers of the 70s and early 80s, now has enough high protection lotions and sprays to stock a Walmart, and she makes certain that everyone is always covered. The patterns of "laying out" have changed dramatically, not because anyone wanted them to but because the passage of time gave us new information and directed us in new ways. Marilyn still loves to bake in the sun all day turning as brown as possible. She just has to approach it an entirely different way than before.

So what do sunbathing and bikinis have to with the #NarrowRoad? Just this- life is constantly changing. Our hopes, our dreams, our flaws and our gifts are always evolving. We can acknowledge this and make the changes that help us discover what Jesus has in store for our lives or we can fight the change because it makes us uncomfortable. We can go on believing that we know what is best for us, not Jesus. And we can find ourselves with leathery brown spiritual skin, ruined by the summer sun, all because we refused to listen and wouldn't deal with change. Jesus is the same now and forever. Almost nothing else is. The things we believe, and the way we put those beliefs into practice, should evolve. I look at myself at age 55 and praise God that I don't see faith, life or relationships the same way I did when I was 30. We need to learn. We need to accept new truths. And we need to let go of the bad ideas we once accepted as the truth. It's called growth. And it's a very good thing.

So what is this week's sign on the #NarrowRoad? Danger: Detour Ahead. Prepare to go a new way! And be sure to wear plenty of sunscreen. 

Because of Jesus,

#TW3: My Dream Youth Week, Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of my fictional ultimate Youth Week (TW3- That Was the Week That Wasn't!), based on a week I planned 3 different times and never got to do.  Confused?  Go back and read the Thursday posts from the past 2 weeks. Still confused? Then I can't help you...

It's Monday on the Youth Week Worldwide Cruise, and we are at sea! Enjoy the day with some great adventures and our explore our exotic location in the evening. Here's the schedule:

On-Board Activities:

9:30 AM- Meet at the church (still don't know which one!) and we will head over for our annual Putt-Putt Masters Golf Tournament at Walt Disney World's Fantasia Gardens course. This is your chance to compete against some of the worst mini-golfers in the world, including 1998 Festival of Fools champion Adam Hill (pictured). You'll play in 4-person teams with a "Best Ball Captain's Choice Scramble" format, and the winners will take home vintage 1999 "Comin' At Ya' Like a Blitz" t-shirts! How great is that? You can use golf words like Par, Fore and Bogey that you seldom get a chance to drop into everyday conversation. The golfer with the lowest score will take home the coveted Purple Jacket. Plus we will have a Hole-in-One contest and several other surprises. You can be picked up at the church at 12 noon if you need a nap after all of the excitement, or.... 

12 noon- You can join us for The Lunch Bunch! We'll be going to Pizza Inn for the incredible buffet (Yes- I know Pizza Inn is in High Point, NC, and the first event took place in Florida. You still aren't getting that this is my dream week and EVERYTHING is possible!) and lots of great fellowship. And after all, what is a cruise without food? Be sure and try the cherry "pizzert." We'll be done at 1:30 PM. And then it is on to our first port of the trip...

Port of Call:  Australia
7 PM- Our first stop on the Save the Humans worldwide cruise is the land down under!  Join us in the Youth Room (could be The Attic, could be the Dungeon, could be the Overflow or The Love Shack) and we'll play some Australian themed games (Kangaroo Hop Technicolor Stomp, anyone?) and make our very own Vegemite sandwiches. Our drama team will present a skit featuring the world's worst Crocodile Hunter, and we''ll have a Disney Video Moment with The Rescuers Down Under. Our friends from Gatorland (yes, we are back in Florida) will stop by with some friends for us to pet, and the good people of the local Outback Steakhouse will provide some snacks for us. And the night will end with music and worship featuring a message from all-time favorite guest speaker Duffy Robbins, entitled Real Christians:  An Endangered Species.  Bring all of your friends and come join us. We might even throw some shrimp on the barbie...  

 Be sure and join us next Thursday as we lift anchor and head for another exciting port!

That Was the Week That Wasn't

The month of May is right around the corner, and that always gets me thinking about all of the summer youth ministries I was involved in over the years. Beginning in the late 1980's (see The First Youth Week) we included a Youth Week in every summer that we planned at every church I served. The week always had a theme, and always featured at least one event each day. It most often began with something at the church on Sunday evening and ended when Rec Around the Clock finished on Saturday morning. It was always one of my favorite weeks of the year, both in the planning and the execution.

In September of 1999 my future at FUMC-K was a bit up in the air, but I was still expecting to be there the following summer. The year 2000. It seemed like it should be big deal, and we began to formulate a plan to make Youth Week 2000 the most amazing ever. We had always joked about taking a group cruise; that was cost prohibitive, so we began thinking about a cruise themed Youth Week instead. But then life happened and I left the church in March of 2000. Fast-forward to late 2004. I was the speaker at Youth Tremors, a post-Christmas camp for students held at Quaker Lake. My old friend Tim Vestal, who coordinated the event, used a cruise theme for the long weekend. It reminded me of my previous plans, and upon my return to Wesley Memorial UMC we began to put together a special Youth Week for 2005. The theme would be the 2004 Ian Eskelin song Save the Humans (you can hear it at the bottom) and we would "tour the world" with the message of Jesus. I wrote scripts for skits, and we even went to the beach and made our very own Save the Humans video. Then once again life intervened, and I left WMUMC in June of 2005. My last official act was a scaled down Youth Week- just not THAT one. Again my plans went unused. In January of 2007 we began to prepare yet another cruise themed Youth Week for the students of Trinity UMC. But due to my own sin and stupidity, my career ended in February, with the plans already in my computer. Three times I tried, and three time I failed. Clearly, that was the week that wasn't (TW3)!

Now all these years later it occurs to me that this is still a great idea. My life may no longer include student ministry, but my heart and my head still go there on occasion. All this thinking (it's always dangerous when I think!) makes me ponder what TW3 would look like in 2015. It makes me wonder what we could do with modern technology and (I can dream, right?) unlimited resources. So I have decided to plan another Youth Week, this time without the restrictions of reality! That means for the next 6 Thursdays this blog will be will be fictional! Instead of memories of events and people that were part of my life, there will be stories of things that never actually happened. I will combine some of the original elements from FUMC-K with some of the ideas from WMUMC and TUMC (and lots of brand new stuff!). What you will get in the end is a killer (if outrageously expensive) dream Youth Week Worldwide Cruise as it might happen in the Orlando/Kissimmee/Tampa area today. It will be totally unrealistic, but hey- it's my dream, right? So don't get hung up on the facts- just enjoy the ride! Each day's events will be drawn up just like we would have done in a summer brochure if we were actually doing it- so feel free to sign up for the events you like! And the great part is it's all free!!! This little experiment is my way of taking care of some unfinished business. For my former youth, I hope it will remind you of the excitement of looking ahead to great youth events. This may be even more fun now that you are an adult. And for my friends in student ministry, perhaps you will find a bit of inspiration in my over-the-top plans. The fun begins May 7th!

Because of Jesus,

Are You Ready For the Summer?

Dear friends in Student Ministry: Summer is almost upon us! Are you ready to make the most of all of the free time your students will have? Here are some thoughts on how I became a huge fan of summer ministries, originally posted back in 2009. 

In the early days of professional youth ministry it was commonplace for summer to be downtime for the Youth Pastor. This never made any sense to me. We would take three months when students were usually available and often bored and churches would slow down their youth ministries. Many youth workers were not paid during the summer months and had to find other jobs. In fact, I spent my earliest summers in ministry working at a summer camp because I had summers off. By the time of my first summer at Springfield Friends Meeting in 1987 all of this was changing. We planned events on Wednesdays and Sundays and our first trip to Disney World. At the 1987 NYWC I attended a seminar that challenged me to expand our summer ministry and to improve our communication. The summer of 1988 was my first shot at doing both.

The programs and events for that summer now seem very tame by my later standards, but they were the start of something big! We continued to meet on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday nights (giving our award-winning TNT program the summer off). We took trips to Myrtle
Beach (That's Amy, Lavonia, Andi & Heather pictured at The Betsy B in 1988) and Atlanta. We had our first ever Youth Week, with events every day, including a trip to Carowinds and a concert by me at the Covered Bridge Pizza Parlor in Archdale. We had our first ever Breakfast Club; our first ever trip to feed the homeless of High Point at Our Father's Table; our first ever end of the summer Luau!  We collected cans of tuna to help Urban Ministry feed the hungry. We attended Quaker Lake together and had our own class at VBS. Every ministry and event that would come in the later years got a start in the summer of '88.

It was also the year of the first Summer Ministries Booklet. This picture is the cover from 1990, but the little guy, Zed, was on the cover for the first four years. In 1988 he was carrying a surfboard. The booklet laid out the plan for our summer, giving details and sign-up deadlines. Students and parents alike loved the concept; looking back, it was a website in print years before anyone had a website! In the years to come the summer info packet would grow and the schedule would expand, but it all started in 1988. Nothing I ever accomplished in youth ministry created as much of a buzz or brought as much praise my way from students and their parents as my summer schedules over the years. And no one enjoyed the hectic pace, the frantic planning and the incredible amount of time spent with students any more than me! I thank God every day for the many blessings I received through the ministries, events and programs I led for all those years. Too many churches still treat summer as a time to slow down. I respectfully suggest just the opposite. Summer is a time to shift into high gear. Students have actual free time. Wouldn't it be awesome to have them spend it with the church? The time to start planning is NOW...

Because of Jesus,

7 Things: My Favorite Summer Movies (2014)

Summer is a big season for blockbuster movies, and here in the Jones' household we love going to the theater. I saw 9 films in theaters this summer (for the purposes of this list, the summer movie season began in April with Captain America 2. Will and I both agree on this, so it must be true!) and really enjoyed 7 of them. So here, in order, are my Top 7 Movies of the summer of 2014. As always, dissenting opinions are welcome!

1. Guardians of the Galaxy
2. Begin Again
3. Captain America, Winter Soldier
4. X-Men: Days of Future Past
5. Jersey Boys
6. Godzilla
7. Sex Tape

To be honest, you could put numbers 1-4 in any order and I would still be happy about the list. Those were all tremendous films. If you didn't see Begin Again, see it when it comes out on blu ray. Mark Ruffalo should get (but won't) an Oscar nod for his performance and the music is awesome. Guardians was hilarious and exciting, plus it was just so NEW and featured music from my childhood! I didn't have any idea what was coming next in the plot. Cap 2 may be my favorite of the Avengers series so far, and Days of Future Past was nearly perfect as superhero movie. Jersey Boys had all that great music, Godzilla was a wonderful surprise and Sex Tape was just flat-out funny. So that's my list. I'd love to hear your thoughts- unless you liked Transformers 4. That makes me question your judgement on everything!  Have a great Thursday!

Carl

Throwback Thursday: Come As You Are

With a chance to see many old friends from my years at Springfield Friends Meeting (1986-1994) coming up in just over a month, I have been remembering fondly some of the amazing things we were able to do together during that time. Today's Throwback Thursday post (originally appearing here in 2011) was inspired by an artifact discovered while digging through a box in my garage. For those of you who may not recognize the item, it is something called a "Cassette Tape." It was a form of home recording technology that preceded digital recording by a couple of decades. While useful, using a tape recorder was quite tedious, especially if your were endeavouring to be creative with the recording process. Yet discovering this particular tape brought a smile to my face immediately, and reminded me of a few important things. Trust me when I tell you that this in indeed a RARE artifact...

By the Spring of 1989 the student ministry at SFM had truly taken off. Springfield was not a large church; the worship attendance rarely broke 200. We were not located "on the beaten path"- you had to be looking for us to find us. And yet between our Sunday evening youth fellowship and our Monday night TNT we were seeing 75-100 middle and high school students every week. It was amazing to watch God work through that ministry. As I began to plan for the summer of '89, I knew that we needed to do everything we could to keep the dozens of youth who did not attend our church on Sunday mornings involved. In fact, I was just crazy enough to believe that with prayer and hard work we could actually GROW during the summer. So that is exactly what we set out to do.

I began to put together a "Summer Packet" to mail to every student who had ever had any contact with our church or our youth ministry.  I created a brochure (at right, complete with our cover boy Zed) with details of every thing that would go on that summer- and I did it without a computer. I put together a calendar they could put on the wall of their room or on the family refrigerator. All of this required a ton of work, because we had to do it all in house. Our TOTAL budget for YM in 1989 was $800. Just mailing the packets would stretch us. But I had one more idea, and it was a doozy. I ordered a bunch of cheap blank tapes, and began to bring in some our student leaders to record skits and messages for the tape. It was all to advertise our biggest outreach event of the summer, YOUTH WEEK. It included silly interviews, actual ads for events, and tons of youth-friendly music. We also made it as interactive as we could in those pre-computer days, so they could listen to certain skits and then call our HOTLINE to win prizes. It took me untold hours to record it and edit it, and then many more hours to make 150 copies to mail out. But mail them we did. They were a huge hit, and we had the first of a series of amazing summers.

So what's the lesson of this artifact? It's simple really- summers can be amazing times for student ministry, but you have to be willing to put in the work. Events must be special and creative, even knowing the crowds might be small. Programs must fit the needs of the students and depend on who can be there, not who won't be. Summers should say to the kids that you love them so much that you are going to help them fill those long, boring days that we all know happen in summer. You have to find creative ways to advertise what you are doing- and then you have to find more creative ways. You have to convince the youth of your community that they are missing wild, crazy, fantastic things (including spending time getting to know Jesus!) if they are missing your events and programs. All of that publicity is hard work- but so worth it. In fact, summers were my favorite times to be a youth pastor, because it was when we had time to build real relationships. Our theme for YOUTH WEEK in 1989 (and the first song on the tape) was Peter Wolf's Come As You Are. The chorus goes as follows:  "Come as you are, now come on!  Come as you are and we'll have a ball!  Ain't gonna' be no masquerade (HOO-HOO),  Come as you are or don't come at all!"   We tried to live that message. And come they did...

Because of Jesus,

Summer Youth Ministries: The Whole Enchilada!

Summers Always ROCKED!!!

I suppose this counts as a rant...

Every year around this time I begin to see links on Twitter to articles and blogs proclaiming that it is in the best interest of your student ministry (or at least of the youth pastor) to cut back on the schedule of activities for summer- and every year I think my head is going to explode!!! I have been out of youth ministry for a while now, and maybe everything has changed since I left. But somehow I seriously doubt it! Summer is not a time to slow down- it is a time to crank it up! Why would you slow down during a season when many students actually have spare time, are bored and are searching for activities and ways to connect with one another? For me, summer was always a time to go absolutely crazy and give yourself as many opportunities as possible to build relationships and expose the students of your church and your community (because their friends are just as bored as they are!) to the love of God whose name is Jesus. So today I will answer the question "What exactly did a Carl planned summer ministry look like?" You may not believe we really did all of this, but every summer I believed in giving students The Whole Enchilada! And for many of them, their best memories of youth group are rooted in our summer ministries. So enjoy, hang on...and remember, summer ministry is not about those who can't and won't be there because of vacations and camps. It's about all of those who can- and who need a place to belong! 

From 1987-2006 every summer began with the publication of a summer booklet with a theme and a calendar. The calendar was mostly for parents; the booklet described events in detail and had contests and a lot of silliness. I would usually get it in the mail a month before school let out. We would begin to advertise on the Youth Group Hotline, or in the later years have the website ready for summer at that time as well. Of course publicity and sign-ups for the big trips would have already happened, but the bulk of the summer ministry would be announced in the booklet. Here is a brief synopsis of most everything we did in an average summer. This listing is out of the 1999 booklet (pictured at right) from FUMC-Kissimmee, my last summer there. Links are provided to help you understand my personal glossary of terms and to let you read about the specifics of any events that interest you. The details changed from year to year, of course, but this will give you a general idea of how my summers went for nearly 20 years. And if I were still in ministry, I would do it all again this summer...

* A kick-off Progressive Dinner to welcome our new middle school students.
* The annual Chain of Prayer.

* Our Schoolzout Blowout trip to Atlanta for Six Flags and a Braves game.
* Wonderama, featuring a live band, Gladiator Jousting and a Velcro Wall.

Winning the Great Race with a team pyramid!

* The Great Race, with the winning team earning a Kitchen Sink on the Disney Dash Ice Cream Bash coming later that summer. (For perspective you should note that all of the other events listed above took place the first week of summer vacation!)
* Middle School Madness, 3 separate events for middle school students only. In 1999 this included a Video Scavenger Hunt and a Mall Invasion!
* SHO-Time (Senior High Only!) at the All-Star Cafe, Macaroni Grill and Roadhouse.

* Wednesday Night Live! This was our weekly mid-week meeting. The first hour was bible study, which in 1999 featured the theme Sold Out For Jesus. The second hour was for playing games, hanging out and occasionally hula dancing. But mostly 4- Square- the old school version.

Jason Fry doing lawn work at a Nashville Orphanage

* Our summer Mission Trip was a 6 day adventure to Nashville to work with the Center for Student Ministry. An awesome trip, by the way.
* We also had local mission projects. We spent a morning picking up trash in our church's neighborhood. We worked to raise money for Graciela, the little girl from Bolivia we sponsored through Compassion International. We volunteered a day at the Orlando Second Harvest Food Bank. And every Sunday morning for the 8:30 worship service a team of our students taught Children's Church for 5-8 year olds.
* Almost all of our youth served as teachers and helpers at Vacation Bible School.
* The annual Youth Week was always a big event. In 1999 it was HUGE! To read specifics of that week, click here!
* We had both Babes Night Out (females only...although the guys would try to crossdress and tag a long!) and Dudes Night Out.
* Three days were set aside to do One on One, where students could sign-up for an hour of my time and we would grab a coke or a milk shake and just hang out. These were very popular days, especially for the kids who signed up first and got the breakfast and lunch appointments!

Hamming it up at Kyoto's!

* Each summer we would set aside a night for a large group to go eat at our favorite Japanese restaurant, Kyoto's. 1999 was no exception.  
* There was a "Carl's going to a movie" Night. I announced I was going, told anyone interested to meet at the church at a certain time, and then we went. I did not tell them in advance what we were seeing.  A Mystery Event!
* We had a small group, overnight spiritual growth event called The Radical Sabbatical. One of my very favorite things ever.
*  Our Sunday night UMYF continued to meet each week for worship, study and fellowship.
* On 2 Sundays we would stretch our UMYF time out and do what we called SNAC- Sunday Night After Church!  One night we did a movie (Short Circuit) and world's largest bowl of popcorn; the other night was the famous Disney Dash Ice Cream Bash! 
* There was, of course, a Movie Marathon!  In 1999 it featured movies from Outer Space!

Myrtle Beach, 1999

* 45 of us participated in Myrtle Beach Days, a week-long excursion to the Betsy B.
* We did one day at Walt Disney World and another day at Cocoa Beach. (If you are keeping score, there were 75 days of summer vacation that year, and we had some sort of youth event on 70 of those days...)
* And even though technically it was after school started back , our summer ended as it always did in those years- with the Last Gasp Summer Blowout at Melbourne Beach.

Ahh... SUMMER!  The absolute best time of the year for youth ministry. Most churches, youth pastors and student ministries are probably neither prepared for nor interested in doing The Whole Enchilada these days. I get that. But I do hope maybe this bit of madness will inspire you to kick your summer up a notch. But whatever you do, please- don't neglect your students this summer. You don't want to have my exploding head on your conscience, do you? :)

Because of Jesus,

A Magical Mystery Tour

Butch & Sundance

I have already told you the story of our first FUMC-K Mystery Weekend (see Live To Tell), a ridiculously crazy 1996 trip to Myrtle Beach, SC.  In 1998 Jerry Hanbery and I (see picture) decided to do it again.  This time we would replace the wackiness of 18 hours in a van with a more creative approach.   This time it would be a middle school only adventure, and our theme would be "Crazy Times."  And this time, Jerry and I had a serious plan...

We loaded up the vans at 7 PM on Friday, July 31st and hit the road.  This time there were no leaks;  no one on the two vans had any idea where we were going.  We headed north on the Florida Turnpike, and the kids were buzzing about where they thought we might be headed.  We then turned north on I-75, headed towards Ocala.  I was driving the always-iffy blue van, and I had the lead.  The blue van's issues played an important part in our plan.  About 4 miles south of Ocala, I "noticed" that the van seemed to be running hot.  I pulled off the side of the road and Jerry followed me, getting out of the white van to come assist me as I checked under the hood.  We had taped a baggie of water under the hood, and when I poured it on the engine (out of sight of the youth) steam went everywhere.  Jerry and I did some serious moaning and complaining about the "stupid blue van" and then returned to our vans, telling the students that the van was over-heating and that we were going to go ahead and stop for the night so we could try and get it fixed.  We stopped at several motels and I went in to see if they had any rooms (I had a great time telling the front desk clerks what we were doing so the youth could see me having conversations with them), only to return and tell the group there was no vacancy.  The youth were now getting a little nervous.  We finally found rooms at a Super 8 Motel (where, unknown to the youth, we had reservations!) and settled in for the night.  I held a meeting at which I informed the kids that I was going to try to get the van fixed, but that I did not know what the following day would hold.  We might just have to stay in Ocala. I drove off to get the "van fixed" while they enjoyed the pool.  I was not back when Jerry sent them to bed.  They went to bed grumpy.  It was perfect...

The following morning we woke everyone up early and told them to get ready, the van was fixed and we were leaving!  We hurried them, half-asleep, onto the vans and hit the road.  We were hoping that they would be too groggy to notice that we were now heading south on I-75.  And for a while, they were.  Slowly but surely, they begin to notice something had changed.  We stopped at a Burger King for breakfast, and the questions began in earnest.  We got back on the road, and finally some of the youth began to guess our final destination- Busch Gardens in Tampa.  And then- as if a fog was lifting- they began to realize that the entire "breakdown" the night before had all been planned.  We had fooled them completely, and they could not believe it- and a few were not real happy about it.  Jerry and I were giddy- we thought it was one of the best things we had ever done!  We went on to have a great day at the park, and a wonderful weekend, including a great time of worship on Sunday morning.  We wanted to make it memorable, and we had.  It was just one more time when a wild and crazy idea helped some students discover the presence of Jesus in their lives.

I found out a few years later that there were a couple of students on that trip who NEVER got the message that the entire first night had been staged.  I found out when one of them asked me, "Where were we going to go on that Mid-High Mystery Trip before the van broke down?"  And the Oscar goes to Jerry Hanbery and Carl Jones...  Have a blessed weekend everyone!

Because of Jesus,

One Insane Day in Youth Ministry

I have mentioned on many occasions that youth ministry often causes you to push the limits of sanity in order to increase excitement and attract students.  Over the years many of those days have occurred during the summer, especially during Youth Week.  Today I want to remember one very wild and wacky day.

Tuesday, July 8th, 1997 was a part of Youth Week '97 at FUMC-Kissimmee which featured the theme It's Good To Be Alive!  At the end of this particular day, I might have questioned that!  We began the day by meeting at FUMC-K at 9 AM and heading over to Disney's Yacht Club Resort and the character breakfast at the Cape May Cafe (see group picture above).  The all you-could-eat buffet featured every breakfast food you could imagine, including Mickey Mouse waffles.  One of my favorite parts of the meal was that I could get orange juice, coffee and chocolate milk all at the same meal without paying extra.  Plus, you got to eat with Pluto, Goofy, Chip, Dale and Donald.  It was a great start to the day...but it was only the beginning!

We returned to the church around 11:30 AM, where many of the youth just hung out until 1 PM and the next phase of our journey.  Others joined us, and we headed to The Florida Mall for another of our famous Mall Scavenger Hunts, including the search for The Pink Panther (for an explanation, click here!).  After a long afternoon of invading every store in the mall in search of the answers to trivia questions, we returned to the church around 5 PM and the students went home..for a while.  In the meantime, I had more work to do to be ready for the final event of the day.

I had rented a huge, World War II era searchlight to use as part of the grand finale.  After the kids went home for supper, we hauled this gigantic light out into a large pasture on the outskirts of Kissimmee and prepared for the big finish.  When the crowd returned at 8 PM, we divided them into vehicles and gave them one task-find the giant searchlight.  As darkness fell, the light was turned on, and you could see it for miles around.  Determining where it was coming from was a bit more difficult.  Our original plan had been to have worship at the site of the searchlight, but it was brutally hot and there was thunder and lightning, so as groups found the site they were sent back to the church.  Some groups were able to find it fairly quickly; for others, it took a while.  Once everyone made it back to home base, we had snacks and settled in for a time of worship.  We finished around 10:30 PM and sent everyone home.  It was an amazing day.  Well over 100 students participated between the three events.  The Spotlight Search was another of those weird things we did that had the whole community talking, and had our youth saying once again, "I can't believe we just did that!"   And the day ended with dozens of students praising Jesus.  It just doesn't get any better than that!

I don't know that any of these events, taken on their own, were particularly memorable to the youth who attended, but days like this were very important to the ministry.  They were days that Jerry Hanbery and I looked forward to every summer.  The great Tony Campolo once wrote a book entitled The Kingdom of God Is A Party.  I hope we communicated that feeling in our ministry, and in those wild, wacky days.

Because of Jesus,

Summer 101: The Schoolzout Blowout!

Many of my youth pastor friends look forward to the end of the school year so that life can slow down and they can have a little less demand on their time.  From 1987 on, I was always just the opposite.  I could not wait for summer to begin because that was the time when my student ministries simply exploded!  Beginning in February and March I would put together a booklet of events, gatherings and programs that would often cover all but 4 or 5 days of the summer.  We did not worry about who wouldn't be there; our focus was on who could be there- including the friends of our own students who are often bored and looking for something to do in the summer.  For the next several Fridays I will be sharing some of the purpose and and some of the events that helped turn summer into the backbone on our youth programs at several different churches.  Today we begin with a bang- The Schoolzout Blowout!

We always tried to begin each summer by planning something major the first weekend after school let out.  The actual event varied quite a bit.  Some years we took weekend trips.  Some years we did a "lock-in" type event at the church.  But the most excitng, fun and effective events were the ones we eventually called the Wonderama.  The idea was very basic and pretty simple- plan a street festival at your church specifically aimed at teenagers.  We would try to find new and creative ways to publicize the event and include the community.  In various years we had students carry invitation cards with them to school the last week.  We ran special contests on our website.  One year I developed a whole new website for summer, with a name like www.keepingthesummeralive.com, and we publicized it without letting on it had any connection to a church. One year we had what we called a Hot Spots Night the Friday before the event on Saturday.  Small groups of our students and leaders were at local youth hang outs like the mall and movie theaters, handing out flyers inviting everyone to join us the following day.  We tried very hard to begin our summer with this fun outreach event in the hopes that once they had a taste of our ministry, they would be back for more.  And quite often it worked.

Sometimes the youth pastor has to
 take one for the team!

The event itself was pretty standard youth ministry stuff.  It varied from year to year, but there would often be a live band (with some connection to the community or youth group), games, contests, giveaways and usually something special, like Velcro Wall (see pic) or a Bungee Run.  There was usually some sort of short devotional message, often from a youth or through a skit.  And there was always- ALWAYS! - food.  Some years we worked out a deal with a local pizza place to "cater" the event.  Other years we grilled our own hot dogs.  But there was always plenty of food and excitement, and always plenty of publicity for upcoming events that would give us a bigger chance to talk about Jesus.  And perhaps just as importantly, it was always free.  Churches are so guilty of turning outreach events into fundraisers. Fight the urge. Make your Schoolzout Blowout a gift to the youth of your community.  


Youth pastors (and many of you are my dear friends) tend to moan and complain about how busy our students are during the school year.  At the risk of being rude, I invite you to shut up and start planning ways to use their spare time this summer.  It can change your ministry forever.  Join us next Friday as we follow up with an important beginning to our huge summer- The Chain of Prayer.  Have a blessed weekend!


Because of Jesus,

The Magic of a Youth Ministry Summer

Summer- it turns me upside down
Summer, Summer, Summer
It's like a merry-go-round...
Oh, Oh it's magic when I'm with you...  -The Cars

For many churches, the approaching end of the school year means the end of another grueling season of student ministry.  You've been consumed with teaching, outreach and trying to learn the latest worship songs.  You've survived a retreat or two, and, if you're old school, maybe even a lock-in.  You've struggled with planning your schedules around the 6 different high schools and 7 different middle schools your youth attend, and you've felt like you never get enough time with the kids.  If any of that applies to you as a youth pastor, then I'd like to offer you some FREEDOM!  Welcome to Summer!

Everyone has heard the stories of the students who are bored to tears by the third day of summer vacation- and those stories are very true (I know- I have a 16 year old)!  Summer is a time when many of your students have more spare hours than at any other point in the year.  As a youth pastor, I was always one to plan huge summer programs, including a mission trip and a "vacation" trip- but that was never the best part of summer for me.  It's just a great time for a youth pastor to hang out with their students and build relationships- often in ways that are far superior to anything you can do during the school year.  Whether you meet on a regular basis all summer long or cut back on programming, there are things you can do that will give you the opportunity to gather smaller groups of students for times of fun, fellowship and any other purpose you might have in mind.  And these events and programs can be done with minimal preparation and effort- and at almost no cost.  They simply require your time.

For the next few Fridays I am going to share (one at a time) a bunch of things I did over my 28 years in youth ministry to make summers magical.  I share them at this time because I know in many cases it is time to start nailing down that final summer calendar.  All of these ideas are so simple and easy to plan that you could add any number of them to your schedule this summer if you so choose.  They are not earth-shakingly creative or unique.  But they worked for me in a variety of situations over almost three decades of ministry.  It seems to me that everyone has a choice to make about summers and student ministry.  You can slow down your ministry and give your youth the freedom to watch Jersey Shore marathons all summer.  Or you can plan a few extra events that give you the freedom to really get to know your students in ways you might not have thought possible.  Summers can should be the most magical part of the year for youth ministry.  It is time to get excited...


Because of Jesus,

A Labor of Love

Today is my 51st Labor Day.  I have celebrated the day in a variety of ways over the years (picnics, Disney World etc.).  It is not a day that holds any grand traditions for my family and I.  But if we were to play that word association game where you say "Labor Day" and I say the first thing that comes to mind, my answer would always be "Last Gasp Summer Blowout."  Each year from 1994 through 1999, the youth of the First United Methodist Church of Kissimmee ended out summer with a trip to Melbourne Beach, FL.  The last 4 of those years we took the trip on Labor Day weekend.  It speaks volumes about me that my favorite tradition for the holiday only happened 4 times in 51 years, and that it involved me working on a day most of the country takes a vacation.  They say that when it becomes difficult to separate your vocation from your vacation that you have found your calling.  Student ministry was that for me.  And the Last Gasp was a true labor of love...

I have told many of the stories of those years in other places (especially in my post 7 Things: The Last Gasp Summer Blowout!) and I will not retell them here.  But I do want to remember one of our closing worship services, because it was so meaningful to the group back then, and even more meaningful in my life today.  On this particular occasion we gathered late on Sunday night in an upstairs meeting room, with a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean out the window behind me.  I had a covered table with a lone greenware statuette of a young woman and some paints.  After some singing to set the mood, we turned out some of the lights and I began to weave a story of a young woman.  I either called her Mary or Susie; different people have different memories of that one.  Her story was not a happy one.  Struggle after struggle, failure after failure, heartbreak after heartbreak marked her life.  She lost faith.  She lost hope.  And with each chapter of her story I poured a different color paint over the statuette.  Dark, dim colors.  And after each pouring I would pause and let the silence make the group uncomfortable.  Finally, when Mary/Susie reached her breaking point, I told the students that she could no longer take it, and that her life came crashing down.  With one swift move, I pulled out a hidden hammer and smashed the greenware into thousands of pieces.  There was a loud gasp from the crowd.  Several of the youth sitting up front were hit by flying clay and paint- in fact, the guitar I played that night had paint on it permanently.  Everyone was stunned.  And then I continued.  I pulled out a brand new, exact duplicate statuette and began to talk about the grace and redemption we can find in Jesus Christ, regardless of our sins, regardless of our failures.  And with each of these stories I poured a bright paint over the young woman as a symbol of new life.  There were many tears that night, and many re-affirmations of faith.  It was a wonderful night with some of my favorite people in one of my favorite places.


A little over 4 years ago I felt much like the first statuette.  I felt lost, and the colors of my life were very dark.  But God is faithful, and the love and grace of Jesus did indeed make me whole again.  It is moments like that one at the Quality Suites of Melbourne that remind me that my days in ministry were not only meaningful to the students I served, but they were life-changing for me as well.  It's what made youth ministry a labor of love for me, and made those Labor Day weekends so special.  Well, that and the great times in the hot tub and pool...   Have a blessed Labor Day, dear friends!


Because of Jesus,

Youth Ministry Artifact #5- "Come As You Are"

Today's artifact was discovered while digging through a box in my garage that was full of all kinds of discarded youth ministry items from my days at Springfield Friends Meeting (1986-1994).  For those of you who may not recognize the item, it is something called a "Cassette Tape."  It was a form of home recording technology that preceded digital recording by a couple of decades.  While useful, using a tape recorder was quite tedious, especially if your were endeavouring to be creative with the recording process.  Yet discovering this particular tape brought a smile to my face immediately, and reminded me of a few important things.  Trust me when I tell you that this in indeed a RARE artifact...

By the Spring of 1989 the student ministry at SFM had truly taken off.  Springfield was not a large church; the worship attendance rarely broke 200.  We were not located "on the beaten path"- you had to be looking for us to find us.  And yet between our Sunday evening youth fellowship and our Monday night TNT we were seeing 75-100 middle and high school students every week.  It was amazing to watch God work through that ministry.  As I began to plan for the summer of '89, I knew that we needed to do everything we could to keep the dozens of youth who did not attend our church on Sunday mornings involved.  In fact, I was just crazy enough to believe that with prayer and hard work we could actually GROW during the summer.  So that is exactly what we set out to do.

I began to put together a "Summer Packet" to mail to every student who had ever had any contact with our church or our youth ministry.  I created a brochure (at right, complete with our cover boy Zed) with details of every thing that would go on that summer- and I did it without a computer.  I put together a calendar they could put on the wall of their room or on the family refrigerator.  All of this required a ton of work, because we had to do it all in house.  Our TOTAL budget for YM in 1989 was $800.  Just mailing the packets would stretch us.  But I had one more idea, and it was a doozy.  I ordered a bunch of cheap blank tapes, and began to bring in some our student leaders to record skits and messages for the tape.  It was all to advertise our biggest outreach event of the summer, YOUTH WEEK.  It included silly interviews, actual ads for events, and tons of youth-friendly music. We also made it as interactive as we could in those pre-computer days, so they could listen to certain skits and then call our HOTLINE to win prizes.  It took me untold hours to record it and edit it, and then many more hours to make 150 copies to mail out.  But mail them we did.  They were a huge hit, and we had the first of a series of amazing summers.

So what's the lesson of this artifact?  It's simple really- summers can be amazing times for student ministry, but you have to be willing to put in the work.  Events must be special and creative, even knowing the crowds might be small.  Programs must fit the needs of the students and depend on who can be there, not who won't be.  Summers should say to the kids that you love them so much that you are going to help them fill those long, boring days that we all know happen in summer.  You have to find creative ways to advertise what you are doing- and then you have to find more creative ways.  You have to convince the youth of your community that they are missing wild, crazy, fantastic things (including spending time getting to know Jesus!) if they are missing your events and programs.  All of that publicity is hard work- but so worth it.  In fact, summers were my favorite times to be a youth pastor, because it was when we had time to build real relationships.  Our theme for YOUTH WEEK in 1989 (and the first song on the tape) was Peter Wolf's Come As You Are.  The chorus goes as follows:  "Come as you are, now come on!  Come as you are and we'll have a ball!  Ain't gonna' be no masquerade (HOO-HOO),  Come as you are or don't come at all!"   We tried to live that message.  And come they did...

Most of us who have ever worked in youth ministry complain at some point that we just don't get enough time with our students.  I hope this artifact can serve as a reminder that it doesn't need to be that way.  You may not do 75 Days of Summer like I often did, but I hope that whatever you do this summer, you will do it BIG!  Your students deserve it- and so does our God.

Because of Jesus,

2011 Summer Movies Picks

By now most of you are aware that Will (my 15 year old son ) and I love to watch movies together.  We enjoy arguing about our favorites. guessing which movies will do well at the box office, and looking forward to all of the summer blockbusters.  There are always a ton of summer movies to choose from, but here are our lists of the ones that we are most excited about for 2011.  We'd love to hear what you are thinking as well.  We'd also love to hear your thoughts on Thor if you've seen it already, because we haven't! Here we go:

UPDATE:  05/07/11- 1:22 PM EDT- We just saw THOR, and it rocked! 4 out of 5 stars!

Will's List
1) Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows, Part 2
2) Tree of Life
3) Captain America
4) Super 8
5) Green Lantern

Carl's List
1) Green Lantern
2) Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
3) Cowboys & Aliens
4) Cars 2
5) Pirates of the Caribbean 4- On Stranger Tides

That's what we say.  What say you?  Have a great weekend and a blessed Mother's Day!

Youth Ministry & the Art of Bouncing Back

My friend and former Springfield Friends Meeting youth Ken Hill (class of '87) is running his first Boston Marathon today.  I am excited for and proud of him, and I hope it encourages Ken to know that many prayers are with him!  Press on towards the prize!

Our theme for the student ministries of Wesley Memorial UMC in the summer of 2003 was SHINE!  As was my tradition (since 1988) I published a summer brochure (at left) highlighting all of the amazing adventures we would share. I mailed the publicity in early May to build the excitement, just as I always did.  But this time there was one serious difference.  As I mentioned here last week (Pass the Loot!) the church pulled the rug out from under us in regards to our budget money, and so we had to radically change our two major trips and a few smaller things.  My 24 page guide to summer of 2003 was full of bad information.  But just as in showbiz, the show went on.  We bounced back.  And we had a great summer...

I have often thought that being a youth pastor is a lot like being a cornerback in football.  Cornerbacks cover great receivers and often get burned for long pass plays and touchdowns- and everyone in the stadium can see it happen.  The only way to survive as a quality CB is to be able to completely forget about the bad plays and go forward with confidence.  So it is with student ministry.  Events fall apart.  Relationships sour.  You give someone bad advice.  You sin.  Parents let you have it with both barrels.  Churches take away your budget.  And yet you have to step back on the "field" immediately and try again.  The difference is you do it not because you have faith in your own ability, like the football player- you do it because you have faith in the God you serve.  And you believe the work you do matters.

So instead of our planned trip to the Big Stuff Camp at Panama Beach, we went to Six Flags in Atlanta, as well as a Braves game.  Instead of Nashville, our mission trip was to Spartanburg, SC.  We stayed in a rehab center and helped serve meals, sort clothing and a variety of other tasks.  It was practically free, which was good, and our group had a great time and grew much closer.  It turned out that we were all crazy (like a fox...OHHHH! - inside joke) and loved finding ways to serve others while laughing the day away.  We toned down our annual Youth Week, but still hosted Curt Cloninger for a night and had a marvelous Rec Around the Clock lock-in.  We did away with a few other planned events, but still managed to pull off all of our smaller gatherings and all of our ministry team events.  And thanks to some behind the scenes fundraising and an incredible deal from the band, we closed the summer with a concert from the then red-hot band The Swift.  A group of us shared dinner with them at Chili's after the show and made more memories.  It was a wonderful summer.

It is my personal opinion that if you're in youth ministry and haven't had a program that failed or an idea that got you in trouble in the past year, then you are not doing your job.  If we don't push the limits and show kids the radical nature of Jesus, then it is unlikely anyone else in the church will.  We all get knocked down.  That is not a big deal.  The question becomes this:  What will you do when you get back up?  I always took my answer from the late singer/songwriter Keith Green.  In one of his songs he wrote, "So just keep doing your best, and pray that it's blessed, and Jesus takes care of the rest."  Bouncing back is pretty simple when Jesus is in your corner.  I learned that in a big way in 2003.  Coming up Wednesday- Night of Joy 2003 and the big Graceland explosion!

Because of Jesus,